nurturing students from click to enrolment€¦ · • relationship with education recruitment...

Nurturing Students from Click to

Enrolment

Jaime García

20 years of experience in International HE recruitment

My areas of expertise

• Strategic marketing for HE

• Digital strategy (SEO, SEM & social media)

• Development of international markets

• Relationship with education recruitment agencies

Admissions Manager

at TBS Business SchoolProfessional experiences

• Tec de Monterrey (Mexico City) – 5 year

• UPF Barcelona School of Management – 11 year

• Toulouse Business School (Barcelona Campus) – 4 year

Nurturing Students from Click to Enrolment

Index

1. Context: Marketing & Sales evolution

• The old funnel• The new funnel

2. Lead Scoring

• Buyer persona (fit)• Tools to set it

3. Lead nurturing: how to set a workflow

• Worksflows• Smart lists• Types of nurturing programs• Examples

Context

Marketing & Sales evolution

The old funnel

Above funnel Top funnel Bottom funnel

MaEnrolledVisitor Lead SQL

Awareness

Above funnel Top funnel Bottom funnelConsideration Closed won

Offline

activities

Sales process

The new funnel

Above funnel Top funnel Bottom funnel

MaSQLVisitor Lead MQL

Awareness

Above funnel Top funnel Bottom funnelConsideration Closed won

Online & offline

activities

Nurturing

automationSales contact

Enrolled

How to deal with the new funnel?

Lead

scoring

Lead

nurturing

Lead scoring

Lead scoring: What is it?

“It is a way to predict a person’s readiness to buy, based on a set of data and

activities.”

“It is a methodology used to rank prospects against a scale that represents the

perceived value each lead has to the organization.”

Lead scoring: goal & benefits

Goal

Calculate when a lead becomes sales-ready: Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).

Benefits

• Identify leads that need to be touched with lead nurturing.

• Maximize the efficiency of your sales team.

Lead scoring: What do we need?

• Fit: buyer persona

• Engagement: interest level

Follow-up quickly

Obtain

more details

Stimulate interest

Avoid

Fit

Engagement

Fit: What is it?

Buyer persona

Minimum enrollment criteria Demographics

• Degree level• Academic background• GPA• English level• Job title

• Age• Gender• Country• Income

Behaviors & interests

• Interests• Identifiers• Goals• Challenges

Buyer persona: tools to define it

• Students history (CRM)

• Focus groups / in-depth interviews

• Google Analytics

• Social media profiles (Instagram/Facebook)

• Data collection (smart forms)

Buyer persona: Google Analytics

Demographics

Buyer persona: Google Analytics

Interests

Buyer persona: Ahmed

Demographics

Nationality Turkish

Age 23

Languages Turkish & English

Income Upper class

Background

Degree BSc International Business

University Private, highly prestigious

Experience 1 year + internship

Interests In business management courses

Challenges & pain points

• Study a master to obtain a better job.

• Obtain a prestigious degree, recognized in his

country.

• An international education & cultural experience

• The Spanish culture is closed to his.

What information does he need?

• Detailed program curriculum.

• Support to issue his student visa.

• Successful alumni stories.

• Information about the campus life.

Buyer persona: Ahmed

Objections

• Arduous admission process

• Will not take the GMAT test

• School without relevant positions in rankings

• Program longer than 1 year

• Private degrees

Communication and messaging strategy

1st contact • Rankings & accreditations

• Duration & program structure

Following

contacts

• Phone calls to inform

• Personalized emails

Tone Formal

Engagement: What is it?

“ Is a time-bound measure of a lead's interest in your university, as demonstrated

through their behavior on your website, blog, emails, marketing campaigns, etc.”

Engagement: How to measure it?

Page visits

Time on your website

Brochures downloads

Videos views

Individual open rates

Click-through rates

Unsubscribes

Page likes

Comments

Shares

Mentions

Engagement: tools to define it

Suitable CRM

• Hubspot

• Sales Force + Marketo

• Microsoft Dynamics + ClickDimensions

• Mautic

• Loqua

Engagement: tools to define it

Reverse Goals Path report - Analytics

Pages users visited before completing specific goals

Engagement: tools to define it

Channel Report - Analytics

Channels which are more likely to lead to conversions

How to assign scores?

General considerations

• All the information registered on the CRM is available for setting your lead scoring.

• Start with few metrics

• Use a 0 to 100 scale

• From 80 to 100 (hot leads) to sales team

• From 20 & 80 need to be nurtured first

• Less than 20, keep them in a pool and try to reengage them later.

There is no standardized model for setting your lead scoring framework.

Negative Scoring and Score Degradation

Some of our leads will:

• Choose other institutions

• Be unable to overcome certain barriers to enrollment

• A few will simply change their minds.

Negative scoringAttributed to activities which indicate a lack of interest.

Score degradationReducing a lead’s score after a defined period of inactivity.

