WhatsApp is a great tool. If you still haven’t used it, maybe you should finally upgrade your Nokia 3310 or get out of China. If everyone uses it, the question stays, how do you get the most out of WhatsApp for your student recruitment?
Getting the most out of WhatsApp for your student recruitment
Of course, I know schools and universities where the regional salesperson gives her own number to the prospects she is in contact with – but maybe that’s not everyone’s cake. Some institutions prefer a central approach, having the communication transparent to everyone, or just don’t like to give out private numbers. If you are one of those or have other reasons, why you prefer not giving out a personal number, you can find the full how-to here.
Getting in touch with prospects
In short, you should get a smartphone with SIM card (cheap will do for the phone – Android recommended, while on the SIM card it might make sense to go for multiple SIM-card contracts), and sit in front of your computer. The key is to receive the mobile numbers of your prospective students and import them into the same Google account you are using for the Android smartphone. Then automatically those contacts will appear on the WhatsApp contact list of the phone (provided they use WhatsApp as well, but in some countries 90%+ of the population use WhatsApp, so quite likely apart from China).
Creating broadcasting lists of prospects
Now, if you create broadcasting lists of people you want to contact (e.g. all prospects from yesterday) on your phone and easily copy and paste your messages to them with one click on WhatsApp Web – for example a nice welcoming message telling them that they can ask you questions about the programme also via WhatsApp (weekdays 9-5) and you are happy to help them.
Sounds cool? It is cool and even better: still gets read and reacted upon, which increases the conversion rate.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog post on WhatsApp for student recruitment. At faethe.marketing we have been helping schools to increase student enrollments since 2010. If you are looking to recruit the best matching students for your programmes with minimal cost and effort, feel free to reach out to us.