Using Kampus24 to drive international student recruitment

Ellesmere is a co-ed independent day and boarding school set in the market town of Ellesmere in the north of England. Their educational philosophy is that everyone learns differently and that students develop at different rates and at different times. They are an accredited ‘High Performance Learning World Class School 2021’.

International recruitment in the pandemic

Like many UK boarding schools, Ellesmere has had to quickly adapt to the challenges posed by Covid-19, especially when it comes to recruiting students internationally. Ellesmere works with agents based out in the market to promote their school to prospective families and it is well known that agents may show parents up to six or seven schools before whittling down their selection. Ellesmere were increasingly finding that their school wasn’t getting noticed amongst the other schools. Stephen Mullock, Deputy Head at Ellesmere, explains; “The challenge for us was getting that first initial interaction with the customer. Once we can get that dialogue going with prospective parents, then we can speak to why our school would be the best fit for their child.”

Ellesmere started to look for a solution that could help them achieve that initial engagement with a new family. That’s when they found Kampus24. 

Kampus24 offered the school a way to enhance what they were already doing by sharing content tailored to the customer. Stephen says, “Timewise and budget-wise we didn’t have the resources to change the website so we saw Kampus24 as a way to quickly and easily serve up content to prospective families.”

For their international agents, the Kampus24 experiences Ellesmere have built are a quick and easy way for them to share information with prospective parents. The team at Ellesmere have created experiences for the different sections of the school as well as bespoke experiences for the international student journey. Their Admissions team share these experiences after an initial enquiry as a way to deliver a more unique and personalised experience to prospective customers.

Using Kampus24 has improved Ellesmere’s admissions funnel from day one. With parents being overwhelmed with so much choice, the Kampus24 experiences that Ellesmere sends out help to support the parents’ decision-making process. Stephen comments: “We have had a good response from enquiries converting into school tours thanks to the Kampus24 platform. This is because it allows families to envisage themselves at the school and better understand our school ethos. We have noticed that families tend to look at the experience several times, popping back to review it or share it with their relatives.”

And what about using Kampus24 going forward? Stephen is satisfied with the flexibility of the platform to create a whole host of experiences based on the schools’ needs. He says: “Kampus24 is a ‘chameleon’ in that it allows you to use it in whichever way you want. You aren’t just creating a one-off experience, you can build many experiences for whatever you need.

The final word

“Kampus24 helps us to showcase Ellesmere to prospective families and this allows them to gain an insight into the personality, ethos and atmosphere of the College and with it, differentiate our school.”

Stephen Mullock, Deputy Head at Ellesmere