How to Integrate Student Ambassadors Earlier in Your Higher Ed Funnel

Every relationship has a distinct beginning, the moment the conversation begins for the first time – a distinct imprinted moment. 

For higher ed marketers, these crucial first touch-points can help tip the scale in their favour when it comes to introducing their brands to prospective students during initial stages of the higher ed funnel. But you need to ensure these early interactions occur with the right people within your marketing team – including your student ambassadors. 

Concerns around core academic abilities, for example, something 50% of prospective students lack confidence in, can be melted away with a simple candid conversation with an ambassador. In fact, according to Unibuddy data, 92% of Gen Z say just speaking with a current student can help them make a more informed decision about your higher ed school. 

Want more tips and trends on higher ed marketing? Download the Unibuddy Higher Ed Marketing Guide. 

But how do you get prospective students in front of student ambassadors sooner? Here are some quick tips to integrating student ambassadors earlier in your higher ed funnel:

Include student ambassadors with your website 

Did you know that 72% of Gen Z students use your website to conduct initial research of program and campus offerings at your school? 10% of these prospective students leave immediately if they do not get instant “good vibes.” You can’t afford to lose 10% of students at the first step of your higher ed funnel. 

Putting your student ambassadors in front of prospective students landing on your website is an effective way to add another dimension to an otherwise cold brand experience. A user might, for example, be researching whether a particular program they are interested in is available at your school. Enabling connection with a student ambassador can help them venture further down your higher ed funnel by empowering them to ask questions beyond an academic scope. 

Related: How to Foster Authentic Personalization in Student Recruitment

Simple, built-for-higher-ed, conversational tools, like Unibuddy Chat, are an easy way to make sure these initial connections can occur. Embeddable throughout your website, chat solutions ensure student ambassadors are just a click away for visitors to your site. In addition to adding a human contextual element to your website content, these chat tools are also effective at gathering valuable data on the concerns of students higher – and throughout – your higher ed funnel. 

Make student ambassadors more accessible with hybrid events 

Higher ed events for prospective students are great for those in attendance. Prospective students can use these open environments to meet with your staff and mingle with your student ambassadors – providing them a warm three-dimensional idea of what it’s like to study at your higher ed institution. 

But what about students who, for whatever reason, cannot attend your in-person events? Providing prospective students with hybrid digital options to meet student ambassadors and ask questions about your school is an important step to making your higher funnel more accessible. 

Consider, for example, that a prospective student who lives across the country is interested in learning more about your school. If they cannot travel to attend your open days or do not feel confident enough to attend one of your physical events, they might be more comfortable attending a digital component.

While there are no like-for-like alternatives to meeting with your team in-person, digital components have their own advantages. Using a digital platform like Unibuddy Events, you can enable hassle-free face-to-face encounters between prospective students and your student ambassador team. In addition to making a prospective student feel included in your recruitment process, as bonafide peers of Gen Z, student ambassadors help show prospective students the human side of your school regardless of where they’re choosing to tune in from. 

Encourage student ambassador user-generated content 

At the end of the day, a huge amount of contemporary student journeys begin with a digital touchpoint. These touchpoints, from engaging with your brand on social media, something 55% of prospective students do during initial higher ed research, to something as simple as a quick search on Google, can be the best shot you get at attracting future generations of students.

User-generated content from your student ambassadors is an effective way to get eyeballs on your brand during these initial contact points. In addition to boosting background wins, like fortifying your search engine optimization (SEO) goals, ambassador-generated content is seen by Gen Z as authentic, unbiased, and genuine. 

Related: Social Media Marketing for Higher Ed in 2023

User-generated content also empowers your brand to rise above the noise. As trusted peers of Gen Z, enabling a student ambassador presence across your social media and Blog channels can help you build a following of prospective students who subscribe to their messaging. As a rule, remember that students aren’t necessarily coming to your brand assets, in particular social media channels, to learn specifically about the institutional academic side of your school. Sometimes these students are just trying to determine whether they belong. 

Provide student ambassadors with the tools they need to be successful 

While you want prospective students to interact with your student ambassadors, you also want to ensure your student ambassadors have the tools they need for effective communication. Whether a first touchpoint is through social media channels, through your website, or through a hybrid event, communication between these two parties should be natural, fluid, and more or less instantaneous. 

Related: Bold Unibuddy Updates Make Less Work for Better ROI

Through Unibuddy’s suite of higher ed solutions, you can ensure access points to your student ambassador program are readily available regardless of where or when a prospective student chooses to engage. On the backend, your higher ed team gains access to conversational insights, including AI-generated on-demand synopses of what students are interested in, to enable non-intrusive simple management of your ambassador program. Meanwhile your student ambassadors are left to do what they do best: empowering students to choose their future with confidence from the moment they say ‘hello.’

Want to learn more about effective use of your student ambassadors? Get our latest Unibuddy guide to community marketing for higher ed here.