Learn to attract and recruit adult learners and “non-traditional” students as marketing teams from three schools’ admissions and marketing directors. Learn what admission and retention strategies are working for these three schools in engaging adult learners. Relevant for college and university enrollment professionals.

1. THE NEW TYPICAL STUDENTHOW THREE SCHOOLS ARE COURTING ADULT
LEARNERS AND WINNING THE ENROLLMENT GAME
Melissa Marcello
Managing Director
Champlain College
Division of Continuing
Professional Studies
Andrea Fagon
Director of Marketing
and Communications
CUNY School of
Professional Studies
Cristina Ruggiero, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
University of Pittsburgh
College of General Studies
Jason Smith
Managing Director
OHO Interactive

2. 38% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
ARE 25 YEARS OR OLDER.
National Center for Education Statistics
THE NEW “TYPICAL” STUDENT
https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/research-adult-learners-supporting-needs-student-population-no

3. THE NEW “TYPICAL” STUDENT
WHAT DOES “NON-TRADITIONAL” MEAN?
▸ Independent of parents for financial aid reasons
▸ Having one or more dependents
▸ Being a single caregiver
▸ Not having a traditional high school diploma
▸ Delaying postsecondary enrollment
▸ Stopping out of degree program for many reasons
▸ Attending school part time
▸ Being employed full time

4. 31% OF ALL STUDENTS HAD 2-3
NONTRADITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS.
74% HAD NO NONTRADITIONAL
CHARACTERISTICS.
National Center for Education Statistics
THE NEW “TYPICAL” STUDENT
http://www.ecampusnews.com/research/nontraditional-student-nces/?all

5. SCHOOL PROFILE
CUNY SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
▸ 2,800 students
▸ Student mix: 85% Online
▸ Demographics: 25-45,
60% female, Undergraduates
are degree completer's.
▸ Key focus areas:
Business, Communications,
Psychology, Nursing RN to BS

6. SCHOOL PROFILE
CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE ONLINE
▸ 4,300 Active Students
▸ 100% Online
▸ Demographics:
▸ 47% female, 53% male
▸ Avg. age 36
▸ 65% from partner orgs
▸ Key focus areas:
▸ Business & Technology

7. SCHOOL PROFILE
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH - COLLEGE OF GENERAL STUDIES
▸ 1,005 total with 776 FTE
▸ Student mix: Offer on-line and
hybrid and evening courses. No
100% online programs.
▸ Demographics: 78.1% under
the age of 30. 47.4% between
21-25
▸ Key focus areas: Criminal
Justice, Media &
Communications, Natural
Sciences/Health Services

8. PROSPECTS

9. WHAT IS AN ADULT LEARNER?
HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT
FROM OTHER STUDENTS?
PROSPECTS

10. PROGRAMS

11. PROGRAMS
ONLINE / HYBRID / IN PERSON / SELF-PACED
10%
5%
85%
CUNY
12%
46% 12%
29%
Online Hybrid In Person Self Paced
PITT-CGS
100%
CHAMPLAIN

12. WHAT UNIQUE APPROACHES
TO YOUR PROGRAM OFFERS
HAVE YOU TAKEN?
PROGRAM OFFERING

13. PROGRAMS
WHAT ARE THE TOP PROGRAMS AND WHY?
▸ CUNY Online
▸ Online RN-BS in Nursing, BS in Business, BS in Communication and Media, MA in Data
Analytics, MA in Psychology, MS in Business Management and Leadership.
▸ CGS
▸ BS Natural Sciences, BS/BA Health Services [gateway to professional health programs; i.e. MD,
physical therapy, physician assistant]
▸ BA Media & Professional Communications [digital media, pr, marketing (w/o having to do
business degree)]
▸ BA Administration of Justice [law enforcement, corrections, cybersecurity]
▸ Champlain Online
▸ BS Business, BS Accounting, MBA
▸ BS Cybersecurity, BS Computer Forensics, MS Digital Forensics

14. PROMOTION

15. PROMOTION
PARTNERSHIP CHANNEL – CHAMPLAIN
67%
33%
69%
31%
Undergraduate
truED - Std. Enrollment
Graduate
truED - Std. Enrollment

16. PROMOTION
ROLE OF WEBSITE
▸ Serves prospective students along the decision-making
continuum
▸ More than an online viewbook - at it's best it's a full
experience of the place (even a virtual place)
▸ User expectation and use case is multi-device
▸ It could be the only admission counselor for 25%+
students

17. PROMOTION
ROLE OF WEBSITE
▸ Content customized
for AT&T employees
▸ Reinforce employer
messaging
▸ Clear CTAs
▸ Presumption is
BOFU/"Intent"
rather than TOFU

18. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CHAMPLAIN
▸ Partnership (truED) & standard funnel
▸ A local & national marketing strategy
▸ A new sub-brand
▸ Multichannel investments including earned media

19. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CHAMPLAIN
Evolution of the Champlain Online Sub-brand:
National & Local Campaigns

20. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CHAMPLAIN
MS Information Security
Operations 1/21/2016 Launch
First cohort: March 2016

21. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CHAMPLAIN
Impact of Earned Media & Paid Search Spend on Web Traffic/Leads

22. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CGS
‣ Digital Marketing-GPS,
Google Display, Facebook,
Bing
‣ 1/3 of prospect pool
comes from digital
marketing
‣ 16% of applications from
digital marketing
campaign leads came
from Facebook

23. PROMOTION
WHAT IS WORKING – CGS
▸ Community
College
Advertising
‣ Messaging:
Flexible course delivery,
degree completion,
transfer credits

24. DEDICATED PROGRAMMATIC LANDING PAGES
TARGETED SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MARKETING
WHAT IS WORKING – CUNY SPS
‣ INCREASED LEADS = INCREASED APPLICATIONS PER PROGRAMS

25. INSTITUTIONAL BRAND CAMPAIGN
WORKING AT BEING CREATIVE– CUNY SPS

26. SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND CAMPAIGN / CONTESTS
#WEARECUNYONLINE
WORKING AT BEING CREATIVE– CUNY SPS

27. PROMOTION
1:1 MARKETING AND ACTIVE PROSPECT TRACKING

28. Goal: Recruit students
1:1 Marketing
Personalization
Anonymous User

36. Goal: Recruit students
1:1 Marketing
Personalization
Anonymous User
Admissions
“Hot List”
“Named User”

37. PLACE

38. HOW DO YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN
YOUR SCHOOL WITHIN THE LARGER
COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY?
PLACE

39. PLACE
WHERE DO YOU FIT IN THE SCHOOL?
▸ “29%:The share of college undergraduates who are traditional
students.”
▸ Connection to the institution overall
▸ What challenges do you face?
▸ Get away from talking about the “freshman” residential
experience
▸ Admissions deadlines vs. rolling admission
▸ How have you overcome these challenges?

40. WRAPPING IT UP
3 TAKE AWAYS
▸ In marketing to non-traditional students, it’s less about
finding them and more about them finding you.
▸ Your institution’s value proposition and key messages must
be tailored to the non-traditional audience: what is
important to a 17-year old is likely very different from what
is important to an adult learner.
▸ Key marketing messages: how much? how long? how
flexible?

41. TAKE IT HOME
▸ Slides are available here:
▸ White paper on recruiting adult learners:
bit.ly/OHO-Adult-Learners