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TRANSFORM COLD LEADS INTO STUDENTS WITH AUTOMATED LEAD NURTURING
How to ensure your hottest leads don’t drop out of the conversion funnel
INTRODUCTIONWhy leads don’t necessarily mean students
Young people have the option to submit applications to five separate universities before deciding on their final choice. Students have transformed into consumers who want to make informed decisions, so it is crucial to place the right messaging at the right time in order to persuade visitors to divulge their all-important opt-in data.
Here in lies the challenge: if prospects are visiting your website, interacting with your content, or even requesting information, why are some of those leads then not converting into students?
In this whitepaper, we’ll explore the issues that may be causing prospects to drop out of your conversion funnel, and how to overcome them with the power of automated lead nurture.
CONTENTS:
• Why Lead Nurture...........................2
• Do I need Lead Nurture? ...............3
• Finding your True Customer®.......4
• Ways to find your True Customer®.......................................5
• Further reading................................6
• Landing Pages that convert............7
• Case Study.........................................8
• Three considerations for successful Lead Nurture.....................................9
• Worksheet: Content Mapping........10
• The Lead Nurture Toolbox..............11
• Summary............................................12
TOP TIPNot all leads are made to be equal, so have a clearly-defined idea of what your institution classes as a ‘good lead’. This can range from them being self funded, to starting in this academic year.
WHY LEAD NURTURE?
HELPS TO DEFINE WHAT A GOOD LEAD LOOKS LIKE
Data gathered throughout the lead nurture process can help your marketing team define their True Customer®. As a result, this provides more personalised experiences for prospective students and makes your team more efficient when prioritising leads. SPEEDS UP CONVERSION TIME
Lead nurturing uses information on how prospects are behaving, and how they are interacting with your brand. It makes certain that all leads are kept educated on the benefits of the institution, keeping them engaged until the point they decide to convert. BUILD CREDIBILITY AND TRUST
Lead nurturing works because it allows marketing teams to build credibility with their prospects by sharing useful information at the right place, at the right time. Using data on your prospects’ behaviour, marketing automation feeds them just enough information to keep them engaged at every step of the conversion funnel. GREATER PERSONALISATION
Student behaviours change often. Today’s prospective student is looking for a unique experience that shows them exactly why they should choose your institution as their place of study. In a sea of competition, the smallest detail can stand out to them. Lead nurturing allows content to be completely focused. It caters to an individual’s key motivations and objectives, so they feel sure that you have their best interest at heart.
In such a competitive sector, colleges and universities are eager to showcase their USPs and position themselves as the best choice for prospective students.
Having a powerful lead nurture process in place can be the difference between a prospect simply interacting with your website once, or still being engaged with your institution three weeks later.
The power (and beauty) behind Akero’s lead nurturing feature is the ability to automate critical marketing activity in the most targeted, effective and efficient way possible, providing added benefit to both the marketer and the prospect.
Here’s how lead nurture can transform your enrolment rate:
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DO I NEED TO LEAD NURTURE?
LACK OF PERSONALISATION
How can education marketers provide each and every lead with a personalised and relevant student journey when there are so many of them? How can teams transform behavioural data into marketing activity that is personalised to that individual lead, and that answers their fundamental questions?
LACK OF AUDIENCE UNDERSTANDING
Who is your ideal prospect? How do they interact with your institution? What questions do they ask? How can your institution answer them? If institutions do not understand the needs and motivations of their audience, it can be tough to know how to build marketing messages that resonate.
LACK OF TIME & RESOURCES
Knowing how to best manage your time, which leads to focus on, and how to craft unique journeys for each prospect, can be huge burden on time and staff resources in such a fast-moving environment.
Lead nurturing, the process of engaging with your prospective students by providing them with relevant information as they travel through the conversion funnel, can help to position your institution as the ideal choice for them to achieve their objectives.
Having an automated approach to lead nurturing helps to solve the following challenges:
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HOW FINDING YOUR ‘TRUECUSTOMER®’ DIRECTLY BENEFITS LEAD NURTURE IN EDUCATION
We talk a lot about the concept of finding your ‘True Customer®’ here at Akero and Net Natives.
Why? Because today’s education marketers need more than impressions, clicks and personas; they need a true view of their ideal potential students. Your True Customer® is perfectly matched to your brand mission and offering. The messages, moments and motivations that matter are unique to every individual, and to understand these is to understand your True Customer®.
