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5 Ways to recruit international students
Get ahead of your competition with these 5 ways OR STRATEGIES OR tactics to recruit international students and grow your enrollment for your next intake!
Today, there is fierce competition among universities looking for qualified students in the international student market. Only those universities that manage to have a good brand presence, a strong reputation, and remain active in attracting new students in a creative way, succeed in enrolling enough international students to fill the empty seats in their classrooms.
Are you one of these universities? Well, if you think you are not there yet and can do better, check below five strategies that can help you recruit international students. We hope they will be useful to you as you consider growing your
student enrollment.
One of the 5 ways to recruit international students is to sign up to participate in education fairs attended by your target student group. These fairs allow you to interact with potential students and learn more about them for future marketing outreach.
Attending educational fairs also give you an opportunity to check out the competition and observe how other universities connect with students and try to stand out in the crowd. It is a good way to learn what works in this environment, and how to adjust your focus and your marketing strategies.
One downside of the educational fairs are the costs associated with registration and travel, as they can run quite high, especially when compared to online recruitment techniques. An additional consideration is that there is never a guarantee that you will get a new student from these in person efforts. Therefore, if you would like to try an educational fair, we highly recommend you do your research first to make sure that this particular event is where your prospective students will be.
Among the 5 ways to recruit international students, a very practical one is to visit secondary schools in your area. This is the cheapest and safest option in your tool box. It makes a lot of sense to create a relationship with school officials and start connecting with those students around you. They have probably heard of your university and are aware of your reputation.
Visiting with the senior students in person and using a more personal and friendly approach will help them see the benefits of a local university campus and speed up their decision to enroll. Don’t forget to hand out some brochures about all the educational programs that your university offers.
Our 3rd recommended way to recruit international students is to set up social media campaigns. Make sure to have an in-house expert in the field or hire an external, experienced company to help. Use the internal data you have gathered through the years to create a profile of your typical student, so that the social media experts can tailor your campaigns to identify and reach qualified leads that will later convert into real students.
Consider all social media platforms and use the ones where your target audience is. LinkedIn is perhaps a good option to promote master and PhD programs, while Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram might work well to attract Bachelor degree candidates.
The 4th tactic in our list of 5 ways to successfully recruit international students is to host a couple of student recruitment webinars. Many universities nowadays are relying on this virtual tool due to the COVID-19 pandemic which seriously disrupted international travel for recruitment officers and students.
This recruitment method gives you extensive opportunities to reach thousands of students through webinar promotion and to present to hundreds of them in a single event. Connecting with students in real time allows you to showcase your university and make a more convincing argument for the benefits of enrolling in one of your programs. You can, for example, create a series of webinars focusing each time on a different college or academic area from your institution. Creative and unique webinars will let students experience the student life they hope to be part of and give them a much deeper insight into their program of interest.
All through this year, we, at ISN EXPO, have been working to help universities connect with students looking for higher education programs in the US. Our online student recruitment webinars, offer these universities the opportunity to promote, present and meet students from all over the world interested in continuing their education, despite the limitations on mobility caused by COVID-19.
Last but not least in our list of 5 ways to recruit international students, we recommend you offer prospective students something they would really value: a free online masterclass. This is a great way to give them a taste of what they will experience and learn when they choose to study at your university. Why a master class? In contrast to Bachelor degree students, the more mature students at this level of education are surer of their next steps and what they are looking for in a career. They probably already know what they want to specialize in and would be excited and challenged by this opportunity to experience a Master level class offered by an American university.
If you are interested in hosting an online masterclass, we can help you set it up using our professional webinar platform and the expertise of our technical team. You only need to focus on presenting it. We will take care of the rest. Contact us here for more details.
Ready to begin implementing our 5 ways to recruit international students?
Contact our student enrollment experts at ISN to talk about our effective and successful webinars and any of the other ideas shared here today. We hope this article will be helpful to you when planning your next strategy to recruit international students.
If you have any questions or would like to share with our community other useful ways to recruit international students, feel free to leave a comment below.
Please check this page to get more details about how our student recruitment webinars work.
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Read MoreAbsolutely. For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, there is a 24-hour turnaround time for you to receive the complete and comprehensive student registration information and the list of students who attended the webinar. The information includes the students’ full name, email, home address, contact number, gender, age, intended level of study (undergrad/ post grad/ ESL), program they are interested in, and when they plan to enroll (Fall 2020/ Spring 2021).
For multi-webinar, there will be 5 presenters from 5 different institutions. Each presenter will have a 5 minute presentation (25 minutes in total for all presenters).The remaining time will be used for Q&A session.
For solo-webinar, your institution is the ONLY one presenting to prospective students. The first 30 minutes will be spent for your presentation and the remaining 30 minute is for Q&A session. You may choose the topic/s to be presented.
Multi-webinar will have 5 presenters from 5 different institutions. Each institution can have 1 presenter.
Solo-webinar can have a minimum of 1 presenter and a maximum of 4 presenters.
ISN recommends that all presenters have wired internet connection to ensure a stable connection. Please refer to Zoom’s system and bandwidth requirements HERE for more details.
For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, ISN will provide a dedicated host and technical support throughout the webinar. The host will introduce the presenters, create polls during the webinar, and read the questions asked by students out loud for the presenters.
