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How a sustainable advertising approach exceeded enrollment goals

Neumann University Global (NU Global) had been working with an advertising partner to promote three priority programs: Cybersecurity, Education, and Nursing. Their marketing strategy relied heavily on paid search, paid social, and outbound calls, the latter of which was highly manual. They had budgeted a lot for their advertising spend. And not only were the digital ads underperforming, they were expensive — $317 cost per lead (CPL) expensive.

Not to mention, the partner wasn’t providing much in the way of reporting. There were no enrollment insights whatsoever. As the contract neared its end, the team behind NU Global started to wonder if there wasn’t a more efficient way to market their programs.

That's when they turned to us.

Inbound marketing is powered by educational, valuable content. For NU Global, Direct Development created some brand-new premium content pieces (program guides for MS in Education and MS in Nursing), in addition to three program-specific nurturing communication flows. We were also able to use existing pieces in their library — namely, a Cybersecurity program guide and a career guide.

The “building” aspect is often less about crafting something from scratch and more about building content pathways, so that students can easily find what interests them and get their questions answered. We strive to make sure there are ‘no dead ends,’ because there is always an ideal next step for a prospective student to take.

Where NU Global’s previous advertising agency decided to solely focus on ads pushing for “Request More Information” and “Apply,” we approached outbound advertising with an inbound spin. We broadened our advertising offers so that our ads provided value up-front (read: content) as opposed to asking the user to take an action.

Plus, we designed the organic search optimization strategy to work in concert with the paid strategy to achieve more reach. Incorporating the email nurturing was intended to improve yield throughout the marketing funnel.

But did any of it work?

Direct Development was working with 1/10th of the budget that the previous advertising partner had and a third of the time. Yet, our strategies showed that a sustainable, inbound approach to digital marketing could not only save money for institutions but could outperform the strategies of larger vendors.

DD helped NU Global achieve a more efficient cost-per-lead with higher-quality leads, all while exceeding enrollment targets. But let’s dig into the numbers…

Direct Development played an important role in helping Neumann achieve its enrollment goals for targeted programs through strong collaboration, strategic guidance, and attention to detail. The development of timely, relevant content helped us make gains in search visibility, while creative digital assets and strategic placements complemented those efforts. Through bi-weekly strategy meetings, we regularly evaluated trends and audience behaviors and adjusted our approach accordingly.

This partnership helped us strengthen the top of the enrollment funnel and generate a consistent pipeline of quality leads.