EducationDynamics

Objective

In the education space, customers—students—have a “purchasing” lifecycle that is longer than in other industries. The time it takes from the moment when an interested student makes his or her first request for information on a website to his or her final decision to enroll can take three months or longer. 

This long turnover makes it difficult for higher education marketers to gain timely insights, determine if their campaigns and strategies are working and adjust them accordingly. It is often too late to win over prospective students by the time marketers figure out that their messaging is off. Additionally, with a high cost associated with marketing to and acquiring students, poor targeting with no method of filtering out students who are not the best fit could mean wasted time and marketing spend.

EducationDynamics sought to answer the question: Could there be a way to maximize the use of marketing dollars while matching prospective students to the schools they were looking for?

Solution

EducationDynamics looked for technologies that could increase their ability to better match a student to a school. They chose Experian Data Quality after an exhaustive search for a predictive analytics solution that combined both first- and third-party information to better determine whether individuals were suitable for their schools’ programs.

The granular level of insight into a prospective student’s needs enabled EducationDynamics to boost the level of efficiency and effectiveness through which a university could attract and engage with a prospect as well as help the prospect find a suitable school or program. 

In addition, Experian Data Quality’s matching capabilities, uptime, service- level agreements and pricing proved a stronger case than other technologies EducationDynamics evaluated.

“We were most comfortable with Experian Data Quality; we liked their professionalism and how the analytics team went the extra mile in getting us a model that worked best for us,” stated Sandesh Sadalge, Senior Director of Client Analytics and Insights. 

A dedication to excellence

Because Experian Data Quality’s predictive analytics is customized to work in real time, EducationDynamics can immediately improve the timeliness of their marketing analytics, become more proactive in the way they implement student and university feedback to improve future campaigns and ultimately lower marketing spend because they are allocating budget to what they know will attract and resonate with students. 

Prospective students in turn can rest easy knowing that they are enrolling in a school most suited to their situation, (for example, they may only be able to enroll in a school offering night, online or part-time courses), which will provide them with the best chances for program completion.

EducationDynamics provides marketing and information services to over 900 colleges and universities across the globe. They work with each educational institution to accurately target, attract and connect students to schools.

EducationDynamics prides themselves on guiding best-fit individuals through the entire student lifecycle, from the initial inquiry through program enrollment, and ensuring that marketing dollars are always used efficiently.

EducationDynamics implements Experian Data Quality's predictive analytics modeling into their marketing solutions

With the help of the predictive analytics, EducationDynamics was able to provide a more personalized and interactive inquiry experience, dramatically improve the likelihood of success for students matched with schools, ensure that valuable marketing budget was well spent and ultimately expand their knowledge of how to better market to future students through deeper understanding of the target market.

The result has been a double-digit boost in marketing efficiencies leading to a 50 percent increase in the volume of prospective students affected by this solution. “Experian Data Quality’s project managers were really good to work with, very professional. It’s important to be with a company that understands that their clients’ problems need to be figured out quickly and professionally,” stated Sadalge.

With Experian Data Quality’s predictive analytics modeling smoothing the students’ inquiry processes and the schools’ marketing initiatives, EducationDynamics saw a significant increase in the ability to target and connect with prospects more effectively, lowered unnecessary and inefficient marketing expenditure, increased the likelihood of success for student prospects and propelled them further as a leader in the educational marketing space.