Leveraging Automation: Transforming Digital Marketing Strategies in Higher Education
In this interview with Research NXT, Dr. Sunil Barsaiyan, Associate Director – Digital Marketing at Amity University, shares his journey from an Account Executive at a startup to becoming the Associate Director of Digital Marketing at Amity University, with over 14 years of experience. He emphasises the role of AI and automation tools in transforming marketing strategies to be more targeted and outcome-driven.
Key Takeaways:
- Amity uses a full-funnel, multi-channel approach to reach out to prospective students
- Emphasis on spreading the required awareness for the students and parents to make informed education selections through well-researched content,
- CRM serves as the central data repository, enabling automated, personalised communications throughout the student lifecycle.
- Key challenges include maintaining accurate, up-to-date audience segmentation, ensuring the right placement of those that sync with the brand echoes, and ensuring content consistency across touchpoints.
- AI is increasingly impacting marketing through platform optimisations and content creation tools.
"Rather than distributing the same content across all digital platforms, we tailor our campaigns according to the student journey and specific engagement goals"
Can you share your journey into digital marketing and how you transitioned into your role as Associate Director of Digital Marketing at Amity University?
Dr. Barsaiyan: I hold a PhD in Social Media Analytics and an MBA in Marketing from NIT Bhopal, which I earned in 2009. My career in digital marketing commenced shortly thereafter at a startup in Noida, where I served as an Account Executive, managing SEO and Email marketing for multiple clients. At that time, performance and growth marketing were still emerging trends, but I quickly adapted to the evolving digital landscape.
With over 14 years of industry experience, I’ve dedicated the last decade to Amity, advancing from Manager to Associate Director of Digital Marketing. My role is structured around three primary pillars:
- Student Recruitment: This is a crucial aspect of our overall efforts, as it ensures we effectively attract and engage with prospective students.
- Digital Branding: Here, we focus on establishing a strong digital presence, fostering positive electronic word-of-mouth, and raising awareness for our initiatives.
- Digital Transformation: In this area, we strive to automate traditional processes and embrace data-driven practices to enhance efficiency and adaptability.
In a short span of time, Amity has truly established itself as one of the foremost education brands in India, proudly encompassing 12 universities and a myriad of institutions and schools. Recently, we have partnered with the esteemed Harrow School, a distinguished UK institution with an impressive 451-year legacy and have successfully launched the Harrow International School in Bengaluru, further enhancing our commitment to providing world-class education. Looking ahead, we are excited to extend this prestigious offering to New York next year, With a remarkable global presence that includes campuses in Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, London, Uzbekistan and many other countries, Amity is not only rapidly becoming a leader in education but also remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering high-quality education and attracting talented students from around the world.
You mentioned performance and growth marketing. Could you elaborate on how these fit into your role and how they are generally perceived in your industry?
Dr. Barsaiyan: Performance marketing has significantly evolved from its traditional focus on PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns and Facebook ads to a more comprehensive, outcome-driven approach—hence the term ‘performance marketing.’ Today, it encompasses not just the execution of banner or video ads, but also the broader goal of driving business performance across various channels. This shift has expanded our scope beyond Google and Meta to include drip marketing, content marketing, and community management.
As a premium education brand, Amity places a strong emphasis on audience segmentation and media selection. We strategically invest in niche platforms that allow for precision targeting, ensuring that we reach students who are the right fit for our offerings.
Throughout our marketing efforts, we utilise nudges via Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and remarketing campaigns to deliver timely, relevant content to the potential students. This strategy has proven highly effective in engaging our audience. Performance marketing now represents a significant portion of our overall marketing strategy, particularly since the pandemic, which prompted a shift away from traditional media towards more measurable channels. However, this transition has also led to increased competition. The rising costs per keyword reflect the influx of smaller advertisers entering our space, all vying for the attention of the same target audience. Nevertheless, this heightened competition is indicative of a maturing ecosystem, as we collectively strive to capture the interest of Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences.
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Can you share your experience with managing email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns at Amity University? How do you ensure that these channels are used effectively for both student recruitment and engagement?
Dr. Barsaiyan: Identifying the right channels based on specific marketing objectives is a critical component of our strategy. Rather than distributing the same content across all digital platforms, we tailor our campaigns according to the student journey and specific engagement goals. For performance campaigns, we don’t limit ourselves to Google and Meta; we also leverage platforms like DV360 (Google’s premium programmatic platform), audience segments from third-party data sources and demand-side platforms (DSPs) to reach the most relevant audience.
For organic social media, our focus shifts to building strong engagement. Once someone subscribes to our email list or submits their interest via landing pages, we encourage them to engage with our social media channels. Here, we share compelling content—highlighting campus life, student achievements, faculty milestones, and key events across our campuses. This strategy immerses them in our community, fostering an organic connection rather than merely pushing for immediate transactional actions through ads.
