132% Increase in Student Enrollment Through Focused Digital Marketing

Aug 29, 2023 | Case Studies

132% Increase

in Overall Enrollment

617% Increase

in Paid Search Leads

154% Increase

in Website Lead Conversion

Valley College

Valley College is a multi-campus school that offers career education at 5 physical campuses throughout West Virginia and Ohio as well as Online programs. 

Challenges

    • Generate more high-quality leads to boost enrollment without increased marketing budget

Solution

    • Implementation of Enrollment Resources’ best practice website template
    • Use of Enrollment Resources’ Lead Funnels powered by proprietary software Virtual Adviser on website and landing pages
    • Complete overhaul of PPC campaigns

Results

    • 132% increase in overall enrollment[1]
    • 617% increase in paid search leads[2]
    • 154% increase in website lead conversion rate[3]

“You guys are helping us generate more of our own inquiries that are much
more interested and have a much higher conversion rate. And it’s working.
Our conversion rates are phenomenal now.”

 

Anthony Palmieri

Anthony Palmieri,
Director of Marketing, Valley College

Introduction

Valley College is a multi-campus school that offers career education at 5 physical campuses
throughout West Virginia and Ohio as well as Online programs. Since partnering with Enrollment
Resources, Valley has seen the following results:

    • Increased Enrollment
    • Reduced Cost Per Enrollment
    • Eliminated Reliance on Outside Ad Vendors

Valley originally worked with Enrollment Resources in 2012, but left the partnership after one of the
school’s co-owner’s wanted to work with a marketing company they had a personal relationship with.

“Our experience with them [the other marketing company] was we were bringing ideas
to them versus them coming to us and saying, this is what we’ve tested. This is what
we know works. Whereas with you guys, you guys test everything and you know
what converts.”

 

Anthony Palmieri

Anthony Palmieri,
Director of Marketing, Valley College

The Plan: Targeted & Measurable

When Valley College returned as a partner with Enrollment Resources, the first order of business was focus. With their previous marketing company, the school spread their advertising budget across a variety of mediums including things like grocery cart and bus bench ads, which were difficult to track. The school also bought leads from third party lead vendors that often sell a single lead to multiple schools. This strategy left Valley with low quality leads and almost no way to measure the effectiveness of any specific marketing expense.

Enrollment Resources implemented a focused Digital Marketing strategy that included:

    • Implementation of Enrollment Resources’ best practice website template
    • Use of Enrollment Resources’ Lead Funnels powered by proprietary software Virtual Adviser on website and landing pages
    • Complete overhaul of PPC campaigns

Valley eliminated ad spend outside of the focused digital marketing strategy proposed by Enrollment Resources.

The Results

132% Increase

in Overall Enrollment

617% Increase

in Paid Search Leads

154% Increase

in Website Lead Conversion

Increased Leads Year Over Year

Chart of lead improvement over time

Increased Enrollment Compared to Benchmark

20%

2019-2020

49%

2020-2021

72%

2021-2022

132%

2022-2023

Valley College has experienced sustained growth year over year since the adoption of Enrollment
Resources’ best practices, including full use of the Virtual Adviser suite of tools.

“We do not have to go through pay per lead, which in this industry can be an absolute
nightmare. You guys are helping us generate more of our own inquiries that are much
more interested and have a much higher conversion rate. And it’s working.”

 

Anthony Palmieri

Anthony Palmieri,
Director of Marketing, Valley College

 

Sources:
[1] Based on enrollment numbers provided by Valley College, June 2018-May 2023
[2] Based on Google Analytics tracked PPC campaigns for Valley College, June 2017-May 2023
[3] Based on a conversion rate of 2.87% in Sept 2019 vs 7.28% in October 2019

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