Survey of Online Marketing to Foreign Students

This 122-page report studies the online marketing efforts for the recruitment of foreign students by more than 60 universities and colleges. The report includes data on foreign recruitment budgets and ranks the importance of targeted geographic markets; it also gives comprehensive data detailing the roles social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter play in the pursuit of foreign students. The study also reports on the role of webcasts, podcasts, and viewbooks in foreign markets. It helps to answer questions such as: How essential are consultants and translators to the development of foreign marketing materials, and how much have institutions spent on their services? Which video sharing sites are used most by these institutions? How effective is online video m arketing compared to more traditional forms such as direct mail, newspaper ads, and television?

Just a few of the many findings from this report are:

• 41.18% of private colleges have a specific budget set aside for foreign student marketing, as compared to just 25.93% of public colleges
• Facebook has been used to pursue foreign students by approximately 90.38% of colleges in the sample
• Over the past three years, MA- and PhD-granting colleges have spent a mean of $12,500 on consultants and translators to assist with the development of marketing materials aimed at foreign students
• 38.10% of colleges consider China an important market for student recruitment and target it accordingly, while just 5.36% believe the United Kingdom to be such a target
• 37.50% of colleges that spent more than $10,000 on online marketing directed at foreign students last year have sponsored a website in a foreign country