Higher Ed Personalized Marketing Yields Highest Enrollment in a Decade

CLIENT

North Carolina Central University – Admissions Department

OUR EXPERTISE

GOAL/OBJECTIVES

Increase student yield through personalized multi-channel engagement, student segmentation, and strategic advertising and events.

33%

Yield Increase
Highest Enrollment in Over a Decade

RESULTS

Automation + Personalization Yields Remarkable Enrollment Numbers

With targeted strategies and automation to segment emails for students at varying stages of the application process, NCCU saw record enrollment numbers, including a boost in submitted applications, completed applications, paid deposits, and enrolled students – making it the highest number of incoming enrollments in over a decade.

54%

Increase

In year-over-year completed applications

30%

Boost

In paid deposits
within 1 year

33%

Growth

In overall
yield

North Carolina Central University is ranked as a top Historically Black College or University (HBCU) that prepares students to succeed in the global marketplace through flagship programs in the sciences, education, law, business, nursing and the arts. They needed to expand their reach to ideal students to boost applications and paid deposits across programs but lacked internal capacity and processes to personalize, segment, and move campaigns forward effectively.

THE CHALLENGE

Inconsistent Communication and Gap in Resources

The NCCU Office of Undergraduate Admissions needed to boost their enrollment numbers, but with a small team and limited resources, it was time to implement strategic changes that would make a big impact.

They realized students were receiving confusing and inconsistent communications, and they needed more support throughout the application process, so we needed to fill the gaps through resources and consistent outreach to build relationships.

To support branding initiatives and full-funnel engagement, the NCCU Brand & Marketing Office supported NCCU Undergraduate Admissions by reallocating its budget to communicate with and support prospective students throughout their journey and transition into college.

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

Genuine Relationship Building Through Personalized Touchpoints

Prospective students require a more personal, authentic, approach to higher education recruitment, so our team built a strategy around student-centric channels and adapted it to fit the ideal prospective student for NCCU.

Every student is different, and conducting market research to find the target persona is a crucial step in the ideating process, so we nurtured the students with personal touchpoints and provided them with events catered to their demographic, which yielded the highest admissions numbers in 10+ years. We wanted to make sure that no matter the communication or learning style, students would have what they need. Activities included email sequences, paid advertising, organic social, and in-person/online events such as webinars, Open House, sports activation, Chancellor tours, and a Sneaker Ball for incoming prospective students.

Target

Strategically draw in prospective students and their parents

Personalize

Built an authentic student journey around multi-channel touchpoints

Segment

Identify and interact based on funnel stages and timelines

Activate

In-person and online events to introduce students and faculty