WHICH MARKETING TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO RECRUIT STUDENTS TO A UNIVERSITY? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF EACH TECHNIQUE

THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GROUP TOPIC: WHICH MARKETING TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO RECRUIT STUDENTS TO A UNIVERSITY? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF EACH TECHNIQUE? Class: Business English 2.1 Code: 2185ENPR5211 Lecturer: Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc Ha Noi, October 2021 MEMBERS AND DUTIES OF GROUP Evaluate No Full name Student Code Duties the level of work completion Thuong Mai University and 30 Ngo Thi Thoa 19D170182 the application of A marketing techniques 31 Nguyen Thi Thoa (Leader) 19D170252 Social networking A - TV- advertising 32 Nguyen Thi Hong Thom 19D170113 - Mailshot A - Powerpoint - General definitions 33 Hoang Thi Thu 19D170253 A - Telemarketing 34 Nguyen Thi Thuy (Secretary) - Sponsorship 19D170255 - Introduction, Conclusion - Complete word A OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION A Introduction In recent times, the admission of universities has always received the attention of many people, especially parents and students Instead of passively waiting for students to come to schools like many years ago, schools have gradually turned to use marketing strategies to attract students Along with the strong development of the Internet, the trend of applying digital marketing tools at universities is becoming popular, to create a competitive advantage for universities, improve their position Along with the strong development of the Internet, the trend of applying digital marketing tools at universities is becoming popular, in order to create a competitive advantage for universities and improve their position in comparison with other schools, and at the same time better attract the number of students enrolled at the school The use of marketing methods to attact students to enroll in colleges has increasingly gained popularity among institutions today Each school will have its unique set of strengths and methods for selecting the top pupils So what are those marketing techniques and what they mean in terms of student recruitment, as well as what are the disadvantages of each strategies? B Content of the presentation I General definition Student recruitment is the process of searching for prospective students and encouraging them to apply for the educational programs of the university It requires most of the attention in schools as it will determine the quality of the applicants who will study there Furthermore, it also plays a very important role in helping to achieve the prestige of an institution Each year, thousands of universities compete to recruit highly motivated students, who can add value to their institutions and who have the required qualifications to succeed further But how can they appeal to the best students? Student recruitment has never been easy but with outstanding and clear strategies, it has become easier By singling out some marketing techniques, focusing on its key strengths, and developing a program-specific target, universities can reach out to prospective students more effectively, and make them enroll Almost every higher education institution now uses some marketing techniques to recruit prospective students The techniques are possible to promote the school's brand to potential students within not only a country but also reach out to the world There are many marketing techniques such as telemarketing, TV- advertising, social networking, traveling shows, free holiday or weekends at the university, etc However, in this presentation, our group only focuses on some main techniques: telemarketing, TV advertising, mailshots, sponsorship, and social networking which universities often use as well as give some benefits and drawbacks of each marketing technique II Marketing techniques used to recruit students and their benefits and drawbacks Telemarketing Normally, the enrollment of students needs a good marketing plan to attract the students to enroll at their college Firstly, we shall cover one of the college's techniques used to attact students, which is telemarketing Telemarketing can be defined as an activity that uses the telephone or other tool to connect to a telecommunications network to reach a consumer for marketing, selling goods, advertising, and services to expose the product and service to customers and potential customers With telemarketing, universities can easily connect with prospective students It allows university representatives to answer any questions or concerns that students might have about the school, teacher, major or extracurricular activities This helps students have an overview of the school and creates priority when enrolling Therefore, an effective telemarketing campaign can enhance recruitment and enrollment goals while addressing the informational needs of potential students through personal one-on-one contact Besides, telemarketing can allow connection from a distance Institutions could potentially reach people on a national and global scale instead of just locally Another advantage of telemarketing is that it is easy to implement Universities can connect more students in less time because lists of students’ phone numbers and other contact information can be purchased On the other hand, telemarketing has some disadvantages A main disadvantage of telemarketing is that it is considered a nuisance Customer reactions are not always friendly, as bad experiences with telemarketers contribute to the negative stereotype The negative image of this form may tarnish the reputation of the school Moreover, nowadays, more people are using technology to screen out telemarketers and other unwanted callers This limits the total number of students that universities can reach through telemarketing To sum up, despite having some disadvantages, telemarketing plays an important role in finding potential students for universities Thanks to telemarketing, schools can understand the needs and points of students based on their advice It is one of the important stages