When institutions fully understand their True Customer® , essential information on prospective students is unlocked, such as:
• Why your brand mission and offering is perfectly matched
• A complete demographic profile data
• Their interests and motivation
• The messages that resonate with them
• Preferred devices and technology
• Preferred media and platforms
• Cost to acquire
• Time it takes to convert
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[INTERVIEW] How To Track Your Prospective Students Faster, Easier And More Effectively Get insider tips on how to use your data to craft experiences that increase the chances of enrolment from Net Natives’ Don Skinner, Digital Director, and Lucian Glenny, Lead Web Analyst. Read it here.
“By optimising your activity against your core goals, the modern marketer can be more successful than ever in attracting their target audience and reducing their ROI.”
Don Skinner, Digital Director, Net Natives
SECOND PART FORMSSecond part forms allow marketers to gather lead-qualifying data and invaluable market research to better understand a lead’s key motivations. The second part form should include questions that find out more about the lead’s motivations and interests, so that marketers can tailor their messages based on this information.
TRACKINGMarketing Nirvana is when marketers can track someone from first click through to enrolment, and to understand the moments and motivations that lead them to convert. One of the key challenges that education marketers face is implementing and managing tracking activity. By having tracking working across all platforms, marketers can measure activity against core objectives.
WAYS TO FIND YOUR TRUE CUSTOMER®
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FURTHER READING
Our ‘Targeting Your True Customer To Maximise Student Recruitment’ whitepaper will provide you with:
• Essential data you need to build your True Customer® profile
• A specific consideration cycle that prospects undergo before reaching a decision
• Four things to add to your strategy to significantly increase Open Day sign-ups
GET A COPY
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LANDING PAGES THAT CONVERTYour landing page is the deciding factor on whether your prospective student becomes entered into a lead nurture campaign, or never returns to your website again. Follow these essential tips from the education experts at Net Natives for landing page success:
“Cold leads are hard to engage, and chances are your “typical” copy may not be effective at grabbing their attention – instead you need to stand out. Make your page socially relevant - many Universities in the past couple of months have been harnessing the social hype surrounding Pokemon Go to create pieces that are relevant, engaging, and attractive to students.”
Lizzie Clark, Higher Education Digital Consultant, Net Natives
“Address a problem and then follow on to give a solution. “Are you unsure where to study next September?” followed by a solution of “Register for our October open day to tour our new campus and speak to tutors about your course options” is a perfect example. Also, using a question as the headline is attention grabbing, as it makes the content personal and relatable.”
Zoe Bretton, Further Education Digital Consultant, Net Natives
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The Challenge
A prominent UK university with a rich history spanning 150 years needed an effective lead nurture strategy for their Pre-Clearing activity (prospecting and nurturing potential students before their A level & BTEC results). A strategy that would reduce the number of prospective students dropping out of the conversion funnel, keep individual prospects engaged throughout the journey, with relevant content and personalised messages.
But to manage this effectively, it was vital for the team to attribute students to specific campaigns and to personalise the student journey to nurture and convert automatically.
The Solution
Personalising and Prioritising Dynamic forms created through Akero and embedded as custom HTML landing pages were shown to respondents of the advertising campaigns which had “conditional response features.” This meant that respondents received a personalised and relevant experience, dependent on the answers they gave when enquiring. As a result, the admissions team could focus on the most qualified (the hottest) prospects first.
Tracking and Responding Akero’s powerful tracking functionality enabled the Net Natives’ digital advertising team to view the source point for each lead and optimise in real-time to media that worked. The admissions team had a transparent view of what was happening through the nature of the SaaS element of the system.
Nurturing and Converting The Client Success Team at Akero built a lead nurture workflow using Akero’s advanced automation features to target users with key messages based on where the prospects were in their individual decision-making process, all automatically delivered to the right people through branded HTML emails built within Akero. Working cohesively, these advanced automations provided reassurance that each lead was being given a personalised experience, and gave the user the most relevant experience possible based on their interactions with the University.
The Result
Over 500 leads downloaded the Clearing Guide, and the team were able to reignite relationships with those that had listed the University as their insurance offer.
CASE STUDY:UK UNIVERSITY
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What are the key factors that education marketers need to consider to execute successful lead nurture campaigns?
THREE CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL LEAD NURTURING
TIMING - HOW LONG DO THEY NEED TO CONVERT?
What are you hoping to achieve from your lead nurture campaign? Listing your objectives and mapping out the various touch points on a prospective student’s journey will help form the strategy for your workflow. Use the data that you have on your True Customer® to plan and map content for each touch point, ensuring that each piece of content addresses queries related to either the awareness, interest, intent or enquiry stage of the conversion journey.
