Forget what you think you know! We ensure marketing decisions are rooted in understanding students and alumni.
In partnership with our friends at Southern Cross, we delivered a strategy that:
Marketing Automation
Focus Groups
Content Strategy
Advertising
We asked SCU’s alumni a huge range of questions via a Survey, and in 2x focus groups. The goal was to really understand the audience and compare this to what SCU staff had to say. This helped us to identify what was most important to the students, and what the current barriers are for SCU to execute a future state strategy.
We also reviewed what education providers are doing, globally, to engage with their alumni. We then presented some of these to SCU alumni and got their thoughts on what was most desirable to them including volume of comms, types of content, channels of engagement. When we provided these insights back to Southern Cross, we were able to use the alumni voices to back up our recommendations.
We then provided SCU with 4x key alumni personas & content pillars for them to align with going forward. This ensures their content speaks to the interests of their community. We also provided information on each personas mindset, key decisions & pain points, along with quotes directly from their alumni to reflect on as they produce content.
The final part of this strategy was a future state action plan which identified quick wins, a 12-month timeline, key recommendations, and a calendar of activity for the Southern Cross team to work through. Some of this work is managed in-house and some of which Student Garden has got stuck into!
With a key focus on bringing alumni back to further study (through postgraduate, HDR, or short courses), or moving them into the next chapter of their SCU journey through mentoring, giving, or community engagement it was really important that we spoke directly to SCU’s alumni.
We interviewed and surveyed groups of SCU’s alumni to pull out insights and data. We also sent them surveys which allowed us to quantify some of the key statements that stood out to us in the sessions.
This has allowed SCU to make student-led decisions, leading to better marketing outcomes and confidence in producing content alumni want.