UBIQ.

At UBIQ, we are proud to have re-defined the role that a school ​website now plays. However, this just scratches the surface of UBIQ’s ​wider mission – in giving our customers both big and small the ​democratisation of data as their competitive advantage. In an ​independent school landscape that is increasingly uncertain - we are ​preparing the schools that we work with today, to be able to leverage ​data and to gain the upper hand in tackling tomorrow’s inevitable ​challenges.

Whilst other agencies will no doubt tell you they are different, and ​some will even introduce some of our data-driven concepts and ​language as their own – their misunderstanding remains our (and by ​proxy your) advantage. This competitive advantage is not something ​we will reveal here, for obvious reasons – but meet with us in person ​and ask the question of any of our team – and they will take pride in ​sharing with you the UBIQ secret.

When you choose UBIQ as your website partner – we will ​introduce you to a whole new way of thinking – an approach to ​marketing that blends storytelling, data, content and ​technology into a methodology that is as scientific as it is ​creative, as impactful as it is effective. An approach that will ​take you and your school on a journey of discovery, viewed ​through a data-driven lens – that promises more..

I hope you enjoy learning more about UBIQ, our approach, ​ethos and values. We were the fastest growing school website ​provider in the World in 2023 and remain on course to do the ​same in 2024 – with a portfolio comprising many of the most ​prestigious schools from around the globe. For many of our ​schools, we are their best kept secret, as they see first-hand the ​value that we bring in partnership.

Should you have any further question, please feel free to reach ​out to me or any of the wider team at any time.

At UBIQ we take an entirely unique approach to designing your new ​school website. We refer to this approach as Design by Data™ - a ​methodology of brand storytelling that converges insight, narrative ​and content into experiences that not only make an impact but align ​directly with your goals and objectives.

Good stories make us remember; great stories make us feel.

In blending data-science with creativity - we create storied experiences ​that are more compelling, immersive and emotive and therefore ​impactful. The power of using data for insight and as a creative ​material that can be integrated along the design process of ideation ​and iteration is one of its most powerful yet often overlooked facets. ​By contrast, the approach of designing without data is static, ​inaccessible, isolated and therefore ineffective in creating meaningful, ​memorable experiences. – which goes someway to explain why so ​many of today’s school websites are not only so similar in look and ​feel, but so underwhelming in the experiences they deliver.

Perhaps unconventionally, we don’t begin with your brand story ​or messaging (this should come later). We believe doing so ​leads us down the inevitable path of predictability, similarity ​and homogeny with other schools. Instead, we begin with the ​data, which is free from both assumption and bias.

Effective storytelling begins with a strong and well thought out ​narrative, comprised from meaningful insight. Having ​developed the insight from the data work and with our ​content strategy front of mind, it is now the right time to get ​creative and to think about the unique ways in which we can ​develop your brand story.

It is important to make clear that this is not a re-brand but a ​re-presentation exercise. Where we consider how to present ​your identity, so that it be distinctive and memorable. We ​consider how to give you a unique brand voice, that helps ​define your personality, that resonates with your audience ​and that distinguishes you from your competition. Articulate ​your values and sense of purpose to create connection and ​loyalty. Identify what is innovative and different about your ​school so that we can articulate your uniqueness.

A well-crafted narrative skilfully weaves these elements ​together, guiding the audience through each part of the story, ​taking them on a journey of discovery that Is cohesive and ​compelling and that has a clear beginning, middle and end ​that links back to the story’s original goals and objectives.

Our love of blending creativity with data-science is as prominent in the ​development of your content strategy as it is anywhere else in the discovery ​process. For example, we know that 75% of people are visual learners – that we ​remember only 10% of what we read, 15% of what we hear and 75% of what we ​see. We also process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. We can remember ​pictures with at least 90% accuracy. 63% of people remember stories, whilst only ​5% of people can remember statistics. Knowledge is indeed power - and knowing ​how we process information is one half of the battle in figuring out how best to ​communicate our stories.

We see the content strategy as the foundation on which effective storytelling is ​built. It requires meticulous planning, a deep understanding of the target ​audience, an ability to create compelling narratives and a mastery of different ​content mediums, in order to be able to create a delicately balanced story that ​skilfully combines text, imagery, video and audio in the most impactful, ​meaningful and memorable way.

Exceptional content goes beyond simply informing. It gives the content the power ​to captivate, inspire, resonate and connect. It generates emotion and makes it ​memorable. Beyond the content strategy, our team can create for you content ​that engages, entertains, educates and inspires. Evoking thought. Provoking ​reaction and leaving a long-lasting impression.

