How to optimise your university's info sessions

Info sessions are an integral part of any university’s marketing strategy. They provide a way to inform prospects about your university and encourage them to progress through the recruitment process.

However, universities often struggle to measure the success of these events and the engagement levels of prospects. This results in a drop in attendee numbers, loss of potential applications, and a lower return-on-investment.

Here are a few ways your university can attract more leads, convert them to qualified applicants and optimise the ROI for each event.

Collect attendee data

Use a registration form which collects your event attendees’ details. By harvesting this data, you can keep prospects informed about all relevant university activities. By asking which programme they’re interested in and what their requirements are, you can send them the right message at the right time.

A good registration form will make the event itself easier as well. Load your form onto a tablet and ask attendees to enter their details as they arrive at the event. This allows you to accurately keep track of who attendeed the event and helps you monitor prospects' engagement levels.

Hold physical and digital events

Physical info sessions held on campus can have high levels of engagement and can be a great way of promoting the key USPs of your university and its programmes. However, not all prospects are able to attend events in person.

In contrast, webinars can be accessed anywhere that has an internet connection, minimising travel, cost and time investment for students. Although webinar attendees may not meet your team members in person, Q&A sessions at the end of a webinar allow them to have their queries answered and ensure an interactive element.

Physical and digital events have their own individual set of advantages. Organise a mixture of both to make sure your university’s events reach all of your prospects.

Measure ROI

Consider this example:

• You host two info sessions in the summer: one in Shanghai and one in New Delhi
• You find 100 people have attended your Shanghai session and 80 have attended your New Delhi session
• After the event, you find 50 Shanghai attendees and 60 New Delhi attendees have converted to qualified applicants

Which session has the greater ROI?

A good CRM will help you track ROI effectively so you can accurately define market trends and capitalise on the sessions that generate the highest ROI for your programmes.