Higher Education
Leverage business partnerships to cultivate a dedicated pipeline of prospective students.
The challenge at hand was two-fold. First, many businesses were not aware of how educational partnerships could address key issues such as employee retention. Educating these businesses about the tangible benefits of such collaborations was essential. Second, we needed to effectively identify and engage with the right businesses that would truly benefit from these partnerships. This involved not only reaching out to them but also cutting through the noise in a market saturated with numerous partnership offers.
The University-to-Business (U2B) campaign prioritized lead generation and nurturing to enhance long-term engagement and results. We developed custom personas relevant to the businesses that helped us hone in on messaging strategies to use in the campaign. We focused on fans — individuals who see employees as a key component of their company's success and want to support and advocate for them — and incentivisors — those who use the program as a job perk.
To support demand generation we utilized video content for awareness, sponsored content for engagement, and conversation ads for leads on LinkedIn; while Google Search was implemented to capture demand using non-branded and branded search terms.
Programmatic banners and video were used for both keeping the program top-of-mind and retargeting through an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach, optimizing ad spend.
Native Advertising & Content Syndication were essential for nurturing potential businesses by delivering tailored content that highlighted the issues and identified solutions for employee retention.
A portion of the budget was reserved for testing new methods, such as audio, additional video, geofencing, and event support. This flexibility allowed for quick adaptations based on what was most effective in nurturing leads.
The original campaign was so successful that we paused business outreach and shifted strategies to reach employees within partner organizations.
Collaborating with businesses not only supports workforce development but also serves as a powerful conduit for student recruitment.
A cohesive digital strategy across multiple platforms enhances reach and engagement, proving critical in the highly saturated online education market.
Consistent, authentic messaging across channels is vital in making the educational brand relatable and memorable, leading to an increase in potential student interest and engagement.