We believe that our Design by Data™ approach is as unique as it is ​effective.

We see brand led agencies that focus on brand and positioning but do ​so at the cost of understanding their audience sufficiently for the ​message to resonate. Similarly, we see website providers that focus ​entirely on the audience, but in the process fail to develop the ​strength in narrative necessary to make their experiences impactful ​and memorable. Lastly, we see many examples where a school ​website promises so much from the homepage but then falls away ​dramatically in the customer journey it provides thereafter, through a ​lack of content strategy and an ability to further develop the story with ​a clear beginning, middle and end that has an overarching goal or ​objective.

At UBIQ, we view narrative, insight and content as three ​fundamental strands that need to be skilfully and effectively ​woven together in order to create stories that your audience ​will feel, enjoy and remember.

We also believe that success is hinged on striking the right ​balance between data-science and creativity – using the insights ​generated by the data, to understand the audience and how ​they might consume the information better. A creative with a ​clear understanding of its message, and an in-depth ​understanding of their audience is inspired and empowered to ​make more impactful connections through the stories they ​create. These stories, underpinned with clear goals and ​objectives are mission led, driving engagement, interaction and ​ultimately conversion.

You will see from our pricing that when we consider the ​scope of a website project, we do so in part based upon the ​number of experiences.

Firstly, what is an experience? An experience is something ​that differs from what we might consider a standard content ​page. It is best described as a unique layout with unique ​functionality, telling a particular story. To put that into ​context, when we at UBIQ think about a school website we ​are not thinking in terms of a homepage and a content page ​(like most school website companies) we are thinking about ​the number of interlinked experiences that communicate a ​specific story or message to achieve a defined goal or ​objective for a particular audience.

Experiences are therefore defined as each unique layout. The ​homepage is always one of these experiences however the ​base content page is not.

One way to calculate the number of experiences that you might need is to ​define the number of different audiences – then consider to what extent they ​require something entirely different. Experiences can and are often used in ​more than one place across the site – as the content within the experience can ​differ, provided it does not require additional functionality to be created to ​achieve the desired outcome. The only exception to this rule is where we are ​creating additional microsites on other domains. These require an additional ​experience by default, whether they use existing layouts or not.

You will also notice that the creation of your experiences is not a one-off up-​front fee.

This is very deliberate; in that we believe that each unique experience needs to ​be considered within the framework of our data flywheel, ensuring that beyond ​its initial implementation we are analysing all aspects of it, learning from the ​insights this yields, adjusting where necessary and then periodically repeating ​the exercise to ensure that each experience is continually improving and ​evolving to meet its goals and objectives.

We also believe by spreading cost, we are promoting our promise of a ​partnership. Too often school website agencies take a large upfront ​implementation fee, then revert to minimal support and customer care post ​launch. We feel that aggregating the cost of the implementation over the full ​term of the contract is more conducive to creating mutual trust – ensuring both ​parties having an ongoing commitment to achieving success for the full duration ​of the contract.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

UBIQ’s wider mission is to continue to rapidly develop ​the school marketing landscape through the ​democratising of data, so that marketing decision-​making can become more data-driven and therefore ​strategic.

We have developed our own 10 step model which ​works in tandem with our platform (AMAIS) that your ​experience director will help implement into your ​school over the course of our partnership. This ​approach reaches beyond the website, touching your ​wider marketing and communications strategy, ​campaigns and initiatives.

3. Unify - With many sources ​of data, schools have never ​had the luxury of a single ​source of truth when it comes ​to customer interaction and ​engagement - until now. Our ​platform provides you with a ​single view of each customer ​showing every touchpoint and ​interaction on and offline - be ​it a current parent, prospective ​parent, alumni, donor or part ​of the wider community.

4. Optimise - The insights and ​single customer view give us ​opportunities to design A/B ​tests and multi-variant ​experiments. This allows us to ​test variations of content, ​messaging or user experience ​(UX) to identify the most ​effective strategies. ​Continuous optimisation is key ​to refining your approach ​based upon real-time data.

2. Insight - The data is ​analysed by our platform to ​provide valuable insights into ​customer behaviour, ​preferences and interactions. ​The platform has been ​developed to understand and ​identify patterns, trends and ​correlations so to gain an in-​depth understanding of ​audience engagement.

1. Data - The foundation layer ​of any data-driven decision-​making model is of course the ​data itself. We have developed ​the only data-platform for ​schools that aggregates and ​organises first-party data from ​social media, your website, app ​and other online and offline ​campaigns so that it can be ​stored, segmented, aggregated ​and analysed.

