Mr. Ashish Hulle – Digital Branding To Connect With International Students
We’re back with another success story of ASMA Top 30 Marketers in Education 2019. Mr. Ashish Hulle works as an assistant professor at D.K.T.E. Society’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji.
To brief about the institute, the DKTE society as its first step established the Textile and Engineering Institute in 1982 by starting a Diploma course in textiles from the academic year 1982, and subsequently from 1983 several Degree programs were started. To support the growth of Industry and society, later series of educational institutes were started in the subsequent years, comprising of Primary Schools, High Schools, School with CBSC Curriculum, Colleges of Management, Physical Education, Junior Colleges of Science & Commerce, Institute of Vocational Education, etc.
Currently, it has more than 10000 student enrollment and 750 full-time employees. The institute with modern infrastructure spread over 17 acres (2 Campus) provides an excellent environment for learning and other developmental activities. Mr. K.B. Awade is the Chairman of this society, Mr. PrakashAwade is the Vice-Chairman, Mr. R.V. Ketkar is the Treasurer and Dr. (Mrs.) S.U. Awade is the Hon. Secretary of this society
The Need for Digitalization
Mr. Hulle told us that students are and always been the main target audience, and with the incorporation of digital and social media platforms, reaching to them became very smooth and quick.
“Traditional marketing like hoarding, newspapers are actually having less impact with a high cost in comparison to digital media, and since our audience are active on such digital platform, its high time to showcase our strength over these channels with a lower cost.”
A campaign that Needs Attention
The Objective of the Campaign
- To increase students admissions in the Institute
- To generate leads of foreign national students who are interested in taking admission in the institute
- To educate students and parents about the detailed admission process
Target Audience:
- Students from Maharashtra state
- Students from all across the globe specially from the region/countries where
- Textile Business is established
Scope:
The campaign was only limited for the students seeking admission in Textile and other Engineering branches
Dependencies:
As far as international targeting was concerned, we were dependent on the educational consultant for selecting a particular city form a particular country.
Overall Campaign Strategy:
Social Media
- Create Facebook and Instagram ad. Campaigns to reach potential students where we can display institutes’ strengths and generate leads.
YouTube
- Run a YouTube channel where we can share videos related to the admission process.
SMS Marketing
- Use of SMS marketing to give regular alerts and updates regarding the admission process as well as the sharing of links.
- The links of YouTube videos and presentations, along with regular updates about the admission process, were sent to students via SMS and WhatsApp. With this potential local student (around 25km from the institute), Indian students (mainly Maharashtra state) and international students (Countries with Textile Business) have been targeted.
Our strategy is innovative because it’s a unique data acquisition technique. It’s a blend of digital and conventional marketing techniques (we may say hybrid marketing strategy). As a student coming for the exam will also able to have a 360-degree view of the institute.
Challenges
Mr. Hulle explained that even though we have selected the right country, region, location, audience age group, it was difficult for us to show the advertisements only to Engineering Aspirants.
Results
- We reached 809,130 people with total 1,285,365 impressions and 4,298 Link Clicks. Also, we have collected 370 international leads and 1307 local leads. Apart from this, the YouTube channel got more than 4 lakh visitors. Kindly go through the links given in annexure for the detailed report.
- ROI: This campaign has driven a good number of Indian as we as foreign national students to our institute. As a result, the number of admissions is significantly higher (for AY-2019-2020) as compared to the admissions in competitor Institute form the same town.
Opportunities:
Digital marking enabled us to reach a maximum number of countries and students to get international admission at a lower cost. As previously, we were visiting some nearby countries. With the generated leads, we can directly get in touch with the potential student/s.
Plan for 2020
Internalization: Reach is limited to international students, and we are reaching to students but not to potential students internationally.
Brand Equity: Since the number of admissions in engineering is decreasing year on year, we are looking for strategies that will round up the number of admission at a lower cost. Our focus will be more on the visibility of institutes across the nation, bring more traffic to our portal, and there help us in achieving the desired goals of 2020.
