Parents matter more than ever in HE decision making, and many aren’t getting the information they need…

Parents/guardians are the most powerful influencers of prospective students’ higher education decisions. They’ve always played a central role, but the pandemic has made their influence more pivotal than ever.

As part of our content series, we spoke to leaders across HE marketing about the growing importance of parent-attraction and engagement strategies.

Here are three key reasons your HE institution needs a parent-focused marketing strategy now more than ever. 

1. Parents are the most powerful influencers

Pre-lockdown, parents and carers top the list as the most important information source about when and where to study. 

Now, as prospective students’ circle of influence and information has shrunk, as Lizzie Burrows, interim director of marketing, student recruitment and admissions at University of Surrey explains, “we’ve noticed that parents are playing much more of a key role in decision-making this year. UCAS exhibitions that usually take place between March and July, were largely cancelled due to lockdown. And conversations with careers guidance counsellors, teachers and other influencers may not have happened with the frequency that they would have under normal circumstances.” With teachers and careers advisors all but out of the picture, parents have become the go-to source for information about higher education. 

Worryingly, these powerful influencers aren’t (always) as well-informed as they need to be. There’s a huge knowledge gap when it comes to information about higher education.

Now more than ever, it is critical to plug that information gap, as it’s clear to see how university falls off the list of options and more quickly under the current circumstances.

The pandemic has had a negative impact on personal finances for most (unless you secured a PPE contract for the NHS or you’ve developed a COVID-19 vaccine or you’re Jeff Bezos) and this has driven an increase in parents’ interest to understand the value of higher education. 

Angelina Bingley, director of admissions, recruitment and marketing shared the University of East Anglia says “with everything going on, they're [parents] going to really want to understand where their money's going, when and what the debt will be, and if it’s worth it. 

So those value for money conversations, I'm sure, will be happening more and more. So yes, I think parents are going to be crucial this year, especially.”

As well as the more pragmatic challenges, as Francesca Carey, University of Sunderland’s director of home student recruitment, points out, “it’s a parental response to be more protective and take more of an interest in how safe is your university environment and how safe the halls are.”

As institutions continue to field concerns from current and prospective students, you can be sure that parents of prospective students are watching. 

Consistent, clear and, importantly, compassionate marketing for parents is vital. 

2. COVID-19 has made parents harder to reach 

GDPR has always posed a challenge to HE marketeers when it comes to talking to parents. But, pre-lockdown, parents could generally be relied on to come to open days. 

But, as open days have gone virtual, some institutions have found that parent attendance has dropped.

In addition, some institutions haven’t been able to gather any parent attendance data from virtual open days. Francesca Carey explains that the University of Sunderland “usually have face-to-face events that parents attend. And you would be able to monitor that engagement. But, in the virtual scenario, we haven't been able to monitor that in the same way, you can't identify those guests.”

The majority of HE marketeers reported providing more information for parents, be it additional website pages, webinars or launching dedicated channels. 

To address the challenge head-on, Emma Leech, director of marketing and communications at Nottingham Trent University explains how the NTU team approached it, “we recently launched a special parents communications channel via a dedicated e-newsletter to respond to worries from parents about students having to self-isolate and all the media coverage (and inaccuracy) around that. We felt that actually that was a really great way of providing support to people who are influencers for our students and who might actually be the first port of call. So if you're feeling poorly, you might ring mum. If mum has the right information, she can help you.”  The channel received 500 sign ups in the first 2 hours it went live. 

COVID-19 has made it more difficult to reach parents in some ways but it’s also created a demand for parent-focused comms. 

3. To widen participation 

Knowledge of university processes, rankings and finances are particularly poor among parents from widening participation backgrounds. This knowledge gap leaves parents unsure if they want their child to go to university, and others who decidedly don’t. 

Widening participation is on the agenda for most universities, with some schemes and projects kiboshed as the pandemic hit.  Prior to the first lockdown in March, Priti Patel, assistant director marketing and communications: UKSR and widening participation at Queen Mary University of London, had planned to launch a travel bursary to enable prospective students who would otherwise be unable to travel to open days.

Virtual open days enable people from widening participation backgrounds to attend as many are available in an on-demand format and you can access them out of work hours and from the comfort of your own home. But the reduction in parent attendance to virtual open days suggests this has not had the anticipated impact for some. 

It’s a challenge that Staffordshire University faces, marketing manager Richard Shepherd says, “There are a lot of first time university-goers in our local area, people with no family history of university. Where there is that family history, there's a very strong intent to go to university. Where there isn't, there’s a strong desire from parents for young people to go straight into work. We know that when we can get parents onto our campus, they very much see the benefits of university, the switch to virtual events has made this message harder to convey.”

Although some of the geographical obstacles have been removed by virtual open days and the growth of online learning, the pandemic has hit those from poorer backgrounds hardest. This creates new challenges as deprived areas have higher COVID-19 infections and deaths and BAME communities are four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white counterparts. The rise in unemployment has hit low income workers hardest and plans to go to university, for some, have been scuppered by the urgent need for an income simply to survive. 

Influence the influencers

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for parent-focused marketing. As circumstances have caused parents to become more influential than ever, harder to reach and raised more obstacles for first-generation student’s parents, institutions cannot afford to treat parents as an afterthought. 

Want some help with your parent focussed content? Talk to us about how we can help your teams produce content that works.