5. Personalise - As you first-​party data grows, so too does ​the opportunity to leverage the ​unified customer data it ​generates - in automating ​tailored content, interactions ​and experiences on a 1:1 basis ​to give each customer a more ​personalised and relevant ​experience.

6. Segment - AMAIS utilises its ​own machine learning ​algorithms to segment your ​audience based upon their ​propensity to engage, convert ​or exhibit specific behaviours. ​Propensity models help ​categorise customers into ​segments with similar ​characteristics, allowing for ​more targeted and effective ​marketing efforts.

10. Feedback Loop - The last ​step is to establish the ​feedback loop so to make sure ​we are continually refining and ​enhancing the model – the ​learnings from the ​performance data and ​analysed outcomes are ​incorporated back into the ​data platform creating a ​continued loop of ongoing ​improvement.

9. Predict - It is one thing to ​analyse what has happened in ​the past but predictive ​modelling allows us to begin to ​anticipate the future. We have ​built predictive models that ​forecast customer preferences, ​buying patterns and potential ​churn, as well as allowing for ​modelling of custom ​predictions based upon a ​specific goal, behaviour or ​outcome. Enabling proactive ​and targeted marketing ​strategies.

7. Automate - Integrate ​automation workflows to ​streamline your marketing ​processes. By automating ​routine tasks such as email ​campaigns, social media posts ​or personalised ​recommendations you can free ​up time and resources for ​more strategic initiatives.

8. Orchestrate - The ​penultimate step of the ​process sees the automated ​orchestration of omni-channel ​marketing campaigns. Deliver ​a cohesive and synchronised ​customer experience across all ​your touchpoints including ​website, social media, email ​and apps.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

The feedback loop mentioned in our strategic approach ​highlights one of the guiding principles that underpins ​much of what we believe brings ongoing success to our ​customers over the course of the partnership.

This is best illustrated in the model we have developed ​known as the data flywheel.

The concept of the data flywheel is built around an ​iterative way of working that promotes an initial ​implentation, learning from that implementation ​(through the use of data, experimentation, testing ​AI/ML and optimisation/improvement), making ​adjustment (iterations) and then finally repeating the ​process. In taking this approach all aspects of your ​website are under constant review, are regulaly being ​learnt from, adjusted and iterated. In the process, your ​website shifts to become a living and breathing ​marketing machine.

Too often, the school website is treated more as a static ​trophy, albeit a digital one - stored in a shiny glass ​cabinet and polished infrequently with a new monthly ​or weekly blog post and annually refreshed banner ​images and text.

The design, layout experiences and content are ​assumed to be perfect, their intended use, journey and ​outcome entirely accurate – the result they achieve ​considered maximised at the first time of asking. This ​approach leaves so much possibility and potential ROI ​on the table and out of reach of most schools. If we ​optimise websites for search engines, doesn’t logic tell ​us that we should do the same for the experience?

In today’s fast paced and ever-changing World an ​iterative approach is even more important, as it ​provides a framework that can adapt to change. Be that ​a change instigated by the school, such as a re-brand or ​re-positioning. Be it a change in external market forces, ​such as the impending VAT addition to fees or the in-​direct actions of a competitor. Or be it a more subtle ​shift in the behaviour of your target families. Many ​schools only find out they have a problem with ​enrolment when it is too late, and they are past the ​point where they can influence the outcome.

With real-time data analysis and the ability to be agile ​and alter the direction of your main marketing tools ​quickly, you not only know there’s an issue, but you also ​have the data to explain why and the platform and team ​supporting you to adjust the outcome.

When you choose UBIQ as your website partner – we will ​introduce you to a whole new way of thinking – an ​approach to marketing that blends storytelling, data, ​content and technology into a methodology that is as ​scientific as it is creative, as impactful as it is effective. An ​approach that will take you and your school on a journey ​of discovery, viewed through a data-driven lens – that ​promises more.

I hope you enjoy learning more about UBIQ, our ​approach, ethos and values. We were the fastest growing ​school website provider in the World in 2023 and remain ​on course to do the same in 2024 – with a portfolio ​comprising many of the most prestigious schools from ​around the globe. For many of our schools, we are their ​best kept secret, as they see first-hand the value that we ​bring in partnership.

Should you have any further question, please feel free to ​reach out to me or any of the wider team at any time.

INTRODUCING AMAIS

The AMAIS™ platform is UBIQ’s biggest point of difference. It ​is entirely propriety, with every part of our system having ​been built in-house. Where other providers offer what the ​rest of the digital World would consider a very basic content ​management system (CMS), we provide a multi-faceted ​marketing and communications control centre - from which ​your data-driven marketing strategies can be delivered.

