So after seven years at Milton Keynes Council – I’m heading into education. Grasping the chance to go to be Head of Marketing at the University of Northampton. New team, new systems, CRM, Hobsons and three Directors all in the space of four and a bit years. But…we moved from local ads in the paper to digital communications. New events and event management. New video testimonials and we made some real inroads into positive brand recognition. I don’t think I can downplay this time in my career.
Into Education – University of Northampton
At Northampton the marketing team wasn’t really a team at all; was operating in isolation from the rest of the university and had no real measures or KPIs. Over the space of four years all of this changed with a new agency helping us to establish brand recognition measures at local, regional and national levels. New video testimonials from real students – completely unscripted – showed prospective parents and students real examples of people who had taken the decision they were taking and made the right call.
Into Education – CRM Adoption
We also established the fastest adoption of Hobsons Connect. The dedicated CRM and emailing platform allowed us to know who would be attending open days, the numbers we could expect, for which subjects and when. Every attendee received an email before they got home – anyone rating is worse than “good” had a follow up call from me.
Just a few examples – there is no better way to get the message across. In education the ambassadors we found here and then again at Central Bedfordshire College were the most powerful marketing tool we had. With the hits on Youtube, the coordination with our e -communications and event management they meant we could send really strong endorsements from people who had made the decision to join the university / college a year or two before.
