Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

Gone are the days when an institution’s conversation with a prospect began with a student search mailing. Subsequent communications were designed to lead the prospect down the conversion funnel toward enrollment. Schools can no longer control the dissemination of information to prospective students.

That funnel has since become a sieve. Candidates enter and exit at different points, which is why paid media is so powerful. It is able to intersect prospective students, families and influencers wherever they are in the process. And when executed properly, paid media is able to continually stay in front of them during the college search journey.

Here are some important points to remember about paid media.

Time is of the essence

What makes Paskill uniquely qualified is our more than a quarter of a century experience managing paid media campaigns for higher education. We understand  what prospects, parents and other influencers are looking for. For example, we have a well-developed sense of how they’re using search functionality, as well as the keywords and phrases they’re using.

This gives us the ability to ramp up campaigns much faster. The learning phase of a search campaign can be arduous. It can take a long time to get the campaign to meet expectations if you’re eliminating, adding, and modifying keywords and phrases.  Our experience allows us to reach peak performance faster.

Budget management is vital

Here are two key truths: Your budget must be big enough to accomplish your goals, and you must understand what that budget can and cannot do.

Too many institutions take a budget that’s not adequate and try to spread it out over a 12-month period. As a result, it is spread too thin and is unable to drive the reach and frequency numbers necessary to achieve targeted goals.

Given a limited budget, it makes more sense to use paid media on a flighted basis, with heavier spends during those times of the year when your message will have its greatest impact.

You have to differentiate yourself

We were asked to put together a paid media program for a midwestern university’s MBA program. Differentiation was particularly important, since most MBA programs look alike. Diving into their program, we  discovered a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship, a theme we thought would resonate with an audience likely to entertain dreams of starting their own business.

At our recommendation, they changed the program’s name to the “Entrepreneur MBA.” We then created and launched a paid media campaign that met and exceeded their enrollment goal within one semester, proving once again that experience, creativity and knowledge of the marketplace matter.

You can’t just set it and forget it

The most effective paid media campaigns are omnipresent and ever-evolving. You can’t just unleash a campaign, then wait weeks or months for the wave of enrollments to materialize. You must monitor your campaign daily and actively manage and optimize both the media and messaging based on what the data tells you is actually working.

At Paskill, our analysts are reviewing these campaigns every single day and making changes on a weekly basis based on performance.

When done well, it works!

A Pennsylvania university was spending large sums of money sponsoring the local professional sports teams. We suggested that they instead reallocate budget toward paid media properties more likely to generate the kind of awareness and leads they were looking for.

They gave us the green light, and our strategy had a huge impact. We more than doubled their open house attendance, while generating a significant increase in inquiries.

Campaigns that hit all the right notes

A trumpet can make beautiful music, but not everyone is Wynton Marsalis. It’s like that with paid media and enrollment marketing, too. Paid media can be an extremely effective tool for awareness, lead generation and driving action, but it all depends on who’s leading the band.

Gaining a performance advantage in your enrollment marketing campaign requires experience, expertise, creativity, and diligence. At Paskill, we have been handling digital marketing campaigns for higher ed for over 25 years. Our in-house media-buying and analytics teams work relentlessly to ferret out the sharpest insights leading to superior outcomes.

And you can be sure your message is being seen by actual people. Our tech resists ad fraud and ensures the reach and effectiveness of your media dollars.

Get in touch with us. We’re ready to help your enrollment marketing sing.