Nurture Campaigns Fuel Enrollment Success at Auburn

Challenge

Like many graduate business programs, the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University faced challenges in maintaining enrollment. With three distinct graduate programs— Real Estate Development, Executive MBA, and Physician Executive MBA — it was crucial to keep prospective students engaged and informed.

Solution

To address these challenges, Auburn University turned to our curated library of Nurture Campaigns. These campaigns are designed to keep prospective students engaged throughout the application process by providing valuable information and support. Here’s how they make a difference:

• Consistent Communication: Our Nurture Campaigns ensure that leads receive timely updates about program details, campus news, and success stories, keeping their interest alive.
• Personalized Engagement: By tailoring messages to meet the specific needs of prospective students, we help Auburn foster meaningful connections that encourage application completion.
• Enhanced Admissions Strategy: These campaigns allow the admissions team to reach and connect with more leads without requiring additional time and resources.

Results

By implementing Nurture Campaigns, Auburn has not only maintained contact with potential students but has also significantly improved the recruitment experience. This proactive approach positions prospective students to feel informed and supported, ultimately leading to higher enrollment rates.

The University of Washington pulled in high quality leads in one month

Challenge

The Foster School of Business at the University of Washington aimed to improve and maintain a steady flow of high-quality leads in its Executive MBA enrollment funnel. These candidates are highly motivated to pursue an MBA, increasing their likelihood to enroll and matriculate. Boosting the percentage of such candidates in the funnel enhances the program’s chances of meeting or exceeding its enrollment targets.

Solution

To attract these high-quality leads, we moved beyond traditional media channels and leveraged LinkedIn’s InMail feature. This allowed us to engage professionals in the Seattle metropolitan area who matched the demographics and experience of a typical Foster EMBA student. Our creative team emphasized the program’s focus on innovation, appealing to candidates interested in growth and development. The call-to-action directly invited prospects to learn more about the Foster EMBA program.

Results

The LinkedIn InMail campaign delivered immediate results:

• 325 qualified leads generated in one month.
• 54% open rate, significantly above the 20% average for traditional email campaigns.
• $54 cost per lead (CPL), far below the $200 industry benchmark for higher education.

This targeted approach not only brought in a high volume of interested candidates but also did so with exceptional cost-efficiency.

Discover How TCU Leveraged Persona Development for Success

Challenge

Despite rising global and national rankings, high alumni engagement, and a strong faculty presence, TCU Neeley faced a dip in enrollment due to fierce competition and resource limitations. A cost-effective solution was needed to sustain its personalized recruiting approach.

Solution

GPRS conducted a comprehensive audit, including interviews with alumni and students, to develop five distinct personas representing the ideal EMBA candidates through our Persona Development services. This allowed TCU to implement a segmented remarketing strategy and targeted email campaigns. Additionally, these personas were integrated into the curriculum to ensure the program met each student’s expected ROI, with specialized executive coaches and tailored learning tracks.

Results

With GPRS’ Persona Development services, as well as lead generation solution, the TCU Neeley Executive MBA Program increased the number of leads by 300% after just three months. In the second year, the program surpassed its diversity goals by enrolling a cohort with 31% female students and 50% from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, the EMBA program ascended to #13 in The Economist global rankings and was rated #5 in program quality.

The Harbert College of Business at Auburn University scratched its way to steady enrollment during the pandemic

Challenge

Like many graduate business programs. the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University was faced with the daunting task of maintaining enrollment during the pandemic. To make the task even more challenging, Auburn had 3 graduate business programs — Real Estate Development, Executive MBA, and Physicians Executive MBA — that needed to sustain enrollment.

Solution

We have enjoyed a strong and long-standing partnership with the Harbert College of Business. Our history together positioned us well to tackle the challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We leveraged the following advantages:

• We leveraged data collected over the first 5 years of our partnership to determine how we could adapt our marketing strategy in response to the changing marketplace
• We understood the program and student needs well and thus empowered us to market the program as if we are part of the team
• We helped Auburn improve the recruitment experience for prospective students and staff

Results

With these advantages and our experience in lead generation, we increased the number of leads for the three programs by 8%. These leads resulted in enrolled students that yielded $5.3M in revenue for the Harbert College of Business.

To maintain these outstanding results, Auburn has decided to use our curated library of Nurture Campaigns to engage leads generated by our digital marketing campaigns. The objective is to maintain contact with prospective students throughout the application process. In doing so, the prospective students are more informed and encouraged to continue the application process. Furthermore, the admissions team increases their reach and connections with prospective students without investing more time and resources.

The Zicklin School of Business Restores its Confidence in the Path Forward

Challenge

The Baruch College Zicklin School of Business needed to address shrinking enrollment for its Executive Programs, partially due to the market starting to view such programs as a “luxury”, and also based on the hyper-competitive New York City market.

