Partnership opportunities in China with education agencies

29/05/2013

Partnership opportunities in China with education agencies

The British Council China has been and remains committed to raising the profile of UK education and exploring maximum opportunities for our partner institutions in the China market.

In China, agents play an important role in guiding students through their decision making process. Around 60 per cent of students use education agents for their overseas studies applications. These are the front line ‘sales’ representatives for UK education, supporting our work to recruit quality and genuine Chinese students, and they are closely in touch with market sentiments.

The British Council China has established a very close and strategic network with agents. In 2013, we will continue to organise agent activities and we have got very positive feedback from most of the UK institutions involved. We would like to encourage you to make use of these activities to further expand and strengthen your agent network in China.

In order to provide a full picture of how to work with agents in China, we have outlined the ongoing agent events in year 2013-2014 for your marketing planning.

Opportunity	Brief introduction	Benefits	Involvement and price
Agent News Letter Summer issue (July) Winter Issue (Jan)	The Agent Newsletter is the most popular paper-based publication for Chinese licensed agents. A total of 4,000 copies of the newsletter will be distributed to over 500 licensed education agencies across the country. There will be a cover letter introducing advertising institutions Meanwhile there’ll be a tweet on Sina micro-blogs introducing your school Free scholarship promotion when choosing ads	The Agent Newsletter is the only paper-based agent-oriented publication in China According to our agent survey 2012, Over 80% agents learn about scholarship information, market updates via our agent newsletter Over 12% agents have contacted the institutions appeared on the newsletter Over 67% agents chose the newsletter as their first choice while seeking for a new partnership	There are vacancies for advertisement. The price varies depending on their size and position. 10cm X 7cm 4C £800 20cm X 14cm 4C £1,600 A4 size (full page) 4C £ 2,000 Two-A4- page advertorial £ 3,000
Agent Workshops (Oct)	British Council China organises agent workshops twice a year in four 1st Tier cities in China. The workshops bring agents first-hand information on UK education, latest visa policies, English language tests. In 2012, we attracted over 450 agents to come	Face to face communication with a group of agents at one time Good opportunity to raise awareness	One booth onsite for material distribution and counselling £500 for Beijing and Shanghai £300 for Guangzhou and Chongqing (or Chengdu)
Bi-monthly E- Bulletin (Jul-Aug Sep-Oct Nov-Dec Jan-Feb Mar- Apr)	E-version updates to agents on China’s Ministry of Education’s latest policies, overseas market intelligence, visa changes, etc. The E-bulletin is totally different from the paper based agent newsletter, in terms of format, distribution channel and content. It is more focused on the latest market changes and opportunities. Messages will be kept brief and concise.	The e-bulletin is designed to meet the increasing demand of getting insight and timely opportunities from agents. It’s perfect for circulating latest news or program information among agents	There will be 1-2 vacancies on each issue for UK institutions to promote their latest program The advertised program MUST have unique selling points, or could bring new opportunities to agents. £300 for each program news
Package	Purchase of two promotions at one time will enjoy a 20% discount Recommended! We also provide a premium package with combined agent products and services.		20% discount for purchase of two at each time. Premium package is £2,600 covering One A4 page advertorial on agent newsletter (one issue) Scholarship information on agent newsletter (two issues) One-slot promotion on bi-monthly e-bulletin 3 promotion tweets on education UK Sina weibo

Action Required

If you are interested in attending the above events, please Contact Ms Feng Ying, British Council China Agent Coordinator for more details.