Filling the Gaps: How a Transparent Partnership Began

I recently met with a university dean to discuss her school ending their long OPM relationship. In the last year of that relationship, no enrollment was generated for their fall cohort.

As they began to think about the future, it was clear that they would be moving on with little knowledge of the marketing and conversion efforts that were used during the many years they put these things in the hand of their “partner.” How would they proceed with recruiting for these online programs themselves without the internal expertise or staffing, and with very little tuition revenue to make changes? 

Building a sound enrollment partnership in four steps

As we worked together with this university, we wanted to make sure our partnership was collaborative, data-driven, efficient, and especially transparent (all the things their previous OPM relationship was not). Together, we laid out a plan:

1. Conduct market research

We determined the supply of similar programs in their market as well as the employer demand for graduates with these degrees/skills. We examined the average compound annual rate of growth for competitors’ programs, then paired this with the projected job outlook for this career field to estimate enrollment goals. We then considered these data alongside research indicating factors that are most desirable in terms of “product design” for these programs (cost, time to completion, modality, and other program attributes) and the marketing/enrollment process (digital strategies, speed-to-lead, multi-channel approach). By working together on this research, we showed them how and where to access similar data in the future.

2. Develop an enrollment-focused marketing strategy.

Using enrollment targets for the following fall cohort, we worked backwards to calculate the number of:

• admissions needed to hit the enrollment targets.
• applications to generate those admissions.
• raw/scrubbed/prospective/contacted/qualified inquiries needed to produce that number of applications.

From that point, we could create a marketing strategy that was focused on hitting enrollment targets. By working together on this entire goal setting process, they would be equipped to take more ownership in future years.

Researching the average marketing investment used by universities intending to grow programs, we used a cost of 10 percent of tuition revenue as our benchmark for budgeting. We broke that budget into 40 percent for digital advertising and 60 percent for web development and search engine optimization for their program pages. (RNL research shows that adult students search for program attributes, not university brand.) The digital efforts would be focused on a carefully-honed strategy of research-based persona development, A/B testing of channel placement, and regular monitoring of important KPIs to continue tweaking campaigns to meet or exceed metrics. As we worked together on these marketing efforts in a transparent way, institutional stakeholders would be learning from “over our shoulder.”

3. Ensure conversion tactics are in place to handle these leads.

Initially, it was clear that the school did not have the staff to handle the anticipated lead capacity, so we deployed on-demand videos to all prospective students who submitted RFI forms within 1-2 minutes of their hitting the “submit” button. (RNL research shows that prospects are most likely to enroll at the school who responds to their inquiry first.)

Then we employed a qualify and transfer campaign, contacting each inquiry through a series of multichannel communications to determine their interest and pre-qualify them as a lead before transferring them to the university’s short-staffed admissions team. Alongside this work, we had built into the CRM an extensive communications flow from the point of inquiry through enrollment to assist staff in continually and consistently messaging prospective students. These efforts are something that internal resources are often ill-equipped to do, and so this collaboration would demonstrate a good partner relationship.

4. Build internal capacity through training and hiring new staff.

Throughout this entire process, the school would have access to 24/7 dashboards for detailed inquiry information and metrics, performance of each web page, video viewing and forwarding, calling campaigns, and progress toward enrollment goals. Biweekly meetings with staff provided training on these tools and the sharing of results and best practice tactics. The school asked if we could write job descriptions for positions that most urgently needed filling, and we were happy to help.

Hitting enrollment targets while also enabling organizational independence

This overall marketing and recruitment strategy allowed the school to build their own capacity without missing enrollment targets. Partners like RNL can act as a gap-filler, supplementing the institution’s efforts where needed.  And then as tuition revenue is realized, schools can increase staffing and gradually bringing certain functions in house, reducing dependence on outside partners. 

As more and more schools move away from their OPM relationship and seek vendors who will come alongside them to provide scalable online enrollment growth without sacrificing transparency and ownership, higher ed tech companies will need to adapt with flexible models and pricing. Careful evaluation of the market potential, the programs offered, and the recruitment strategies is essential. And universities should seek partners who will teach and assist them to meet these challenges.

See how to scale for growth and grow your online footprint at the 2023 Graduate and Online Innovation Summit

We will explore many of the strategies I discussed at the 2023 Graduate and Online Innovation Summit. This one-day virtual summit features a wealth of information: trends, research, insights, strategies, and answers to many of the most challenging enrollment questions.

Take a look at the agenda and consider joining us for the day. Many who have attended our previous summits have also found it helpful to bring a team so you can start discussing how to fill the gaps now in order to build independence for tomorrow. I hope you will join us.