6. Swipe left or right?
First impressions matter! Spend the time and
money to look clean, polished, and professional.
7. We dress to impress!
• Hire professionals or get training (graphic
designer, web developers, photographers)
• Follow institution branding guidelines
• Strategic writing practices
10. First, understand. Then, reflect.
• Aspirational voice, not empathetic
• Career focused mindset
• Photos of a variety of real students
• Relatable: “Get a certificate in less time than
you spent doing your taxes last year”
11. Right place, right time
If you build it…
…. They won’t just show up.
They’ve got kids
and jobs and stuff.
12. When and where?
• Importance of SEO.
• Late afternoon timing for recruiting
webinars.
• Blackout times of 6-8pm for social
advertisements.
• Consider time zones of geographic
locations you draw from.
13. Start on the same page
• Understand what they already know
• Learn what they expect from your relationship
• Ask what they want to tell others about your
relationship
• Have they had any bad experiences they wish to
avoid?
• Are they new to this?
14. Where we’re starting
• No longer focusing on the fact that online learning is
convenient and flexible. They know.
• Real-world benefits of degree.
• Employer perspective of degree completed online.
• Including “square one” info: Definitions of common
University terms, visual tutorials for our learning
platforms, etc.
15. Have common Future Goals
Align with their desired outcomes:
• Work
• Family
• Personal
16. Our Goals for our students:
• Help them take the next step in their career.
• Be an institution that they are proud to attend.
• Ensure they feel part of the community, even
from a distance.
• Be flexible and convenient to fit in their busy
lives, while maintaining a high level of academic
integrity.
• Offer exceptional proactive support, with many
options for reactive support when needed.
17. Give and Take
Two-way dialogue takes effort in any
relationship…. especially in a digital world.
18. We’re here for our students
• Orientation webinar with advisor
• Facebook student community
• Study session program
• Meet and Mingle events
• LiveChat service online after hours
• Mid-term Q&A webinars
• Monthly e-news
19. Highlights
• Learn who our students are and what
they’re looking for.
• Portray a crisp, clean, inclusive message
that meets their needs.
• Right place, right time.
• Let them know you’re here and listening.
• Highlight our strengths. Or BUILD our
strengths to meet their needs.
Further, we saw that the proportion of exclusively online students in our courses, compared to on-campus students was quickly increasing. Some are as high as 25% distance students. (1 of 4) - meaning that our students gravitate towards some courses more than others (observationally, they tend to be those that are more professionally applicable: writing, law, employment relations, etc . . .)
"Do they give a good visual impression? Do they have kids? What do they do for a living? Where does he/she see themselves in 5 years?"
Creating a successful marketing campaign to recruit online learners is a lot like online dating. In both cases, its crucial to have a realistic understanding about who you are, and who you're looking for. The challenge is finding a way to understand your ideal candidate beyond the basic information seen on their online profile, or in our case - their university application.
This session will walk through how Queen's University (Arts and Science Online) went beyond "first date chit-chat" to dig deep and understand who the students on the other end of the computers are. We'll discuss how this information shaped a clearer marketing strategy, and also trickled into building amazing online student communities that help promote retention.
68% have some post secondary education completed
54% to directly affect their career
Avg age 33. not our typical recruiting images
33% have kids
77% working (60% FT)
Late afternoon timing for recruiting webinars (end of work day. Before family time)
Blackout times of 6-8pm for "Family Time" and commuting for social ads, etc.
