Connecting Colleges & Businesses: How Blueberry’s Strategic Telemarketing Fuelled Growth & Engagement

SPREAD across four main college campuses, our client supports more than 15k students of all ages yearly. Known for delivering work-based programmes, such as apprenticeships, short courses, vocational qualifications and professional training, the college boasts two specialist centres in art and construction.

They offer courses in everything from business, sport, and performing arts to media, counselling, and public services. A key player in the local economy, it is committed to addressing regional skills shortages, supporting businesses, and raising awareness of its apprenticeship and training opportunities. Strong links to a neighbouring university mean the establishment can offer excellent opportunities and pathways to students pursuing higher education.

What They Needed

The leading education provider partnered with Blueberry for two innovative telemarketing campaigns designed to support their unique goals:

• A Research & Business Survey Campaign: To gather comprehensive business insights on skills gaps, the demand for green skills, and barriers to college engagement. These insights would shape future training investments and employer engagement strategies.
• An Appointment-Setting Campaign Promoting Skills Provision: To collaborate with more businesses, raise awareness of its apprenticeships and wider skills provision, and secure appointments for its internal sales team to discuss workforce development needs.

What We Did

Research & Business Survey Campaign

We conducted a 30-day targeted business insight and research campaign to gather business feedback across key industries. To ensure high engagement and completion rates, we used a conversational call approach with a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. Our team:

• Contacted 3,347 businesses, ensuring a diverse sample from the region.
• Achieved 492 completed surveys, exceeding the initial target by 123%.
• Secured 381 businesses for future contact (77.44% of respondents).
• Identified 99 businesses that had never engaged with a college before, opening doors for new partnerships.
• Bought 1,124 key contacts & 644 email addresses for future outreach.
• As a by-product we uncovered 17 immediate business training enquiries and promptly shared them with college staff.

Our personable call approach and real-time response tracking, helped support business engagement and completions, whilst also reduce mid-survey dropout rates.

Appointment-Setting Campaign for Skills Provision

Building on the success of our research campaign, the college asked us to reach out to businesses in the region further to raise awareness of their apprenticeships, short courses, commercial courses and other vocational qualifications, while also gaining an insight into the current skills needs of the local community following the gaps identified by the Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIP).

Following the research and insight campaign, we categorised each business according to their survey responses to determine the most relevant points for engagement as part of this subsequent lead generation exercise.

We used a targeted and persuasive telemarketing approach, highlighting the key benefits for businesses. Calls were tailored to specific industry sectors, ensuring relevance and resonance with each audience. As a result, we successfully scheduled appointments between interested businesses and the sales team.

Additionally, we were able to signpost businesses to relevant interventions and skills provision based on their needs, priorities, and readiness to engage.

As a result, we secured 62 qualified meetings, finding potential partners, understanding their needs, and aligning them with the college’s skills provision. Moreover, 72.5% of conversations we had with key contacts progressed positively to either an appointment for the internal team to progress or a warm lead that we were able to nurture over time with specific targeting email communications and signposting to the most appropriate resource and information online.

The college’s new campus, designed specifically for construction-based apprenticeships, was a key motivator for business engagement and part way through the campaign this became more of a priority. Given this expansion, we pivoted our approach and emphasised targeting other areas outside of their core focuses too.

• We refined the data strategy mid-campaign to target relevant businesses in the construction sector.
• 525 more records were sourced and targeted within the region and surrounding areas.
• 59% of the qualified appointments secured were with businesses interested in green skills provision, demonstrating the effectiveness of our targeted approach and alignment with campaign priorities

The lead generation campaign delivered exceptional results, providing our clients with actionable insights and a strong pipeline of engaged businesses:

• 62 x appointments
• 19% appointment conversion rate from relevant contact spoken with
• 178 x warm leads identified and nurtured
• 72.5% of key contacts spoken with progressed positively along the buying cycle
• A comprehensive employer database enriched with key contacts & industry insights to support future skills provision strategies (including 794 key decision makers cleansed and 569 email addresses captured)

Blueberry’s telemarketing campaigns were a resounding success, strengthening the college’s engagement with local businesses and reinforcing its position as a regional key skills provider.

With an enriched database and a solid pipeline of interested businesses, our client is well-positioned to maintain and expand its business partnerships. Using our campaign insights, the college can help shape future training programmes to address regional skills shortages, ensuring businesses can access the needed talent.

We are proud to have played a key role in our client’s success. If your organisation is looking for expert-led telemarketing and engagement strategies, contact Blueberry Marketing Solutions today. We can help you achieve your goals. Call us on 0113 487 7013 or email us at info@blueberryms.co.uk

[Copyright © 2025 Angela Kunawicz & Blueberry Marketing Solutions. All rights reserved.]