3 Content Marketing Strategies for Recruiting Adult Students to Your Degree Completion Programs
Content marketing strategies remain an effective approach to reaching a wider audience and increasing enrollment for your programs. And this is no different when it comes to prospective adult students for your degree completion programs.
According to one article, non-traditional students now make up the majority of students overall earning bachelor’s degrees. This is happening in part because there are an increasing number of jobs today that require a bachelor’s degree.
When it comes to adult students—and what they’re looking for in a program—there’s a significant difference compared to what traditional undergraduate students are looking for in a school. Prospective adult students are often:
juggling family and work responsibilities.
looking for flexibility.
concerned about affordability.
These students also want to earn a degree tailored to their specific career goals. So when it comes to marketing to adult students for your degree completion programs, you’ll need to employ a different approach than what you do with traditional undergraduate students.
We’ve outlined three effective content marketing strategies that you can begin adopting today for recruiting adult students to your degree completion programs.
Write guides and articles about career development.
Since many adult students are already working, they often decide to go back to school to advance their current career or to transition to a new one. This is something your institution likely has significant insight and expertise about (be that through your faculty or career office staff members).
Think about what type of articles or guides would be helpful to an adult student in this position. Ideas could include:
How to craft an effective and professional-looking resume
Tips for deciding when it’s time to go back to school
How to have conversations with a manager about your professional future
These are topics you can provide advice on and share with prospective adult students. By offering this content through blog articles, guides, or emails sent to prospective adult students, you are demonstrating your authority in this area. This encourages adult students to develop a positive association with your school. And, through strategic calls-to-actions sprinkled in this content, you can help them to not only consider going back to school, but to do so through your program.
Offer free workshops and lectures.
Consider offering a short workshop or lecture (whether online or in person) on a topic related to professional development (resume development, tips for networking, etc.) or on school-specific skills (tips on writing papers, how to take effective class notes, etc.).
The former strategy is going to be more of a top-funnel approach, as this can be geared for adults who are both actively considering going back to school and those who aren’t. The second strategy—that of offering school-related guidance through workshops or lectures—is going to be more appealing to adults who are already actively considering going back to school to earn their bachelor’s degree.
One of the biggest obstacles to going back to school for prospective adult students is the fear of not doing well in school (especially for those who have been away from school for several decades). This second strategy is a great way to prepare them to be successful when they do enroll. It also helps ease their fears about whether or not they can succeed. If your school is the one offering helpful ways to navigate school in the midst of their understandable fears about going back, then it’s likely they will at least consider your school when it’s time to apply and enroll.
Provide free professional advice and career guidance sessions.
This involves offering 20 or 30-minute phone or in-person consultations to prospective adult students. These consultations could be specific (a free transcript evaluation, perhaps), or general (a discussion on which program may fit their career goals). You’ll need to make sure your admissions counselors and/or other designated staff members are properly trained and equipped to have these discussions. This can be an effective and hospitable approach to helping adult students take the next step when it comes to going back to school.
While your school’s goal is obviously to get more prospective students interested in considering your degree completion programs, it’s important to be honest and truly helpful when it comes to offering career guidance and advice.
This means that the best advice for a certain person might be to try community college first, or even that going back to school doesn’t sound like the next best step based on other circumstances in their life. But the good news is that there will also be adults who could benefit greatly from going back to get their degree. A one-on-one professional counseling session of this sort can not only help them move in that direction, but seriously consider earning that degree at your school.
As the student landscape changes, it’s important that we adapt our marketing strategies for the new reality. Adult students may be an important part of your school’s future.
