The Future of Edtech Marketing looks like the Netflix Algorithm

Each of these efforts were coordinated over a period of three weeks, except for the portal notification which continued throughout the registration period. Neither of these efforts added a cost to the institution. That said, the yield rate was 34% (209 students) enrolled in an online course that semester. The financial impact to the institution was $836,000.These regularly launched campaigns added a5% increase with an average enrolled of 16,000 students. Again, at no additional cost to the institution.

The success of these campaigns hinges on the interdepartmental collaboration for an institution and cultivating a strong relationship with key stakeholders and marketing staff.

Our data teams collaborating with marketing staff have led the efforts to improve student success and the development of digital marketing intelligence centers. These are sophisticated “creative suites” with large display screens – similar to a small network operations center – that enable students, faculty and staff to monitor the college’s social media channels, digital marketing campaigns and website tracking and data. The graphic displays summarize digital content and convey sentiment, brand exposure, trend information, geolocation data and more.

For the marketing team, information gained from the centralized data centers enables staff to:

• Launch targeted campaigns to current and potential students based on such things as demographics, GPA, living radius to campus and likelihood to persist.

• Identify target populations and send short, personal nudges via the colleges’ mobile application push notification system, the college online portal, social media channels, Google Ads, text, email and phone calls.

• Pinpoint at-risk students hiding in plain sight and develop personalized messaging that is timely, accurate and actionable.

For the data teams, information from the data centers enables them to monitor opportunities to improve services, intervene when students have challenges, and encourage students to take advantage of various services like tutoring, financial aid and registration assistance.

There is certainly more progress to be made, but the data supports our efforts moving forward, and allows us to gain more champions along the way.