“Online Education is going to grow in 2021” – well, duh?

The covid-19 pandemic has made us sure of one thing – if something can be done online, it now has to be done online. Education is no exception and, despite the gloomy headlines, online centres are silently drooling at the prospect of a record-breaking 2021 for admissions.

Is Online Education going to continue growing?

The short answer is yes. We can be fairly sure that online education centres will see increased demand next year. In fact, many are already experiencing it.

However, increased demand for a product doesn’t automatically result in more sales (in this case, admissions). Firstly, there are a lot of online education centres in the UK alone. If a small number of them get their marketing strategy spot on, the rest will be wondering what happened.

Secondly, location isn’t a barrier anymore. If courses are 100% online, what’s to stop students applying to centres all over the world? The competition just got a lot tougher.

In fact, 2021 could be one of the most complicated years so far for online education centres.

The key to manage the increasing demand for online courses

The latest phenomenon that’s taking the online education centre industry by storm is predictive lead scoring. It’s a form of AI that plugs directly into your CRM and tells you which leads are most likely to convert, based on real-time data. See how it works

It’s especially useful for education centres as the software is designed to work well with large quantities of leads and high-value potential prospects, both of which are relevant to higher education.

A reliable predictive lead scoring model allows centres to focus your efforts on the students with more potential of enrolment.  Having an efficient enrolment process that churns out consistent results is key in times of change.

Having assessed the UK education market, we have come up with the following areas of priority for 2021:

• Be adaptable
  
  

  New times, new data.

  What was working before might not be working now. Student behaviour and priorities have changed amidst the outbreak and we should be prepared to adapt our marketing strategies quickly to avoid spending money on what is not working anymore.

  The great thing of having a predictive lead scoring in place is that you can review the performance of your campaign even before the students convert and detect any variations in the student enrolment process. See how it works.

  You must be able to adapt in a fast-changing market on which no one has the certainty of the potential outcomes.

• Focus your efforts
  
  

  In order to compete amongst more competition in the education market you should focus your efforts and provide more personalised services.

  You should be able to identify quickly the higher quality leads, in order to direct all your efforts towards them and assist them to make the decision to enrol in your education institution before your competition does.

  Focusing your efforts on the right students has shown to increase the enrolment rate up to 40%. Read business case

• Be efficient
  
  

  Data shows the average enrolment journey is 10 months from first contact to enrolment, with an average three to five inbound enquiries [made from the prospective student] and 15 to 30 outbound [to the student].

  It is important to not spend resources in enquiries from students that show a low chance to enrol in your centre. That’s why you must be able to detect the students with less potential to convert and undertake more efficient marketing and sales actions towards them.

  See how Lead Ratings is helping education centres boost their student lead generation.