to attract students TV - advertising Television advertising is a short-time television commercial produced and paid for by an organization In the education sector, TV advertising has a long-standing This advertisement uses inspirational and promotional content It typically emphasizes university brands, career and job prospects, playing a critical lead generation role in their institution’s marketing efforts This advertisement was popular in the last decade (2010-2019 period) when devices such as smartphones, computers or social networks had not yet developed strongly At that time, this was an extremely effective communication method of famous universities when they wanted to increase brand awareness to attract the brightest students For example, The Open University in the UK has launched its first TV ad since 2016 It was created by Havas Helia, told the story of three people who have changed their lives by studying at The Open University It was shot in reverse and opened with a man taking his first class as a teacher and ends with the moment that all three protagonists were inspired to apply to The Open University At that time this ad reached 75% of the UK adult population This inspirational video boosted the university's brand when it was shared widely Using TV-advertising brings many benefits Firstly, it easily reaches all potential students on a large scale and in a short time In the growing digital age, every family has at least one television Therefore, television advertising is an effective way According to results from research by Barnes & Noble College Marketing (BNCM) study released in August 2012: "42% of American college students say that TV advertisings are the most effective type of advertising" It can be certain that a video or a short broadcast on television gives a much more vivid look than static information It also helps to transmit information about the school to a wider variety of classes in the family such as parents, siblings, etc They are the ones who influence the student's decision to choose a university Moreover, these promotional videos or broadcasts are usually short in length of about 40-60 seconds for an advertisement or about 2-3 minutes for a broadcast It also has most of the useful and official information Therefore, these potential objects not need to spend time sifting through the information and save a lot of time for them In addition, it can create high brand trust Viewers often tend to trust television more than other mediums Moreover, with such a wide market, it will help universities improve brand awareness effectively This is almost ensured that it will increase after a TV ad campaign It helps to build a better brand for the university and improve the prestige, position, and image of the university in the hearts of parents or students Besides the benefits, telemarketing also has its disadvantages If you want to produce a quality commercial, you have to spend money on related stages like production includes hiring scriptwriters, editors, or advertising agencies… It's certain that you also have to pay the cost for the airtime on television The more ads appear, the more you pay Additionally, it is difficult to answer questions on time It can be seen that TV advertising only provides information in one direction from the school side Students and parents receive input information without being active in the output information This advertising makes information exchange and interaction difficult Because the school cannot directly approach and answer all questions for students and parents Mailshot A mailshot is an e-mailshot or a paper mailshot that is sent to many people at once time by post or email It has been used as a direct marketing medium for many years as an effective way of easily reaching customers at an affordable price Until now, mailshot is still an effective and quite popular marketing method of universities with low cost The only difference is in form For example, in the past, mailshots that universities sent to students were usually in the form of postcards containing photos of the school, related information and they were sent by post Today, due to the development of technology, mailshots are designed to be more diverse and creative and they can be sent by email This advertising is used when universities have information about potential students who want more information to decide to attend these universities One of the most noticeable benefits of mailshot is cost-effective and does not require a large investment, especially when compared to digital advertising Not only it can be made transparently at an affordable price, but also it is very economical to send and distribute them especially if you choose to send them in bulk Besides, it also can easily be designed online for free on supporting apps like Canvas, etc Another advantage of using mailshot is that it is easily track, measure, and answer questions Unlike TV ads, when universities not know the exact number of people reached, mailshot will help them determine the number of mailshots sent They can make statistics on how many people have received this information, so it is easy and quick to evaluate the effectiveness of this marketing method after the end through measuring the response rate In addition, on mailshots, most of them leave their email address and phone number Therefore, if students are interested in the school or want to know more information about the school, students can directly contact or send feedback They will certainly be answered directly in a short time On the other hand, mailshot has its drawbacks Firstly, it makes people feel invaded about privacy Mailshot recipients may consider this is an invasion of privacy because sending mailshots to them requires the university to collect, or even purchase, information related to them They feel their personal information is leaked so they become frustrated Furthermore, using mailshot is unfriendly to the environment Because recipients may not care about them and consider them "junk" mails Sending hundreds or even thousands of letters to the target objects causes waste and harms the environment Sponsorship Besides using