0%
Quarter-on-quarter growth in BSM sales through search and advertising
Education
Mean more. Inspire what’s next.
Education is a decision about the future.
Choosing a university, building a career, learning a new skill, gaining a qualification or joining a profession all ask people to invest their time, money and ambition in the promise of what comes next.
At AgencyUK, we combine brand, communications, web and tech to help education, training and professional organisations stand out, reach the right audiences and turn interest into applications, enrolments, membership and growth.
Across global higher education, specialist training and professional development, we make complex propositions easier to understand and institutions easier to choose, building reputation and inspiring action.
Our education impact
+0,100%
Increase in Instagram engagement for TopUniversities.com
0
B2B propositions brought together under one brand: student recruitment, higher education leadership, institutional performance and central investment
Why is the education sector different?
Education journeys can start months or years before someone applies, and the people making them are trying to decide their future. They deserve more than a segment label.
Education audiences also extend far beyond students, to parents, professionals, employers, members, academics, international applicants, career changers and partners.
We use research, behavioural insight, search intelligence and performance data to understand what different audiences want to achieve and what stands between them and action. That shows us the role the organisation can play in helping them move forward.
Brand
Mean more through meaningful difference.
When courses, qualifications and institutions look more and more alike, the reasons to choose one need to be clear.
We help education organisations understand what makes them distinctive and why audiences should care, turning that difference into clear propositions, identities and experiences capable of working across students, professionals, employers, partners and international markets.
For QS, that meant bringing a fragmented global organisation together under a more consistent identity while retaining the flexibility regional teams needed to communicate with local audiences.
Strategy
Positioning
Proposition
Identity
Architecture
Experience
Communications
Mean more to more people.
Different audiences have different ambitions.
We use audience intelligence, behavioural insight and data to understand what motivates them, then develop creative and communications around the barriers and opportunities that influence their decisions.
Whether the goal is institutional reputation, student recruitment, course promotion or professional membership, we connect brand-building communications with campaigns designed to generate measurable response.
Campaign Planning
Creative
Media
Social
Student Recruitment
CRM
Web
Mean more through better experiences.
Education websites have to work for many different people at once.
Prospective students, current learners, parents, international audiences, professionals, employers, academics and partners all arrive with different needs.
We use audience research, search intelligence and UX to structure complex information around what people need, making courses, qualifications, services and content easier to discover, compare and act on.
UX
Development
SEO
Content
Conversion
Optimisation
Tech
Mean more by learning faster.
AI is changing both education and how people discover it.
We use AI to analyse audiences and performance, accelerate content and creative development and create more intelligent digital experiences.
Conversational interfaces can help people find their way through complex course information, and agents can make institutional knowledge easier to access. We deploy technology where it makes journeys faster and decisions easier.
AI
Audience Intelligence
Brand OS
Automation
Agents
One brand at every education touchpoint.
Choice doesn’t happen in one channel. Audiences move between search, rankings, social, websites, open days, events, recommendations, content and communications as they explore their options and build confidence in their decision.
From first search to first day, a prospective student sees brand, recruitment, admissions and digital as one institution. We connect brand, communications, digital and technology so the promise someone discovers in a campaign is reinforced by the website, demonstrated at an event and carried through into the application and enrolment experience.
Search
Rankings
Social
Content
Websites
Open Days
Events
Prospectuses
Email
CRM
Applications
Student Communications
Our education work.
+1,100% Instagram engagement for TopUniversities.com
QS operates across every continent and serves institutions, academics, public organisations and students. We helped align its previously fragmented regional brand, developed audience personas, repositioned its B2B offer and created a new global website.
The relationship subsequently extended across QS’s B2B institutional and B2C student channels, with TopUniversities.com’s Instagram engagement increasing 1,100% between October 2022 and October 2023.
- Instagram engagement for TopUniversities.com +1,100%
“At QS, AUK won two pitches: our social media strategy and a complete rebuild of qs.com. They delivered both on time and on budget. They secured buy-in from senior stakeholders across finance, product, and marketing, which smoothed the process and kept everything moving. Their account management is amongst the best in the business.”
Tim Edwards
Chief Marketing Officer, QS
Learning doesn’t stop at graduation.
Our education experience extends beyond schools, colleges and universities into professional education, qualifications, membership and continuing professional development.
That includes organisations such as the Digital Marketing Institute, the Institute of Osteopathy and the Medical Defence Union, where audiences are building expertise, maintaining professional standards or developing throughout their careers.
It also includes highly specialist institutions such as the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Norland and Le Cordon Bleu, where reputation is inseparable from the perceived value of the education provided.
Education also sits at the intersection of skills, employment and economic opportunity. Our work with organisations including the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), FWD, Forward and MediaSmart means engaging employers, communities and wider stakeholders as well as learners, and helping people find the opportunities that learning creates.
“AgencyUK have been a fantastic partner to the Institute of Osteopathy. They quickly understood our organisation, our members and the challenges we face, and have brought strategic thinking and creativity to everything we’ve worked on together. They feel like an extension of our team and have helped us make a real difference to how we communicate with both our members and the wider public.”
Katie Griffiths
Institute of Osteopathy
Our education experience
Whether it’s a global education brand or a highly specialist institution, we help organisations clarify what makes them different, reach the people who matter and create experiences that turn ambition into action.
Frequently asked questions
How do you plan around the student recruitment cycle?
Effective student recruitment marketing needs to reflect how prospective students move from initial research and consideration through to application, acceptance and enrolment.
We plan activity around the recruitment cycle, including relevant UCAS deadlines, while recognising that influencing a decision starts well before an application date. Brand building, course discovery, open days, applications and conversion each create different communications opportunities.
We use audience insight, campaign planning, creative, media and digital experiences to reach prospective students at the right stages. The objective is to build preference early enough to influence choice, then make it easier for students to take the next step.
Can you help recruit international students?
Yes. International student recruitment requires an understanding of different markets, audiences and decision-making journeys rather than simply taking a UK campaign overseas.
Our education experience includes work with StudyIN and QS, reaching prospective students across international markets. We consider where students are researching, what influences their decisions and how factors such as institution, course, location and career prospects affect their choices.
That insight can inform brand, campaign planning, creative, media and digital experiences. The aim is to create relevant communications for different markets while maintaining a clear and consistent proposition for the institution.
Do you work with professional and lifelong learning, not just universities?
Yes. Our education work extends beyond universities and undergraduate recruitment into professional development, skills and lifelong learning.
The audience and motivation may change, but many of the marketing challenges are similar. People need to understand what they will learn, why it matters and what the investment of their time and money could help them achieve.
We use brand, communications, web and technology to connect learning opportunities with the people who can benefit from them, whether they’re choosing their first course, developing specialist skills or returning to education later in their career.
How do you connect courses with careers?
We connect education with the outcomes people are working towards, helping prospective learners understand how courses relate to skills, careers and opportunities.
That starts with understanding the audience and what is influencing their decision. For some, employability and career progression will be central. For others, it may be gaining specialist skills, changing direction or building confidence in a particular field.
We turn those motivations into clearer propositions, content and campaigns, making the relationship between learning and future opportunities easier to understand. The course matters, but prospective students also need to see where it could take them.
Ready to mean more?
Let’s have a conversation.
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