Blog
How St John Ambulance Victoria Uses Video to Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace
Claudia Reiners Head of Strategy
Cultivating relationships with the right students is critical to post-enquiry success.
In a world filled with ever-growing distractions, providers are in a constant battle to hold the attention of students. And once they have it, they must spark a connection to differentiate themselves from the rest.
Video accelerates relationship-building. By guiding viewers through engaging content, providers can strike at the heart of student needs and offer a satisfying solution: the perfect course. Going beyond written words, this content format is one that sticks.
Fostering strong relationships with students is a primary objective for Emma Klinakis, Marketing and Community Manager at St John Ambulance Victoria. And since the implementation of Video Placements on course listings, St John has done just that, and more.
By focusing on building a connection with students using video content, St John saw a flow-on effect: a dramatic spike in watcher enquiry rates.
Meet St John Ambulance Victoria
Founded in 1883, St John Ambulance Victoria is a not-for-profit organisation that offers nationally recognised training in partnership with St John Ambulance Australia. Operating as a social enterprise, St John inspires the best student experience by delivering qualifications in First Aid training and providing support to the Victorian community.
In short, St John is devoted to its community, and that extends to its training practices.
Challenge
Making their content unique and personal to stand out in a crowded Marketplace
The Education Marketplace landscape can be competitive. Joining the Candlefox Marketplace in March 2020, St John launched its first set of courses in Training and Assessment, and Health — two subject areas crowded with many well-established providers all jostling for student enquiries.
Klinakis knew there needed to be an accessible and visually appealing way to present St John’s course offering and its unique value proposition. The emotional, hands-on nature of St John’s course content is integral to their overall brand values but wasn’t translating through written copy alone.
Sometimes, students aren’t familiar with the finer details of our courses and our point of difference upon enquiry. We needed a solution that could both reinforce students’ familiarity with the St John brand and boost their level of knowledge when it came to our courses.
Emma Klinakis
Marketing and Community Manager
St John Ambulance Victoria
Keen to push the envelope, Klinakis was looking for a way to connect with Marketplace prospects on a deeper level. How could they embody St John’s values and differentiate the brand to create more meaningful connections with students?
Video was the missing ingredient.
How Candlefox helped
Rich video on course listings engage student prospects in a way that resonates
When St John came to Candlefox with this challenge, one product stood out — Video Placements.
We’ve witnessed that Video Placements encourage students to enquire; producing better-qualified student leads. Those who watch videos on course listings are, on average, 2x more likely to submit an enquiry. This increase suggests that students who engage with Video Placements are more informed and have a greater connection to the brand.
“Network data tells us that this kind of content generates much higher engagement rates,” says Angus Dunn, Account Manager at Candlefox. “St John Ambulance Victoria knew that they needed to engage students better, and video was the perfect fit.”
After chatting with the Candlefox Partnerships Team, Klinakis knew that this solution was the necessary next step to take St John’s course listings to the next level — building better connections with students.
Video content was already playing an integral part in St John’s content strategy; they just needed an extra push onto the right channels.
We already had a few videos created for each of our courses, so it made perfect sense for us to include these on the Candlefox network.
Implementation was frictionless. Klinakis sent the existing files to Candlefox’s Content Team to undertake some slight changes, like the addition of branding.
“Our existing videos were a little long, so we cut them down to an optimised length recommended by Candlefox,” explains Klinakis. “After a bit of editing and refinement, we supplied these new files along with a caption file for inclusivity.”
Once the content was ready for upload, they were embedded to their respective course listings via a third-party platform Wistia, which optimises the content for search engines and tracks success metrics.
St John was able to transform its existing video and amplify visibility via the Candlefox Marketplace.
Through relatable and engaging visual content on course listings, student prospects can now consume content that summarises and reinforces St John’s brand messaging and value proposition in an easy-to-digest format — driving visibility where it counts.
Results
Since embedding owned video content into course listings in July 2020, it was found that visitors who watched the embedded videos were 3x more likely to submit an enquiry when compared to St John’s overall conversion rate (%) across the Marketplace.
With Video Placements, they are now attracting a more tailored target audience with meaningful visual content.
Above all else, Candlefox has enabled St John to individualise its brand in a busy Marketplace, jam-packed with providers all fighting for the same prospects. Video Placements support providers in personifying their brand in a format that makes sense to students.
By zeroing-in and establishing that critical connection, providers can cut through the noise with better quality conversations — encouraging successful connections with engaged students.
Want to strengthen connections with your student prospects?
