The number of Indian students studying abroad is increasing every year. Projections show that there will be 8 million Indian students studying abroad in 2025 compared to 5 million a decade ago. This presents an excellent opportunity for overseas education consultants to capitalize on this trend. Unfortunately, realizing this goal is much easier said than done, mainly because of the increasing competition in this sector.This requires overseas education consultations to take a more proactive approach to target the right lead Scoring and convert them. One simple way to do this is to use the right lead-scoring criteria to better understand the student’s profile and guide them accordingly. But which lead scoring criteria and metrics should you use? Continue reading to find the answer to this question and more!
Identifying The Key Metrics For Lead Scoring
The overseas education sector is now more complex and nuanced than it has ever been before. With rapid internet access, more people are now better aware of the relevant opportunities, making it important to make the right move at the right time. This is where your lead scoring criteria ensure you do not miss out on that opportunity. That said, here are the important lead-scoring criteria you need to use:
1. Demographics
While this goes without saying, scoring your leads based on their demographic details is the way to start things on the right foot. You must analyse the student’s age, gender, educational background, location, and more relevant criteria. This will give you a basic idea of the student’s profile and if it is worth spending effort and resources on the particular lead.
Example: A student with an educational background in science currently residing in an urban area will get higher lead scores than someone without a proper educational background or residing in a rural area. Similarly, students with good economic backgrounds are more likely to go for education abroad, and their lead scores will be higher.
2. Point of Origin
This is another important lead-scoring criterion that most overseas education consultants overlook. You must make every effort to trace the source of the lead, whether via online ads, referrals, or organic search. This will help you understand if the student is genuinely interested or just browsing options. For instance, an organic lead has a better chance to convert than leads sourced from other sources.
Example: If you find a lead from organic searches, they are automatically more likely to convert since they showed a genuine interest in the program. Naturally, their lead scores will be higher compared to leads coming from other sources like online ads.
3. Engagement Behavior
The lead Scoring engagement behaviour is one of the most important things to consider when assigning scores to your leads. The longer they engage with the website in one way or another, the likelier they are to convert into a successful student-seeking consultancy. This also makes it very important to ensure you take all the right measures to increase engagement on your website and drive better conversion rates.
Example: When you find a lead Scoring who has read content related to studies abroad on your website, they are more likely to convert. On the other hand, if a lead has now shown any interest in the content and visited the website only to seek some basic information, they are less likely to convert. As a result, leads engaging with your website’s content will get more lead scores than the other leads.
How To Score The Prospective Leads: Criteria To Note
Lead scoring in CRM is a subjective process, and the parameters might vary. But if you take a more general approach, you can each lead a score from one to ten. You can also attach smaller values for each specific criterion based on the different parameters. These parameters might include things like:
- Country of residence
- Career Level
- Industry
- Work experience
- Intent behind seeking overseas education
Then, there are other engagement-driven parameters like:
- Email interactions
- Newsletter signups
- Attendance in information sessions or webinars.
You must assign specific scores for each of these parameters to get a better idea of whether or not the lead is likely to convert. It goes without saying that leads with higher scores on a scale of one to ten are more likely to convert and seek overseas education through you.
Bottom Line
The competition in overseas education consultancy is here to stay, and it is up to the consultants to go the extra mile. Using the right criteria to assign scores to your leads is a great way to augment your efforts and drive better conversions. Unfortunately, these things are more difficult than they sound, and this is where a reliable CRM for Education Consultancy can come to your rescue. These solutions have all the latest technologies to leverage the right criteria based on your needs and provide you with an accurate lead score in no time.
