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hey Ashwin good to see you in another video today man what's up what's up sujan what's happening how you doing all good all good going on well and I hope everything is well with you too absolutely Okay so we've been discussing the students journey and we've been actually discussing it in the different stages that is the research evaluate apply and enroll stages so we've been discussing each of these stages in detail and we would like to tell our audience if you had missed out on any of these previous discussions please feel free to head out to our YouTube page or uh our LinkedIn pages so that you can actually go through those previous videos and uh just to bring everyone up to speed in the research stage we discussed how students begin their journey to consider University and it's a very preliminary stage in their Journey which which is 12 to 24 months before they actually enroll into a program and what are the things they actually look for like what is their behavior in these stages how do they seek for information what type of information are they looking for and how universities can leverage opportunities to bring them into their marketing funnel and also in the evaluate stage we also discussed as to how students who have now figured out where they want to actually study a country or a particular course or a field of uh study and then how do they compare universities and figure out okay which is the best university for me to go about this journey so we discussed all these things in very much detail and today I think the next stage is up for discussion which is the apply stage right so it's very interesting to unlock each of these stages and dive into the stage with a lot of examples so that's what's unique about the discussion because I think this is the very first time we are diving into real world example and seeing how universities have set benchmarks in this area and how other universities in the region can actually adopt these practices and roll it out in their University or their marketing plan so Ashwin I'll ask you to take us through the next step in the journey which is the apply stage and what do you have for us today solid intro good job done M I know that was a tough one well done Fu all right let's talk about the uh apply stage yeah now we mentioned initially that uh decision making is always a it's not a onetime process yeah it confidence builds over time so each decision is always Revisited yeah and I think that's where the apply stage becomes very interesting because not all prospective students start their search purely understanding that they know this is the kind of degree or the program that they want to pick up they're always intrigued by couple of options or even more yeah and so that's that that's one Challenge and the other area is can I really afford this program what is my actual fee because cost is probably the primary barrier towards an enrollment if it was [Music] affordable every would have everybody would have picked that choice correct that's right so cost is def itely a big factor in deciding which country which region which country which university which program why do I stay in-house within the campus outside a lot of challenges yeah so are University showcasing true cost of of education is a point of discussion they have during this stage because they are not the only decision maker yeah remember parents are the ones who put their money yeah so if it is undergrad yeah if it's postgrad definitely they sponsor themselves or sometimes there's a partnership between them and the company that they work with or they go in for Education Loans yeah so you have multiple options in that front as well so that's one side of the coin the other side of the coin sujan is the fact that hey guess what I've never learned with this University before very clearly yeah what's it like what is the experience of Education in this University now when I mean by education it's not just pure education that's not why that's not one of the reasons why Al I I just pick a university right it's also about the ecosystem around the university within the university and around the university yeah the country the city that I choose the kind of opportunities that are available in the city and not just that in terms of how open the place is uh um culture sports events a lot of this matter it's it's also about you feeling comfortable with the decision absolutely I think at the end of the day after comparing all these things that you be you just spoke about I think it's more about okay where do I find more confidence where do I feel more comfortable to study correct correct and and exactly and this is where do these answers really come from um counselors yeah or or or are students really convinced when they listen to a counselor or they would they like to interact with existing students yes yeah so that they're able toage this yeah speaking about that let me reminise on my experience when enrolling for an MBA even after discussing in the final stages with the admissions Council of that particular campus uh I understood the fees and and what not everything else before I took the decision I spoke to multiple students through my different networks some of them through Linkedin some of them who have been in the alumni and who have been part of my school alumni yeah so I F I really found those connections to speak to to get that confidence really because yes there is a fact a factor of trust that you need to build to take this decision because it's not an easy one as you said it comes with a lot of investment in terms of money time all that yeah so that was my journey even before I took the call I had to speak to a few people who had actually studied there some existing students interesting so so what you did is you reached you reached out to alumni exactly and current students via LinkedIn so that you can communicate some of them through Linkedin some of them through my school network through my school alumni Network so I I had to find these people because at the end of the day even though I like the university I still needed to validate whether okay is this the right place how is it from the internal perspective I'm getting a marketing perspective from the University through the admissions counselor through the various resources that I could find online all that is great but still I wanted that Insider information yeah some reliable information yeah that can help you make that decision and somebody who you can actually relate to as well like being in your school they understand the society around you and some of these people I didn't know them personally ah but it is just a perspective an unbiased perspective about the university and absolutely absolutely absolutely which makes it way more relatable right because that's when the a trust is built yeah because they you share common problems you share common uh goals sometimes yeah exactly so that's beautiful and I think I mean if this is this is happening for somebody who's going going to choosing a university even locally imagine if it's abroad yeah so I want to dive into one of the University that sort of tried to solve for this in a very unique way yeah I'm just going to quickly share my screen yeah let's just go ahead so the first example that I wanted to talk about was Birmingham University of course they have a campus in Dubai the recently opened campus they have a unique experience on their website I'm saying unique because I've not seen a lot of universities do this where they identify student ambassadors students from multiple regions M with multiple interests and hobbies who've chosen different types of programs yeah they are on available on this platform as ambassadors of the University and I as a prospective student have an option to reach out to one or some of these students so that I can understand about their experience beautiful right match made in heaven right because if I'm if I'm looking for a mechanical engineering or if I am from if I from Kerala or if I'm if I enjoy football I know that I can definitely relate to Arjun who's studying in Birmingham University who's from Kerala who's interested in similar hobbies and who's doing a mechanical engineering so that I can have a conversation with him and see how I can resonate and solve some of my queries and this is across different regions different countries so it's done beautifully well there are way more profiles here different countries different regions fantastic job done so there's