telemarketing or mailshot, sponsorship is also considered an effective strategy to recruit students As we know, sponsorship is the act of supporting a person, organization, or activity by giving money, encouragement, or other help Sponsorship is defined in the realm of education as the act of providing money or other financial support policies and equipment to students Sponsorship in enrollment is currently one of the most popular ways for attracting students to apply to the institution It could be the creation of appealing scholarship funds or programs that provide financial assistance to students to aid with living costs and other expenses while they are in higher education It also refers to acts such as tuition fee reductions, scholarships for low-income students, and loan policies for poor students Using sponsorship as a marketing strategy has brought success in the recruitment of universities Several universities have attracted a lot of good students thanks to tuition fee waivers and scholarships For instance, Thuongmai University spends more than 20 billion VND each year to award scholarships to encourage learning for its students During the Covid 19 pandemic, many schools have also supported students by lowering tuition costs while students study online For example, Thuong Mai university has reduced tuition fees by 5-7%, the Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology deducts more than billion VND from the Student Support Fund with a support level of 500,000 VND/student for about 12,000 students Hanoi University of Civil Engineering has also supported students by giving food to those who have been stranded in Hanoi during the social distancing period These support policies not only show the university's humanity, the sharing and support of the schools for students but also help enhances the school's reputation and position Moreover, it also helps to create higher competitiveness compared to other schools Currently, university tuition fees are increasing rapidly, yet opportunities for disadvantaged students with strong academic achievement to attend quality colleges are dwindling The implementation of these policies has made it possible for underprivileged students or students in challenging situations to have the opportunity to study This policy also helps reduce pressure on study and living costs for them At the same time, it also promotes, supports, encourages students to develop their talents Sponsorship offers several advantages, but it also has some drawbacks Supporting students is still tough due to a lack of financial resources This income source may not be sufficient to cover students' educational and lifestyle demands Moreover, in some cases, many students enroll in a school solely because of an attractive scholarship or support funds, but they not truly love the school, not truly have passion To pursue to dream of education, they have no other better choice because their family situation is too difficult For example, a small number of pedagogical students, when asked, said that they not really like the teaching profession But because of the support of more than million dong/month, they signed up for this industry to reduce the financial burden for their family In short, although I admit that there are some minor drawbacks this method can create, I firmly believe the benefits are more remarkable The proof is that most institutions have scholarship funds for students and other monies to assist poor students Because, as you know, Vietnamese people have a tradition of mutual affection, so the establishment of these funds is a tribute to individuals sharing Social networking One of the most effective marking techniques is using social networking to recruit students With the development of society, social networking is becoming an essential part of our life Many universities have taken advantage of social media to find and recruit their students because of its benefits, however; it also has some drawbacks during the recruitment process The presence of colleges on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among other social media platforms, has allowed students to connect with their college environments before ever setting foot on campus Universities begin to post many benefits or describe their studying environment on social networking to attract students, which helps universities save a lot of money in marketing their schools Universities often create groups on social media such as Facebook for students to enter into discussion or ask some questions Besides, professionals in universities can make a webinar to provide information to students without costing too much expense Instead of holding or taking part in an “open day” which costs a lot of money and time to prepare, the social media technique is a good idea for every university to attract new students Through social networking, Undergraduate students of each school can be on behalf of their university, answer the questions from the student who wants to enter the school in the future In addition to using these platforms to increase students, many institutions of higher education use social media to raise awareness and recruit new students Through Twitter and Instagram hashtags, and Facebook campaigns schools can promote themselves in new and more effective ways For example, in Viet Nam, many universities create an official fan page and group for students to share information about recruitment of the school such as the fan page of Thuong Mai University is “Dai hoc Thuong Mai”, group for recruitment is “Tan Sinh Vien Dai Hoc Thuong Mai” or the fan page of Foreign Trade University is “Dai hoc Ngoai Thuong” and the group is “K60- Dai hoc Ngoai Thuong (FTU)” and other universities However, social networking has many disadvantages to universities in recruiting students Firstly, it is difficult to control fake information from unofficial groups because people can create a group easily; many fake groups on social media have been made and have posted fake information about universities Secondly, the students cannot make the question in person, and they have to wait for the answers from the university, which they want