Taylor’s University’s Unique Digital Experience for Every Student
Taylor’s University – one of Malaysia’s premiere private education institutions, is constantly implementing new teaching and learning pedagogy to ensure students have a competitive advantage when they graduate and enter the workforce, and even as they return for reskilling. The institution has consistently been recognized as one of the top universities in Asia and has continued to retain its top position as Malaysia’s most sought after private university among employers, on the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2020.
While academic excellence has attributed to Taylor’s esteemed global reputation and success, it is also the unique experience it provides to the students that sets them apart. The university prides itself in delivering best-in-class learning experiences and an environment that inspires every student to perform at their best, while cultivating a strong sense of belonging to the Taylorian community. The university wants to attract new students to this community and keep alumni connected with it even after they complete their courses and go on to pursue their career.
To do this, Taylor’s invests in personalized engagements with prospective students right from their very first touchpoint with the university throughout the entire student journey – gathering insights and understanding each student’s unique needs and what they are looking for at every stage of their journey. This focus on student experience has transformed the way the university interacts with its prospects, students and alumni, as well as its marketing strategy, especially in today’s digital-first environment.
Laying the digital foundations
When Taylor’s announced its digital marketing partnership with Adobe in 2018, it was the first partnership of its kind in the private education sector in Southeast Asia with the broadest range of Adobe Experience Cloud solutions adopted by a single university.
The partnership underscored Taylor’s dedication to providing an experience-led journey for their students and prospects. Adobe capabilities boosted Taylor’s digital presence and enabled it to break down marketing siloes and bring together data coming in from different channels – website, email, CRM, and call centers – into one holistic view. The actionable insights in turn allowed the university to redesign, optimize and personalize digital experiences for students across desktop and mobile platforms, and also to run AI-optimized advertising campaigns across Search and Display through Adobe Advertising Cloud.
“Learning has become internationalized today. By analyzing web traffic and browsing behavior with Adobe Analytics, we are able to gain visibility into the countries from which our web traffic originates – Indonesia, India, China, or other parts of the world. This helps us better understand the different preferences of our diverse base of students and curate the right experiences for the right audience at scale,” said Ben Foo, CMO, Taylor’s University.
A platform to engage
The first step to this digital transformation was a full content migration and revamp of the university’s website, the online “open house” that most first interactions happen on. Aside from modernizing the web layout with Adobe Experience Manager and offering more dynamic, attractive content based on visitor profile, Adobe Analytics was also deployed to track user data, such as where they arrived from, what pages on the website they visited, and where the leads dropped. This data was then captured and fed into JARVIS, Taylor’s internal customer relationship management system, to build out student profiles and mapped against web and advertising behavior for deeper insights. Adobe Target was layered on top to further test and personalize the engagements with student and prospects from channel to channel.
“We know that a local student who visits our web page will be more likely to seek information on courses directly, while an international student may need additional information on necessities such as visa applicable and accommodation. Likewise, a post-graduate student will seek different course details from what an undergraduate will look for. We need to be sensitive to individual needs and be able to respond with one-to-one, personalized information almost instinctively, wherever they are,” Ben added.
As a result of the web revamp and personalization efforts, Taylor’s website saw an immediate increase in its average stickiness rate. Its Search Engine Optimization (SEO) score is now pinned at 82, far exceeding that of its closest competitor that scored 67. Website traffic has also increased significantly by 55 percent, while digital leads increased by 10 percent for both paid and organic, contributing to a six percent uplift in digital lead conversion rates.
“We are very excited with the positive returns across the board, it shows that we’re doing it right. Not only has there been a direct impact on enrolment conversions and the bottom line, we are also getting improved student satisfaction and better engagement with our Taylorian community. At the same time, we now have greater visibility of our student profiles, behaviors and preferences, and enhanced capabilities to identify and target new audience segments with tailored messaging to drive even bigger impacts in the next phase,” said Ben.