Guide to mapping
the student journey
Including a student
journey template
Studyportals at a Glance
9 portals 52+ million 640,000
unique visitors international
every year enrolments
3,200+ 250,000+ 90% of English-
participating programmes taught programmes
institutions listed listed
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Table of contents
Part One
What are journey maps?
Part Two
Approaching student journey mapping
Part Three
Student journey: template
Part One
What are journey maps?
Introduction
It takes an average of 18 months from the moment a prospective student starts looking into for
programmes, to the moment they enrol.
It’s tempting to think about enrolment as a single moment, but in fact, a student’s decision-
making process could be better expressed as a timeline, spanning various touchpoints of
information exchange and emotional micro-decisions. During this period, students will interact
with your college across various channels. They will go back and forth as they move through the
different stages of their journey to enrolment.
Mapping your students’ journey to enrolment is the key to ensure your university’s marketing and
recruitment activities are following the student enrolment cycle in order to prioritise your
outreach strategies. A deep understanding of the dynamic between your institution and
prospective students – what is pushing them down the funnel or out of it – will help you to create
an effective recruitment strategy.
Journey Maps 101
A journey map pinpoints the relationship between a user and an institution over time and across all channels that they interact
with. It illustrates the experience of a user as they travel through the various stages of getting to know a brand. Against such a
map, an organisation can check whether their promises and services help a user get a problem solved or succeed in bringing
them a great user experience.
Student journey map elements
Student goals
Student journey steps What students want to achieve/complete at each step
Milestones of student decision making process of their journey to enrolment
• Discover
• Shortlist Touchpoints
• Apply Interaction points between students and your university
• Commit
• Prepare
• Study Pain-points
The experience related to each journey step or touchpoint
Each step of the journey to enrolment demands a different type of information. Programme information dominates the beginning of
the timeline, while application guidelines dominate the end. You can address all of the student’s questions by creating a content
piece for each of their pain-points and pair it to the corresponding step of their journey
Part Two
Approaching student journey
mapping
Our research shows that, on average, a student would go through
6 steps before enroling into a degree programme
1 DISCOVER SHORTLIST
Identify the COMMIT APPLY
journey steps
PREPARE STUDY
Each journey step corresponds to an information need or a
question a student is trying to answer. For example, in the
discovery phase, students are trying to find reliable sources of
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information, most often online. In the exploration phase, they are
guided primarily by finding programmes and universities that
offer education in their sphere of interest.
We were able to establish that the part of the journey students
consider the hardest and messiest is the comparison stage. For
Connect
example, some students use notebooks and excel files to note
down requirements (IELTS/TOFEL, scholarship, etc.) and deadlines.
to students’ Making information easily accessible to students is critical to those
first engagement moments.
goals
3 In this stage, you can make an audit of all the touchpoints your university
can influence and map them out along the different steps of the student
journey, to make sure no interaction slips through the cracks.
Make sure you always have a contact point open for maximum engagement!
Map the
interaction
touchpoints
Pain-points reflect the experience a student has at each step of the
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journey and via a particular touchpoint, which your university should
aim to resolve or improve.
A major benefit of mapping your prospective students’ struggles down
the journey to enrolment is that it can help you identify and repair blind
spots in your strategy. Gaps and mismatches between your marketing
Research activities and the experience of a student can be smoothened and
transformed into a more intuitive experience for applicants.
pain-points
Part Three
Student journey: template
The student journey template
The student journey template lets you map each of the following elements across the different
step of the journey – from discovery to referal:
• University Goals
• Student Goals
• Content
• Tools
• Timelines
Use this template to map out your strategic goals, and connect them with students’ pain-
points in order to prioritise your content and outreach strategies, identify and fix blind spots,
and ultimately, build a better pipeline
The framework
DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY
GOAL
STUDENT
GOAL
TOUCH
POINTS
CONTENT
TOOLS
TIMELINE
University and student goals
Match up the strategic goal of your institution with what the student wants
UNIVERSITY
GOAL
to achieve in this step of the journey.
STUDENT EXAMPLES OF UNIVERSITY GOALS:
GOAL
VISIBILITY, AWARENESS, CONVERSIONS, ENGAGEMENT, ESTABLISH TRUST, BUILD A RELATIONSHIP, LEAD
GENERATION, REPUTATION, RETENTION, SATISFACTION, RECOMMENDATION
TOUCH
POINTS EXAMPLES OF STUDENT GOALS:
UNDERSTAND IF I FIT THE ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS, FIND SCHOLARSHIPS, CONVINCE PARENTS,
PREPARATION COURSES, CALCULATE BUDGET, FIND HOUSING, WRITE A MOTIVATION LETTER, FIND BEST-FIT
CONTENT PROGRAMME, SHORT LIST TOP 10 COURSES, MOVE, PREPARE APPLICATION
TOOLS
TIMELINE
Touchpoints
Add the relevant points of contact through which your students
UNIVERSITY
GOAL
come into contact with your institution before, during, or after
the enrolment cycle.
