Marketing Automation in International Education

marketing automation
Stefan
marketing automation

Every education agency in the international education industry, has one thing in common: the desire to recruit more students and achieve higher revenue faster. Where most education agencies fail though is in aligning their people, processes, and technology to achieve these objectives.

 

What is
Marketing Automation?

A rough definition of marketing automation would be: the technology or software that empower companies to streamline, automate and measure marketing operations, tasks and workflows, so they can increase the efficiency of their operations and grow faster. Marketing automation is driven by data.

What are the features of
Marketing Automation Platforms?

There are certain features that set apart marketing automation platforms from other platforms. You recognise a marketing automation platform by the following features:

  • email marketing
  • landing pages
  • campaign management
  • marketing programs
  • lead generation
  • prediction/scoring
  • lead management
  • CRM integration
  • social marketing
  • resource management
  • marketing analytics

Why is Marketing Automation so hot right now?

Marketing automation is not a new concept. The term was first used in 1980, according to Google Ngram, started to gain traction in the 1990s and peaked around 2004. It started to decline in usage and reached a low point in 2007 before rising again. Today, it’s used as much as back in 2004.

The rise of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions drove marketing automation to become a hot trend again.

A case for education agencies using marketing automation to increase revenue

There are three core benefits to marketing automation:

  • Save time and money
  • Measure and optimize marketing investments
  • Faster revenue growth

Most education agencies today operate in batch email mode, leaving them in the dark when it comes to tracking the effectiveness of its marketing content. On top of that, because of such a diverse student base, the sales cycle could range from just a few days to four years. Education agents need flexible solutions that provide detailed insight into student behaviour and the sales pipeline.

The marketing automation platform that is perfect for education agencies has to have the ability to provide first-hand insight into how potential students progress through the website, interact with the landing pages and how they respond to marketing campaigns in real time.

By using marketing automation, education agencies can gain deep, actionable insight to determine the content that has the most immediate impact on lead generation, open rates, conversion rates, and enrolments. As a result, agencies will be able to move potential students through the application cycle faster, and at the same time, lower the cost of marketing. The ability to measure ROI will be dramatically improved and this in turn, will allow Marketing to become the driver for higher revenues.

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What is the relationship between marketing automation and CRMs?

Many CRM systems have a module for marketing, but CRMs are designed and optimised for a very different scope. CRM systems in general do not provide functionality for things like email marketing, prospect behaviour tracking, and marketing program management. While the business goal for a CRM system is to track opportunities and pipeline, manage contact and account information, the goal for marketing automation is to develop customer relationships, automate marketing programs, and measure marketing ROI.

What is the relationship between marketing automation and email marketing?

Email marketing still works really well, but the world is changing. Marketers have to deliver their relevant messages in more formats to multiple devices, more frequently. Gleanster Research says “Marketing automation solution delivers essentially all the benefits of an email marketing solution along with integrated capabilities that would otherwise need to be cobbled together using various standalone technologies.”reached a low point in 2007 before rising again. Today, it’s used as much as back in 2004.

The rise of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions drove marketing automation to become a hot trend again.

What is inteleagent?

The question that rises is: is inteleagent a marketing automation platform? The simple answer is NO. inteleagent is an application management system built around the process of tracking the applications through pipelines, manage student details, and account information. 

The focus of inteleagent is primarily sales and sales management, as well as some marketing. Inteleagent can help your agency streamline the business operations of your education agency, track your student applications through customised pipeline stages, generate invoices and keep track of commissions, as well as many other features that will improve the way you run your business, all for a low monthly subscription.

Best tools to use when launching your education agency start-up

education agency
Stefan
1964619

GSuite is Google’s response to Microsoft Office selection and can be one of the most useful tools for a new education agency founder that a lot of entrepreneurs out there are taking it for granted. Many well-established unicorns fondly remember using Google Sheets to organise things and keep everything in sync as well as Google Drive for storage when they first put pen to paper.

Launching your first education agency start-up is no easy business, especially if you are not familiar with the international education industry. Sewing together all those bits and pieces of an education agency business can seem a daunting task, especially if you are a first-time founder.

Launching an education agency business will find you managing things like customer services, cashflow, accounting, project planning, team communication, meetings, tasks, … and the list can go on and on.

Thankfully, we live in the information age, and technology start-ups have done the legwork for you by coming up with various tools to make your life easier when starting and managing your business. Most of these tools are free or relatively affordable.

So if you’re an entrepreneur looking to found a new education agency in the international education industry, check out these recommendations:

GSuite – spreadsheets, powerpoints, calendars and more

GSuite is Google’s response to Microsoft Office selection and can be one of the most useful tools for a new education agency founder that a lot of entrepreneurs out there are taking it for granted. Many well-established unicorns fondly remember using Google Sheets to organise things and keep everything in sync as well as Google Drive for storage when they first put pen to paper.

Trello / Jira / Monday – project management

Keeping all your staff in sync with all the projects you are working on can be a tough task, especially if you have multiple offices and branches overseas.

The most common recommendation from established entrepreneurs is to use one of the project management tools under the Atlassian’s umbrella. Atlassian is an Australian team-building software company.

Trello boards are praised for being great for creating personal, business and major projects, as well as keeping you accountable for what needs to be achieved. Trello is great for keeping track of projects and various tasks.

Monday (formerly known as DaPulse) is a great non-Atlassian alternative that is being howled as an amazing visual project management tool. Monday allows you to manage all your day to day projects in a visual way so you can really understand what is blocking the project from moving to the next stage.

Hubspot / Capsule – customer relationship management (CRM) tools

Your education agency is always in one of the two common situations: trying to get a customer and / or trying to retain or manage customers. It is not easy to find a CRM that really works for your business. Hubspot can automatically track your leads from emails or calls, allows you to create email templates to save response times as well as notifying you when people open your emails. Capsule is described as being a light touch CRM by entrepreneurs that used it in their early start-up days.

Slack / Telegram – communication for your team

Slack has become a classic in the tech industry and the application is commonly used by teams to communicate and share documents. It is very useful especially with teams that are spread geographically, such as your education agency branch offices, or subagents you are using to recruit your students.

Appear.In – simple video chat

Skype, Zoom, etc… too complicated. You want simplicity and an application that just works? Appear.In is the way to go. You can create any URL you would like and all your guest have to do is click on that link to join the video chat. If you need to connect with your branch offices overseas in a conference, Appear.In is what you would want to use. It just works.

Canva / Biteable – graphics and videos for your education agency brand

The Aussie company Canva produces beatiful design content for social media, for your website and images.

With Biteable you can make up explainer videos, sales videos and demos. You will get lots of attention and compliments.

inteleagent.io – your agency’s application management system

Your business is growing. Months ago, it was easy to remember each international student application you were sending through to your education providers, because there were just a few of them. It was easy to remember what stage each application is as, what documents are missing, what is the next step you need to take to make it happen, because it was only you with your company. Now, you have loads of applications, staff to manage them, and there is no way you will remember all these details from the top of your head.

In comes inteleagent.io – the only international student application management system you will ever need to improve your education agency operations. inteleagent.io will help you track those applications through pre-defined stages all the way to the end of the application process. Once your application is at the end of the pipeline, inteleagent.io will generate beautiful commission invoices for you, remind you when to send them through to the education provider. It will keep track of your agreements with the education providers and remind you when they are due for renewal. Your team will be able to collaborate on applications, you’ll be able to track actions performed on applications in time with the integrated timeline, and you will be able to generate easy to read reports to help you make better decisions in your business. These are just a few of the features inteleagent.io has packed in for you.

Give it a try now and experience the difference!