EAB provides expertise and proven best practices to hundreds of enrollment leaders around the country. Our work enables schools to build their inquiry pool, increase applications, and ultimately, achieve their ambitious enrollment goals.
Our Enrollment Services Case Study Compendium features a diverse set of higher education partners. Learn about the range of services that we provide to help schools find, engage, and enroll their best-fit students. Whether the school is large or small, public or private, each of these stories highlights an institution that has achieved success by partnering with EAB.
Private Colleges and Universities
2020 Case Studies
Institution: Private Catholic university in the South with 1,600 undergraduate students
Challenge: This small university had been facing years of unreliable enrollment growth. The school’s former senior-only strategy was built around new senior names, college fairs, and high school graduates, which left them vulnerable to industry headwinds.
Solution: The university signed on with EAB in late 2015 for Senior Search and Application Marketing. In the first full year of partnership, the university saw a 45% increase in enrollment. As the partnership continued, the university’s president had ambitious growth goals. To ensure they would achieve these goals, EAB added Sophomore and Junior Search to their portfolio in 2019 to generate consistent, high-quality inquiries. Unfortunately, in the same year, the school decided to source their application elsewhere due to budget constraints.
Although the new investments predicted long-term impact, the school began to worry about their 2020 enrollment targets once COVID-19 started to spread. The university’s non-marketed 2020 applications were down, and they attributed that partly to their unsatisfactory application user experience. EAB recommended the university pivot back to EAB’s Web Application mid-cycle to guarantee a frictionless experience for prospective students.
Impact: This nimble mid-cycle strategy adjustment helped the university achieve a 22% increase in enrollment amid COVID-19.
Institution: Private Catholic university in the Northeast with 1,800 undergraduate students
Challenge: Faced with a highly competitive geographic market, this university partnered with EAB Enrollment Services in 2008 to grow enrollment.
Solution: Over the course of the long-term partnership, the university signed on for Search, Application Marketing, and Yield IQ. EAB developed a targeting strategy to fully saturate the university’s primary and secondary markets while strategically exploring high-potential out-of-state markets. In 2019, new leadership arrived on campus that was very amenable to EAB’s recommendations and strategies. EAB executed unique, multichannel Search campaigns that improved communication timing, explored alternative self-reporting strategies, and optimized their application pool. These strategies resulted in a more robust, qualified admit pool that specifically prepared the university for the pandemic in 2020. EAB then helped focus efforts on yield tactics that would ensure right-fit students would deposit.
Impact: Throughout the long-term partnership, EAB continues to provide enhanced strategies and tactics to achieve enrollment growth. The university recruited a record-breaking entering class
for 2020.
37%
Increase in applications
52%
Increase in applications rom out-of-state markets
29%
Increase in enrollment
Institution: Regional private Christian university in the West with 1,800 undergraduate students
Challenge: After years of inconsistent enrollment results, this small university was in search of a partner that could help them meet their ambitious growth goals.
Solution: In 2016 the university decided to reach out to EAB for support to ensure they would be well-positioned to meet their enrollment goals. EAB implemented Search, Application Marketing, and Financial Aid Optimization. Being a faith-based university, the Search strategy was designed to identify and target right-fit students to increase their likelihood of yielding. EAB then executed an Application Marketing campaign for the university’s complete inquiry pool to ensure each student was being marketed to. When the global pandemic hit in early 2020, the university and EAB worked together during the uncertain times by leveraging their strong inquiry pool, adjusting their financial aid strategy, and utilizing their virtual tour.
Impact: The university experienced incremental enrollment growth in each year of partnership. For Entering Class 2020, the university’s freshman enrollment grew by 70 students which far surpassed their original goal by 18%. They also exceeded their net tuition revenue goal by 21%.
EAB’s Comprehensive Enrollment Support
Utilized EAB’s targeting strategy to identify geographic pockets of right-fit students
Marketed to existing
inquiry pool and newly purchased names
Constructed custom financial aid model and optimized policy strategy
Monitored award activity and yield outcomes to ensure progress to goal
Institution: Private liberal arts college in the South with 1,100 undergraduate students
Challenge: This small Southern college that had partnered with another longtime enrollment vendor had experienced years of unexceptional results. Under new leadership, the college wanted to fundamentally change their enrollment trajectory.
