SMART STRATEGY FOR EDUCATION: STUDENT PROGRAMS NOW HAVE A WAITING LIST at career center

Polaris Career Center provides adult education and training programs that focus on career success. Courses are designed to help students upgrade skill sets, gain access to the workforce, or launch a brand-new career. Course offerings and content remain current with today’s changing technology/job market and include training programs, customized training for employers as well as continuing education and personal enrichment classes for the adult learner.

Polaris sought a true marketing partner, one that would expand their abilities operationally and strategically. Their ongoing challenges were specific, including student recruitment, maximizing enrollment numbers, and expert management of a sometimes-tricky revenue schedule. They soon discovered that our partnership would provide just what they required.

Recruiting for 12 or more adult education courses at a time, Polaris was challenged by the intricacy of a plan that required multiple messages and points of conversion. Messaging needed to tell the story of Polaris while simultaneously generating awareness around their programs. Our team developed a two-pronged approach.

Evergreen Campaign, designed to heighten career center Awareness and Brand Recall

We first took the approach of an always-on, evergreen campaign that included SEO, SEM, and Website Remessaging. In this way, the organic search results for Polaris would be improved over time, the short-term search results would lift through pay-to-play, and those that made it to the website would be messaged after departing, further encouraging their return visit and engagement.

Shorter, Enrollment Specific Campaign, Drives Traffic During Enrollment

In shorter, 60-day bursts, our team combined Social media, video and display impressions, high impact ads in digital and print, and sponsor content articles to dramatically increase traffic to certain site pages, where inquiries around programming could be made and applicants could register to attend a campus event designed to sign new students into the program.  These open houses were the single greatest tool Polaris has executed in “closing” new students.

As our partnership with the career center strengthened in the fall of 2019 to early 2020, this method drove upwards of 480 people to the open house events. Just preceding the impact of our global health crisis, this could not have come at a better time. Of the result, Karen Rayk, Director of Adult Education at Polaris Career Center had this to say, “All programs are in session and all instructors are working—which was our hope.”  (One exception exists: the Phlebotomy Certification. The school was unable to secure externship sites for fall cohort students (due to the pandemic), so did not run the program. It is scheduled to start January 2021.)

At the time of this writing, there are 68 students now on waiting lists, due to programs being at capacity. “Spring enrollment for FY21 is strong. Programs scheduled to start in February are already full. The fact that all of our anticipated programs are running is a testament to our dedicated staff and marketing/promotion efforts.”