The difference we create
We believe in the power of education to make a positive difference. And we’re proud to help universities and colleges in the UK and around the world change for the better. We help them enhance the experience they offer students, increase their marketing performance, and live their brands.
Whether it’s through hands-on campaign delivery or high-level strategic thinking, here’s how we could create a measurable impact for you.
Strategic marketing
By setting the right direction
Campaign strategy
With over 20 years’ sector experience and a proven framework, we can create and seamlessly deliver innovative, impactful and effective campaigns.
By creating cross-channel results
Channel planning and buying
Combining market-leading research, data and insight, we can make your media work harder – delivering the right messages to your audiences at exactly the right times.
By keeping everything on track
Monitoring campaign performance
We can track all campaign activity – using our sophisticated SMRS Reporting platform to optimise performance and give you a real-time view of how things are progressing.
By putting you in the picture
Data visualisation and analysis
Using our unrivalled YWare platform, we can merge and visualise complex data sets, to give you priceless insights into your markets and audiences.
By telling your story beautifully
Creative and messaging
We’ll work with you to define a compelling story, and then our experts will craft it into bold, beautiful messaging and visuals that your audience just can’t ignore.
By sharing your story far and wide
Content creation
Exploring all kinds of formats and channels, we can develop striking content to engage and speak to your target audiences, wherever they are.
By making you shine online
Social media
From insightful social listening to intelligent strategies, we can get greater value, and a bigger impact, from your social activity.
Strategic consultancy
By showing the world who you are
Branding
We can work with you to develop, communicate, manage and measure an institutional brand that will set you apart in a crowded market.
By making your experience unbeatable
Customer experience
From initial awareness to graduation and beyond, we can map and improve the moments that matter throughout your student journey.
By understanding your audience
Audience segmentation
We can identify the key groups within your audience, and then use our understanding to shape everything from targeting to retention.
By knowing just who to talk to
Persona development
By understanding your current students, we can create a data-informed set of personas that will allow you to more effectively target and engage your next intake.
By digging deeper
Research and insight
We can provide market analysis, competitor benchmarking and innovative methodologies – helping you better understand your markets and audiences.
By helping you work even better
People analytics
Taking a close look at your institution, we can help you understand how to create more effective teams, improve communication and drive collaboration.
By giving you a site worth seeing
Website development
From website and campaign landing-page development to UX audits and conversion rate optimisation, we can take your web presence to the next level.
What we’re up to
Insights. Opinions. Bright ideas and beautiful work. We find and create new things all the time, and we’re happy to share.
It’s August and UK Higher Education is once again front-page news
Dan Beynon, Head of Education, SMRS
As exam results happen this month across the UK, Higher Education is front page news for a few weeks. I wish it were this big a priority for more of the year as perhaps the single biggest challenge (of many) faced by universities in the UK…
SMRS & Student Minds
Jon Kirk, Lead Client Partner (Education), SMRS
Discover the pressing concerns faced by today’s students as evidenced by recent research. Financial instability, mental health, and making friends are among the top worries for prospective university students. Learn how SMRS supports Student Minds, the UK’s mental health charity for students…
What does the future online MBA look like? Reflections from GMAC’s Annual Conference
Tim Landucci, Business School Marketing consultant, SMRS
I was primarily at GMAC to deliver a session on the future of the online MBA. This is our latest syndicated research study looking at 18 global business schools, and I presented some of the initial findings. I was delighted to be joined by my colleague Aimee Kleinman, Jason Lawrence…
SMRS and the UMF - our Future Student Survey 2023
Dan Beynon, Head of Education, SMRS.
We partnered with the Universities Marketing Forum (UMF) to investigate the main concerns and motivators facing undergraduate applicants today. Since 2021 we have worked with the UMF to deliver 4 research projects into the UK applicant journey…
2023 is another UG cycle that’s very hard to read. Here’s how we are helping universities to plan a path through the uncertainty.....
Dan Beynon, Head of Education, SMRS
Like last year, this undergraduate application cycle is proving hard to predict with confidence. Since the pandemic, some of the established metrics that universities (whether high, medium or low tariff) have used to predict performance have proved fallible and meant that it’s much harder for senior leaders to predict exactly where their enrolment numbers will land. Many of those people applying to university in 2023, 2024 and 2025, rightly or wrongly, will focus on a place at a Russell Group institution.
Events
HashtagHigherEd UK
20-21st April, 2023
HashtagHigherEd UK is a dedicated forum for higher education marketing and communications professionals to come together, be inspired and share best practice for communication strategies in the current changing landscape.
YMS23 LDN
7-8th June, 2023
A must-attend event for anyone looking to understand and reach the ever changing youth demographic. We are excited to once again be the event’s Higher Education partner.