Content marketing plays a significant role in our approach. Once students opt-in, our primary goal is to keep them engaged with content that resonates with their interests and stage in the journey. By creating meaningful interactions, we significantly increase the chances of conversion. To maintain engagement at every stage, we employ strategic nudges through WhatsApp, SMS, email marketing, and push notifications, ensuring prospects stay connected and interested. This carefully structured sales funnel allows us to deliver authentic, relevant experiences to our audience, making the engagement feel natural and aligned with their needs, rather than overwhelming them with a purely transactional focus.
With such a large and varied target audience for your content and offers, how are you using modern campaign management tools to segment and plan your outreach effectively?
Dr. Barsaiyan: We’ve seamlessly integrated all the advertising platforms and social media channels into the CRM, allowing us to manage everything from a centralised system. This integration enhances our ability to segment audiences based on their stage in the student journey, ensuring that we deliver the right content at the right time.
When a prospect subscribes to a newsletter or expresses interest via a landing page, their information is automatically captured in the CRM. From there, a series of automations are triggered. For example, a prospect showing initial interest will receive tailored content specific to their stage in the journey. As they engage and progress, the content adapts to meet their evolving needs. If a prospect stalls at any point—particularly during the final stages of the application process—we proactively reach out to offer assistance, whether it’s resolving a technical issue or answering any outstanding questions.
While targeted advertising helps us acquire new student enquiries, once they’re in our system, the CRM powers all subsequent remarketing efforts, nudges, and reminders. We even provide resources that allow prospects to compare programmes and career options, ensuring they have all the information necessary to make an informed decision. Our automation strategy is built to guide each prospect seamlessly through their journey, delivering the right content and support at every critical step.
Which tools or platforms do you use for automating repetitive tasks like email campaigns or audience segmentation?
Dr. Barsaiyan: Our CRM offers robust automation functionality, a standard feature across most systems, but its real strength lies in the flexibility provided by our integrations. These integrations allow us to design highly customised automation flows, enabling precise control over what messages are triggered, when they are sent, and to whom. This ability to tailor communication based on user behaviour is what elevates a CRM from merely capturing leads and building a database to becoming a powerful tool for engagement. It ensures that we reach the right audience at the right time with the most relevant messaging.
For student recruitment, we leverage advertising and tech platforms integrated with our CRM to manage outreach and automate communication effectively. For our current students, we operate an in-house system that functions more like an ERP. This system not only handles notifications but also centralises all academic information—such as notice boards, schedules, and calendars—allowing students seamless access to their educational resources in one place. This integration between outreach and academic management systems ensures a smooth and cohesive experience for both prospective and current students.
How do you ensure that your digital marketing campaigns are personalised to cater to diverse student demographics across regions and countries?
Dr. Barsaiyan: At the university level, our core offerings include undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), and doctoral (PhD) programs. A significant portion of our cross-promotion efforts revolves around encouraging UG students to pursue a PG program. This process is strategically based on the alignment between the student’s current area of study and the next logical academic step. For instance, a final-year B.Tech student would more naturally be a candidate for an M.Tech, while a BBA student might consider advancing to an MBA. The success of any cross-sell or upsell relies on this clear academic progression and right guidance
Our communication strategy is customised to where the student is in their academic journey. For current students, we focus on relevant topics such as career opportunities, internships, and alumni success stories, omitting information about campus infrastructure, which they’re already familiar with. For PG students, our messaging centres on career advancement, highlighting pathways to higher education that lead to better placements or specialised knowledge. We frequently showcase alumni who, after completing an M.Tech, have gone on to work in prestigious sectors like PSUs or R&D roles.
For UG students, the focus shifts towards showcasing the richness of campus life, infrastructure, and the diversity of experiences available. Student success stories are key here, as is recognising the role parents often play in the decision-making process. Therefore, we emphasise topics like scholarships and financial aid, addressing crucial financial considerations for families.
We also highlight campus-specific advantages based on geographic location. For example, at our 110-acre Gurgaon campus, we emphasise its proximity to the corporate hub, ideal for students pursuing business or tech-related courses. In Bangalore, the thriving startup ecosystem is a focal point, offering students enhanced exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship. At our Mumbai campus, particularly for courses like film studies, we emphasise the close access to studios and production houses, providing unique industry exposure. By tailoring our messaging to both the academic journey and the local context, we help students and their families make well-informed decisions that best suit their future aspirations
What challenges have you encountered in managing campaigns, especially in terms of personalisation?
Dr. Barsaiyan: In remarketing campaigns, formats may vary—whether it’s Meta retargeting, email marketing, or another channel—but the main challenge is about the audience segmentation. The email lists need to be dynamic, constantly reflecting the most updated status of each student’s journey.
