3 Barriers That Disengage Prospective International Students

In our previous post, we showed you how you can use content marketing strategies to evaluate your international student recruitment efforts. More specifically, we talked about the purchase funnel concept and how prospective students pass down through it. We identified three common barriers they encounter along the way.

As promised, today we will take a more detailed look into those. Here is what you should keep in mind about each barrier:

Barrier #1: not knowing about opportunities and not having an opinion

Focus your efforts on sharing information about your institution with as broad audience as possible. Everything works: media publications, TV or radio interviews, promotional content on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and other social media. Use all possible channels to spread your message. Study abroad is an opportunity for everyone, and the best place to do it is here!

Barrier #2: choosing one country/university over another

The main mission here is to make sure that you respond to your prospective students’ needs. You have all the information about scholarships, living conditions, safe and inclusive environment out there for them to see, read and digest. An even more important mission, though, is to stand out from the crowd. That’s why you must figure out what exactly your strengths are and what kind of international students you want to attract. Identifying and understanding your target will help focus your marketing efforts towards the right people. Once you do this, it’s much easier to interest them with engaging, entertaining and relevant content across the platforms they use the most.

Barrier #3: becoming a student

You can easily prevent all the unfortunate situations we mentioned previously that can occur at this stage. Make sure you have frequent reminders in place for students before, throughout and even after the application process. Turn consulting on various financial issues into an all-year round process and research possibilities for securing additional financing of studies for international students. Just remember one thing: everything on this last step is up to your international office and recruitment agents network.