Utilizing user-generated content at University of Pavia (Italy)

The Challenge

The University of Pavia began marketing and student recruitment in 2016. After having implemented a CRM and attended several fairs, their team realized they lacked the tools to improve digital communication with prospective students. They were looking for ways to reach and engage with more of them.

The Solution

Pavia implemented Unibuddy to put their best brand advocates, their current students, online. Beginning with two students, acting as ambassador coordinators, the University of Pavia soon expanded their team to 22 ambassadors.

“Navigating our website is not easy, and user generated content is more trusted than any other content. We believe this is the right way to let fans create fans and to boost our credibility,” shares Elena Fontana, International Officer.

The Results

After a few months, Pavia has attracted prospective students from 110 different countries, and over 44% of visitors to their Unibuddy page proceed to sign-up and chat. Ambassadors continue to love the platform – they find it very easy to use and the majority gave it 5-stars in a survey by the University!

As one of the first universities to use Unibuddy, they chose to adopt the new Events platform, and has run over 350 sessions with prospective students. They used the live video streaming tool to put a friendly face from the university front and centre.

“We thought that the online chat format along with the video format was the right tool to give immediate answers to the students’ needs,” says Fontana. “Live communication is very appreciated by students and we plan to increase the use of these tools to get closer to them. In fact we are planning to use the platform for all of our Welcome Days.”