For example, an automation trigger with outdated information—such as notifying a student that their application is pending when they’ve already completed it—can cause significant confusion. This often results in students or parents reaching out to our call centre, unnecessarily overwhelming our support team.
Maintaining up-to-date audience lists is crucial, particularly when delivering personalised messages. Personalised communication is perceived as uniquely tailored to the recipient, and any discrepancies can erode trust. If the segmentation is inaccurate, it not only strains the backend teams but also creates a poor experience for the audience. Accurate segmentation is critical across all industries—without it, campaigns won’t perform as expected, and it’s easy to misplace the blame on the marketing tool, when in fact, it’s a segmentation issue. Ensuring precision in segmentation is key to maintaining campaign integrity and delivering a seamless user experience.
What metrics or KPIs do you consider most important when measuring the success of your digital marketing campaigns?
Dr. Barsaiyan: In our system, we monitor two distinct sets of KPIs—one at the marketing level and another at the business level. From a business perspective, our primary goal is clear: to achieve higher conversion rates, which are direct indicators of campaign success. However, at the campaign level, the metrics are more granular. For any campaign, whether on Google or Meta, reach is paramount. Without sufficient reach, the campaign won’t generate the desired results. Thus, we assess impressions and overall reach as the initial indicators of performance. Another key metric is the click-through rate (CTR). A high CTR signifies that our content is resonating with the audience, underscoring the importance of well-crafted ad copy.
Cost efficiency is also a vital factor, where we closely track cost per lead or cost per acquisition to ensure we are maintaining an optimal spend. Additionally, we monitor our share of voice for specific keywords or audience segments. If we’re capturing only a small portion of the conversation, it signals that our content may not be engaging or our campaign isn’t effectively reaching the intended audience, prompting the need for adjustments.
Metrics also vary based on format; for video campaigns, for instance, we track watch rate and watch time. On platforms like Quora, where the focus is on Q&A and discussions, we assess engagement through upvotes, downvotes, and overall interaction with our posts.Each platform and campaign type requires a tailored approach to tracking, and we adapt our metrics accordingly to ensure precise performance evaluation and effective campaign optimisation.
With the new data privacy regulations, has anything changed in how you execute campaigns? Are your existing systems helping you ensure compliance?
Dr. Barsaiyan: As a matter of policy, we strictly work with data that has been explicitly obtained. We only include individuals in our audience list if they have shown a clear interest in receiving content from us. To ensure authenticity, our landing pages implement OTP verification, effectively creating a double opt-in process to confirm genuine interest.
We also prioritise the management of opt-out requests. When someone requests to unsubscribe from emails or stop receiving notifications via WhatsApp or SMS, we promptly remove them from our list and confirm that their request has been processed. In the rare event of further communication due to an error, we encourage them to notify us immediately so we can resolve the issue without delay. Protecting user privacy is a fundamental principle we uphold with the highest level of responsibility.
As someone with a PhD in this field, we’d love to get your thoughts on AI’s impact on marketing. Is AI currently making a real difference in your campaigns, or is it mostly hype? Are there practical use cases where you’re using it today?”
Dr. Barsaiyan: AI is already revolutionising advertising platforms, with significant advancements shaping how campaigns are managed. For instance, Google’s Performance Max is a fully AI-driven solution, eliminating the need for manual bid adjustments or audience definitions. Advertisers simply provide input signals, and the AI autonomously optimises ad delivery to reach the most relevant audiences. Similarly, Meta’s Advantage Plus utilises its own algorithms to enhance ad delivery efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
In content development, AI has emerged as a powerful tool, streamlining the creation of high-quality ad copy with remarkable speed and precision. Even platforms like Canva have integrated AI capabilities, enabling users to describe a theme and have the system generate tailored graphics, moving beyond traditional drag-and-drop functionality. No- code platforms like WIX too employ AI to create completing Landing pages in a few minutes.
AI’s impact on marketing, especially in campaign management, is undeniable. By refining ad targeting, these platforms are enhancing both reach and relevance, addressing past challenges with geographic audience precision. As AI continues to evolve, its role in optimising advertising is set to expand, driving more accurate, efficient, and impactful campaigns. This transformation marks a pivotal shift toward smarter, data-driven marketing strategies.
Before we wrap up, we want to know your expectations from this report. What do you think would be most valuable for the readers of the report?
Dr. Barsaiyan: This upcoming cross-industry report promises to be an invaluable resource, offering insights and expectations from a variety of sectors. For practitioners like us, this will provide a unique opportunity to gain cross-industry learnings and apply them strategically. I’m particularly interested in seeing the approaches being adopted in sectors like insurance and fintech, where consumer behaviour mirrors the demand for speed, efficiency, and seamless experiences, much like in the FMCG sector. Having access to best practices and campaign-level insights will undoubtedly enhance our ability to optimise day-to-day operations.
