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Internet Collaboration versus CompetitionHow Education Providers and Agents

Can Help Each Other Recruit More International Students via the Internet

Rod HearpsICEF Online - DirectorHyperstudy.com - DirectorEdMedia Student Recruitment - Director

The ICEF Middle East WorkshopFebruary 3, 2007

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Background

• 17 years in International Education industry• Owned and ran an Agency with offices in

Japan and Australia for 7 years• Recruited students via internet since1994• Helped set-up 3 schools for international

students in Australia + worked as Principal, Marketing Manager, Teacher

• Owner / manager of 10 Education related websites for students, agents and schools

• Creator of ICEF Online

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Collaborative Roots versus Modern Day Competition • Internet originally created for collaboration• Now businesses have created massive

competition• WWW gatekeepers like Google make billions

of $’s by encouraging competition• He who bids highest and spends the most

gets promoted the most• e-learning Providers like Uni of Phoenix

(USA) spend US$ millions per month • How high will bidding go? How high can you

afford to bid ? For how long?

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How to increase your visibility

Online PPC Marketing Google AdWords

Search field

Search result

AdWords

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Characteristics of the internet• Today’s billion internet users are expected

to double by 2015 • Of these 1 billion, 300 million speak

English, 128 M Chinese and 80 M Japanese• English are speakers already a minority on

the internet (<30%)• This will drop to 25% by 2010 • Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese

are on the increase• Chinese will grow fastest, doubling over the

next 5 years

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Internet Usage by Language

Used with permission of USjournal.com

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Internet impact for Providers• How many and which languages

should I translate my website into ?• Does the internet mean I can recruit

more students directly without paying commissions to Agents ?

• Should I list my authorized Agents on my website ?

• Should I provide links to the websites of my authorized Agents ?

• How can I best manage my brand and presence on the internet with such a proliferation of websites ?

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Internet impact for Agents• Will I make less enrolments as students can

now more easily contact Providers directly ?

• Will I make more enrolments because I can now recruit students from every country ?

• Should I translate my website ?• Should I list Providers ? And their prices ?• How can I compel students to contact me

rather than contacting Providers directly ?• What’s my USP or value proposition, and

how can I make it more attractive ?• Don’t attempt to compete on price• Do attempt to compete on service levels

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Question:

• Do Providers have the internal language resources to effectively handle student enquiries in all languages ?

• Eg. website translations and Search Engine Optimization, understanding and responding effectively to all enquiries in the prospective student’s native language ?

• Or would they get more enrolments if they out-sourced some of these tasks to better resourced partners, including their Agents ?

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Types of internet collaboration• Agent login areas on Provider websites• Pay Per Action (Affiliate) Marketing

models• Linking – one way and reciprocal• Enquiry generation, management and

sharing• White-label solutions

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Agent login areas

• Most commonly feature a simple document download area – brochures, application and enrolment forms, agent manuals, image galleries, videos etc

• Please allow agents to choose their own log-in details

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Example Agent login area

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Agent login areas - less common features • Enrolment form with embedded

Agency ID• Fee calculator

Reports for Agents on:

• numbers of students enrolled• student progress - course start and

end dates, holiday dates, attendance, results, course renewal details

• tuition fee reports – fees due and paid• commission reports – due and paid

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Example Agent Support area

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Pay Per Action (Affiliate) Marketing models• Merchant = Supplier = Provider• Affiliate = Referrer = Agent• Pay Per Click – US 1 cent to US 10

cents per click through• Pay Per Enquiry / Lead – US$1 to

US$50 per enquiry (depending upon how well the leads are “qualified”)

• Pay Per Enrolment – 5% to 10% of tuition fees paid per enrollment

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Why are PPA (Affiliate) models not widely used in Education ? • Typically the Merchant = the Provider

benefits the most• Can be costly to implement• Employ a resource or outsource ?• Questionable likelihood of uptake by

Agents (who likely prefer commission model)

• Questionable likelihood of results• Why not stick to tried and tested agent

based recruitment methods?

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Linking for Agents

• For Agents, links to Provider websites = “leakage”. Why would they do it ?

• Will they do it for SEO purposes ?• Or is it just “too risky” / not worth it ?• If Agents link to Provider websites, it’s

most likely to be from low PR (page rank) pages that are of little value to the Provider.

• Not all links are equal in value• 1 x PR6 link = 70 x PR3 links

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Linking for Providers

• Providers wishing to increase their SE rankings via link exchange might focus on exchanging links with websites other than Agency websites

• eg. Travel industry websites• Links from Provider websites to Agent

websites are more common than vice versa• See Reciprocal Linking example at www.hyperstudy.com/student-links/• Get this link exchange software for free at

www.phplinkdirectory.com

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Link exchange example

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Providers linking to their Agents / Representatives• Should Providers offer prospective

students links to their Agents / Representatives?

• Students want CHOICE - to enrol directly or via an approved in-country Representative

• Consumers appreciate not being limited in their choices

• A Provider who links to many Agents / Representatives may even be viewed more favourably by prospective students

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Enquiry generation, management and sharing• Via Agent websites - handled by

Agents• Via Provider websites - handled by

Providers or sent to Agents?• Via 3rd party websites - handled by

Providers or sent to Agents?• How to decide ?

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Providers - how to decide who handles enquiries?• Country by country - visa conditions,

prevailing cultural preferences etc• Enquiry volume vs marketing staff

workload• Which Agent/s to forward enquiries to?• Those who are more ‘web savvy’• Reward loyal / high producing agents• Monitor success of receiving agents &

change if unsuccessful• Please send 1 enquiry to 1 Agent only

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Enquiry Management

• Providers need a good Enquiry Management System (EMS) that helps them easily forward enquiries to Agents

• Ideally Agents also need a good EMS in order to professionally manage enquiries on behalf of their Provider partners who send them

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White-label solutions

• Common in more commercially (especially e-commercially) mature industries eg Travel

• Instant Provider approved, maintained and hosted content streamed to host websites

• Hosts (Agents) need not update the content• Customized with host website header and

footer to look like part of their website• See an Education white-label example at

http://www.icefonline.com/studyguide/guide.php?id=27&lang=1&page=intro

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Travel Industry example

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Education Industry example

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In conclusion

• Why are many of the types of internet collaboration presented not more commonly embraced by the Study Abroad industry?

• Are they simply inappropriate for this (high level of service) industry?

• I suggest white-labelling is a more viable and sustainable solution for the international education industry. See details at www.icefonline.com

• Ultimately the industry will decide the answers to the questions and issues raised

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Thank you for your time

• Feel free to email me any questions via rhearps@icefonline.com

• Or meet me at the ICEF Online stand in the foyer

Warm regards

Rod Hearps