to apply For example, recently, Thuong Mai University warned students not to join the fake group, which informed them that they would hold a talk show of Viettel to a faculty of the university The fake news can have negative effects on the university and decrease the school’s reputation III Thuong Mai University and the application of marketing techniques Have you ever wondered why you chose Thuong Mai University to apply that year? At that time, as a high school student, what did you know about the school, and where did you get that information? Recently, while learning about marketing techniques, I realized that these marketing techniques have played a huge part in bringing us closer to this university and making the decision to choose Thuong Mai University when applying for a college In recent years, our school – Thuong Mai University has achieved many good results in enrollment work Much of these activities for enrollment of the school are supported by marketing techniques Thuong Mai University uses flexibly and quite a variety of marketing techniques in its enrollment activities, of which the three most used techniques are traveling shows, social media and sponsorship Traveling shows Firstly, we will talk about the marketing strategies known as traveling shows Every year, starting from the beginning of April to June, Mr Nguyen Viet Thai - the head of the Department of External Relations and Communication, together with other teachers in the admissions committee and juniors who are good at communication activities will go to high schools in the northern provinces such as Bac Ninh, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, to organize enrollment counseling sessions for students in those high schools At such admissions counseling sessions, teachers and juniors will introduce the school's year-byyear enrollment methods, answer questions from candidates about types of training, majors, the curriculum of each major, the fields of instruction of the school, even the tuition fee and scholarship policy in order to help these candidates have more necessary information about the school and can choose Thuong Mai University to register for admission Not only that, the school's admissions committee also participates in careers guidance and admissions counseling days that are organized by businesses or universities and Ministry of Education and Training in cities across the country These admissions counseling days are held like this, it will attract the attendance of a lot of high school seniors who are about to enter college and even their parents who are looking for a suitable university for their children Therefore, the school's admissions committee will open counseling booths, prepare leaflets with necessary information about enrollment methods of Thuong Mai University to distribute to these attendees and conduct direct counseling for them This not only helps answer questions of candidates who want to apply to TMU but are wondering about procedures, time, admission methods, etc but also helps attract the attention of candidates who not know anything or know only a little bit of information about the school It contributes to allowing our school to be known and received more interest from students and their parents Social media Another effective marketing method is using social media As you know, our school – Thuong Mai University uses many social media These media, not only used to provide necessary information for students in the school, but they also become an effective tool to support the school's enrollment work It allows the university to connect with high school students across the country include candidates who are preparing to take the college entrance exam this year and even students who will take this exam in the coming years and their parents Thuong Mai University has many fan pages on popular social networking platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, etc With Facebook, the school has two main fan pages that are “Thuong Mai University” and the “Admission of Thuong Mai University”, which receive a lot of likes and interest Along with that, there are separate fan pages of each faculty and many other fan pages set up by seniors to exchange and share information On the YouTube platform, TMU also has a separate channel called “Thuong Mai University Official” with a high number of channel subscriptions Besides, it is also built websites where you can look up information related to the school's admissions direction These fan pages and channels are the places to post all the enrollment information of the school On the main fan page, “Thuong Mai University” will continuously update information about the enrollment method each year, including types of training, admission criteria, admission form, application time and some others The private fan page of the specialized faculties also posts information to introduce the majors of the faculty, the curriculum of each major, job opportunities after graduation, and share the admission posts of the school's main fan page The questions of the candidates will also be answered when inboxing these fan pages Videos introducing the school and its specialized faculties are also posted here for candidates and their parents to watch and get more information about TMU When a new enrollment season is about to begin, the school will organize a lot of enrollment counseling live streams that will be broadcast on the school's fan page and YouTube channel In these live streams, there will be the participation of school leaders, heads of specialized faculties, sometimes even successful alumni of the school to answer in detail all questions of the candidates about a particular specialty Most of these live streams will attract a lot of views, the school's admissions committee has affirmed that this is an effective way for both the school and the candidate to reach out to each other because as you know, social networking platforms are growing and becoming more and more popular 3 Sponsorship In addition to the two marketing techniques mentioned above, sponsorship is also a marketing technique that Thuong Mai University chooses to support enrollment