Lead scoring matrix

Level Attribution Score

Critical

Country 8 (-)

Desire intake 8

English level 8 (-)

Important

Age 7

Degree level 7 (-)

University 7

InfluencingGPA 3

Work experience 2

Total 50

Level Attribution Score

Critical

Program page views 8

Program fees page views 8

Source channel 8 (-)

Important

Email opens 4

Email clicks 4

Program content page views 4

Program syllabus downloads 4

Influencing

Blog interactions 3

Facebook interactions 3

Instagram interactions 3

Degrading

Email Unsubscribes (-)

Last activity date > 30 days (-)

Work with us page views (-)

Total 50

Ex

plic

it (

fit)

Imp

lic

it (

en

ga

ge

me

nt)

Lead scoring: fit & engagement

A A5 A4 A3 A2 A1

B B5 B4 B3 B2 B1

C C5 C4 C3 C2 C1

D D5 D4 D3 D2 D1

E E5 E4 E3 E2 E1

5 4 3 2 1

Fit

Engagement

80 to 100 score

Sales-ready

< 20 score

Put aside

20 to 79 score

Nurturing program

20 to 79 score

Nurturing and

obtain more profile

details

Smart forms: get to know more about your leads

Progressive profiling It is a method of data capture where you progressively collect valuable new information about your leads with new form fields in order to keep your forms short and easy to complete.

• Name• Last name• Email• Program of interest

• Mobile phone• Desired Intake• Degree level

Info request form Download brochure

• University• Degree• Certificate English

level

Event registration

Note: Some CRMs allow you to autofill the form using your leads social media profile,

which would automatically pull in the information to your CRM.

Lead scoring: common mistakes

• Assign arbitrary values based on personal judgement.

• Prospects who reach the hot lead level, but doesn’t receive personalized information.

• Review your lead scoring setting only once a year.

Lead nurturing

How to set the workflow

MaSQLVisitor Lead MQL

Awareness

Above funnel Top funnel Bottom funnelConsideration Closed won

Online & offline

activities

Nurturing

automationSales contact

Enrolled

Lead nurturing: What is it?

“It is the process of developing relationships with buyers at every

step of the sales and marketing funnel. It focuses in listening to the

needs of the prospects and provide them with the information they

need when they need it.”

Lead nurturing: Goal & benefits

Goal

Convert a new lead into a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).

Benefits

• Shorten the sales cycle

• Communicate credibility and trust by sharing valuable information…

…So that when your sales team contact your leads, they are welcomed

instead of being regarded as intrusive.

Lead nurturing program: tools to set it

Workflows Smart lists

Workflow: What is it?

“A workflow is series of automated actions that you can trigger to occur based on

a person's behaviors (engagement) and/or contact information (fit).”

Workflow: triggers to start an automation

Lead scoring Lead information Submitted forms Downloads

Email opens & clicks Social media

interactions

Page visits

Smart list: What is it?

“It is a completely dynamic collection of records which is defined through

filter rules. Contacts join the list whenever they meet the criteria and leave

the list when they no longer meet it.”

Smart list: example

Types of nurturing programs: workflows

Welcome programIntroduce your leads to your school and its competitive advantages.

Training programEducate your leads with helpful resources to help them better understand your program.

Interested-based campaign programSend relevant information based on page views, content downloads, watched videos, etc.

Promotional campaign programSend a special time-limited- offer (early bird) or special discount to trigger an application or enrollment.

Types of nurturing programs: workflows

Stay-in-touch programStay relevant by sending information once in a while even if your leads are ready to apply (MQL) or to enroll.

Recycling programFor leads rejected by sales. Leads who were rejected for reasons that can be fixed like low interest or unreadiness to apply or enroll.

Abandoned application programEncourage prospects to complete their application, if they haven’t completed yet.

Welcome program: example

Smart list rules

1. Info request form submitted for the MSc Marketing

2. Interested in the September 2020 intake

3. Has not received any email from our university yet

4. Has not been contacted by the sales team

5. Comes from any channel except for fairs

6. Score > than 20 and < 80 points.

Welcome workflow: example

List

criteria

30 min Welcome

Video

YesNo

Open & click3 days

2 daysOpen & click

Yes

No

Other

list

Training program: example

Smart list rules

1. MSc Marketing leads from Europe

2. Interested in the September 2020 intake

3. Has not been contacted by the sales team yet

4. Has opened the Welcome email and clicked on the call-to action

5. Has opened the Video email and watched the video

6. Has visited the MSc Marketing website 3 times.

7. Has not visited the Employability section neither the Alumni testimonials.

8. Score > than 20 and < 80 points.

Trainig workflow: example

List

rules

5 days Employability Open & click

Testimonial

Yes

No

View & click

5-day

retargeting

No

Answers & click

1 day

Other

list

Yes

No

3 days

Yes

Final considerations

• Don’t forget that this is a marketing strategy.

• When starting setting your nurturing programs, keep it simple.

• Consider all the scenarios when setting the workflows.

• Your nurturing programs must be perfectly synchronized with your lead scoring.

• Include your sales team, when setting the workflows.

• Continuously check your nurturing programs results (monthly).

Jaime García

International Admissions Manager at TBS Business School

+34 606 930 853

j.garcia@tbs-education.es

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