Modest graduate marketing campaign yields major results
During the summer, the Graduate School and the Office of University Communications partnered to initiate a limited marketing campaign to drive awareness of graduate certificate offerings and to boost enrollment in the programs.
University leaders were impressed with the results.
Web-based ads and retargeting, a form of advertising technology that “follows” an audience, were the primary tactics used in the campaign to promote awareness of UNC Charlotte’s graduate certificate programs.
“Charlotte is the 22nd-largest media market in the United States, so this is a ‘noisy’ place to communicate, so carefully targeted, paid media is increasingly essential to driving traffic,” said Richard McDevitt, director of marketing in the UNC Charlotte Office of University Communications. “It is clear from our data that the messages increased not only awareness but interest in the graduate certificate programs, and the Web ads drove traffic to the graduate certificate website.”
Johnna Watson, associate dean of the Graduate School, noted that during the campaign, attendance to open houses doubled, with a three-to-one ratio for attendees who came as a result of seeing marketing campaign ads. While not all candidates entered graduate certificate programs, a large number enrolled in other master’s-level programs.
“The campaign was strategic to both increase enrollment in UNC Charlotte’s 44 graduate certificate programs in the 2014 fall semester and also to educate the public about the what and why and how a graduate certificate can augment careers and provide personal enrichment,” said Watson. “Overwhelmingly, the campaign was a success, but our eye is on 2015 and the need to continually brand UNC Charlotte’s graduate education to the public.”