AMS

AMAIS asset management (AMS)

AMAIS manages all your assets (images, documents, audio and ​video) in a central repository where the ​marketing/comms/admissions team can track, share and manage ​all of the schools’ marketing collateral. This goes beyond the ​website content and allows every image, document, audio and ​video file to be tagged, categorised and stored safely, securely ​and in a structure of your choosing that aligns directly with your ​website content strategy.

CMS

AMAIS content management (CMS)

Our approach to content management makes sense, saves time ​and uses the latest technology. Users can intuitively create the ​content and experiences they need, then publish these to ​multiple locations and over multiple channels. However, where ​our platform really comes into its own is in our integration with ​Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) allowing real-​time content recommendations to your audience, alongside one ​to one personalisation, A/B testing to optimise experiences and ​conversions and generative AI for content creation.

CDP

AMAIS customer data platform (CDP)

Every school needs two things from a customer data platform. A ​system in which they can begin to collect first-party data – this will ​over the course of time become your biggest competitive ​advantages. Secondly, a single view of your customers, their ​characteristics and how they interact with your school. Without ​these two things it is impossible to effectively segment your ​audience or deliver more individualised experiences. Again, this ​functionality is enhanced by our use of AI and ML, allowing ​segmentation of your audience based upon proprietary ​algorithms that will calculate the likelihood of your audience to ​complete your intended goal or action.

COMMS

AMAIS communications

The AMAIS platform provides a comprehensive communications ​platform. Send email, SMS and WhatsApp messages to your ​audience directly from our platform. Create automated workflows ​that trigger based upon real-time user behaviour so that you are ​communicating with the right audience, at the right time, over the ​right channel with the right content.

DXP

AMAIS digital experience platform (DXP)

Schools have never been able to derive real value from analytics ​platforms like Google Analytics. Why? Because these platforms ​don’t provide context to the data - nor do they effectively ​differentiate prospective parents from current parents, alumni ​from donors, job seekers from the wider community. Our digital ​experience platform tracks every touchpoint both on and offline ​for your different audiences, dynamically segments them into ​personas and gives marketing and admissions an in-depth view of ​each customers behaviour, demographics, traits and engagement ​as well as how each digital experience can be further improved ​and optimised.

THE VIRTUAL MARKETER

Consider the Virtual Marketer as a seamless extension of ​your in-house marketing, communications and admissions ​team.

The entire focus of the Virtual Marketer is to supplement the ​skills that you have internally with a team of specialists in ​each marketing discipline to make your own marketing ​efforts more versatile, knowledgeable, and effective. For ​small one or two-person marketing teams, the VM often acts ​as a crucial sounding board and sense check on all things ​marketing and communications related. For larger teams, the ​role of the VM is more defined – offering a specific service to ​a specific need or project that the in-house team either ​doesn’t have the skill or time to deliver.

Hours

VM ours are offered as part of every partnership agreement and are done with ​flexibility in mind.

We have two standard packages that come at a reduced hourly rate (normally ​£150.00ph).

Monthly hours can be accrued for up to 12 months and utilised in the way that ​suits the demands of your campaigns, teams, goals and objectives. Additional ​hours can be purchased on an ad-hoc basis when needed.

Services

VM services include, but are not limited to consultancy, training and delivery of ​the following:

• Marketing Strategy/Consultancy
  
• Research (Quantitative and Qualitative)
  
• PPC / Paid Search / Digital Advertising
  
• Social Media
  
• Search Engine Optimisation
  
• Content Strategy
  
• Content copywriting and storytelling
  
• Brand narrative and branding
  

PARTNERSHIP

Having the strategy and platform takes the horse to water, but it ​doesn’t necessarily mean that it will drink. This is where our unique ​and coveted approach to being your marketing partner rather than ​your website provider and delivering a truly white-glove level of ​service makes all the difference.

Every UBIQ school has a dedicated experience director who will be ​introduced to you and the school mid-project. They are pivotal in ​supporting the project manager in the completion of the final stages ​of your project that lead to launch, then delivering your personalised ​training programme. By being involved in the project at its latter ​stages, they are already familiar with your marketing team and how ​they like to work and communicate, your overall marketing goals and ​objectives are already their marketing goals and objectives, and ​handover is therefore seamless.

They will also take responsibility for building your real-time monthly ​report view and configuring the customer data platform (CDP) and ​digital experience platform (DXP) specifically to your school and its ​individual goals and objectives.

