How Simpson College Reinvigorated Their Enrollment Strategy, Grew Enrollments and NTR with EAB
- type
- Regional Private
- location
- Indianola, IA
- undergraduates
- 1,200+
Impact Highlights*
43%
Increase in freshman net tuition revenue
33%
Increase in enrollments
8pt
Increase in Iowan inquiries
*Since beginning of EAB partnership (2021–2024)
-
Challenge
As the effects of the pandemic settled upon Simpson College, they faced significant challenges that inhibited their enrollment outcomes. They lost brand awareness in their backyard and struggled to build relationships with sophomores and juniors through targeted search campaigns. Recruitment and financial aid strategies for seniors were focused on a broader geographic area, which put a strain on limited resources. In 2021, the school established an enrollment partnership with EAB to address these challenges.
-
Solution
EAB worked with Simpson College to develop an engaged pool of inquiries in their backyard, build robust marketing campaigns that solidified their brand and addressed student and parent concerns, and balance new aid offerings with revenue goals and headcount targets. During the partnership, the delayed FAFSA rollout presented additional challenges to their usual awarding activities. In response, Simpson College began awarding aid via All-In for Iowa campaign including an enhanced Simpson Promise program, which leveraged EAB’s live aid simulation dashboard to assess student needs and establish a strategy to address them.
-
Results
Through Simpson College’s four-year partnership with EAB, they’ve experienced year-over-year growth throughout the entire enrollment funnel. Simpson College’s inquiry pool is now more representative of their backyard (25% Iowans in 2024 vs. 17% Iowans in 2022). Interested students and their parents receive marketing materials throughout students’ high school careers, strengthening Simpson College’s brand and bottom line, with a 33% increase in enrollments throughout the partnership. Finally, robust financial initiatives resulted in a 43% increase in freshman net tuition revenue.
Increased Interest in Simpson College’s Backyard
Key Components of Simpson College’s Aid Strategy
Simpson Promise
Scholarship using federal and state aid awards with Simpson scholarship funds to cover full tuition. Specifically, Simpson now offers awards to students with family-adjusted gross income less than or equal to $100k.
- Aggressive response to FAFSA challenges
- Tested different cutoffs of AGI
- Blended Aid and Marketing strategy
- Modeled using tools from NASFAA and EAB’s live simulation and descriptive analysis
-
Leveraging Aid Partnership for Data
Relied on EAB expert analysis to respond to unexpected market challenges
-
Raising Merit Threshold
Willing to discount students at mid-to high-income levels with merit awards
-
Meeting Need Strategically
Committed at the beginning of EAB partnership to improve award effectiveness
-
Getting Scrappy Amid FAFSA Obstacles
Utilized multiple tools to assess risk/reward of “going big”
EAB’s Live Aid Simulation
- Gives insight to proposed policy and award changes
- Helps institution balance high-impact aid promotions, revenue goals, and headcount targets
- Year-round modeling helps school pivot strategy when encountering the unexpected
A Seamless Marketing Campaign Strategy with Results
-
Cultivate Campaigns
Nurturing Sophomores and Juniors with cultivate campaigns
-
Apply Campaigns
Continued Momentum for Seniors with apply campaigns
High-Intent Inquiries Commit to Simpson College After Nurturing Campaigns
Holistic marketing efforts to sophomores, juniors, and seniors resulted in sustained growth throughout Simpson College’s enrollment funnel during their entire EAB partnership.
