The students you don’t see: How Vepple opened up new opportunities for BCU
The Challenge
Like many universities, BCU noticed a steady drop in open day attendance – a trend exacerbated by the rising cost of living. Where students once visited five campuses, they were now attending fewer and fewer.
From their data, the marketing team at BCU knew one thing for sure: once students see the campus, they’re far more likely to apply. But with declining in-person visits, they needed a way to recreate that experience digitally, without the need for complicated web journeys or resource-heavy video production.
What BCU did
Vepple’s Lead Capture module gives you a smarter way to hook student interest, grabbing details at just the right moments, and feeding it straight into your CRM. When BCU switched it on, it became the missing piece in their wider Vepple experience.
BCU were already using Vepple to drive student engagement with their content, instead of relying on static web pages and one-off videos. Now, Vepple could be their central hub for showcasing facilities and capturing intent all in one place. It quickly became part of their wider marketing ecosystem, with calls-to-action aligned across campaigns, web, and social.
“It’s brought teams closer together — marketing, events, and subject areas are all talking more and using the same channel now. Vepple’s made it easier to align what we’re doing and show the impact collectively.”
– Nicola Vaughan-Bell, Associate Director, Brand and Creative Marketing at Birmingham City University
The Impact
Once BCU started tracking results, one figure stood out:
53% of all leads captured through Vepple were brand-new to their CRM.
That means over half of the prospective students signing up via Vepple hadn’t been to an open day, downloaded a guide, or spoken to BCU at a UCAS fair. They were completely new.
This opened up a huge new audience of stealth users, people quietly exploring BCU online, who were now identifiable leads that the team could engage with, track and convert.
of all CRM interactions are driven by Vepple, exceeding UCAS fairs and Open Days
of all leads through Vepple were brand new to BCU’s CRM
Vepple contacts are more likely to enrol than non-CRM applicants
Vepple has also:
- Reduced video production workload
- Strengthened collaboration between marketing and events teams
- Become a recognised marketing channel in its own right — included in content planning and reporting
- Provided clear ROI through data and insight
Advice to other universities
Vepple gives us 53% of leads we didn’t have before, these are people who are completely new to us. That’s huge. It’s become a core channel in our marketing plans, and the data capture makes it easy to show real ROI. Beyond that, it’s brought teams closer together and made showcasing our campus so much easier.
The Bottom Line
BCU used Vepple to reach the students they weren’t seeing at open days, and it worked. Over half of their leads through the platform are brand new to the CRM, proving that virtual experiences can be just as powerful as real-life ones when it comes to sparking curiosity.
By turning previously “invisible” audiences into measurable leads, BCU has unlocked a whole new pool of prospective students for recruitment that simply wasn’t possible before.
TL;DR
BCU used Vepple to make ‘stealth students’ visible, driving 53% brand-new leads straight into their recruitment funnel.
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