Most of Thuong Mai University's sponsorship activities are for humanitarian and charity programs, which will help increase the prestige and reputation of the school, contributing to building a good image in the eyes of the public and thereby allowing TMU to receive more interest It seems that every year Thuong Mai University sponsors and donates to notable charity programs Especially in recent years, when COVID-19 raged, more and more meaningful programs and activities were organized to help reduce the adverse effects of the pandemic, the school always supports these activities TMU has participated in fundraising and sponsored the program "Computer for Children" with the amount of 176.400.000 VND to support online learning of students with difficult circumstances during the epidemic period Moreover, in response to the construction of a vaccine fund for covid-19 prevention and control, the school recently donated 200 million VND to this fund Not only that, during pandemic outbreaks, TMU has shown its interest by donating rice, medical equipment, masks, and even money to field hospitals in Hanoi city Not only during the epidemic period, in the past, every year, the school strongly responded to large-scale charity programs For example, the sponsorship of teaching and learning equipment for flood-affected area’s schools in the central provinces, donating for programs to help poor students to overcome difficulties and many more After those sponsorship activities, representatives of school leaders will often be interviewed by reporters of newspapers and popular news broadcasts on TV As a result, the school has built a beautiful and humane image in the public's eyes and TMU is more and more known All of these have greatly helped the school's annual enrollment process Achievement As a result of the use of marketing techniques, TMU has achieved amazing results in its admissions work in recent years The first thing to say is that the number of applicants to the school increases sharply each year and there are years of record highs Last year, with 42,306 applications, TMU ranked th in the top 15 universities with the highest number of applications Moreover, the number of applicants according to the school’s combined admissions methods also increased, creating a clear change compared to before Secondly, the school's benchmark also increases year by year in all majors Although this is also influenced by the difficulty level of the university entrance exam from year to year, TMU is still among the top universities with high benchmarks for all majors, especially marketing and logistics - which with benchmark reach the top among universities offering these majors This allows the school to screen and select more quality input, contributing to the training of excellent students to serve the country Finally, TMU has been included in the list of top business schools in the country Based on the benchmarks of universities for business schools, TMU ranks third among schools in Hanoi, just behind National Economy University and Foreign Trade University This is truly a valuable achievement that has been achieved thanks to the school's efforts in enrollment C Conclusion In conclusion, the use of marketing techniques plays an important role in recruiting students to enroll Each marketing techniques has its advantages and disadvantages So, universities need to consider choosing appropriate and effective marketing tools Researching the needs of potential customers, universities also need to apply technology to be able to reach and connect with future students Through digital marketing tools, reaching current and potential students is more direct and faster than ever, helping university admissions Therefore, the use of digital marketing methods is an inevitable trend for every university in Vietnam today LIST OF REFERENCES 15 Best Marketing Strategies for Universities https://penji.co/marketing-strategies-for-universities/? fbclid=IwAR29Q90kMJNlXxfkqqzCPPRisd2HqUOHbqSb7zbX7r1eHqp5Rv855GksTM Xu hướng ứng dụng Marketing kĩ thuật số trường đại học Việt Nam https://tapchitaichinh.vn/nghien-cuu-trao-doi/xu-huong-ung-dung-cong-cu-marketing-kythuat-so-tai-cac-truong-dai-hoc-o-viet-nam-300963.html?fbclid=IwAR0M_4PAqEGXRCsiTLZUIBgImwz-potcV5fNqFZ1Ov7jeqn-lRG3Vo8HCg Open University launches first TV ad since 2016 https://www.campaignlive.com/article/open-university-launches-first-tv-ad2016/1669324? fbclid=IwAR1rhUuBugctlppp0ogvG9TacpkhmNTRkpPcdC_SF2HHLCMRxFBdkXTXq RQ Benefits and Advantages of TV Advertising https://www.improvemarketing.co.uk/single-post/benefits-of-tv-advertising? fbclid=IwAR1zY7TR8C9LGaRG_M20BHvaDPTGddhTYxo48k2QCkc5UufPfbG6zlQDOQ TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/blog/tv-advertising-branding-leadgeneration-college-recruitment-3? fbclid=IwAR2FkI0muHzV9ZgthqEhjX8Lm0jFcGZ_rh303r4uvQbKpHWRfwMm_H1m VFc 6., Advantage and Disadvantage of Telemarketing https://howandwhat.net/advantages-disadvantages-telemarketing/? fbclid=IwAR3IPaAyIyGIpALKf7RtVA3KeYb9ZBTmDXgZKFPmhw8FteBSsdoDrhTZ7 ZA Advantage and Disadvantage of Telemarketing https://bizfluent.com/info-10000973-advantages-disadvantages-telemarketing.html Why your Marketing Plan Should include Sponsorship https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sponsorship-a-key-to-powerful-marketing-2295276 Trường Đại học Thương mại hỗ trợ cho sinh viên vùng lũ https://laodong.vn/giao-duc/dai-hoc-thuong-mai-ho-tro-10-trieu-dong-cho-moi-sinh-vienvung-lu-846864.ldo 10 Fanpage Trường Đại học Thương mại https://www.facebook.com/thuongmaiuniversity ... networking which universities often use as well as give some benefits and drawbacks of each marketing technique II Marketing techniques used to recruit students and their benefits and drawbacks Telemarketing... 6., Advantage and Disadvantage of Telemarketing https://howandwhat.net/advantages-disadvantages-telemarketing/? fbclid=IwAR3IPaAyIyGIpALKf7RtVA3KeYb9ZBTmDXgZKFPmhw8FteBSsdoDrhTZ7 ZA Advantage and. .. main fan pages that are “Thuong Mai University” and the “Admission of Thuong Mai University”, which receive a lot of likes and interest Along with that, there are separate fan pages of each faculty