The Role of Chatbots in Education Marketing: Enhancing Student Support

Imagine scrolling through a university website late in the evening while just checking university application deadlines or whether they even accept the program that you’re interested in. Then, one small chat bubble pops up in the corner of your screen with: “Hi there! It’s a virtual assistant changing how education institutions interact with students, responding with: “How can I help you?” Nowadays, they have become an inevitable part of student engagement and reach in such a quickening online world. We’ve seen that student support with chatbots while aiding in better communications making the whole pupils’ experience a more indispensable tool in education marketing. So, first up, let’s unpack why chatbots in education marketing are now the unsung heroes of this space.

6 Reasons Why Chatbots in Education Marketing Are Enhancing Student Support

1. A 24/7 Information Hub

One of the biggest shedding points for prospective students is getting timely and accurate information. Yet, Drift’s research revealed that up to 64 percent of Internet users believe the best feature of chatbots is availability 24/7. Think about it. Coffee breaks aren’t necessary for the chatbot.

However, it’s first and foremost important to answer admissions and tuition questions, campus life inquiries, and even specific program questions when a student is looking to get that unique answer. It is very useful for international students from other time zones too. As an example, students in India can solve doubts from the AI chatbot at midnight local time using it. It’s a little bit like an admissions office that doesn’t close because you never have to go beyond that barrier.

2. Enhancing Academic Support

Other than providing annotated code, buying essays has also entered the chatbot territory these days. Chatbots can be useful for providing students with some form of ‘tailored’ scaffolding or guidance on how to start researching or finding credible resources.

For example, a student studying biology can use a chatbot to browse through a peer-reviewed list of climate change articles or use it to grapple through APA citation rules. It not only helps academics but also feeds into an institution’s brand being somewhere it is supportive and incentivizing. Timely academic support significantly boosts student performance and retention rates, which makes chatbots very promising for delivering student success. This is evidenced by Researchgate.

3. Scalability of Personalization

Now, it should be mentioned that chatbots are like your favorite teacher. They know your name, and they remember that you’re, so to speak, into robotics or creative writing. It can be paired with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that makes use of this kind of user data to personalize interactions.

With this in mind, though, personalization is more important than ever. For example, Forbes did a study that indicated that 80 percent of people engage more if they receive a personalized experience from a brand. Especially in education, when there are so many choices and when decisions are so personal. For instance, they might be the blogging college to discuss how sustainable their endeavors and research avenues for environmental science are. While human staff can ‘only’ have so many conversations happening at any one time, chatbots can handle up to thousands of students at once, and it’s still a personal conversation.

4. Streamlining Recruitment Funnel

Education marketing is the art and science of moving students through the recruitment funnel — to consider, to be aware, to apply, to enroll, and possibly back through one or more steps. Imagine the effect this has on improving student experience with chatbots. 

• Awareness: Virtual tours come in handy, too, but you can feature video testimonials from existing students to show how they came to the school and why they are unique and tell stories as to why the school is undeniably worth checking out. In a sense, the material is made so that it becomes adjustable to a student’s geographical location or area of study.

• Consideration: The chatbots answer FAQs on the one hand, in any concerns dealing with financial aid or making the connections to where you need to go so you can make the right decision faster.

• Application: This doesn’t mean you have to not leave your virtual tour alone. Chatbots can remind students to complete an application, assist with technical issues, and sometimes even hold their hands while completing a step-by-step form.

• Enrollment: Students can register for courses, apply for housing, and schedule orientation using a chatbot and never need to visit campus.

5. The Cost Factor

Marketers are expensive and educational institutions generally do not have large budgets. Moreover, hiring and training human staff to handle any inquiry is time-consuming and costly. But once chatbots have been set up, they step in and punch above their weight as a cheap and effective way to process high volumes of inquiries without compromising much on quality.

Chatbots will relieve business of $8 billion a year annually across all industries by 2025, according to Juniper Research. The educational chatbots don’t demand salaries, benefits, and office space like their human staff counterparts. These are once-only investments with long-term returns and make total sense in an institution focused on maximizing its return on marketing dollars.

6. Barrier-Free Language

More and more universities are trying to attract international students these days and are facing the language barrier. Chatbots for student engagement are what is referred to as an advanced feature. Indeed, this feature enables institutions to become open to a global audience and more likely to attract a diverse applicant pool.

The case with their chatbot, Duolingo, is only an example – it works in several languages and makes people’s learning a truly human activity for hundreds of thousands of people across the world. The same goes for a Spanish, Mandarin, or French-speaking university chatbot who can simply do something completely basic and yet utterly important. And that would be? Well, making a prospect from any other country feel at home and welcome as soon as possible. It’s not just convenient or demonstrating to students that the institution cares about the cultural and linguistic diversity they or their parents bring with them.

Conclusion

Although chatbots are fun tech toys, there’s much more to them than that. They are purposeful tools in education marketing strategy. It eliminates cost while preserving time and is also powerful in generating personal experience for today’s digital-first students. But that’s only a few of the benefits of chatbots in education.

Technology is improving, so there is more work for them to do. In short, next time you’re about to hit that friendly chat bubble on a school’s website, don’t just type it off as another bot. Chatbots in education marketing might be the key to providing crucial assistance in the decision-making process for one of the most important choices a student will make in their life!