For many institutions, attracting a broader audience of prospective students is a mission second only to providing a world-class education. We spoke to Chief Operating Officer Ann-Louise Everett, Chief Executive Officer John Everett, and Executive Director of Business Development Peter Pinckney for insight into the strategic and effective marketing approaches that help Apollidon attract a diverse range of qualified students for our university partners. As an online program management leader, we work to implement all these strategies—and more—to help you meet your institution’s goals.

 

We Encourage International Students to Apply

The audience of potential students can’t get any broader in scope than international.

 

Apollidon’s Chief Operating Officer, Ann-Louise Everett: Particularly in the STEM fields, that is really an important strategy. We’ve done this for programs where we’ve had up to 60 different countries represented. There’s a huge potential population of undergrad engineering students, for example, but those audiences reside in a few specific countries.

If you’re reaching out to different countries, you have to understand their idiosyncrasies and tailor your marketing to [them]. So, building an international strategy, you have to do a lot of homework, a lot of market research to actually do it effectively. You also have to do competitive analysis.

 

Apollidon’s Executive Director of Business Development, Peter Pinckney: Some [institutions] are only going to market to students that are right in their cities or right in their region. If you narrow your focus, you limit your reach. You have to go outside your backyard.

 

We Use Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing is an essential part of reaching prospective online students, whether they’re in your town or on a different continent.

 

Apollidon’s Chief Executive Officer, John Everett: We’re looking for the particular target audience that matches the program. That’s what we’re spending our resources on: figuring out who that target audience is, and then making sure that the messaging … attracts that audience to that program.

 

Ann-Louise: You have to pick the audience and then speak to that audience. That’s what works. You can’t just do general, blanket, broad-based [marketing].

 

We Highlight the Advantages of Online Learning

Online learning has some unique advantages, some of which may appeal more to a specific demographic, though that can change over time.

 

Ann-Louise: There are times and places where that on-campus experience is totally appropriate and helpful in both education and the maturation process. To me, what’s cool about [the online format] is the fact that we have provided people with more options to get educated. That’s really the core of it. If you’re looking at grad [studies], online is becoming the preferred option, because older people tend to have more commitments: kids, families, work. [They] live far away from the school or want to go to a particular school for a particular degree that’s not in proximity to where they live. I would say that undergraduate online has traditionally been the same: Working adults are going back and finishing their degrees online.

 

We Make the Entire Process Smoother

For today’s students, a frustrating or inefficient application or onboarding process can present major obstacles and drive down your enrollments. If your marketing doesn’t show prospects that your institution has streamlined these processes, they may turn to a university that does.

 

Ann-Louise: We now live in an Amazon world. I put my product in an electronic basket and click. Anything that the university can do to create a student journey that is much smoother [is beneficial].

If I were a university, and I was looking at starting a new online program or marketing it to reach a wider audience, I’d have to identify who [that audience is], make it easy to find information about the program … [and ensure] competitive requirements and qualifications that aren’t just based on those of traditional or on-campus environments.

 

We Promote the Unique Differences of Your Offerings

You can’t show prospective students the same offerings they’ll see elsewhere and still expect your institution to be their obvious choice.

 

John: Universities have to differentiate themselves in some way. The top elite universities like the Harvards and the Penns have brand names. But below that tier, all the offerings out there are the same, unless you show in some way that you’re different and you’re more attractive to that audience than anybody else’s program: more offerings, more interesting offerings, more future-oriented offerings in terms of [career potential]. You have to be able to show students why they’re going to come to you and not the other 49 programs that are similar.

 

Your higher education institution can put competitor research and marketing concerns aside and rely on Apollidon Learning’s experienced, knowledgeable team to manage them. Let’s discuss your needs.