Colleges Turn to Marketing Automation to Reach More Potential Students
February 07, 2012
Colleges across North America are choosing Eloqua, the leading provider of on-demand Revenue Performance Management solutions, to better target and reach prospective students. As competition in this market heats up, colleges and universities are becoming more sophisticated marketers, tasked with reaching potential students through an expanding number of channels. Colleges are using Eloqua to execute highly targeted campaigns at critical moments in a student’s decision-making process.
Ashworth College Sees Results with Targeting and Segmentation
Georgia-based Ashworth College offers online education programs ranging from a high school diploma to a Master’s Degree. The marketing team at Ashworth is responsible for creating messaging and campaigns for each education level, aimed at a prospective student’s unique education goals. With Eloqua, Ashworth created a sophisticated lead nurture program which delivers dynamic, personalized messages based on a student’s stated goals.
“At Ashworth, we have built several lead nurturing programs and Eloqua helps us easily segment prospective students and track their behavior (their ‘digital body language’) so that we can send the right message at the right time,” said Sigrid Gehrig, Associate Director of Online Marketing, Ashworth College. “The marketing team’s email nurture programs combined with the implementation of email deliverability best practices have garnered incredible results. Open and click-through rates doubled compared to last year. Eloqua provides Ashworth with a more holistic view of the entire lead process, and the tangible results speak for themselves.”
With 22 campuses across five states and six schools of study, Rasmussen College understands the importance of using marketing automation to target the right prospective student. Prior to Eloqua, Rasmussen College used a “batch and blast” method for their email marketing campaigns. After turning to Eloqua and RelationshipOne, Rasmussen now has an automated process in place and marketing is accurately targeting messages to the right prospective students. The College can now track potential students through the whole lifecycle – from initial interest, to attending an informational session, to signing up for their first course as a Rasmussen student.
Rasmussen has enjoyed a sharp increase in engagement through a series of nurture programs. The college has big plans for future nurture programs as it plans to incorporate other channels like direct mail moving forward.
“Our customer base is rapidly expanding into new verticals, including education,” said Joe Payne, CEO, Eloqua. “Early marketing automation adopters like Ashworth and Rasmussen are leading the way in this industry. These schools have proven there is a strong appetite for marketing technology that can help grow enrollment efficiently and effectively.”
About Eloqua
Eloqua, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle, is the leading provider of modern marketing automation and revenue performance management software that helps ensure every component of marketing works harder and more efficiently to drive revenue. Eloqua's software is now the centerpiece of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Companies across a wide range of industries rely on Eloqua's cloud-based software, professional services and education programs to help them automate marketing processes across multiple channels, target and nurture prospects and deliver highly qualified leads at a lower cost to sales teams. For more information, visit www.eloqua.com, subscribe to the It's All About Revenue blog, call 866-327-8764, or email demand@eloqua.com.
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