RECRUITMENT & MARKETING
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The Content Marketing Playbook 5 Proven Strategies for Successful Student Recruitment Presented by Tony Fraga and Jamie Gleason, DD Agency Recorded by Amy Carver, Iowa State University
Tony and Jamie discussed the importance of utilizing a carefully developed plan to attract and recruit more right-fit students by leveraging and optimizing content. With limited resources, it is important to focus on a methodology that is sustainable, and not put all resources into one or two tactics. DD Agency uses a flywheel approach, a self-sustaining marketing model for content strategy to attract, engage, and delight prospective students. DD Agency reviewed successful content strategies to grow programs, their focus was on implementing the right content, in the right place, at the right time. Here are some of the strategies: • Explore ways to launch new programs with an unattractive/unpopular name. When faced with such a challenge, one school chose to build awareness but use an attractive or popular search term rather than the program’s name. It is possible to build awareness without talking about the program through pieces that drive to secondary content on the program itself. When utilizing paid search there may be an initial spike in results but organically there will be long-term results that still produce leads for the program. • Build a lead pipeline that is organically sustained and ties into a unique value proposition (UVP) by researching broad content topics. One school identified broad topics, brainstormed a variety of subtopics, and published content on short-form media, e.g., blogs. Once the blogs getting the most clicks were identified, the content was cross-promoted and cross-linked. These were not stagnate pieces but content that was modified to be the most relevant and republished. • Utilize technology as a strategy. A graduate school with multiple programs needed to reduce friction at the consideration-stage–they chose to implement a chatbot. The chatbot redirects prospects to existing, hard to find content that already exists. In the example NAGAP.org
presented, the graduate school was able to increase engagement with content, generate first-time leads, and engage in secondary conversions with existing prospects. • Utilize unique value propositions (UVP) to improve yield and reduce melt. To promote decision-stage value, one school developed a pillar page filled with data about the institution to overcome objections. This content strategy focuses not only on the program, but fosters thought leadership. • Create a sense of urgency to re-engage stalled inquiries to drive application submission. One school achieved this through email communications which drove prospects to a landing page to request fee waivers, view follow-up reminders, or other relevant information to encourage application submission. The DD Agency dug into strategies used for different purposes–demonstrating why and how they worked and the overall short and long-term impact realized by each strategy. n Summer 2022
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