Competing on Student Outcomes to Attract Today’s Career Changer Study
Turning passive interest into program enrollments
Peter Cellier, Director, Research Admin & Management Carla Hickman, Vice President, Research
Executive summary
Program-focused marketing messages are no longer sufficient to attract prospective students to professional, adult, and online education programs. Consumers today are highly skeptical of marketing messages, filtering out solicitations and content not immediately relevant or engaging.
This calls into question the primary lead generation strategy deployed by most COE units and requires a new approach to attract and maintain prospect attention.
Changes to consumer behavior require a new marketing paradigm in the attention economy:
Demand for consumer attention is rapidly outpacing its supply
Marketing costs across industries have risen at dramatic rates in the last few years, while consumer avoidance of marketing—evidenced by the steep increase in ad blocking technology adoption—has increased commensurately.
American adults are constantly digitally accessible, but highly distracted
Marketers have more opportunities to access digitally-connected consumers now than ever before, but those same consumers are much more distracted and less likely to engage.
Consumer skepticism of marketing and advertising has reached an all-time high
There is a growing disconnect between the advertising strategies that colleges and universities believe to be most effective—and in which they invest most heavily—and the types of messages that prospective students find most compelling. Marketers invest the vast majority of their budget in advertising, while consumers are more likely to trust recommendations and referrals from personal networks and third-party sources to validate their purchase decisions.
Higher education not immune from the acceleration of "ROI" shopping behavior
Public concern over student debt and uncertain higher education outcomes compounds skepticism among prospective students, often delaying decisions to pursue graduate or continued education.
Reaching the largely untapped market of passive career seekers
Today’s career changer—a professional dissatisfied in her current position, unsure what role to pursue next, and unconvinced that she requires further education to support such a move—represents a natural fit for COE’s market-driven program portfolio. As many as three-quarters of professionals in their 30s seek a career change; however, given concerns about debt and the inherent risk of changing paths, most require tangible evidence of a program’s value before deciding to inquire or enroll. If COE marketers can provide such evidence, then today’s passive career seeker represents the field’s next major growth market.
The career changer population is most likely to respond to program-agnostic campaigns that highlight tangible professional benefits and anticipated career outcomes. The career seeker professional is particularly unlikely to respond to direct, product-first marketing solicitations without first understanding the demonstrable outcomes and ROI she can expect from a given program. To capture the attention of prospects who may not yet be actively considering further education, COE marketers must use their advertisements to elevate the tangible benefits of program enrollment and support prospects in gathering information about possible career opportunities.
Competing on student outcomes to attract today’s career changer
COE leaders can attract the attention of career changers with outcomes-focused marketing messages that communicate labor market demand, support a career-focused educational search, and offer authentic feedback from program graduates as social proof of a program’s value. The marketing playbook must evolve to compel prospective career changers to actively consider alternative fields and career paths, educate prospects on available programs and their link to career outcomes, and provide relatable student value stories and testimonials to validate the decision to apply and enroll.
Support independent career exploration and align program portfolio to professional opportunities to engage interested prospects. Once a prospective career changer is aware of an attractive field, she will require additional information about the skills, education, or experience required to enter it. At this point in the decision cycle, while the prospective student is engaged with content marketing collateral but not yet convinced of the need or value of returning to school, marketing must make the case for how the skills conferred in the program connect to and meet demonstrated labor demand.
Highlight relevant local and regional career opportunities to capture scarce prospective student attention. Though many potential career changers are discontented in their current roles and hoping to make a substantive change, many are unsure which career or professional field will best suit their needs and goals, and few are actively considering further education to support a career change.
Highlight authentic student value stories and other forms of social proof to accelerate prospective student decision making towards enrollment. Once a prospective student has decided that further education can support a career change and has begun to identify and prioritize right-fit programs, she will seek validation and proof of a program’s value and outcomes. Marketing can leverage social proof, student stories, and other creative expressions of outcomes data to provide evidence of program value.
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