somebody from Cairo from Pakistan from Jordan Aman region from from again Pakistan Dubai Tamil Nadu in India plenty of options so very clearly I can understand the diversity I can also talk to the right kind of people who I want to and try to engage in solve my queries get that experience and get that validation that final validation that final decision making I believe this is a brilliant example of what we just discussed how can you build that trust element right how can you give that unbiased perspective rather than a student counselor trying to do the job and these are the evolving Trends in the industry that we see people are relying on these things for decision making correct yes so this kind of behavior the student behavior is also changing the parents behavior is also changing so fantastic fantastic example Ash so sujan like you mentioned right there are multiple Tools in this ecosystem that is there are multiple universities as well solving this problem in different unique ways and one of the challenge like we mentioned earlier ear was about being intrigued with multiple choices multiple programs that they're interested in similar programs but different outcomes or different types of learning process in each of these program different types of electives and very a minute information that I go in search for now typically sujan when you are buying a vehicle or when you're choosing an apartment yeah you always tend to compare and especially these e-commerce platforms which on Amazon you're always trying to look for comparison of products how they list benefits and features and you're able to quickly say Okay X offering y z feature y offering ABC features how does it work for me similarly what one university has cracked secretart university has done an extremely good job at this stage of comparing programs where they bring the whole uh B to experience where you typically do it on e-commerce platforms and websites to the education process so very clearly each program is differentiated by duration format structure tution fee cost per credit total number of credits total number of courses elective programs specializations availability what kind of requirements are for each of these programs work experience required I think the takeaway here is very evident you are just reducing the friction points in the students Journey right because imagine the complexity of actually a person taking notes or comparing different PDF brochures to interpret all this information it it actually takes a toll on someone if they want to compare at least two courses I mean they have to spend at least a good half an hour to one to put this PDF together read through it understand okay what are the various points compare it on a note but this is just making that students experience better using that friction point and putting everything in a summary so that your decision making becomes very easy absolutely at its score it's reducing friction and and see what they're trying to do right they're trying to replicate whatever students are experiencing in their journey through online tools that's all so the same question might be posted to multiple counselors multiple number of times so they're like okay too many students are asking for this how do we give them an experience that they are able to find this information themselves so that they are way more educated and they understand this well before they come to us for further clarifications so it's a very very neat job done reducing friction is the goal yes yes yes brilliant talking about reducing friction there's one more very interesting piece of example that I want to showcase as well which is trying to understand what is the actual cost of Education now cost of education is not just you tution fee right right now if I'm living in a city what's the cost of living in that City yeah what's the cost of renting a place if I'm staying outside the campus and and I'm renting with my fellow students yeah what is the cost of them staying in campus yeah what's the cost of groceries what's the cost of food what's the cost of entertainment Transportation name it exactly all of this so i' I've not seen many universities talk about all of this and the figures are extremely vague they're not able to compute a number and this is again a very very frustrating experience for students because they're not able to understand what their actual costs are which is a very very very critical point of decision making correct absolutely absolutely cost is the highest barrier and the primary information that not just students even parents are looking for because they want to budget right they want to budget the fact that in the next two years this is what I should be sending my my kid on a monthly basis off a professional working professionals they need to understand if they're traveling this is the kind of expenditure they will be expected yeah to need to budget as as accurately as possible is becoming like very important more crucial especially especially when your children are going for Education overseas or in a different country altoe absolutely absolutely and I think this is why University of Alberta has really done a good job so they have a simple four-step process which is trying to understand okay are you from Canada or are you an international student what kind of program are you looking for undergraduate postr graduate what is the program what about your housing are you going to stay in campus or are you going to stay off Campus based on these very simple criteria they're able to formulate a guaranteed tution estimate where they're able to say year on year what will be your costs now apart from just the mere student cost they are also talking about estimated non-tuition cost okay where they are keying in Recreation entertainment Athletics books supplies residence Health Wellness dental plan Health Plan Insurance academic support all of these details are extremely critical and real important for students right no so there's so much pressure that's dropped because you're able to understand what is the estimated cost of studying in Canada at University of Alberta for this program with this housing capability definitely so this structure helps people help students and parents plan really well and it's a very simple calculator it's not complex it can be done across various different tools so the point is to get this information again transparent and visible ible to students again like you mentioned correctly dropping fiction points and enabling students with the right information to help in decision making help them build confidence move them to the next stage in their funnel to choose your University your institutions your college over the others and also I think one more angle that this can be a tool like this can actually come into play is Ashwin where you use this to draw in traffic to your website especially if someone is in the decision making stages and somebody is looking for understanding the expenses in Canada in Alberta specifically this can also be a tool that will bring in your organic traffic that's the other side equation yeah these tools not only help reduce friction on one side of the story but it also becomes a way for you to Market your brand right correct in a from a different perspective correct so you're referring to the distribution plan corre which is okay you've created one piece of content now this content can how can it what are the ways in which can be distributed not just one all of the examples that we discussed today and our previous examples as well definitely can rank on SEO can drive traffic can can be used for advertisements at the decision-making funnel or at the awareness funnel based on the kind of tool or solution or information that you have can also be used in emails for nurturing can be used within WhatsApp can be used for social media so on and so forth man it can be used also as a tool for counselers to share with students as well definitely definitely to increase engagement of conversation absolutely absolutely definitely so multiple use cases I think we've really knocked it out of the park here Ashen so y thank you very much again for taking us through all these examples local as well as Global examples which I think will be of great use to our audience so thank you very much once again and looking forward to actually meet you with more interesting topics about education marketing and um really looking forward to that likewise buddy thanks for this session looking forward to the next one yeah thank you Ashwin