For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, ISN markets webinars through different digital marketing channels such as email marketing, social media marketing, paid ads, SEO, etc.
For multi-webinar, we target students who are interested in the specific webinar topic and we market the 5 institutions equally. For solo-webinar, we will focus on marketing your institution alone to ensure that all attendees are interested in your institution.
ISN accepts payment through credit card. ISN will send a secure payment link and payment should be settled 24 hours upon submitting your registration.
For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, the attendance is 10-15% of those registered, based from the past webinars.
No. The webinars are 100% free for students and parents who are interested in attending both multi-webinar and solo-webinar.
ISN will provide the student database 24 hours after the webinar session. Please use your institutions’ CRM to follow up and send a message to these students right away; a thank you email is a good start in following up with these leads.
This Terms of Service Agreement is a binding legal contract between your education institution (“you”, “purchaser”, “institution”, “client”, “exhibitors”) and International Student Network Inc. (“ISN,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) regarding ISN services such as student fairs, webinars, conferences, student databases, and digital marketing services.
ISN will submit complete and comprehensive information on the students who will attend as well as those who register for the student fairs/ webinars/ other ISN services. This student database/s is/are for use by the institution only and registration information should not be forwarded on to third parties. Similarly, the materials such as ISN brochures and recording of webinars are for use by the institution only and should not be forwarded on to third parties. If you believe that a third party has obtained details in an unauthorized manner, please promptly notify ISN.
ISN will send you a form to be filled out by the institution to finalize your registration. Once the form is submitted, ISN will send a secure payment link. Payment must be settled within 5 business days. You will be required to send us a copy of your presentation and any marketing materials that you want us to use to promote your institution. Please send a copy of your presentation/ marketing material to expo@isnexpo.com immediately after registration so we can immediately start marketing your institution and your programs. Please note that we can only start marketing your institution once the payment is made and after we receive a copy of your marketing materials.
Effective March 1 2020, due to COVID-19, ISN is not accepting checks. ISN only accepts credit card payments and ACH deposits. If your preferred payment method is a credit card, a secured payment link will be sent to you once the registration form is submitted. Payments should be made within 5 business days upon receiving the secured payment link/ invoice for ACH deposit
Registration for all ISN services, including expos, student recruitment webinars, student databases, and digital marketing services may be cancelled as stated below:
If the Exhibitor fails to make a required payment in a timely manner, as detailed under the ISN Terms & Condition, ISN has the right to terminate this agreement and Exhibitor’s participation in the expo without further notice and without obligation to refund any payments made.
If there is a cancellation due to unforeseeable events that are beyond either party’s control, including but not limited to: natural disasters, war, terrorist act, strikes, civil disorder, pandemic, or other comparable unforeseeable emergency, a FULL credit towards any future ISN related services will be given to the institution.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, ISN has created strict precautionary measures to adapt and meet the new health and safety concerns. By signing this terms and condition, you are acknowledging the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in public places such as event venues where people are present. By participating to ISN education expos, you assume all the risks and agree to the following:
Unless otherwise indicated, International Student Network Inc. will have the rights to use the information that the institution will be providing to market and promote the institution. The authorization provided to ISN by the university may include the use of: logo, programs, testimonials, photos and video that will be used in strategies targeting students and educators through different media outlets such as email marketing, digital marketing, and social media marketing.
International Student Network Inc. does not guarantee any enrollment or conversion rates after the student fairs, webinars, conferences, or when purchasing student databases. It is the sole responsibility of the marketing team of the institution to follow up with the student leads.
You will receive the complete and comprehensive student registration information. The information includes the students’ full name, email, home address, contact number, gender, age, intended level of study (undergrad/ post grad/ ESL), program they are interested in, when they plan to enroll, and their concerns about studying overseas. The students opted in to receive emails and marketing campaigns from our partner education institutions. We do not guarantee delivery rate for email data purchase because some ISP s may block good-deliverable email addresses or divert them to spam box.
The education institution may use all the information from the database to follow up with the student leads using their own CRM, email marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing. The database can also be used to reach students for their own webinars. ISN highly encourages the education institution to maximize the use of these databases by using various marketing strategies.
The institutions must use their email marketing tools in compliance with all applicable local, state, provincial, national and other laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to spam and email, and including without limitation, the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, the Canadian CASL, and the EU GDPR and e-privacy directive.
For webinars, the virtual event facility also known as the webinar platform, includes a feature that allows audio, video and any documents and other materials exchanged or viewed during the session to be recorded. By joining a session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to the recording, please contact ISN to discuss your concerns in good time prior to the web-event date. Your webinar participation may require you to configure your software settings on your web-device upon first use or require you to download the software for your operating system. ISN will notify you what software to download:
GoToMeeting or Zoom depending on your target market/ region. Please note that you may require administrator privileges on your computer to be able to manually install software.
For events, ISN will be documenting the tour and student fairs. Exhibitors give permission to ISN and accept that photographs and videos will be taken during the fairs. ISN shall own the copyright of all images and videos and may use them for advertising and marketing purposes.
If the terms and conditions outlined in this agreement are acceptable, please indicate your acceptance by attaching your signature and please send it back to Janet B. at expo@isnexpo.com
We look forward to working with you and your institution!
On behalf of International Student Network Inc.
Name: Janet B.
Job Title: Marketing Coordinator
International Student Network Inc
Date: April 2, 2020