In the world of education enrollment, lead generation is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine this: You run successful campaigns that flood your inbox with inquiries, but only a fraction converts into enrolled students. This blog unravels the art of lead nurturing – a vital process that can turn those inquiries into enrolled students.
Why do you need Lead Nurturing?
As you might know, lead generation is always the easiest part of any enrollment campaign. After every campaign, you probably sit on more leads than you think you can filter through. But the saddest part is that only a tiny percentage of these leads will convert to enrolled students at the end of the intake season. Though many show interest in your courses, they won’t have the necessity to enroll this year.
If you’ve yet to experience the above scenario, either your campaigns are highly efficient enough to target and generate leads exclusively from intentional, high-quality candidates, or you’re not running any serious digital campaigns to generate enrollments for your institution.
Dealing with an overflow of leads that don’t convert can be challenging, and this is a common scenario for many education marketers. That’s why lead nurturing is essential—it helps you turn those leads into actual enrollments, making your promotional campaigns for your institution much more effective.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Before explaining anything about lead nurturing, let me start by stating the cold truth about lead generation.
“Your intakes may be seasonal, but your lead generation can’t be seasonal. They have to be always on.”
Yes, that’s right, you don’t turn on your lead generation engine when the intake period is around the corner. You should never turn it off. This deserves an extensive explanation, but let me explain briefly.
A Potential Student may be in the research phase of their enrollment journey at any time, regardless of when your intake season is open. They may be researching up to a year in advance before enrolling. Establishing your presence and dominance during this research phase is crucial to generating leads and converting them into future intakes. So think long-term when thinking about lead generation.
Once a potential student becomes a lead in your database, it’s essential to maintain their attention and keep them engaged.
Enter lead nurturing.
Lead nurturing is a strategic process aimed at cultivating and engaging potential students (leads) throughout their journey, ultimately guiding them toward enrollment.
We believe that many institutions overlook some crucial points regarding lead nurturing. The first secret we’d like to share is one of the most overlooked steps in the process.
Progressive Profiling: Data Completion
Leads generated from your digital marketing efforts, whether through newsletter signups, social media engagement, website inquiries, or content downloads like ebooks or course brochures, rarely give complete information regarding your potential students. You must make an effort to complete this data to effectively nurture leads.
In addition to the primary details captured during the lead generation phase, it is advisable to attain a detailed assessment, like detailed demographic information, current academic level, academic interests, preferred courses, decision-making stage, and other relevant information. But, such exhaustive questions on the lead form will likely lower the conversion rate for your lead generation campaign.
Several methods, collectively termed progressive profiling, could be adapted to complete your data. This essentially refers to a system of collecting data that gradually gathers more information about leads over time as they engage.
One effective progressive profiling method is a discovery call, where you ask for the missing details from the potential student without promoting or selling your courses/programs. But this, however, should only be done if all applicable privacy laws allow you to do so and if you have obtained consent from the lead to contact them over the phone.
Other ways include connecting with them through email and instant messaging platforms and taking them through a questionnaire. Also, inviting them to virtual or physical events and collecting further data through surveys or feedback questionnaires is another method that effectively aids progressive profiling.
A data set with exhaustive information is a gold mine for any marketing exercise. It helps us project with good clarity whether the lead would convert to a potential student.
And it also helps us immensely with the following two secrets of lead nurturing.
Segmentation: Divide and Conquer
It is no secret that all leads are not the same. However, it is baffling that only a few educational institutions practice segmentation with their lead data.
Segmentation involves categorising leads based on their characteristics and behaviours and grouping them into lists based on the marketing goals and processes you plan to employ. Depending on the programs or courses you are trying to market, there could be multiple factors based on which you could categorise your education leads.
Everyone needs to do some basic categorisation:
- Demographic categorisation (Age, gender)
- Geographic categorisation (city, state, country)
- Current Education level, etc.
Some more advanced categorisations would be:
- Engagement history (active, passive, engaged once)
- Enrollment stage (Research, Inquiry, Application, Acceptance).
