Most higher education marketers are faced with a myriad of options when it comes to marketing a degree program. Yet without a complete understanding of each channel, it’s difficult for you to determine which marketing strategy is most effective in meeting your program’s enrollment goals. Each degree program and audience is different and has it’s own nuances, making the work of a higher education marketer that much more challenging. But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be. This quick guide is designed to provide you with solutions to the situations that you’re likely facing each semester as you look to generate more programmatic inquiries, increase return-on-investment, promote brand awareness and most importantly, meet enrollment goals.

1. WHICH MARKETING CHANNEL IS
THE RIGHT FIT FOR YOUR
DEGREE PROGRAM?

2. Most higher education marketers are faced with a
myriad of options when it comes to marketing a
degree program. Yet without a complete understanding
of each channel, it’s difficult for you to determine which
marketing strategy is most effective in meeting your
program’s enrollment goals. Each degree program and
audience is different and has it’s own nuances, making
the work of a higher education marketer that much more
challenging. But the good news is that it doesn’t have to
be.
This quick guide is designed to provide you with solutions
to the situations that you’re likely facing each semester as
you look to generate more programmatic inquiries,
increase return-on-investment, promote brand awareness
and most importantly, meet enrollment goals.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 I Need to Generate Traffic and Leads
Quickly and Efficiently
5 I Would Like to Generate More Inquiries
While Also Building the Foundation for
Sustainable, Quality Future Lead Flow
7 I need to Increase Awareness and
Thought Leadership for
My Degree Program
13 Who We Are
THE HIGHER
EDUCATION MARKET
IS MORE COMPETITIVE
THAN EVER
2

3. I NEED TO GENERATE WEBSITE TRAFFIC
AND LEADS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY
Keyword-Based Search - Encompassing Google, Bing
and Yahoo, these platforms focus on targeting
audiences who are actively searching for degree
programs based on key terms and phrases relevant
to your university and degree program. This traffic
tends to be further along in the decision-making
process and are well-suited to engage with your
enrollment team.
Social Paid Search - Leveraging Facebook, LinkedIn
and Twitter, you have the ability to segment your
target audience into highly specific subsets based
on plethora of indicators, including location, job title,
field of study, personal interests and professional
associations.
3
Google’s search engine
processed over 11.29 billion
search queries in July 2015 alone.
With 92% of the traffic not
moving beyond the first
page of search results
Invest in: Paid Search (keyword-based and social)
What is Paid Search?
Paid-per-click marketing strategies allow you the
ability to target individuals in two distinct, yet
extremely effective inquiry-generating ways:
Sources:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/265796/us-search-engines-ranked-by-number-of-core-searches/
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2276184/no-1-position-in-google-gets-33-of-search-traffic-study

4. 4
Why Paid Search is a Quick and Efficient
Way to Generate Inquiries
Can be setup and launched within a few short hours
Paired with stand-alone landing pages, can result in higher
than normal conversion rates
Campaigns can be shut on and off anytime, allowing for tight
control of budgets
Enables powerful geo-targeting abilities
Provides marketers with the ability to re-engage past visitors
through retargeting
Offers advanced segmentation abilities
Learn More About Paid Search
Five Ways to Target Potential Students with LinkedIn Paid Ads
A Higher Education Marketer’s Guide to Conversion Rate
Optimization: Paid Socialhttp://circaedu.com/hemj/a-higher-education-marketers-guide-to-conversion-rate-optimization-paid-social/
How to Effectively Construct a Facebook Promoted Post
http://circaedu.com/hemj/five-ways-to-target-potential-students-with-linkedin-paid-ads/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/how-to-effectively-construct-a-facebook-promoted-post/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/five-ways-to-target-potential-students-with-linkedin-paid-ads/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/how-to-effectively-construct-a-facebook-promoted-post/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/a-higher-education-marketers-guide-to-conversion-rate-optimization-paid-social/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/a-higher-education-marketers-guide-to-conversion-rate-optimization-paid-social/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/a-higher-education-marketers-guide-to-conversion-rate-optimization-paid-social/