Solution: In 2019, the college partnered with EAB on Search, Application Marketing, and Financial Aid Optimization to ensure that they would be well-positioned to meet their aggressive enrollment goals.
Using a data-driven targeting strategy, EAB advised the college to strategically focus on gaining a larger share of their local market. Many distant markets that seemed appealing were in fact not a good fit for the university. EAB then constructed a customized financial aid model that leveraged their discount rate to maximize growth in enrollment and net tuition revenue.
Impact: Despite the effects of COVID-19, the college experienced a 50% increase in students from their local market and a 25% increase in overall deposits. In the first year of partnership with EAB, the college hit a record-breaking entering class enrollment.
2019 Case Studies
Institution: Private research university in the Northwest with 5,700 undergraduate students
Challenge: This private research university was at risk of closing, with declines in enrollment undermining revenue to the point that the sustainability of its operations was in question.
Solution: The situation was remedied by the visionary leadership of the former chancellor, who, in addition to accelerating fundraising, reconceptualized the school’s enrollment infrastructure. In 2013, at the heart of their revamped approach was a partnership with EAB Enrollment Services, by means of which the university was able to focus its recruitment-marketing investments selectively on approaches proven through testing to produce the highest return on investment and enhance their academic profile. Faced with a complex and rapidly evolving set of options, the university chose to prioritize digital recruitment marketing investments for rapid impact—namely, paid advertisements on social media and display networks.
Impact: The school’s revamped enrollment management has continued to pay dividends across the years. Among other impressive achievements, the university has increased net tuition revenue by 94% in just over a decade.
“EAB enhanced our ability to determine the most efficient manner to spend our digital marketing dollars. Our team had considered several platforms, but EAB’s research and analytics guided us to mediums that were driving the best results for their partners, and we moved the needle on several key areas in our funnel.”
Vice Chancellor for Enrollment, Private University
Institution: Private university in the Northeast with 800 undergraduate students
Challenge: The university experienced a 28% decline in fall freshmen enrollment from 2011 to 2014. This private university needed to grow their class without sacrificing academic quality.
Solution: In 2014, the university partnered with EAB on Search and Application Marketing campaigns. EAB developed a Search strategy to build sophomore, junior, and senior inquiries. The university received immediate results from the Senior Search campaign, and by building the sophomore and junior student inquiries they established consistent, high-quality enrollment gains that would prepare them for the future. EAB focused on targeting middle- to upper-academic-quality students to increase their likelihood of yielding. EAB then executed an Application Marketing campaign for the university’s complete inquiry pool to ensure each student was being marketed to.
Impact: In partnership with EAB, the university achieved consistent and reliable inquiry growth that led to a 240% increase in fall freshmen enrollment over the five-year partnership. These inquiries directly contributed to their increased academic quality.
Institution: Private, Benedictine, liberal arts university in the Pacific Northwest with 1,500 undergraduate students
Challenge: After years of inconsistent results, this private university was in search of a partner that could deliver and drive systematic enrollment growth.
Solution: The university partnered with EAB on Enrollment Services in 2016. Despite seeing a 66% increase in enrollment after two years of partnership, the university decided to take the work in-house because of budget constraints. Unfortunately, in 2018, the university experienced an 18% decrease in fall freshman enrollment. During the decline in 2018, the university signed back on with Search, Application Marketing, and Financial Aid Optimization. The Search strategy was not designed to expand their footprint but rather to gain larger market share in the university’s local market. Financial aid policy leveraged aid to maximize the growth in admits, creating a significant growth in overall net tuition revenue.
Impact: EAB found that although the markets further afield were attractive to the partner, they were not strategic for the university. The university experienced a 46% increase in students from the local market–44 students they had missed without the partnership.
139%
Increase in fall freshmen enrollment from 2014 to 2019
46%
Increase in local market enrollment from 2017 to 2019
10%
Increase in net tuition revenue from 2017 to 2019
Institution: Private, Presbyterian university in the mid-Atlantic with 1,200 undergraduate students
Challenge: Although this university was a long-standing EAB partner who had seen success in the past, in 2016, the vice president of enrollment sought to reduce spend by bringing their recruitment marketing in-house. Unfortunately, this decision resulted in a 60% decline in submitted applications from the previous year—a loss that almost forced the university to close its doors.
