The George Washington University
Graduate School of School of Engineering & Applied Science
Doctorate in Engineering Management
Doctorate of Engineering in Cybersecurity Analytics
Doctorate of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Challenge
In 2021 the George Washington University School of Engineering & Applied Science approached LMO to assist them with their recruitment efforts for their Doctoral programs in Engineering Management, Cybersecurity Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Limited awareness and qualified leads for niche doctoral programs, reaching professionals with a master’s degree who were interested in advancing their career or education in fields such as, but not limited to, information technology, computer science, and engineering.
The school had previously lacked data transparency and lead attribution to help them better understand where their enrollments were coming from.
Additionally, the school needed assistance in helping qualified leads move from the consideration stage to enrollment.
Objective
Increase qualified leads for key doctoral programs while driving measurable growth in enrollments. Additionally, the school wanted to improve data transparency and lead attribution to better understand the student journey and strengthen engagement from inquiry through enrollment.
Generate awareness and drive qualified leads to a dedicated school landing page where potential students can request additional program information and attend information sessions.
Implement strategies, such as frequent information sessions, to further qualify lead attribution while measuring which applicants are reaching the enrollment stage by channel.
Provide the school’s stakeholders with a real-time performance dashboard, which gave them actional insights to help inform future marketing decisions.
Solution
To help the George Washington University School of Engineering & Applied Science increase enrollments, LMO implemented comprehensive marketing strategies focused on audience behavior habits. Niche targeting was supported with real-time reporting and qualified application data to help optimize campaigns to not only increase qualified leads but support enrollment engagement.
Strategic Media Planning & Audience Segmentation: LMO identified and segmented niche audiences of working professionals with master’s degrees or technical backgrounds in fields such as IT, computer science, and engineering. Campaigns were tailored to align messaging and creative with each audience segment’s motivations and career aspirations.
Digital & Social Media Optimization: We used programmatic advertising and social media promotions on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to build awareness of the key doctoral programs, while focusing the majority of ad spend on paid search to drive qualified leads to dedicated landing pages for each program.
Performance Monitoring & Optimization: Ongoing campaign analysis, bi-weekly performance check-ins, and real-time optimizations ensured that campaigns remained efficient in reaching their goals. The anticipatory approach allowed LMO to remain flexible in allocating budget to channels driving enrollment results while increasing qualified leads for each program.
Dashboard Visualizer: The school was provided a custom real-time dashboard visualizer that included performance metrics such as spend, impressions, clicks, and conversions by program and channel. The tool provided the school with data transparency helping them better understand what was driving campaign success while also streamlining communication between all stakeholders.
Info Session Promotion & Attribution Tracking: To help strengthen engagement among prospective students, LMO supported the school’s ongoing information sessions by promoting them through paid media and tracking attributed leads who registered or attended. This visibility helped the school better understand how info sessions contributed to lead quality and enrollment outcomes. By connecting session attendance with lead data, LMO provided another layer of insight into the enrollment funnel and helped identify which touchpoints were most effective in converting interest into applicants.
LMO ran campaigns for three doctoral programs throughout the three-year relationship with the George Washington University School of Engineering & Applied Science.
2M
Return on Investment Based on Enrolled Students
2.6K
Qualified Leads Throughout the Three-Year Engagement
$57
Cost Per Lead
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John Adams, GWU Marketing Director