The Full Story
Education Partnership North East, or EPNE, is one of the UK’s largest further education college groups, supporting more than 21,000 students across Sunderland College, Hartlepool Sixth Form and Northumberland College. For years, student recruitment relied heavily on word of mouth and referrals from schools, leaving the organisation reactive rather than proactive.
When Stephen Welsh joined EPNE in February 2022 as Head of CRM Insight & Reporting, the limitations were clear. “Everything was working off spreadsheets,” he explains. Data was captured inconsistently, event information had to be manually downloaded and re-entered, and nothing was connected through a central CRM. “It was all really disconnected and nothing worked well.”
Having previously used Gecko in a university setting, Stephen believed it could deliver a more professional and automated approach within the tighter budgets of further education. After presenting his vision for better data capture, campaign automation and end-to-end journeys, EPNE went out to tender. Gecko was selected and fully live by Christmas 2022.
The team began by moving events into Gecko and automating campaigns to guide prospective students through each stage of the journey. Rachel Cook, CRM & Systems Co-ordinator, then focused on improving the quality of communications using Gecko’s email builder. Through A/B testing different layouts and formats, the team quickly improved engagement without adding complexity.
The impact was immediate. Event bookings, attendance and acceptances all rose sharply. “We’ve now hit our overall target with almost too much success,” says Stephen, noting that some courses are now oversubscribed. The success of the CRM team’s work has also led other departments to adopt Gecko, from bursary applications and bus timetables to business-to-business communications.
Despite its size, the CRM team has been able to run highly complex campaigns. “I never thought I would be able to run 18 campaigns with just two members of staff,” Stephen says. This is achieved through shared event cycles and workflows that are adapted by college, subject area and audience.
Rachel builds campaigns using a mix of email and SMS. If a prospective student does not respond to an initial email, follow-up messages are triggered automatically, keeping them in the journey until they take action. Once booked onto an event, they move into a new campaign focused on preparation and support. “We use Gecko to really drive our campaigns end to end,” says Stephen.
The data generated through Gecko has also delivered operational benefits. Customer service calls have fallen as information is sent proactively, and paper-based processes have been replaced with digital forms. This shift alone has saved EPNE more than £5,000 in printing costs.
In 2024, EPNE’s work was recognised nationally, with the marketing CRM team highly commended at the Further Education First Awards for its student recruitment campaign.
“We could never replace Gecko now,” Stephen concludes. “It’s so entrenched. It’s made a colossal difference and has probably saved hundreds, if not thousands of hours across the group.”