The truth for Zicklin: Enrollment levels were insufficient for profitability, putting the sustainability of some of their programs at risk.

“We needed a firm to help us navigate that reality and work in tandem with us to make sure we were doing the best we could,” said Tricillia Jacob, Sr. Director of Administration & Operations of Executive Programs at Baruch Zicklin.

Solution

GPRS partnered with Zicklin, performing an in-depth Enrollment Growth Assessment designed to “diagnose” the cause of a school’s specific challenges.

The assessment began with an extensive questionnaire, and later included in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and a number of working sessions to prioritize goals and ideal outcomes.

“With the diagnostic, GPRS outlined recommended next steps – each action item regarding marketing and recruiting made sense to us,” said Gwen Webb, Associate Dean of Executive Programs at Baruch Zicklin.

Baruch needed to better track initial inquiries through to application, get a solid understanding of sources for leads, and track leads through the process.

In addition to long-term recommendations, the comprehensive report “identified some key areas that we could tackle right away,” said Jacob.

The assessment identified stalled leads as a key area to address immediately. GPRS stepped in with an immediate and impactful solution.

GPRS used the knowledge gathered from the assessment to implement its Call Center solutions to help Zicklin connect with interested prospects who were “stuck” in the funnel. The call center augmented Zicklin’s staff and gave prospects the personal touch needed to convert an inquiry into an enrolled student.

Results

In just a four-week period, the GPRS call center initiative re-engaged stalled prospects and set 162 appointments for Zicklin’s admissions teams.

GPRS’s assessment and calling solution not only increased short-term enrollment but also positioned Baruch on a path toward sustained growth and profitability, forging a lasting partnership.

“I want to keep GPRS to myself so they make me look better!” said Jacob. “I’m looking forward to working with them long-term.”

Salus University Delivers Healthy Enrollment Results

Challenge

Salus University is a private university in the Philadelphia metropolitan area that specializes in degree programs for health care professions. Salus was seeking solutions to attract professionals interested in pursuing careers in health care and needed the training provided their degree programs. They are also seeking candidates that wanted to attend a small institution that focuses solely on health care.

Solution

Salus engaged us to develop and implement an enrollment marketing strategy. We started by performing an Enrollment Growth Assessment to determine how to improve Salus’ marketing and recruiting processes. Thereafter, we identified 4 personas of prospective candidates that would be a fit for Salus’ programs. Each persona differed by the key driver of their interest in pursuing a career in health care. Creating campaigns and marketing messages focused on these drivers of interest were integral to the success of our campaigns.

As a result of the Enrollment Growth Assessment and Persona Development work, we changed the program positioning and modified the advertising to focus on the key drivers of interest among aspiring health care professionals.

Results

This approach had an immediate impact and delivered 871 qualified leads in the first five months of running the new campaigns. From a financial perspective, Salus realized a cost per click of 90 cents and a cost per lead of $163.47 — well below the higher education industry benchmark of $200.

The University of Arizona Eller College of Management enjoys rapid enrollment growth without breaking the bank

Challenge

The University of Arizona needed to increase awareness for its three existing MBA programs, while also launching a new online MBA program. Eller College leaders were concerned with the investment required to accomplish both objectives simultaneously. Moreover, there was also concern about how quickly a return on investment could be attained.

Solution

To generate awareness for the Eller MBA programs, GPRS utilized its proprietary Conversion Optimization Management (COM) process to create demand among interested professionals in the Arizona market. GPRS selected the appropriate media channels and types of advertisements (i.e., display ads or paid search) to connect with the target audience. We also designed the display advertisements to include content and images focused on motivating and engaging the desired prospective students. Using GPRS to do content development and lead generation ensured alignment and consistency in the messaging and execution of the campaigns.

To refine the campaigns and continue to improve the lead quality, GP Insights™ was deployed to determine the highest performing ads and media channels throughout the campaign. In doing so, we were able to optimize the Eller MBA media spend by investing in media channels and placing ads that were achieving the highest results.

Results

Using the combination of COM and GP Insights, we delivered a very healthy volume of pre-qualified leads to the Eller admissions team at a cost per lead (CPL) of $125 — well below the higher ed industry benchmark of $200. This cost savings accomplishment was surpassed by the success the admissions team had in converting these leads into enrolled students. 35% of enrolled students were identified through a GPRS campaign over two years resulting in $3.9M in tuition revenue and a 2,200% return on investment.

The University of Tennessee found the right channels to reach prospective students and reduce their advertising spend

Challenge

The University of Tennessee, Haslam College of Business needed support and expertise to market its growing portfolio of graduate business programs. The school sought out a partner that could help overcome the challenges of rapid growth, while simultaneously seizing the unique opportunities presented by each program.

