University of East Anglia
A partnership helped UEA transform perceptions and boost the number of students who would “definitely consider” applying by 80%
Cutting through the noise
As a top 20 university, UEA wants to be at the front of prospective students’ minds across the conversion life cycle, from Pre-Application to Clearing.
UEA wanted to leverage its strong performance in league tables to raise brand awareness and influence students considering their university options.
“We wanted to engage our audience at an early stage in their decision-making process and cut through the noise of traditional digital marketing”
– James Smith, Marketing and Recruitment Manager, UEA.
With millions of prospective university applicants flocking to The Student Room for advice and support all year round, we’re ideally placed to help our partners stand out as a trusted voice and make meaningful connections.
How The Student Room helped UEA achieve its goal
Informed by powerful insights on user behaviour, our experienced partnerships team worked collaboratively with UEA to build the ultimate hub of essential, SEO-optimised content covering key aspects of university life.
Being useful and authentic
This dedicated and bespoke hub of articles, quizzes and videos, called Student Life, gave potential applicants all the core information they needed to empower their decision-making wherever they were on the conversion journey.
With student testimonials showing what life is really like at UEA, the university was able to reassure applicants that their choice was the right one.
Providing students with useful and authentic content, while exciting them and highlighting the benefits of life at UEA, was an effective way of raising the university’s profile.
To measure the campaign’s success, we surveyed two groups of students – one that didn’t engage with UEA’s content and one that did. The survey showed a 14% uplift in those who know UEA is a top 20 university; a 30% uplift in those who think UEA delivers an excellent experience; and an 80% uplift in those who would “definitely consider” applying.
By meeting the needs of its target audience, UEA’s tailor-made content partnership with The Student Room was a powerful way of transforming perceptions.
Feedback from Students
“I like reading the experiences people are having at uni, all the information is really useful as I’m currently choosing universities to apply to.”
You can get answers to the questions that usually bother you before starting university. It eases your fears and helps you with things like accommodation and student life.”
The results – high value impact
We surveyed two groups of students, one who had no engagement with the UEA content hub and the the other who had engaged with multiple pieces of content, to find out how exposure to the content hub changed brand perceptions. Here’s the results: