Understanding the Role of Student Ambassadors
In the world of higher education, universities have long harnessed the potential of their current students to help promote their institutions to prospective students. These emissaries, often known as student ambassadors, have been a secret weapon for university marketing, admissions, and recruitment teams worldwide.
However, with the rise of Gen Z and their demand for authentic, digital-first engagement, student ambassadors are evolving beyond traditional roles at open days and in-person university fairs.
In this guide, we will provide an in-depth understanding of what a student ambassador is, how their role is adapting to the digital era, and the key skills that contribute to their success. Moreover, we’ll delve into the significant value that a student ambassador program brings today, going well beyond bridging the gap created by the shift to digital engagement in a post-Covid-19 world.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a firm grasp of both the “how” and “why” of implementing a digital student ambassador program. We’ll even provide you with some valuable tips for launching your own program. Let’s jump right in.
The Power of Peer-to-Peer Perspective
Student ambassadors serve as the authentic voice of your institution, offering the next generation of students a genuine and enthusiastic glimpse into life at your university. The key here is authenticity, as it transforms the passion, knowledge, and friendliness of these ambassadors into a trustworthy endorsement. Trust, a sense of community, and belonging naturally follow.
Student ambassadors have the unique ability to influence the emotional factors driving student decision-making and the admissions process. These are the intangible aspects that university websites and brochures can’t address. Whether it’s practical questions about housing and campus life or more personal concerns about diversity and representation, student ambassadors play a pivotal role.
The Unique and Trusted Voice of Student Ambassadors
Essentially, student ambassadors offer something that even the most skilled marketing team can’t replicate: their first-hand, one-of-a-kind experiences. This invaluable insight empowers prospective students to make confident and well-informed decisions about their academic future, especially for international students. The transparency and authenticity provided by these ambassadors lead to increased interest, a higher volume of applications, and more informed decisions throughout the recruitment process.
In essence, student ambassadors help you not only attract the best-fit students year after year but also address specific issues or concerns related to various courses or the student body as a whole.
Promoting Outreach and Inclusion
Many institutions leverage student ambassador programs for various purposes, from targeting international student recruitment to addressing specific access-related challenges, such as the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects. By cultivating a diverse student ambassador body, universities can enhance the representation of underrepresented minority groups, making a positive impact on diversity and access within the institution.
By achieving this, student ambassadors can bolster your outreach and inclusion efforts while attracting a generation of international students who highly value forward-thinking institutions.
Fostering Meaningful Conversations
Generating meaningful, value-based conversations can be challenging in large group settings, such as open days. Interactions are often too brief to establish a genuine connection, and sensitive topics may be uncomfortable to broach with new acquaintances. Student ambassadors bridge this gap.
You’d be amazed at how often conversations between ambassadors and prospective international students evolve into discussions about climate change awareness, mental health, gender equality, and racial diversity.
The Qualities of an Excellent Student Ambassador
Becoming a successful student ambassador doesn’t require a substantial time commitment. As you’ll discover below, the key qualities include friendliness, a solid knowledge of your institution, the ability to answer questions and genuine enthusiasm. Given the increasingly digital nature of a student ambassador’s role, connecting with prospective students has never been more accessible.
The Role of a Student Ambassador: Making a Difference in a Digital World
What Does a Student Ambassador Do?
Student ambassadors play a pivotal role in shaping the image of your institution and connecting with prospective students in two fundamental ways: direct interaction and indirect engagement through content.
Indirect Engagement Through Digital Content
Leveraging social media platforms, student ambassadors often have content-related goals that they aim to achieve as part of their role. This can be measured in terms of the number of posts, engagements, or the time spent creating content. The digital landscape offers a convenient and highly effective platform for creating and sharing content about your institution, reaching a generation of students who have grown up in the online world.
Direct Interaction: Three Highly Effective Approaches
· Online Chats
Online chats are not only a medium familiar to prospective students but also a fantastic way to maintain an open channel of communication. In-person interactions can only facilitate a limited number of brief conversations within a specific geographical region, whereas online chats transcend borders and enable continuous dialogue.
· How to Initiate Conversations
Some institutions maintain a well-organized online roster of their ambassadors, allowing prospects to search by criteria such as course, nationality, and interests. Others, like the University of Adelaide, take a proactive approach by instantly connecting applicants with relevant ambassadors. Each prospect receives a personalized link in their offer email, leading them to an ambassador who shares common interests or characteristics.
· Virtual Tours Led by International Students
Student-led virtual tours offer a unique perspective on campus life, effectively bridging the gap between digital and real-world experiences. Additionally, a well-executed virtual tour can lead to a 30% increase in physical visits to your campus. This not only generates more applications but also boosts the conversion rate from acceptances to enrollments. Importantly, creating virtual tours is neither a complex nor expensive endeavor. Just like online chats, taking tours into the digital realm removes time constraints and broadens your reach to international students.
· Continuous Support for Prospective Students
Keeping in touch with international students throughout the enrollment process is significantly more accessible in an online setting. Once they’ve established a connection with a student ambassador, prospective students can address any concerns or questions at their convenience, regardless of their location in the world. This eases the workload of your admissions team and ensures that prospective students receive the support they need without struggling in isolation.
· Post-Enrollment Connection
Staying in touch with students post-enrollment is equally essential. Remarkably, student ambassadors who maintain these connections also contribute to reducing dropout rates, creating a win-win situation for both the institution and the students.
Adapting to Gen Z’s Changing Buying Habits
Gen Z and Digital Engagement
Gen Z students have redefined the standards of digital engagement when it comes to making purchasing decisions, and selecting the right university is no exception. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend significantly. A recent survey revealed that before the pandemic, a mere 46% of institutions had limited online recruitment efforts. However, today, these very institutions have redirected 82% of their recruitment endeavors toward digital platforms.
