How student ambassadors can help increase your offer-holder conversion rate

If you went to university, you'll know why you chose your institution. And, we're willing to bet it wasn't just what was in the prospectus.

After all, offer-holders at the point of making a final decision know what your website and prospectus say. That's why they applied.

If you'd like to reduce your summer melt and increase student offer-holder conversions, you need to offer something more.

Use student ambassadors to reduce 'summer melt'

Offer holders, particularly high revenue international prospects, are likely to have many offers from other institutions. And they'll know everything the institutions have to say about themselves.

To differentiate your institution and make an offer-holder's final decision fall in your favor, you need to tell them something they don't already know.

Have your student ambassadors show offer-holders what life is really like at your institution, and how it's the perfect place for them to spend the next 4-5 years of their life.

If you do, you'll increase both international and domestic offer-holder conversion rates.

The best insights for students are by students

At the offer-holder stage, a prospect's less concerned about your courses, pricing, or teaching styles. They're going to be more about the student experience. And the people best placed to talk about that at this vital conversion point are your student ambassadors.

We're not saying that your marketing staff can't get prospective students through your recruitment funnel, but at a certain point, they're going to need the benefit of your ambassadors' lived student experience.

After all, who is better placed to let a Malaysian offer-holder know where they can find the best Apam Balik than an ambassador who is Malaysian themselves.

They'll be able to speak very specifically about the journey the offer-holder is about to take and provide reassurance that they're making the right decision.

Not only that, they can act as a friendly face on campus that the offer-holder has met before attending your institution. Helping them feel less alone in a new country.

This is something that your marketing team can't achieve alone.

The University of Adelaide - A student ambassador led offer-holder conversion strategy in action

The University of Adelaide is a prime example of a University using student ambassadors to achieve a four-fold increase to their offer-holder conversion rate.

They did this by connecting offer-holders with relevant student ambassadors via email based on offer-holder country, course interests, and other relevant information.

This strategy enabled long, high-quality conversations with offer-holders that increased Adelaide's conversion rate to 66 percent.

They then followed this up with a hosted event called 'Meet Your Student Ambassador' where they connected the new students with their ambassadors. This allowed the new students some valuable, real-world networking where they could find out more about their new University.

Increase offer-holder conversion rates with student ambassadors

Ninety percent of prospective students want to see content curated by fellow students. Yet for many universities, student ambassadors are tour guides and nothing more.

This is a good strategy, but to get the most value out of your ambassadors, close the insight gap, and increase conversions, you should use them throughout the student recruitment funnel.

If you want to significantly increase your prospect conversion rates by showcasing your unique student experience through story-telling, help is just a call away