Students don’t want more communication. They want better communication.
That was the headline from this week’s Youth Forum session, hosted by The Property Marketing Strategists (TPMS) in partnership with StudentCrowd and co-sponsored by Utopi and Homes for Students. Chanel Turner-Ross, Marketing Director – Europe at Utopi, joined Sarah Canning and Deenie Lee (TPMS), Alice Jago (UCAS) and Zandria Barclay (StudentCrowd) to unpack the latest Youth Forum findings on how students want to hear from their accommodation provider.
The formula is simple: Make it relevant, make it useful, keep it clear and friendly, and match the channel to the message. Here’s what stood out.
1. Email is Still King
Despite the growth of resident apps, email remains the preferred and most trusted channel for important information. 68% of Youth Forum respondents prefer it, 70% trust it most, and 55% would choose it if they could only have one channel. Resident apps came second, by some distance.
Chanel backed this up with insights from the Utopi Playbook x Resident Engagement. Across the wider market, email open rates typically sit between 18% and 40%, and during a recent Utopi resident app roll-out, 88% of residents who downloaded the app did so because of an email.
2. Relevance Beats Frequency
The biggest driver of engagement isn’t the channel, it’s relevance. 53% of respondents said a message being relevant to them would make them more likely to open it, followed by important or urgent information at 40%. The message matters as much as the medium.
3. Useful Information, not Noise
Residents most want important updates and announcements (56%), parcel notifications (46%), events and activities (44%) and offers and discounts (40%). Push notifications are welcome when they’re useful, not just frequent.
Chanel’s rule of thumb is 80/20: 80% of content should be educational, entertaining or informative, and only 20% promotional or instructional. Keeping it varied engages residents in new ways, so communication isn’t always serious or instructional. These are humans, after all.
Format matters too. General market research suggests 95% of people remember a message delivered by video, and 91% of consumers prefer a visual aid, which is why on-site posters still earn their place.
4. Clear, Friendly and Human
Students favour communication that’s clear and straightforward (48%), friendly and informal (43%) and warm and welcoming (40%). The sweet spot isn’t corporate. It’s clear information delivered in a human way, and small touches help: General market learnings show emojis can lift click-through rates by 9.6%, something Utopi has also tested in resident app campaigns.
5. Don’t Assume it’s Been Seen
31% of respondents say they miss important information occasionally or often. One touchpoint isn’t enough for anything time-sensitive. In the same Utopi app roll-out, residents cited email (88%), on-site posters (62%) and the site team (23%) as reasons they downloaded, proof that a mix of channels reaches more people.
6. Make Sustainability Personal
Residents want personal, actionable energy information rather than generic sustainability messaging. The most requested is personal energy usage (42%), followed by tips to reduce energy use and waste (36% each), with an app or online dashboard the preferred way to access it (44%).
Gamification turns that information into action. Chanel also shared findings from the playbook: During the Utopi resident app pilot, 74% of residents changed their energy behaviours to earn a prize draw entry, and 83% of downloads in our app roll-out were driven by the chance to win a prize.
The Takeaway
Good resident communication isn’t about volume. It’s about sending the right message, through the right channel, in a tone that feels human. When room-level energy data is shared that way, residents don’t just read it. They act on it.
Want to dig deeper into the resident app campaigns and communications research behind these insights? Download the Utopi Playbook x Resident Engagement here to learn more.
Thank you to TPMS, StudentCrowd, UCAS and Homes for Students for a brilliant conversation.
For more insights and discussion on what was covered in the webinar, watch the full video and see the full Youth Forum report here.
Want to see how the Utopi platform helps operators turn building data into resident engagement that lands? Book a demo at utopi.co.uk/contact.