The efficiency of marketing and enrollment tools in recruitment of online master degree students in the US

Abstract

The industry of higher education in the United States is significant; more than 4,600 degree granting institutions serve more than 20 million students in an industry sized at $600 billion dollars. Online education is gaining acceptance by universities and colleges; while traditional enrollments are shrinking, purely online institutions and enrollments are growing. As online expands and flattens the landscape, students, especially nontraditional working adults, have a wide new set of options and opportunities when seeking to obtain a master degree. To compete in this new space, universities are adopting more complex marketing strategies previously not necessary to fulfill their missions. Based on the real performance of more than 20,000 leads and 500 enrollments across 7 programs, 6 intakes and two years of online marketing and recruitment, this doctoral thesis contributes original findings to the body of knowledge and industry practice. The study provides an empirical framework for online master degree enrollments including the lead generation, conversion and commitment phases of the process; for each stage, different tools are tested for efficiency, as well as potential differences of behavior among age groups and geographies. Analyzing the results, the work proves that traditional out of home marketing is not efficient in the lead generation phase; it also demonstrates a strong positive impact of email nurturing of leads for conversion and a positive impact of the implementation of early faculty engagement in the commitment of the students to begin their programs. The research also shows, contrary to initial expectations, that the channel performance is similar across states and that applicants of different ages and generations behave similarly, reacting at the same level to different channels including social media and converting from the initial inquiry to the time they become student at a similar speed.