Royal Holloway, University of London, was eager to stand-out amongst the competitive landscape within the United kingdom. Marketing gimmicks were never their thing; they wanted something real and useful that would set them apart from the crowd. Most of all, they hoped that it could make a clear, measurable difference, both to their applicants and to their offer holder conversion.
“We’re always looking for ways to enable our enquirers and applicants to be able to speak to our current students. The capabilities of the Unibuddy platform have enabled us to find a user-friendly solution that can be flexibly integrated across our website.” Shares Kirstie Gattner, Head of Recruitment Campaigns.
Solution:
Initially, they piloted Unibuddy with five departments – describing the platform as “innovative and authentic.” They brought on board their most trusted ambassadors, and gave them the time and resources to feel comfortable using Unibuddy, and making blog content about what mattered to them. Once that was established, they invited all current applicants from the pilot departments to come to the platform and chat with the ambassadors for their majors.
Camilla Potter, Recruitment Campaigns Manager, highlights “We have been delighted to see our applicants chatting with student ambassadors and how Unibuddy has become a critical part of their decision-making. We’re excited to make chatting with students via Unibuddy the main call to action on our study pages, and give this a really high profile through our social media.”
Result:
Applicants clicked through to the platform and started chatting. Potter and Gattner were able to identify common inquiries students had, such as ‘What is the campus like? What is social life like? What clubs and societies could I join?’ and better inform their recruitment messaging and advise ambassadors on specific blog topics.
The impact was huge, 58% of those who clicked the link and visited the platform signed up to chat. Some 88.3% of those who signed up and chatted to the ambassadors accepted their offer, significantly higher than the typical UCAS conversion rate. Research with these students showed that it was the unknown that worried them, and hearing the experience of current students was just what they needed to overcome their fears.