Which university to go to is one of the biggest decisions of a student’s life, should they be making it with an image of a dancing hot dog on Snapchat? It was this and other questions that university marketers found themselves asking in the run-up to A-level results day, as they geared up for what might turn out to be the most competitive clearing ever.
According to a survey by Associated Press, more than 27,000 university courses were listed on A-level results day this year, with 132 universities advertising at least one on the Ucas website. And competition was fierce: lots of universities were scrambling to hit recruitment targets after applications fell by 4%. Meanwhile the removal of student number controls has reportedly left lower tariff institutions struggling to fill courses.
Although the final results showing winners and losers won’t be seen until Ucas publishes its end of the cycle report in December, university marketing departments are already taking stock of the results, analysing what initiatives worked best and planning for clearing 2018. Here are some reflections on how clearing played out in 2017, and what marketers will be doing differently next year.
‘Everything is definitely fiercer this year’
Emma Leech, director of marketing, Loughborough University
We’ve seen a real shift to online as a key battle ground, and we’ve seen more personalisation in the marketplace than ever before. We were successful last year with our personalised golden ticket campaign, which we sent out to students with offers, and we’ve seen similar approaches from other universities this year. Students want to be treated as individuals, they want to be more than a number.
Harnessing the power of word of mouth and social media advocacy has gone up most marketers’ agendas. There’s been lots of Facebook live, Instagram stories and WhatsApp Q&As. Accessibility, speed, responsiveness and making it easy to connect are key. We’ve also seen a rise in different formats of offer-making, although I’m not a huge fan of some channels, as there’s an element of devaluing what a university offer means. Different channels of communications are good, but I think some institutions have misread the emotional impact of clearing. Some campaigns were cringeworthy or patronising in tone, or played to the traditional negative connotations of clearing.
We’ve also seen more gearing up in advance of clearing. If you can be top of students’ minds early and provide them with information and fast-track access to vacancies, it’s a good place to be. There’s been a lot more coverage in the media of the Russell Group in clearing, which puts a different emphasis onto the market. Universities, particularly the “squeezed middle”, are spending more online, through programmatic advertising. We’ve seen a lot more focus on “piggybacking” – if you search on Google for Loughborough University you see other institutions advertising clearing places.
The media is yet to catch up on the fact that clearing is not about people who’ve failed. In reality, nearly a quarter use it as an opportunity to get a place full stop. Others are shopping around. We’re seeing really high grades from a lot of candidates ringing us, and we’re turning down people with strong grades – the popular courses are going quickly.
‘Students are savvy – they know when they’re being marketed to’
Julia Weston, assistant director for marketing, Bucks New University
The main difference this year has been the social media interactions that lots of universities have done. From our point of view, the two most successful channels were WhatsApp and Facebook. We took applications using both those channels. They also worked for having conversations, so we had a WhatsApp group that worked really well. It’s a nice safe space for students to ask questions without having to phone up and explain things.
The other thing is opening times – being available early in the morning, in the evening, at the weekend – because with the level of anxiety that students face, being able to talk out of office hours is really helpful.
For our marketing this year we were really keen to use authentic voices of our students. We produced a few films, three that were subject specific and one that was an animation, which we distributed through YouTube. We’ve had over 200,000 views since it launched. They were based on phone calls with students about what they liked about Bucks. One of the key areas that came up was about being able to guarantee accommodation, since that’s a priority for students making a late change or a late decision. Students need to be able to relate to the messages we’re putting out. We try to avoid content that makes the students feel like they are being talked at or like they are reading something scripted.
‘Impress, delight and surprise people’
Stephen Thompson, head of digital, University of Sheffield
My main advice to clearing marketers is to be human. Read each message and understand the context it’s being posted in, and if you can use someone’s name then do. Auto-posting is a no-no after several high profile university fails over the last few years. However, automation with canned responses, templates and alerts to mentions are crucial time savers.
You also need to impress, delight and surprise people so that they are more likely to share the content. This might be through a personalised message or video which can be snapped and shared.
It’s also important to keep prospective students listening and engaged. They will post and ask questions via social media, so making sure various channels are sufficiently resourced to handle these questions and setting up searches to capture mentions is critical.
Many social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, allow you to serve relevant ads back to website visitors once back on social. The right messages in these ads help universities to be top of mind when a prospective student starts to consider alternative universities.
‘Rely on reputation rather than vast budgets’
Elly Sample, director of communications, University of Lincoln
We had huge volumes of calls through clearing. We use a mix of different marketing channels throughout the year but we rely on reputation rather than vast budgets. Being an institution that sets students at the heart of everything we do, we believe that the student experience is the most important marketing tool, since approximately 8 out of 10 students choose their institution based on word of mouth of an alumnus or current student.
Some universities seem to spend a lot around clearing but for us it is not a key period for recruitment activity. That said, one of our most popular initiatives has been our friends for life campaign, which enables applicants to make friends and get to know people in advance of arriving. We know that leaving home is a massive step for students and their parents, particularly for many clearing students who have a short time to make decisions. We are also open and available for visits over the A-level results period so that students and their families can meet us and get a feel for where they would be living and what joining the academic community here at Lincoln is like.
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