This will generate hugely valuable data, in the form of user ​behaviour, demographics, personas, customer profiles and ​insights on which recommendations for iterative change and ​ongoing improvement will continually be made. Your ​experience director is responsible for analysing the data on ​your behalf and turning it into useful actionable insights so that ​you don’t have to. This analysis of each website experiences Is ​done so at no additional cost to the school, covered by the ​annual fee charged for each experience. However, should you ​wish; you always have direct real-time access to all reporting ​within AMAIS - should you have the time and inclination to dive ​deeper into the data yourself.

When you have a problem, need reminding how to do ​something, or need some general advice, a sounding board or ​want to know how your efforts benchmark against your ​competition – we don’t ask you to raise a support ticket – we ​ask you to contact your experience director directly. They will ​make your problem their own and utilise the full capabilities of ​UBIQ’s platform and team to help get you the answers you ​need.

TECHNICAL SOLUTION

A key attribute of the AMAIS™ platform is its innate ability to ​gain direct access to any of the content or features via our ​own API, so integrating with third parties is in most cases ​incredibly easy – it is what the AMAIS™ platform was designed ​to do.

Whether you want to connect the data from one of our forms ​into your admissions platform, or you have a third-party form ​and you need AMAIS to collect the data – no problem. Maybe ​you need to sync constituent or athletics data from your MIS ​into AMAIS to display as live content on the website such as a ​faculty directly or athletics schedule. Again, that’s fine. ​Perhaps you have another database or source of information ​about your customer that you’d like to ingest into our ​customer data platform – worry not, we have you covered.

Blackbaud

UBIQ is Blackbaud’s premier partner – which means that we have ​worked together in order to provide the best integration of any ​supplier in the market for both Core and RE (don’t take our word ​for it, see for yourself). The Blackbaud partnership however isn’t ​just technical, it’s also strategic. This means our product is ​developed alongside Blackbaud’s wider suite of products to make ​sure both platforms work together seamlessly, provide ​complementary features/functionality and facilitate data flow ​between the two. If you would like further case studies or to learn ​more about the direct nature of our integration capabilities with ​the Blackbaud product suite, please get in touch with a UBIQ sales ​rep or your Blackbaud account manager.

Veracross

UBIQ is currently Veracross’s premier partner – which means that ​we have worked together to provide the best integration of any ​supplier in the market (don’t take our word for it, see for ​yourself). The Veracross partnership however isn’t just technical, ​it’s also strategic. This means our product is developed alongside ​Veracross’s wider suite of products to make sure both platforms ​work together seamlessly, provide complementary ​features/functionality and facilitate data flow between the two. If ​you would like further case studies or to learn more about the ​direct nature of our integration capabilities with the Veracross ​product suite, please get in touch with a UBIQ sales rep or your ​Veracross account manager.

And we don’t stop there...

UBIQ has further integrations with OpenApply, SchoolAdmin, Isams ​, School Base, RS Admission and SOCS, as well as Outlook, Active ​Directory, Sharepoint, Moodle and Teams to name just a few of the ​most regularly implemented. However, we have also integrated ​with a large number of other third party and in-house applications. ​Please let us know before the commencement of your project ​which integrations are required in order that the project scope and ​budgets be amended accordingly.

TECHNICAL SOLUTION

The AMAIS™ platform runs on Microsoft Azure and is deployed directly ​here in the UK. It has been designed from the ground-up to be ​serverless and therefore infinitely scalable.

Additional capacity is managed automatically by the system in ​response to load and an enterprise-grade CDN supports content ​delivery globally while protecting against web application ​vulnerabilities, DDoS and botnet attacks.

All infrastructures are managed as code with changes passing through ​our proven change management process. Managing infrastructure in ​this way allows the application to be redeployed to a different Azure ​region as part of our disaster recovery process.

Comprehensive application and infrastructure logging and alerting are ​in place with key health status events flagged immediately via multiple ​channels to the Ops Team. This monitoring includes an enterprise-​grade Intrusion Detection System for infrastructure components.

As a result of this robust and thorough approach, AMAIS™ has ​achieved 100% system uptime over the past 24 months – ​excluding scheduled maintenance.

Change Management

Our proven Change Management process, includes a code ​review from a senior developer with specific reference to ​OWASP rules, QA in a staging environment and notification of ​the change to all affected parties. Where possible, new ​functionality which may impact usage is offered on an opt-in ​basis for a fixed window.

Please note: Where a school is generating a large traffic spike at a specific ​time of day or conducting their own penetration or denial of service ​testing, it is the school’s obligation to notify us beforehand. Failure to do so ​may result in all or selected traffic being misconstrued as an attack and ​blocked for an indefinite period of time.

UBIQ.

hello@ubiqeducation.com

ubiqeducation.com

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