Solution: After experiencing such a devastating decline in applications and enrollments, the university decided to re-partner with EAB in 2018 for Application Marketing and Search campaigns. In order to ensure a full entering class, and given the magnitude of the application deficit, this historically all-women’s university agreed to expand their Search campaigns to include male students.
Impact: As a result of re-partnering with EAB, the university saw a 248% increase in applications and a 275% increase in deposits from 2017 to 2018. They also secured a large enough return on investment to offset the operational and infrastructure costs associated with transitioning from an all-women’s to a coed institution.
Institution: Private, Catholic university in the Northeast with 2,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: In 2018, the university was coming off their smallest class in recent memory and had just purchased more than 100,000 senior names with another enrollment vendor. Unfortunately, they were experiencing disappointing results and needed to make a mid-cycle course correction.
Solution: In November of that year, the university decided to reach out to EAB for additional support. Within two months, EAB was able to deploy a Search and Application Marketing campaign as well as a yield intelligence tool. Application Marketing was deployed both for the existing inquiry pool and some newly purchased names. Shortly after deploying their initial campaigns, the university turned their attention to building their future pipeline and decided to implement Sophomore and Junior Search as well.Â
Senior Search
- Utilized EAB’s targeting strategy to identify untapped opportunity in their backyard
- Purchased 3,200 new senior names to supplement existing pool
Application Marketing
- Marketed to existing inquiry pool and newly purchased names
- Included 100k existing senior names purchased with previous vendor
Impact: In partnering with EAB, the university was not only able to convert some of their existing inquiry pool but also to target new students who converted at a much higher rate. Ultimately, they saw a 10% increase in deposits from 2018 to 2019 and are on track for continued growth in 2020.
Institution: Private university in the Southeast with 2,200 undergraduate students
Challenge: Despite partnering with another longtime enrollment vendor, this university did not meet their 2017 enrollment goals. In response to this disappointing performance, the university began looking for a new enrollment partner. Â
Solution: The university turned to EAB to ensure that they would meet their 2018 enrollment goals. EAB implemented Search, Application Marketing, and Yield IQ to ensure they would recover from their 2017 declines. EAB’s recruitment strategies centered on identifying students with a strong affinity to the university and reaching them with campaign messages that would build an early and meaningful relationship. In addition to Search and Application Marketing, the university relied heavily on Yield IQ to inform their counselor’s workflow and direct their attention to the admits most likely to yield.
Impact: This strategy resulted in a 180% increase in submitted applications and a 34% increase in deposits in just one year.
180%
Increase in submitted applications from 2017 to 2018
105%
Increase in admits from 2017 to 2018
3.5 to 1
Increase in deposits from 2017 to 2018
Public Colleges and Universities
2020 Case Studies
Institution: Public Research University in the West with 12,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: In 2011, this university had a strong local footprint and declining enrollment. Determined to establish itself regionally, this university partnered with EAB to grow enrollment throughout their state while strategically identifying, developing, and maturing select out-of-state markets.
Solution: Over a 10-year partnership, this university partnered with EAB across several services, implementing Search, Application Marketing, Yield IQ, and a Virtual Tour to meet their shifting goals. EAB deployed sophisticated data analysis to surgically identify high-potential out-of-state markets and strategically test them for enrollment potential. Leveraging a micro-market testing strategy, EAB established this university in new markets while controlling the costs of exploring new markets.
Impact: This university’s out-of-state enrollment has doubled during their partnership with EAB, which has transformed the campus environment. While it had primarily been a commuter school for in-state students, today this university has a vibrant residential student culture where in-state students live and learn with students from across the country. By 2016 this university had achieved its initial goals. Recognizing that they had “right sized” their institution, this university shifted focus from growth to selectivity and retention. EAB pivoted with this university, which has now increased average GPA by 7%.
Institution: Public Research University in the South with 14,500 Undergraduate Students
Challenge: This large university, located in a highly populated city, had been facing stagnant application and enrollment growth for years.
Solution: By 2017, the university had decided to reach out to EAB for support. EAB implemented Year-Round Search and Application Marketing campaigns. EAB’s Search campaigns focused on building a larger applicant pool to generate high-quality inquiries, while the Application Marketing campaign revamped the university’s creative and messaging in order to build stronger student relationships.
