How to attract more Arab students without increasing your staff
Attracting students from Arab countries can be a great way to increase your schools enroll and revenue from students that pay cash. Many schools and universities want to attract these students but don’t know where to start. In this article we will cover some of the ways you can start attracting more Arab students to your school.
1. Start Advertising in Middle East Markets
This may seem like a no-brainer but you would be surprised by how many institutions want to attract more Arab students but haven’t even attempted doing any advertising in Arab markets. Many Arabs speak English and use the web in English so a school can have some success advertising online to Arabs even with a small budget and no help with Arabic. As an Arabic advertising agency it may seem like it goes against our interest to tell schools to test advertising to Arabs on their own but it’s not. We find that once schools have some success attracting Arab students they want to attract more and this is usually when they call us to help them get even better results and start scaling to attract more Arabs. Try testing some basic ads on Facebook targeting Arabs today.
2. Show them that you provide academic assistance to foreign students
Many Arabs are petrified of the shame of returning to their home country as a failure after attempting to get a degree abroad. Schools can put some of these fears to rest by showing off how they help students with tutoring, study groups, student aids, and other types of foreign student support. Giving examples of other foreign students who took advantage of these assistance programs could make your school sound a lot more appealing to Arabs than others institutions.
3. Provide them with application assistance
This may sound a little strange but many great foreign students struggle with school applications because student applications are designed for students from the country the university is in. The questions, the layout, and the importance or lack of importance of certain sections of the applications can all be real challenges for foreign students. Having a foreign applicant support contact can be helpful. To add to this having an application companion booklet that explains various sections of the application in more detail can be helpful. You might want to ask some of your current Arab students to look through the application and tell you about any areas they struggled with.
4. Make it easy for them to refer others
Once you’ve been able to attract some Arabs to your school you will quickly find that you start getting more Arabs coming to your school through referrals.
Are you making it easy for Arabs to refer their friends and family?
This may sound complicated but it could be as simple as asking students who had a great experience to refer a friend or family member. Some schools go as far as having a slightly different application process for students referred through alumni. Other schools provide students with a small gift for referring another student, like a gift card.
5. Use testimonials from other Arabs
If you already have Arab students it’s incredibly powerful for your marketing if you can have a testimonial from one of these students that highlights why your institution is a great place for Arabs to study at abroad. Arabs have been shown to have a high degree of risk aversion compared to many other nationalities so its important to show them that people like them had a good experience at your school.
If you are looking for what a testimonial from an Arab student should include check out this guide to getting the perfect testimonial from an Arab.
6. Focus on the end result for them
In the Arab world degrees are everything. As much as Arabs will benefit from all that they will learn at your institution, realize that what they are looking for is the end result. They want the piece of paper. Arabs live in an honor based culture so degrees come with a level of prestige in Arab culture than it is in many western countries. Another way you can highlight the end result is by having images on your website of Arabs in the types of careers that your degrees allow them to get. This imagery will be extremely powerful for attracting Arab students.
7. Show off your Institution’s Certifications
If you asked me to tell you what organizations certified the University I went to I couldn’t even tell you, nor was it something that concerned me when I was applying for schools. Not so with Arabs, since certifications are so important in the Arab world they need to see that your institution is reputable and not going to disappear overnight. In light of this we recommend you display your certifications in strategic places throughout your website. Even if your accreditation institutions aren’t that well known its better to show something than nothing at all.
Get 3 more tactics for attracting Arabs to your school.
