Top tips for employers delivering student outreach

Farrah Beveridge, National Early Careers Manager, RSM UK

An outreach campaign is designed to engage with a specific audience to achieve a clear goal – whether that’s through raising awareness, building relationships, or driving action.

At Access Accountancy, our Discover Your Future  outreach campaign used contemporary accountancy influencers to promote accountancy as a career option for Year 12 and 13 students, with focus on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

If you’re an employer looking to implement an outreach campaign to establish meaningful partnerships and connect with young people, here are five top tips to ensure your campaign measures up.  

1. Understand your objectives  

Before launching a campaign, it’s important you consider key outcomes. There can be multiple objectives, such as: 

• To raise brand awareness about Access Accountancy to young people from a lower socio-economic background. 
• Target cold spot areas identified by Access Accountancy.  
• Demystify outdated concepts about the accountancy profession.  
• Pipeline young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds to future job opportunities.   

2. Choose the right partnership   

There are many amazing suppliers out in the market for outreach campaigns but ensure that they can provide tangible data or examples of how they can meet your objectives. Also make sure their database or partnerships have key demographic data which includes individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds, to ensure meaningful targeting. 

3. Outline key performance indicators 

To measure the success of the campaign and ensure alignment with objectives, set clear targets for the third-party supplier using key performance indicators (KPIs).

Below are some suggested KPIs:  

• Campaign reach: achieve a minimum of 60,000 impressions across online platforms, targeted emails and face-to-face engagement events. 
• Target audience: ensure that at least 60% of the 60,000 impressions come from individuals in cold spot locations. 
• Engagement: engage up to 1,000 young people with Access Accountancy content, specifically focused on debunking accountancy myths. 
• Talent pipeline: connect with 800 young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, introducing them to career opportunities with Access Accountancy signatories.  

4. Establish regular check-ins   

No matter how long your campaign is running for, it is good practice to have check-ins with the supplier to ensure the campaign is on track. This is an opportunity to ask for the latest campaign data to determine how well the campaign is performing against objectives and KPIs. 

5. Review campaign performance  

It is important to conclude a campaign with a performance report which allows you to reflect on your objectives and achievements. Consider asking these questions which prompt in-depth reflection:  

• Have the objectives been met? 
• Were the KPIs achieved and if yes, how much were they surpassed by? 
• What worked well and what elements required some refinement? 
• Did you receive timely and detailed updates throughout the campaign?  

The importance of outreach campaigns for the accountancy profession cannot be understated. By attracting new and diverse talent employers can ensure the sector remains robust and representative, driving the pipeline of future accountants and leaders. 

This is not a comprehensive list of what to consider, but we hope it gives you some ideas to begin or improve your processes. If you would like further information and guidance on student outreach, please get in touch.