In early 2020, the global pandemic hit, and deposits began to slow dramatically during the months of March and April. EAB helped the university pivot and develop a virtual campus landing page and display ad campaign to communicate with students and families during the uncertain time.
Impact: Despite the effects of COVID-19, the university experienced significant enrollment funnel growth that can be attributed to the strong affinity of the Sophomore and Junior Search inquiries, who demonstrated strong yield rates and increased academic preparedness.
20%
Increase in submitted applications
14%
Increase in admits
+65
Increase in deposits
Institution: Regional public university in the Northeast with 2,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: This public university, located in the competitive Northeast market, was looking to grow enrollment, especially within its own backyard. The university first partnered with EAB in September of 2015 to generate high-quality inquiries but decided to part ways after a year due to budget challenges and state contract constraints. Unfortunately, two years out of the partnership, the university’s fall freshman enrollment dropped by 27%.
Solution: After experiencing a significant decline in enrollments, the university reengaged with EAB in September of 2018. By November, EAB had built and deployed both Application Marketing and Search campaigns to fully saturate the university’s primary market and engage students earlier in their academic careers to build affinity. EAB also implemented Financial Aid Optimization that would use strategic aid policy to monitor and inflect enrollment performance. Â
Impact: Utilizing a tailored targeting approach, the university achieved enrollment gains in both years of partnership with EAB. The university saw a 21% increase in enrollment in 2016 and a 36% increase in enrollment in 2019. When the global pandemic hit in 2020, the keys to the university’s enrollment stability and windfall in net tuition revenue gains were the customized financial aid model and optimized policy strategy. The university grew total net tuition revenue by 80% in one year without sacrificing academic quality.
Institution: Public university in the West with 7,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: Faced with years of variable student enrollment, this university struggled to attract students to their beautiful, rural campus out West.
Solution: In 2019, the university decided to reach out to EAB for enrollment support. EAB built and deployed both Senior Search and Application Marketing campaigns. The Senior Search campaign identified untapped opportunity in their primary market using data-driven targeting, while the Application Marketing campaign revamped the university’s creative assets and messaging in order to build stronger student relationships. These campaigns drove a 30% increase in their admit pool. The university also assembled a robust ground team that was ready to hit the road come college fair season.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit the United States, and their strategy had to change. With more students in their admit pool and because the university was prepared with personnel, their team quickly pivoted the staff’s time to ensure their admitted students would deposit. The university’s admission team personally called more than 10,500 applicants twice prior to the deposit deadline.
Impact: In partnership with EAB, this resilient university achieved a 15% increase in deposits in Entering Class 2020.
Institution: Selective public university in the South with 24,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: This selective public university, located in the Southeast, was looking to grow enrollment and boost net tuition revenue. Because of their selectiveness, meeting enrollment goals was becoming a challenge.
Solution: In 2017, the university partnered with EAB to generate more student inquiries. EAB executed multichannel Search campaigns to students in every year of high school and developed testing strategies for different grade levels. EAB also assisted the university in developing strategic admission criteria to admit additional best-fit students. One year after the university partnered with EAB, a widely publicized campus tragedy occurred. The following year, a global pandemic hit. Throughout each crisis, EAB supported the university with high-touch consultative work
and collaboration.
Impact: In partnership with EAB, this institution achieved consistent and reliable inquiry growth, doubling their number of Search responders in the first few years of partnership. In 2020, the university experienced outstanding results, seeing both enrollment and net tuition revenue growth.
EAB approach leads to 2x more search responders:
- Communicated promptly with students by engaging early
- Included parents in the college-search conversation
- Engaged students through paper communication
- Communicated persistently with students throughout high school
- Made student connections personal and unique
- Engaged with students on favorable channels with presence
Institution: Public university in the Midwest with 8,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: After several years of declining enrollment, this public university was in search of a partner that could drive application and enrollment growth.
Solution: The university partnered with EAB on an Application Marketing Campaign in late 2018. EAB’s recruitment strategies centered on reaching prospective students with personalized campaign messages that would build early and meaningful relationships. Identifying new and innovative communication strategies would enable the university to connect with students in a way that was both convenient and familiar.
