THE CHALLENGE: FINDING & ENGAGING A UNIQUE AUDIENCE

Trinity Law School, a devout Christian university, is an established institution with the unique challenge of recruiting a very niche pool of students for their advanced degree programs.

Trinity initially approached Archer looking for help generating inquiry volume with our proven cost-per-inquiry program. But we saw a much greater opportunity than just generating initial inquiries for the university.

Because Trinity serves such a unique type of student, focusing solely on inquiry volume wasn’t going to be the most effective approach to grow enrollment. Trinity needed to tap into an audience of qualified prospective students that best aligned with their values and degree programs, and were, therefore, more likely to enroll. We believed starting with identifying the right audience would be the most effective enrollment marketing approach.

Secondly, because the path to enrollment can often take up to a year or more, especially for advanced degrees, we knew it was important to keep prospective students engaged with Trinity’s brand. We wanted to create a stronger, lasting conversation with prospective students, while keeping Trinity top-of-mind throughout their search for continuing education.

THE SOLUTION

1. Identify the Right Students

In order to tap into highly qualified audiences that would be more likely to enroll, we began by identifying the best criteria for Trinity’s ideal student. We worked closely with Trinity to identify a custom demographic profile and define audience parameters for prospective students to help us find more of the right individuals to target for Trinity’s programs. We used that audience to create lookalikes on social channels, allowing Trinity to connect with a new pool of prospective students they had previously never reached.

2. Send the Right Message

After creating the most effective target profile, we identified high-performing marketing channels to reach their audience in the most effective ways. Then we developed creative messaging that would resonate best with prospective students, focusing on career outcomes, faith-based education and flexible formats.

3. Keep Prospective Students Engaged

The next step was to use remarketing messaging that addressed prospective student questions/concerns and offered to waive the application fee with a code in the ad copy to encourage students to apply. Inquiries were passed to the Trinity Admissions team indicating which ad creative prospects had responded to. This allowed Trinity’s admissions team to take a personalized approach in their follow up.

4. Test. Optimize. Repeat.

Once we initiated the marketing plan, we worked closely with the Trinity team and constantly tested creative and placement to optimize our approach.

RESULTS

What a difference a year with Archer can make. Not only did we grow our relationship to become trusted, collaborative partners with Trinity Law School, we also saw huge success with our campaigns. Both programs saw a significant increase in inquiry volume, but the strategic approach to find and nurture more of the right students resulted in higher conversion rates. Within 12 months, Trinity saw an 81% increase in applications with a 24% reduction in their Cost-Per-Application across both programs.

BECOMING ARCHER

The most exciting aspect of this partnership has been the success of Trinity Law School and their increased ability to enroll students. But their success changed how we defined ours. We realized that it was imperative to rebrand our company, as we had evolved from our beginnings as Campus Explorer, a vendor-based provider, to a more collaborative company with broad expertise in enrollment marketing. One that can partner with schools to help them identify greater opportunities and execute smarter, more strategic marketing plans. To learn more about how we can help grow enrollment with our strategic enrollment marketing services like Market Research, Brand & Creative Strategy, Marketing Strategy & Execution, Application Management, and Retention Services, contact us today.

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