Solution

GPRS led the development and execution of strategic, and highly targeted digital marketing campaigns for five unique graduate programs. They were:

• Executive MBA – Healthcare Leadership
• Executive MBA – Strategic Leadership
• Executive MBA – Global Supply Chain
• Physician Executive MBA
• Professional MBA

We created persona-driven direct response ads and selected high performing online media channels to build the Haslam School brand, and target specific prospective candidates for each program. Our team optimized the performance of each campaign based upon analytics derived from our GP Insights™ platform, and evolving digital marketing best practices. Most importantly, the Haslam School leadership had real-time visibility into our progress, and collaborated with our team to determine next steps – based on insights and recommendations shared during our regularly scheduled meetings together. Furthermore, we enabled the UT admissions team to track progress across all five programs in one place; saving time and resources required to have clarity on progress toward their enrollment goals.

Results

Our campaigns turbo-charged qualified lead generation for Haslam’s graduate business programs. We delivered 200% growth in leads, month over month, due to improvements in audience targeting, advertising spend allocation and program-specific expert media planning.

Lincoln University “knocked the socks” off their enrollment goals

Challenge

Lincoln University is the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Despite this unique distinction, Lincoln faced challenges with enrollment at the undergraduate and graduate level. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded an already tough situation for a small university trying to survive and remain relevant to today’s college student.

Solution

Lincoln hired GPRS to be its Agency of Record (AOR) – to assist its leadership in developing and implementing advanced enrollment marketing processes for the university, as well as increasing its brand recognition and enrollment numbers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Through this comprehensive relationship, we were engaged to deliver our full portfolio of marketing and enrollment support services, as well as technological solutions, to aid Lincoln in maintaining healthy and steady enrollment.

We started by performing an Enrollment Growth Assessment to define their ideal students and determine the key drivers in selecting Lincoln over other competitive institutions. We also examined why admitted students decided to enroll in other institutions, especially those that were not HBCUs. Our comprehensive report and recommendations became our action plan and the foundation of our partnership.

Among a lengthy series of initiatives we completed over just the first year of our multi-year partnership, these are a few that stand out:

• Working in conjunction with the Lincoln I.T. team, we developed a roadmap to optimize www.lincoln.edu to improve its ranking in search engine results. Performing SEO was an important and necessary step in ensuring that Lincoln was positioned to outrank their competitors, increase the volume of organic leads, and improve the Cost Per Click (CPC) of the digital marketing campaigns – by improving quality scores.
• We launched a coordinated series of branding and enrollment marketing campaigns, focused on attracting African-American, college-bound students from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. In addition to digital tactics like Email, SEM, Social, Display, and advanced forms of retargeting and CRM remarketing, we also launched radio spots, billboards, bus shelter/interior ads, and direct mail campaigns.
• In order to help prospective students along their student journey, and get a higher percentage of the inquiries to apply (and ultimately enroll), we designed a sophisticated Communications Lifecycle, integrated into their CRM, to nurture prospective undergrad and grad students through their decision-making journey.
• To help improve undergraduate enrollment yield, our creative team launched a “Missing Something?” campaign where admitted students received a single branded Lincoln University sock via direct mail. They were informed that they would receive the other sock when they arrived on campus for registration. The campaign was a viral hit, and created excitement and anticipation for the new Lincoln recruits.
• Our Contact Center (Call Center) was also deployed to help build relationships with high school counselors, to schedule campus visits, dramatically increase Open House attendance, and keep Lincoln’s value proposition top-of-mind in a very competitive market.

The University of South Alabama achieved success without breaking the bank and compromising quality

Challenge

The University of South Alabama needed help creating awareness and demand for its PhD program in business administration. Their initial investment in a digital campaign with a local vendor delivered only 63 leads over a 12 month period. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, creating an economic crisis that increased uncertainty for higher education recruiting. Given these factors, coupled with a limited market of prospective PhD candidates, South Alabama had an immediate need for help improving their enrollment marketing efforts.

Solution

Working closely with the South Alabama PhD program, GPRS crafted marketing messages and designed ads focused on targeting and attracting the highest caliber, and most interested candidates. We selected the most promising platforms, determined the optimal timing, and identified affordable keywords to maximize the program’s visibility to its target audience in search engines, social networks, and digital media channels. Using our proprietary optimization platform, GP Insights™, as well as proven lead generation techniques, we were able to match the same 63 inquiries in just the first month, followed by 88 the second month. Within 6 months of our engagement, the qualified inquiry count had topped 400 qualified leads.

Results

Through careful research and planning, as well as micro-targeting, GPRS was able to deliver a 535% increase over the previous year’s results… and in half the time. More importantly, South Alabama received 81 applications from PhD candidates excited to join their program.