You could also take it further by categorising your leads using a psychographic segmentation model. WES proposed a psychographic mode in their student segmentation strategy to profile potential students based on their academic performance and financial resources
Once you have segmented your lead list based on the above criteria, you can start designing your marketing strategy for each list. Different segments require different marketing treatments to be nurtured to become an enrollment. Furthermore, lead segmentation will allow you to efficiently allocate your marketing resources (tools, human resources, time, and budget).
Whether tailoring program recommendations to a lead’s academic interests or sending location-specific event invitations, segmentation in education marketing is the key to reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time, ultimately driving enrollment and academic success.
Personalisation: Interactions with a purpose
You would think that personalisation is no longer a secret in today’s day and age. But let’s break it down: personalisation doesn’t mean addressing the lead using their first name. It goes much beyond that.
Personalisation is the linchpin of successful lead nurturing in education marketing. It’s about understanding your potential students’ unique aspirations, challenges, and learning preferences.
According to a study by HubSpot, personalised emails deliver six times higher transaction rates than generic messages meant for everyone on the lead list. This statistic alone underscores the potency of personalisation in nurturing leads effectively.
Educational institutions can leverage the data collected from lead interactions to craft highly personalised messages and experiences. This might involve tailoring program recommendations or highlighting a program’s features based on a lead’s academic/career interests. This could even be about sending timely reminders for application deadlines to only those specific leads who are to take action or offer content that directly addresses their specific questions or concerns that they have raised in previous interactions.
Proper personalisation nurtures a sense of trust and rapport between the institution and the prospect, enhancing the likelihood of conversion.
Personalisation will set your institution apart in the competitive landscape of education marketing by demonstrating a profound understanding of prospective students’ journeys and a sincere commitment to guiding them towards their educational goals.
To personalise your lead nurturing efforts at scale, it is essential to be exhaustive with data collection, progressive profiling, lead segmentation, and the next secret.
Automation: Being Efficient and Effective
Automation is the only way to do lead nurturing at scale. It is impractical and entirely unproductive to nurture leads individually. Automation saves time and ensures consistency in your lead nurturing efforts. You can set up automated workflows that deliver targeted content at the right moment in the prospect’s journey.
For enhanced efficiency, we need to depend on tools. Most CRMs are built to operate effectively in the educational industry. CRMs should help us know the life cycle of each lead and lead segment. And thereby help plan and execute the next steps in the nurturing journey. Segmentation, personalisation, and messaging should be automated using these CRMs.
Content: Build Credibility and Trust
During the lead nurturing phase, it’s your opportunity to cement your institution’s reputation. This is where content marketing plays a pivotal role. You establish yourself as an authority in the field by consistently providing valuable, relevant, and insightful content.
Content can be a powerful tool for showcasing your institution’s unique selling points. Share case studies, testimonials, and student success stories illustrating your programs’ tangible benefits. By delivering content that resonates with your audience’s aspirations and concerns, you create a strong emotional connection that enhances trust.
Every piece of content should not only inform but also evoke trust. Highlight your institution’s achievements, faculty expertise, and success stories. Remember, trust is the bridge that transforms leads into loyal students.
Measuring Your Success
The effectiveness of lead nurturing can’t be gauged without proper metrics. Start by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, engagement levels, and progression through the enrollment journey.
Monitor the time it takes for leads to move from initial inquiry to enrollment, which indicates how well your nurturing efforts are working. Don’t forget to continually gather feedback from enrolled students to refine your strategies.
In addition to these quantitative metrics, consider qualitative feedback. Conduct surveys or interviews with enrolled students to understand their experience better. Were their expectations met? What could have been done differently? This qualitative data provides valuable insights into your lead nurturing nuances of the process and helps make continuous improvements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, lead nurturing is the linchpin in the enrollment process. It’s a blend of data-driven strategies, personalized experiences, trust-building content, efficient automation, and constant feedback. By embracing these secrets, admissions officers can navigate the complex journey of turning leads into enrolled students.
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