StudyQA — 7 Tips to attract students from Russia, Belarus and Central Asia

Russia and other CIS countries may be a perfect place to recruit new talented students to your university. However, it is only possible if you understand some peculiarities of the local market. We are happy to provide you with 7 tips to consider, before starting your campaign in this region. Read it below or download the poster we presented this year at the NAFSA conference: ‘Model Practices for Recruiting Students from Russia and CIS Countries’

1. "Act like locals"

The best way to promote your University and reach target audience in Russia and CIS is to use local social networks. The biggest social media in this region is Vk.com with over 240 mln users and 95 mln monthly visitors. They call it the Russian ‘Facebook’ and you can either set up targeted Ads or create a university page. There are plenty of targeting options here: geography, demography, personal interests, education and occupation, etc. Have no time to sort it out? At StudyQA we help Universities worldwide to set up communities in Russian social media as well as to craft and run ad campaigns on Vk.com!

2. "Make a personal contact"

Choosing between targeted Ads and promotion on the University page, go for the latter. No matter how good your banners are, it is more efficient to build users’ loyalty through the vivid content that you share on a daily basis. Our experience shows that nothing touches users’ hearts more and grasps their attention better than the photos of the university campus in snow before Christmas or a video picturing last weekend students’ hiking trip.

3. "It’s all about timing"

To get the maximum effect from your social media Ads, it is necessary to plan on the best timing for them. Here are some tips: Tuesday to Thursday are the best days for more formal and informative content; on Friday evening it is wiser to publish some funny stories or pictures. It’s better to refrain from publishing important news on the weekend: the reach is low, it would be better to keep that until Monday morning.

4. "Mama knows best"

It is not always difficult to reach potential students through social media. But is it possible to reach out to their parents, who are actually the decision-makers when it comes to sending their child for an undergraduate program abroad. In this case consider targeting older generation on the 2nd most popular social network in Russia and Central Asia - Ok.ru. This social network is used by older demographic groups (over 35% of its users fall in the 35 to 44 age range) which you can target by personal income in order to find the audience that can afford your tuition fees.

5. "A little bird told us"

Twitter is a famous social network around the world, but how to make use of its tool locally? Do students tweet in Russia and CIS countries? What content do they prefer? What is the best way to reach potential CIS students in Twitter?  Twitter official rules prohibit using targeted Ads for the Russian users and many universities just ignore this instrument during their recruitment campaigns.  However, that is not what we recommend: Twitter provides vast opportunities to reach students in CIS with decent level of English and interest to the international education.

6. "Enjoy life to the full”

Vk.com is the main instrument which helps you to find potential students, but it is better to use different social platforms to target certain types of people. Don`t forget about Facebook, which is popular among young professionals (22-35 years old) and would be the best choice if you’re trying to attract MBA students. Russian Instagram has vast audience (more than 22 million users). Almost 30% of its users are 18-24 years old, so, you can use ad there to attract students to the master and bachelor programs. Another potential option is messengers which are used by 60% of smartphone users in Russia and CIS (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and Skype). You can use it to involve students in the wide range of programs, from summer courses to MBA.

7. “From Russia with love”

It is necessary to pay attention to some local peculiarities. For instance, Google is the dominant search engine all over the world. But 50% users in Russia and CIS prefer Yandex search platform, especially on desktop devices. Moreover, Yandex has a wide network of partner sites, which can show your context ads and banners. Lots of internet users in Russia use Yandex Mail and your ads may be shown in their inboxes as well. It is a good idea to use both Google and Yandex for targeting advertising.

These useful tips will help you to engage with your students. If you would rather have someone does this for you, we’d be happy to help you. StudyQA team has been working with students from Russia and CIS for the last 10 years and will help you run a successful campaign in this region. Contact us here!