STUDENT
GOAL
EXAMPLES OF TOUCHPOINTS:
AGENTS, SOCIAL MEDIA, ADS, FAIR, FAMILY & FRIENDS, ALUMNI, RANKINGS, REVIEWS, OWN
TOUCH WEBSITE, LEAD FORMS, COMPARISON WEBSITES, ADMISSIONS OFFICER, STUDY BROCHURE,
POINTS
TUITION FEES, APPLICATION PAGE, VISA INFO PAGE, SCHOLARSHIPS.
CONTENT
TOOLS
TIMELINE
Content
Identify what content is necessary to support each touchpoint of this step
UNIVERSITY
GOAL
and pinpoint it to the timeline.
STUDENT EXAMPLES OF CONTENT:
GOAL
PHOTOS, ARTICLES, VIDEOS, SOCIAL MEDIA, SUCCESS STORIES, BRAND STORY, HOUSING INFO, WORK
PERMIT INFO, PROGRAMME INFO, APPLICATION DEADLINE, INFOGRAPHICS, PRESS RELEASES, WORD-OF-
TOUCH MOUTH, APPLICATION DEADLINE, REMINDER
POINTS
EXAMPLES OF TOPICS:
COST OF LIVING, SCHOLARSHIPS, TUITION FEES, ALUMNI NETWORK, VISA INFO, CAREERS, OWN WEBSITE,
CONTENT HOUSING, PROGRAMME INFO, LIFE ON CAMPUS, COUNTRY AND CITY.
TOOLS
TIMELINE
Tools and timeline
Display the tools you are using to deliver your content. Be aware of which channels students are
UNIVERSITY
GOAL
using to look for interaction and information. How will you deliver and track your interactions
with students at each step?
STUDENT
GOAL
EXAMPLES OF TOOLS:
EMAIL, WEBSITE, CHATBOT, GOOGLE ADS, CRM, FACEBOOK ADS, NURTURE CAMPAIGN, MARKETING AUTOMATION, MESSENGER,
TOUCH FACEBOOK GROUP, LEAD FORM, WHATSAPP, APPLICATION SYSTEM, INSTAGRAM STORIES, RETARGETING WITH PIXELS.
POINTS
Don’t let student drop out of your funnel. Support them throughout their entire journey with
CONTENT
a helpful, chronological and well-timed sequence of content. Here you can specify the timing of
your activities or outline your institution’s admissions cycle.
TOOLS
EXAMPLES OF TIMELINE:
SEMESTERS, ACADEMIC YEAR, ACADEMIC INTAKE PERIOD, PEAK SEARCH SEASONS
TIMELINE
Journey map:
Sample DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Awareness
GOAL
STUDENT Find Universities which offer post-graduate degrees in Neurobiology
GOAL
TOUCH
University Facebook page Fairs Search University programme page
POINTS
Programme ad Programme
Programme description
CONTENT Brand Story
brochure
Programme Courses outline
photos
Website page
TOOLS Facebook Ads University
Google Adwords
representative
Inquiry form
December-
December- 13-15 October January
TIMELINE Rolling
January
August-
September
Journey map:
Step 1 discover DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
Journey map:
Step 2 shortlist DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
Journey map:
Step 3 apply DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
Journey map:
Step 4 commit DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
Journey map:
Step 5 prepare DISCOVER SHORTLIST APPLY COMMIT PREPARE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
Journey map:
Step 6 study DISCOVER EXPLORE COMPARE MATCH DECIDE STUDY
UNIVERSITY Type in your goal
GOAL
STUDENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
GOAL
TOUCH Type in your goal Type in your goal Type in your goal
POINTS
CONTENT Type in your goal Type in your goal
TOOLS Type in your goal Type in your goal
TIMELINE Type in your goal
How we can help you
Extend your potential reach to every corner of the world, inspiring ambitious students to apply
and enrol no matter where they’re from.
We offer multiple services and solutions to optimise your recruitment funnel for international
students. From raising your exposure and brand awareness, to increasing traffic and leads from a
specific country, to growing your number of applications and enrolments – every promotion
with Studyportals is different and tailored to your goals and needs
If you are interested in increasing the number of student applications and enrolments, to
highlight your programmes and products to a global audience, Studyportals is the place to be.
Ready to grow and diversify your international student enrolments?
Contact us:
[email protected]