Consequently, Gen Z’s digital expectations, which were prevalent even before the first lockdown, have now evolved to encompass a vast array of online higher education options. If your institution has not yet adapted to this digital landscape, you risk missing out on potential students.
A Lesson from Swinburne University
Swinburne University in Australia provides an excellent example of adapting to these evolving expectations. They introduced Swintopia, a gamified campus experience hosted in the Metaverse. In its first year, this innovative approach led to a remarkable 240% increase in open-day registrations. Approaches like this align with student expectations without undermining the value of in-person engagement.
The Significance of Digital Interactions
Two studies emphasize the importance of digital interactions:
- A 2018 McKinsey study highlighted that Gen Z, often referred to as “true digital natives,” tend to blur the line between friends they’ve made in physical locations and those they’ve met online.
- Luca Cella, our Director of Asia Pacific, conducted research indicating that the student experience stands out as the ultimate distinguishing factor among universities. Prospective students are primarily interested in understanding what to expect.
In summary, this means that an authentic digital interaction with an actual student holds far more value for a prospective student compared to static websites or even face-to-face meetings with admissions teams. In essence, your student ambassadors represent your most valuable and trusted marketing assets.
User-Generated Content: Fueling Online Engagement
User-generated content (UGC) has emerged as a powerful driver of online engagement. Trustpilot, after analyzing multiple studies and consumer data, found that websites featuring UGC can experience a 20% increase in return visitors and up to a remarkable 90% boost in time spent on the site. Moreover, when it comes to social media, UGC posts tend to achieve a 28% higher engagement rate compared to branded posts.
Leveraging Student Ambassadors for Enhanced UGC Marketing
Student ambassadors play a pivotal role in enhancing your UGC marketing efforts. Their effectiveness lies in their ability to work across various platforms. This involves diverse strategies, from hosting a TikTok takeover to launching campaigns on Twitter or Instagram. By cross-promoting content from one platform to another, such as sharing content from YouTube, you can maximize your reach and impact.
Today’s students have valid expectations of authenticity from their higher education institutions. Selecting a university often means choosing a home for several years. This is especially relevant when targeting international student recruitment through your student ambassador program.
Here’s another compelling reason why a digital student ambassador program is a win-win for both you and your students: research indicates that feelings of belonging significantly enhance social and academic engagement.
Building Trust with Word-of-Mouth and Peer-to-Peer Marketing
A student ambassador program extends beyond converting individual prospects. When managed effectively, these ambassadors collectively foster a sense of community around your institution. Countless marketing studies emphasize the importance of community in influencing purchasing decisions. Over 92% of consumers place trust in word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer recommendations over other types of marketing. An 84% majority of consumers admit to a lack of trust in advertisements, according to a McKinsey report.
These statistics apply to various buying decisions, whether it’s a chocolate bar or a car. Considering that trust and confidence play an even more critical role when choosing an institution that students will call home for their higher education, the value of peer-to-peer marketing becomes clear.
Engaging Parents and Caregivers
For most students, parents or caregivers significantly influence their choice of institution. This is another reason why peer-to-peer marketing is invaluable. While digital and social media content effectively reaches Gen Z students, the sense of trust fostered by peer recommendations can sway purchasing power across generations. To address this, institutions like Dulwich College Singapore complement their student ambassador programs with forums where prospective parents can engage with current parents and staff.
Creating an Interactive Community
Your ambassador program essentially serves as a platform for interactive peer reviews, which hold 78% more trust in the eyes of consumers compared to direct marketing messages. This approach shifts your focus away from conventional advertising and helps instill trust and a sense of community.
Harnessing the Power of Student Ambassadors
In our experience assisting institutions and schools in transforming their recruitment efforts, we’ve discovered that student ambassadors are truly game-changing. They harness the power of peer reviews, making them interactive in the digital age, and generate potent word-of-mouth testimony both online and offline.
Effectively, they achieve this by producing social media content about your institution for prospects to discover or by directly engaging with new students. This includes actions like providing virtual tours during the application season, online chats with admitted students, and maintaining contact with enrolled students during their academic journey.
Remarkably, despite their transformative impact, one of the most surprising aspects we’ve learned about digital ambassadors is how seamlessly they can be integrated into your admissions and marketing teams.
A Comprehensive Solution for Maximising Student Ambassadors
At Edusakha, we offer a complete solution to guide you through the entire process of working with student ambassadors. Our expertise has benefited institutions worldwide, ranging from Singapore to Surrey.
Our Services Include:
- Program Development: We can assist in designing a program tailored to address the specific pain points of your institution.
- Job Description Drafting: We help you create well-structured job descriptions for the student ambassadors you recruit.
- Student Training: We provide training for the recruited students to ensure they are well-prepared for their roles as ambassadors.
- Connecting Ambassadors and Prospective Students: Our expertise extends to brainstorming and implementing effective strategies to connect your ambassadors with prospective students.
Why Wait? Transform Your Admissions Process Today!
There’s no need to delay. You can initiate developing a gold standard digital ambassador program for your institution right now. Furthermore, you can begin leveraging the benefits of Edusakha immediately by signing up for a free account.
This approach represents the most effective means of engaging with the evolving landscape of higher education and conducting generational marketing simultaneously. Whether your goals revolve around international student recruitment, enhancing student satisfaction, or promoting access and diversity, a digital ambassador program stands as the not-so-secret weapon to revolutionize your admissions process.
If you’d like to have a conversation with one of our friendly team members, simply book a free demo by clicking the button below. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how Edusakha can help your institution thrive.
