Video content – top tips for making it work hard

Vicky Hayhurst29/11/2018

Since starting at Revolution Viewing four years ago, I have visited 106 UK universities. My visits range from project briefings and debriefings, to delivering research presentations about what prospective students need and want from rich media, to strategic consultancy with senior marketeers to help universities plan their rich media requirements alongside their overarching student recruitment strategy.

Revolution Viewing’s work and client base mean that we have a unique insight into how the sector is using rich media content in the pursuit of student recruitment.

Whilst we’ve seen an increasing number of universities starting to take video, and other rich media content such as virtual tours and virtual open days, much more seriously, there is still a long way to go if universities really want to make rich media content work as hard as it could do and should do.

Here are some top tips to help you make the most from your rich media content spend:

• conduct content planning and align this with insight of multiple audiences and their increasing expectations, behaviours and needs at various stages of the recruitment cycle
• use insight to build the case for investment and show the impact it has across other recruitment tools – for example, Revolution Viewing knows that almost 90% of prospective students* are more likely to attend an open day or apply to a university if they have previously seen content that we have produced
• implement end-to-end CRM systems (or at least an approach to CRM if there is no system) to enable more targeted recruitment and measurement of return
• factor-in audience targeting in and distribution platforms when budgeting and ensure consistency of investment from one year to the next
• share campaigns and objectives across marketing agency partners
• keep content records and share these internally so that teams are aware of what content could be used across the institution and where there are gaps
• don’t allow subjectivity, institutional history or bias to cloud decisions – work with credible agencies whose experience and knowledge can help to reduce the risk here.

Let’s not forget that there has also been some fantastic work in this area where universities have been achieving great returns from rich media solutions. Read more about what the sector has been doing well in a slightly longer version of this blog in University Business.

And if you need help, you know where we are: hello@revolutionviewing.com

*Statistic taken from RV’s primary research programme with prospective students, in collaboration with Hotcourses Group