Recruitment Companies for Academic Programs

[AJ_Katz]

We're in the process of rebranding one of our undergraduate degree programs and want to increase enrollment.  A company sales rep from Study College recently contacted us about their services to create an online social media campaign across several platforms.  The cost of what they proposed for us is $20k.  I've asked for references or at least to have them give my contact info to other department heads that have used their services, but I've run into a brick wall and they say they can give me case study examples (blah). 

Does anyone have experience with companies that help academic programs develop a brand and recruitment efforts?  While we're interested in what Study College offers, their sales person was incredibly pushy and rude, so I'd rather work with a different company that someone in academia has already worked with and would recommend.

[spork]

I recommend contacting whoever runs your university's communications or marketing major to propose this as a student-faculty research project.

[AJ_Katz]

I recommend contacting whoever runs your university's communications or marketing major to propose this as a student-faculty research project.

Have you seen that done successfully before?

[Hegemony]

If I remember correctly, LarryC's program hired one of those recruiters. If I remember correctly, they were not worth the money.

[ciao_yall]

As a marketeer by profession, I don't find these companies particularly impressive. They tend to recycle the same tropes across multiple colleges and platforms.

Ask them about their specific strategies to reach particular targets. Not just "spray and pray." Do they have intelligent ways to reach potential students? What research will they do?

[AJ_Katz]

As a marketeer by profession, I don't find these companies particularly impressive. They tend to recycle the same tropes across multiple colleges and platforms.

Ask them about their specific strategies to reach particular targets. Not just "spray and pray." Do they have intelligent ways to reach potential students? What research will they do?

As a marketeer by profession, do you support the up-thread recommendation to instead fund a faculty-student research project? 

With respect to their approach, they did mention a three phase approach with the first phase involving market research about our majors and target demographics, but I really did not get any specifics.  I will pursue that further, for sure. 

So how do marketing-related departments recruit prospective students? They must have knowledge on what works best. 

As a bench/field scientist, I have no idea what to look for related to marketing and recruitment, but I do know that just relying on my own knowledge/experience is insufficient.  I brought forward the idea to engage with a company like Study College to promote recruitment into multiple majors in our college, but in usual academic fashion, they decided it would be better to try to do it in house, but still don't have capacity to do what these outside companies are proposing to do. 

[ciao_yall]

As a marketeer by profession, I don't find these companies particularly impressive. They tend to recycle the same tropes across multiple colleges and platforms.

Ask them about their specific strategies to reach particular targets. Not just "spray and pray." Do they have intelligent ways to reach potential students? What research will they do?

As a marketeer by profession, do you support the up-thread recommendation to instead fund a faculty-student research project? 

It's not a bad idea. Still, you will get what you pay for. Students will think about things in terms of what is important to themselves, personally, rather than getting into the mindset of a broader target market. More advanced students will do a better job but will still need support in terms of doing research and creating an overall strategy.

Social media is good for awareness. Still, no one has ever said "Hey, I saw a great ad on LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram/TikTok! I'm going to quit my job, forego income, and commit a lot of money and the next few years of my life to get a degree in XYZ!"

What is the college prepared to do for the person who might be possibly interested after seeing these ads multiple times and actually clicks on one?

With respect to their approach, they did mention a three phase approach with the first phase involving market research about our majors and target demographics, but I really did not get any specifics.  I will pursue that further, for sure. 

Demographics are easy to measure - age, ethnicity, education level - but put-near impossible to predict behavior.

They need to understand geographics - even if it's an online program, it's unusual for students to sign up for a program that isn't a reasonable distance away. You can burn through $20K really fast casting too wide a net. Psychographics - what is their motivation? And how do they express that motivation so they can be found? Behaviorgraphics - habits, education patterns - again, can they capture this in a reachable way?

So how do marketing-related departments recruit prospective students? They must have knowledge on what works best. 

Most just look at the pools of current students and try to find more "like them" or "like them - adjacent."

As a bench/field scientist, I have no idea what to look for related to marketing and recruitment, but I do know that just relying on my own knowledge/experience is insufficient.  I brought forward the idea to engage with a company like Study College to promote recruitment into multiple majors in our college, but in usual academic fashion, they decided it would be better to try to do it in house, but still don't have capacity to do what these outside companies are proposing to do. 

The upthread reco to work with your university's existing marketing/comms department is the best start. They likely already have a working process to recruit students, access to databases, make media buys, and so on. Plus you don't want to have some agency go off half-cocked making a campaign that has nothing to do with the overall branding and messaging of your institution.

[artalot]

I haven't worked with this company specifically, but artalot U never saw a consultant it didn't hire. Most of these say they do intensive market research and then recycle their canned program/approach/etc. Most of them are much more expensive than 20K.
Can departments/degree programs hire marketers at your uni? Here they would have a fit. Everything has to be run through our internal marketing and communications people.

[AJ_Katz]

I haven't worked with this company specifically, but artalot U never saw a consultant it didn't hire. Most of these say they do intensive market research and then recycle their canned program/approach/etc. Most of them are much more expensive than 20K.
Can departments/degree programs hire marketers at your uni? Here they would have a fit. Everything has to be run through our internal marketing and communications people.

Thank you for this idea, I am going to ask around about it.