FREQUENCY - HOW OFTEN SHOULD THEY BE CONTACTED?
How frequently your visitors are contacted will all depend on the end-goal for your campaign. For example, time-sensitive goals such as registering for an Open Day are aimed at those hot leads that have already expressed intent and are in the middle of the funnel (MOFU), the stage before enrolling, so weekly triggered messages may work well here.
CONTENT - WHAT IS NEEDED, AND WHEN?
Certain content will work well within particular areas of the conversion funnel, so planning is essential. For TOFU brand awareness activity, content such as paid advertising, blog articles and videos to educate and inform, will be used to enter your visitor into the early stages of your nurture workflow. For MOFU content, use the existing data that you have on your visitors and target them with content that matches their behaviour.
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AW
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ACTIONASSETSAUDIENCEThink about your CTA - how would you like your prospect to act upon receiving
this content?
What content will you need for each stage of the funnel, and how will it fit
their needs?
Who are you trying to convert? Think carefully about what a good lead looks
like to your institution.
ACTIVITIESWhat triggers should occur to instigate
our messages?
WORKSHEET: CONTENT MAPPINGUse this worksheet for each lead nurture campaign to help efficiently map content that relates to each stage of the conversion funnel.
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THE LEAD NURTURE TOOLBOX
Automation Conditional Nesting
This feature allows marketers to create advanced filters that dictate which messages get sent to prospects based on how they behave. Filters can include whether or not they have clicked or opened the previous email within the nurture workflow. This makes for an incredibly unique and relevant experience for each and every lead.
Automation Workflow BranchingBranching ensures that your prospect never receives the incorrect email, and allows marketers to rigidly structure paths that are completely adaptable to each lead. The result? Reassurance for your team that your institution is getting the results they need from each workflow.
Automation Workflow DelayThis feature creates delays between your automated messages, depending on how your prospective students have behaved. Spacing your messages is key to not being overly assertive with your marketing.
Automation Workflow Chaining
Chaining can occur when a prospect has downloaded a city guide following an Open Day. Through this action, this may trigger another email to be sent to them five days later with a message on why they should study at your institution. This action eliminates the need for marketing teams to send individual emails manually.
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SUMMARY KNOW YOUR TRUE CUSTOMER
It’s hugely important for marketers to understand their True Customer® before mapping out a lead nurture strategy. Knowing what motivates your ideal prospective student allows your team to craft highly relevant messaging at each stage of the funnel, and decreases the chances of drop-outs throughout the journey.
USE YOUR CONTENT WISELY
Certain content types are more effective when used throughout the nurturing process. Look to your current students for their college or university experiences and use this content in the awareness stage to engage your audience.
FOLLOW A PROCESS, EVERY TIME
Use the model of the ‘Four A’s’ when planning your lead nurture campaigns - Audience, Assets, Actions and Activities. By doing this, you will be clear on the objective of each touch point, and therefore make the best use of content.
So, what are the three learning points that make a successful student recruitment lead nurture strategy?
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT LEAD NURTURE?
The team at Akero can create highly sophisticated workflows that are dictated by how your website visitors behave, guiding them on personalised and relevant journeys throughout the funnel that increase the chances of enrolment. Get in touch to find out how it can work for your institution.
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ABOUT AKERO Respected institutions we help:
Create highly converting landing pages, nurture relationships and gain unparalleled insights into each of your individual audiences.
Nurture student prospects and convert them into enrolled students with advanced marketing automation, via email and SMS.
Use forms on your phone and tablet to capture recruitment fair and Open Day attendees, without the need for Wi-Fi or an Internet connection.
“The biggest change is that our team are now able to easily track conversions and attribute them to specific marketing campaigns related to our Open Days.”
Waltham Forest College
“Blown away by Akero, we have never had this sort of measurement. The way in which we can track and qualify the leads in Akero provides us with the ultimate ROI from our digital marketing campaigns.”
University of Amsterdam
“We wanted to be able to track interest in our Open Evenings and events, as well as evaluate which promotion routes were working best at driving traffic to our events registration page. We have been using Akero ever since for subsequent campaigns.”
Tresham College of Further and Higher Education
Akero TrueView for Education is Net Native’s marketing suite and CRM that provides institutions with a ‘true customer view’ of each and every student.
Built with students and education teams in mind, Akero TrueView for Education drives enquiries, nurtures relationships, then converts each lead through personalised and highly-targeted automated messages using our state of the art technology.
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BOOK A DEMO
020 3199 7895 [email protected] www.akerolabs.com
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Isambard Brunel Road Portsmouth UK PO1 2TR
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