8 Reasons to Use Online Education Portals For Student Recruitment

You probably use a mix of digital marketing methods which seem to be effective in your international student recruitment. But which channel offers you the greatest results? In December 2016, we asked this question to international higher education marketing and recruitment professionals. The majority of them ranked education portals as the most valuable marketing investment (29%), followed by email campaigns and content marketing (both 21%). In this article, we want to share with you the main benefits when it comes to using online portals in your international higher education marketing.

1. Better search engine ranking than your university’s website

Based on the typical terms used by students when looking for studying abroad, links to education portals will always appear at the top of Google’s organic search results.

2. Global reach and brand exposure

With millions of users each year, online portals overcome the barrier of distance and connect your international programs as well as your institution to students from all over the world.

3. Follows millennial students’ preferences

International students are fast consumers of online resources, with the urge to access and compare information in a very short space of time. Answering these needs, education search engines deliver an effortless way to search and compare available international programs and provide useful contents that support prospective students all along their study abroad journey.

4. Equal opportunities for students

Other than gender, age, culture, resources, online education portals are free to access and offer every student the same chance of finding the right international education.

5. Level playing field

Online portals position an institution’s profile and programs in front of users in the same effective way allowing universities, both large and small to present their programs on an equal footing.

6. Long term cost-effective method

Most institutions that use online portals experience greater results year after year due to search engine ranking building over time. In addition, the cost of online portal services remains cheaper than other methods such as online paid ads or traditional marketing when considering cost per aquistion.

7. Easy to attribute value to this channel

Online education portals provide access to analytical tools that allow you to easily monitor data and results. Thus, you can track the success of your marketing campaigns in term of leads or referral traffic from click-through at any time. Many education portals are delivering enhanced tracking services allowing universities to follow the student journey, and remarket to high potential students.

8. Combine digital services

Besides listing your university and programs, education portals build marketing content that matches with prospective students’ personas. Many portals also offer valuable services like targeted emailing and display advertising to help universities reach out the right prospective students.

Want more International Student Recruitment insights?