AMBA & BGA Global Conference 2023
14 - 17th May, 2023
AMBA & BGA has chosen the magnificent city of Seville as the venue for the AMBA & BGA Global Conference for Deans and Directors, which will take place from Sunday afternoon on 14 May to Wednesday 17 May 2023.
GMAC Annual Conference
28-30th June, 2022
The 2023 Annual Conference is designed to address challenges and to provide the highest quality programming on a variety of topics, such as digital marketing, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, data analytics, navigating the new recruiting and admissions landscape and more.
Our experts
Knowledgeable and not happy until they’ve made a difference, our people make us who we are. They’re great to work with, too.
Tim Landucci
Education Marketing Consultant
Before joining us Tim has held senior marketing and business development roles at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Judge Business School and London…
Dan Kevin
Brand & Content Strategist
Loves creating impactful ideas that tell stories, push boundaries and make an emotional connection.
Aimee Kleinman
Education Marketing Consultant
With more than a decade of marketing, comms, and student recruitment experience in higher education, Aimee has a wealth of knowledge of the sector and…
Dan Beynon
Head of Education
Dan provides insight and sector expertise to our University clients, as well as the wider sector, and has been working in Higher Education for 20 years.…
Jon Kirk
Lead Client Partner
Jon’s been with us for 18 years now. During this time, he’s worked with clients ranging from Russell Group institutions with aspirational competitor…
Jon Windeatt
Lead Creative Partner
Loves uncovering the story at the heart of a university, and finding the perfect way to shape and tell it.
Charlotte Rock
Client Partner
With over a decade’s experience working with Universities, supporting them with all recruitment and marketing challenges, Charlotte has a passion…
Vicky Irwin
Client Partner
Vicky joined SMRS in 2019, with over 10 years of experience in client and stakeholder relationship management in the events and marketing industry.…
Chris Woodhouse
Client Partner
Chris has been with us for 11 years. With a drive for excellent client service he has extensive experience of partnering with his clients across the…
John Burke
Digital Insight
John builds things that really allow clients to analyse their performance and identify what they can do to improve it.
Vicky Green
Client Marketing Consultant
Vicky loves a problem. In fact, the bigger the challenge, the higher Vicky’s satisfaction levels are, when she solves it.
Golnaz Sadoughi
Data Scientist Lead
Golnaz analyses past data, to identify patterns and trends that will help predict the future and deliver data-driven, actionable solutions.
Tom Johnson
Digital Strategy
Tom is focused on the future. He looks at the possibilities of driving more strategic efficiencies through Machine Learning and the opportunities that…
Matt John
Social Media Lead
Having worked in social media since its inception, Matt has a broad knowledge of the power of the social world and the impact it can have for clients…
What’s it like working with us?
We’re constantly learning, exploring and collaborating with all manner of institutions to help them tackle uniquely individual challenges. Here’s what some of our clients think about the work we do.
Rebecca Hollington – Director of UK Recruitment and Partnerships
University of Wolverhampton
“The outcomes of our work with SMRS on our student journey has helped us to really understand our prospective students and enhance all elements of our student journey from events and activities as a prospective student, through to progression throughout their degree. It’s helped us to prioritise and focus in on what it is that really matters to our students, and how we can best meet their expectations.”
Rachel Sandison - Vice Principal, External Relations
University of Glasgow
“Having engaged with a number of different agencies over the years, I can honestly say that they are by far the best agency I have worked with.”
Dominic Davies - Head of Marketing and Recruitment
City University of London
“We’re delighted. The persona work we partnered with SMRS on is already making a huge difference to the way we communicate, and we’re confident of seeing students responding to messages that are much more tailored to them. The project was incredibly complex, but SMRS made the whole process seem simple and clear.”
Leonora Clement - Head, Marketing and Communications
Solent University
“Our brand project was a key element of our growth strategy, so we really had to get it right. SMRS have given us a professional brand that not only contains all the necessary foundations and building blocks, but also captures our spirit. It feels absolutely right for who we are and where we’re heading, and it’s giving us the confidence to achieve our goals in a competitive marketplace. Working with SMRS has been, and continues to be, a very positive experience.”
Suzy Jenner - Director of Marketing & Communications
Oxford Brookes University
“Delivering an excellent customer experience really matters. And we needed a partner to help ensure customers were the central focus of every individual across the University. SMRS took this critical and comprehensive brief and implemented a clear and methodical approach to help us understand our audience, our current position and what we needed to do to make it better for our customers. The team at SMRS have been a pleasure to work with and their leadership, creativity and approach has been invaluable. The findings have already started to make a difference and we’re continuing to work with SMRS to keep advancing our position.”
Contact us
Anything you’re thinking about? Anything you want to do? We’re here to help.
