Alderson Broaddus University – an independent institution comprised of just under 900 undergraduate students in Philippi, West Virginia – was looking to simplify and enhance their enrollment marketing strategy. In particular, they were interested in developing a more expansive recruiting approach to help supplement their athletic-driven recruitment.

With limited in-house marketing support and resources, Alderson Broaddus had been targeting prospective students based solely on IP addresses identified on the school’s website. It wasn’t long, however, until the process proved to be ineffective.

“The system we were using for student engagement, outside of our traditional athletic recruiting, wasn’t really moving the needle that much. We didn’t see any significant rise in enrollment, and we knew it was time to explore other options,” said Dr. Eric Shor, Executive Vice President for Administration and Vice President for Enrollment Management at Alderson Broaddus (AB).

The Solution: Implementing a Well-Rounded Recruitment Strategy

After careful research, the AB team opted to switch gears with Enrollment Marketing by Liaison, a combination of software and services designed to transform the entire admissions cycle for higher education institutions.

“The ability to improve student recruitment and enrollment marketing was critical for Alderson Broaddus,” Dr. Shor noted.

Personalized, Omni-Channel Campaigns

Over the following weeks, Alderson Broaddus worked closely with Liaison to implement a wide range of omni-channel campaigns for sophomore, junior, and senior outreach. To start increasing their chances of reaching more underclassmen and non-athletes who had minimal or no knowledge about the school, Alderson Broaddus recognized the importance of maximizing Liaison’s personalized search communications.

Dr. Shor explained, “Today’s high school students value authenticity. They want to be seen as more than just a number, especially at a time where they’re getting inundated with ads on mobile devices and different social media platforms. Personalized communication is really key to gauging their interest.”

AB’s campaigns, such as a Presidential Drive to Apply Campaign (PDTA), have ranged from personalized emails and letters to postcards and brochures. Developed by Liaison’s award-winning team of in-house professional copywriters and designers, each custom print piece was created with prospect-specific variables and thoughtfully crafted based on their location, academic achievements, interests, and admission stage.

Continuous Marketing Support & Expertise

Dr. Shor attributes AB’s continual, dynamic campaign delivery to Liaison’s supportive marketing team.

“Liaison’s marketing team is so flexible and easy to work with. When we didn’t have all the data in place at the beginning to create certain marketing pieces, they helped us with alternative options such as student affairs and student registration communications.”

Alderson Broaddus collaborates with Liaison’s marketing team on a weekly basis to discuss campaign creation and other enrollment marketing updates.

Simplified Recruitment

In addition to various marketing campaigns, Alderson Broaddus was able to incorporate a personal website offering – also known as a PURL – for any prospective student who fills out a quick AB-branded inquiry form. The site includes information unique to the student’s major and interests.

Through the PURL, students can make housing selections, admission deposits, and even schedule campus visits.

“We had previously been using two different systems – one for enrollment initiatives and one specifically for scheduling AB visits – and we didn’t have an online deposit option available.

Now we have everything we need under one umbrella with Liaison’s Enrollment Marketing Platform,” Dr. Shor shared.

Outcomes

• An enrollment increase of nearly 17% from 2020 to 2021 after supplementing their athletic recruitment with Liaison’s Enrollment Marketing Platform
• Expansion from standard emails and texts to personalized web, digital advertising, and print communication
• Integration of recruitment and enrollment marketing management into one easy-to-use platform
• A successful 2020-2021 Junior/Sophomore Search Email campaign that generated a total of 626 inquiries, making up 71.6% of total inquiries for 2021
• A high-performing 2020-2021 PDTA campaign, which included a personalized letter and a series of nurture emails, led to over 200 student applications out of 390 applications in 2021

Future Plans: Leveraging Historical Data for Smarter Recruitment

Moving forward, Alderson Broaddus will continue developing their enrollment strategy with the addition of another powerful Liaison product: Othot.

A cloud-based predictive and prescriptive analytics software solution, Othot by Liaison’s Enrollment Platform can use institutional data and proprietary machine-learning algorithms to evaluate different variables affecting student enrollment.

Dr. Shor said, “The biggest challenge in enrollment management is recruiting the right student. With Othot’s ability to predict the likelihood of student enrollment, we will be able to proactively and effectively leverage our historical data throughout the enrollment process rather than relying on gut feelings to make impactful admission decisions.”

Alderson Broaddus plans to take full advantage of Othot’s advanced, AI-based analytic insights for student recruitment and net-tuition revenue growth initiatives.