Topics
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Student behavior
How the journey and expectations have changed
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Digital marketing 101
The essentials of search, advertising, and content strategy
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Marketing spend
Benchmarking marketing cost per enrollment across the industry
Visible or Vanished: Ensuring Your Grad Programs Survive the AI Search Shift
Overview
For decades, "showing up" meant being a blue link on page one of Google. Today, AI engines don't just rank your pages—they choose their sources. If your program isn't structured to be an "answer," it simply doesn't exist to the next generation of students using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. In this 6-minute sprint, we’re moving past the "meta-tag" era. Learn why doing nothing is your most expensive marketing decision and walk away with four "under-the-hood" fixes to ensure your programs are the ones AI recommends.
Behind the Curtain: How Corporate Partners Really Work with Graduate & Professional Schools
Overview
Join our expert panel, comprised of members of NAGAP’s Strategic Partnership Council (SPC), as they delve into the key aspects of this process, including recognizing when external support is necessary, initiating the search for the ideal partner, uncovering the most crucial questions to pose during vendor discussions, and ultimately discerning when you've discovered the perfect match. Whether you're new to the world of GEM third-party partnerships or seeking to refine your vendor selection strategies, this session provides a wealth of insights to empower higher education professionals in making informed and effective decisions.
The Digital Marketing Guide for Grad Admissions Professionals
Overview
This session is designed for the graduate enrollment leaders who want to better understand the digital marketing landscape in 2026 and how to make it work for their programs. We’ll break down the essentials of search, advertising, and content strategy through the lens of grad admissions, showing you what matters most for attracting the right prospects. More importantly, we’ll break down the silos between marketing stakeholders; you’ll learn practical ways to partner with your central marketing team or vendors, what questions to ask, and how to advocate for tactics that deliver measurable results with graduate enrollment. You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how digital marketing connects to your admissions pipeline, a checklist of the key metrics to watch, and a playbook of strategies you can influence — even if you’re not the one pushing the buttons
The New Student Journey: Winning Prospects Across Search, AI, Email, and Web
Overview
Today’s prospective grad students don’t just follow a linear enrollment path — they move between search engines, AI tools, websites, and inboxes as they consider their options. For graduate enrollment leaders, that means every touchpoint needs to be intentional, optimized, and connected. In this session, we’ll walk through strategies and practical examples that help you strengthen engagement across the entire student journey, from the first Google or AI-driven query all the way to final program selection. You’ll learn what to test and track to ensure your programs show up where prospects are looking, as well as how to ensure your content is playing the vital role it needs to at each stage. We’ll also explore conversion pathway best practices to make sure your website is helping, not hindering, progress. Whether you’re looking to adapt your marketing for the rise of AI or refine your tried-and-true channels, you’ll leave with actionable tactics to optimize every stage of the journey and keep prospective students moving toward enrollment at your institution.
Setting the New Standard: Expanded 2026 Benchmarks for Graduate Marketing Cost Per Enrollment (MCPE)
Overview
Since launching the industry’s first dedicated study on Graduate Marketing Cost Per Enrollment (MCPE) last year, Direct Development, in partnership with NAGAP, has further expanded its dataset to include a more diverse range of institutions and programs. This 2.0 version of our session moves beyond preliminary concepts to reveal the latest findings on marketing expenditures for graduate schools in 2026. We will dive deep into the latest data, analyzing how marketing-specific investments—across digital and non-digital channels, technology stacks, and vendor partnerships—directly correlate to enrollment success.
Attendees will receive an exclusive first look at the official MCPE Research Report and learn how participating institutions can use the data generated by our dynamic MCPE calculator tool to receive real-time, personalized comparisons against the national average. We will conclude with a live community discussion to interpret these new benchmarks, discuss the implications for 2026–2027 budget planning, and gather input for the next phase of this ongoing research initiative.
Hot Topics, Hard Truths: A Roundtable on the Future of Enrollment
Overview
Join members of the Strategic Partnership Council and NAGAP colleagues to discuss hot topics around GEM. Areas of discussion include, International mobility trends, federal policy and regulation changes as well as prospect communication and more.
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