5. I WOULD LIKE TO GENERATE MORE INQUIRIES
WHILE ALSO BUILDING THE FOUNDATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE, QUALITY LEAD FLOW
5
Invest in: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of
getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or
“natural” search results on search engines such as
Google and Bing. Search engines utilize over 100
ranking factors to determine their search engine results
pages (SERPs), the most important being backlinks.
Backlinks are “incoming links” where people elsewhere
on the Internet are talking about and linking to your
website. Backlinks are generated through a process
called link building, which includes a combination of
content marketing, digital PR and other link-generating
methods.

6. 6
Why SEO is Important When Marketing a Degree Program
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of
getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or
“natural” search results on search engines such as
Google and Bing. Search engines utilize over 100
ranking factors to determine their search engine results
pages (SERPs), the most important being backlinks.
Backlinks are “incoming links” where people elsewhere
on the Internet are talking about and linking to your
website. Backlinks are generated through a process
called link building, which includes a combination of
content marketing, digital PR and other link-generating
methods.
Why is SEO an Ideal Long-Term Investment
As target SERP rankings are reached, SEO costs will
decrease but the traffic generated will remain constant
or increase with regular maintenance
Paid marketing channels will require the same investment
each month to generate the same amount of traffic.
Not the same case with SEO
SEO is known for producing quality inquiries who are
ready to make a decision on where they want to attend
school. Your admissions team will thnak you.
The “Evergreen” content leveraged to produce backlinks
(Infographics, video and PR opportunities) will generate
brand awareness, website traffic and backlinks many
months into the future.
Learn More About Paid Search
SEO Best Practices for Lead Generation in Higher Educationhttp://circaedu.com/hemj/seo-best-practices-for-lead-generation-in-higher-education/
Increase University Brand Awareness: Sharable Content
Higher Ed Content Marketing: 10 Types of Contenthttp://circaedu.com/hemj/higher-ed-content-marketing-10-types-of-content/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/a-higher-education-marketers-guide-to-conversion-rate-optimization-paid-social/
71% of searches result
in a page one click, 67% in the
top five results alone
Source: Moz
http://circaedu.com/hemj/increase-university-brand-awareness-shareable-content/

7. I NEED TO INCREASE AWARENESS AND THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP FOR MY DEGREE PROGRAM
7
What is Digital PR?
With a focus on telling the stories that make the degree
program and their professors unique, digital PR leverages
faculty knowledge and expertise to create high-quality
branding and link-building opportunities.
The Key Strengths of Digital PR in Higher Education
Distinguishes your program from competitors
Defines program differentiators
Leverages faculty as thought leaders in their respective
fields
Promotes program and faculty brand awareness
Highlights faculty research and breakthroughs
Builds extremely high quality and valuable backlinks
for SEO
Digital PR and social media are two essential tools for
increasing awareness and thought leadership for your
online degree programs. Although both can be
implemented simultaneously, efforts are most successful
when content adheres to each platform’s key strengths.
Source: Bloomgroup & Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF)
93% of readers find
that high-quality content
improves their opinion of a brand,
while 94% say that poor content
lowers their opinion

8. 8
Learn More about Digital PR and Social Media
The Key Strengths of Social Media in Higher Education
Nurtures a community for current, former, and prospective
students
Creates and expands brand awareness
Offers a platform for sharing university and programmatic
news and updates
Acts as another touchpoint in the conversion funnel and
is often a key component of the decision-making process
Increase University Brand Awareness: Sharable Content
Leveraging Research and Faculty in Highered Internet Marketinghttp://circaedu.com/hemj/leveraging-research-and-faculty-in-highered-internet-marketing/
http://circaedu.com/hemj/increase-university-brand-awareness-shareable-content/http://circaedu.com/hemj/increase-university-brand-awareness-shareable-content/
57%
of prospective students leverage
social media to research potential
universities and programs
Source: Digital Trends

9. WHO WE ARE
9
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