Size and Shape

Promotion is essential. It’s easier with a great product. I have worked to bring together digital insight and tools to enhance market research and inform the size and shape of portfolios.

Portfolio: Developing market-leading portfolios for education

The education market has changed. The marketisation of the sector at both HE (university) and FE (college) levels have created a commercialised environment. Enabling new competitors to enter the space and new opportunities for students to obtain their desired qualifications and pursue their passions.

Responding to these changes requires more than campaign optimisation – it means building the proposition, including size and shape.

Working in the education sector, I have created and successfully implemented many market-led development programmes, including new workflows and proformas, staff training, and onboarding of academics.

Ensuring marketing is positioned at the core of programme development, and employers and local government were actively part of the process, aligning an institution’s values and business objectives.

The end result being a portfolio of courses that were in demand. Doubling down on an institution’s strengths, increasing student recruitment numbers, and establishing a database that was a ‘single-source-of-truth’ for course information.

From concept to implementation, these initiatives led to an increase in applications. Securing the longevity of subject areas, ensuring they met student aspirations.

Portfolio: Using digital ads to inform product categories and forecasting

Digital marketing provides a wealth of data. Knowing how to utilise this information to inform the proposition outside of optimisation, can successfully shape the marketing strategy, forecasting, and tactics.

Working in agency and within in-house teams, I have used this approach to inform all aspects of building the marketing strategy for clients and brands, including the naming conventions for courses, product categorisation for tools, building site navigation for universities and colleges, building opportunities for journal subscriptions, and set realistic lead gen targets, to name a few.

Resulting in an uplift in sales conversions and applications.

All of this has been part of being a data-driven approach, analysing and understanding search demand and web traffic to more accurately forecast targets for the next business year or recruitment cycle to senior management.

Portfolio: Tariff Strategy

Universities are complicated beasts. There are many factors considered when evaluating institutions. From research to student recruitment. The sector is drowning in league tables, and the need for a league table, for the league tables, is an ongoing market opportunity. Yet, when it comes to reputation, tariff entry points are a key consideration.

Undertaking the tariff strategy, I worked with colleagues across the institution to develop a methodology and analysis for identifying which courses could have a higher tariff. Based on application trends and market insight.

Producing a paper for the Leadership Team, I outlined the business and market case for increasing tariffs for selected courses within the portfolio. Supporting the admissions strategy for the next cycle.

What can you do for me?

If you want to develop your portfolio, increase your lead generation, or, student recruitment applications, get in touch. Don’t just take my word, check out my LinkedIn recommendations.