Impact: 2020 was the first full year of partnership with EAB and the first time since 2012 the university’s enrollment grew. Their enrollment increased by 25%, which was the strongest percentage gain the university had experienced across their greater system. Additionally, these campaigns directly contributed to the increase in underrepresented minority student enrollment.
EAB Application Marketing Strategy
Deploy targeting and segmentation
Focus on application submission and completion
Utilize application intelligence
2019 Case Studies
Institution: Selective public university in the Midwest with 30,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: This public university, located in the competitive Midwest market, was looking to both grow enrollments and shape the quality and diversity of its student body.
Solution: The university partnered with EAB to generate high-quality inquiries. EAB developed a targeting strategy for fully saturating the university’s primary and secondary markets while strategically exploring high-potential out-of-state markets. EAB then executed multichannel Search campaigns to students in every year of high school, developing and testing strategies for different grade levels and high-ability minority students. Over this long-term partnership, EAB also tested various creative differentiation and digital-media strategies to maintain strong, consistent results.
Impact: In partnership with EAB, the university achieved consistent and reliable inquiry growth, quadrupling the number of Search responders over the 10-year partnership. These inquiries directly contributed to their class-shaping goals. In 2018 alone, EAB-influenced inquiries accounted for 40% of annual enrollment.
Institution: Selective public university in the Southeast with 25,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: Faced with a 32% decrease in state appropriations per student post-recession, this university partnered with EAB to improve its student Search targeting and outreach.
Solution: EAB implemented multichannel marketing and fulfillment campaigns targeting students in every year of high school. In partnership, EAB and the university strategically explored out-of-state markets with a high potential to yield strong inquiries that would ultimately enroll, while cutting back in unproductive markets at the same time.
Impact: With a strategic focus on cultivating out-of-state markets, the university grew enrollment and net tuition revenue. Notable achievements over the eight-year partnership include application volume increasing 59% since 2009 and freshman enrollment growing by 2,100 students. Additionally, EAB-influenced enrollments in 2017 had a 17% higher average SAT scores than those recruited by other means and a 12% higher average GPA.
92% of out-of-state enrollments in the last three years were recruited via EAB Search.
Institution: Regional public university in the Northeast with 2,000 undergraduate students
Challenge: This public university, located in the competitive Northeast market, was looking to both grow enrollment, especially through its own backyard. The university first partnered with EAB in September of 2015 to generate high-quality inquiries but decided to part ways after a year due to budget challenges and state contract constraints. Unfortunately, two years out of the partnership, the university’s fall freshman enrollment dropped by 27%.
Solution: After experiencing a significant decline in enrollments, the university reengaged with EAB in September of 2018. By November, EAB had built and deployed both Application Marketing and Search campaigns that were centered around fully saturating the university’s primary market. EAB then deployed Yield IQ to inform its counselors’ workflow and direct scarce counselor resources to the admits most likely to yield.
Impact: Utilizing a tailored targeting approach, the university achieved enrollment gains in both years of partnership with EAB. The university saw a 21% increase in enrollment in 2016 and a 38% increase in enrollment in 2019. 2019 was the largest year-to-year increase of first-year students in more than 20 years for the university.
17%
Increase in submitted applications from 2018 to 2019
38%
Increase in enrollment from 2018 to 2019
31%
Increase in in-state enrollment from 2018 to 2019
Institution: Regional public university in the Southeast with 5,500 undergraduate students
Challenge: This midsize university, located in a very rural area of the country, had been facing application and enrollment declines for several years. Despite seeing a slight uptick in applications early in the 2017 cycle, they knew they would need to change course to meet their ambitious enrollment goals.
Solution: By December of 2017, the university decided to reach out to EAB for some mid-cycle support. EAB was able to quickly prepare a late-launch campaign strategy, and by February of 2018 launched both Senior Search and Application Marketing campaigns. EAB’s Senior Search campaign identified missed opportunity in their primary market by using data-driven targeting, while the Application Marketing campaign revamped the university’s creative and messaging in order to build stronger student relationships.
EAB’s Additional Late-Launch Strategies
Developed and hosted a freshman web application
Developed and hosted a transfer web application
Application fee was waived after initial launch
Impact: Since the first launch in 2017, the university has experienced increased applications and enrollments each year of the partnership. The university’s success also can be attributed to their customer service and staff, who are passionate about students.
