With so many programms to choose from, helping prospective students make the right decision is more important than ever. Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) set out to modernise how they inform and attract students and ended up creating one of the most scalable and successful interactive recruitment formats in Dutch higher education.
Main goal: Inform
‍Secondary goal: Engage

Challenge

Like many institutions, BUas faces the ongoing challenge of attracting new students in a highly competitive market. At the same time, they know it's in everyone’s best interest for students to make a well-informed choice. That’s why BUas is constantly looking for innovative ways to communicate and to connect.

Solution

BUas embraced the power of interactive storytelling at scale. Together with Intractive, they developed a reusable study story template that could be used across nearly every bachelor’s and master’s programme. Each story is structured around key categories; about the program, what can I become and A day in the life of a student (see image below).

Thanks to the clear format and self-service approach, BUas was able to produce all story content in-house. In a short pilot period of six months, they published dozens of stories across programmes, using the same high-quality structure each time.

Implementation

The stories are featured on programme landing pages, paid meta ads and in their Qompas studiegids (study guide magazine). This mix ensures they recover data from multiple touch points in the student journey and they use it to improve the stories and implementation strategy.

Results

With over 54,000 sessions and more than 3,000 data submissions, the format is doing exactly what it was designed to do: inform and engage. And by tracking individual stories in detail, BUas can optimise for even better results. Take the Leisure & Events Management story as an example:

• Average content blocks viewed: 3.2
  
• Via organic traffic: 11.9 content blocks viewed
  
• Leads generated: 312
• Click through for more info: 92

These kinds of insights help BUas continuously improve their stories, making each one more relevant and impactful.

Review

BUas is one of our most successful power users. Their Customer Success Manager, Roos Eversdijk, explains what makes this collaboration exceptional:
‍'Our partnership with BUas has become a true symbiosis. They actively apply our expertise while sharing valuable insights that help us improve. Their commitment to data-driven optimization and regular strategy sessions has led to consistently engaging stories that actually work.