Higher Education
Case Study: University of San Diego PCE | WordPress & Destiny One Website Integration
Online education powerhouse grows leads by 1,288% with WordPress & Destiny One (Modern Campus) website integration.
INDUSTRIES
Marketing for Graduate Degree Programs
Attract more graduate students and boost program enrollment with an approach that focuses on the unique needs and behaviors of advanced degree seekers.
Schools we’ve Helped
Our Marketing Services for Graduate Degree Programs
Whether you’re looking to generate awareness and demand for a new program or bolster enrollment for your existing programs, we offer a full range of time-tested, future-focused website and digital marketing services to get you there.
Website Design & Development
Your website needs to do more than inform — it needs to increase full-funnel leads and boost enrollment in your programs.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Unlike most higher education digital marketing agencies that focus only on prospects who are ready to apply, we broaden your enrollment funnel by providing value earlier in the decision-making process.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services
The first step in any successful higher ed digital marketing program is making sure you get found by the right prospective students at the right time.
Pay-per-click (PPC) Management Services
If you’ve run paid campaigns with disappointing results — or shied away from this tactic altogether — we’re here to help.
Brand Strategy Services
We help uncover and communicate your unique value to prospective students so you can stand out from the crowd and make the decision to enroll as easy as possible.
Content Marketing
We develop highly targeted, search-optimized content and gated premium content offers to drive engagement and leads at every stage of the research and decision-making process.
Email Marketing
Our graduate program-specific email marketing strategies deliver timely, relevant, valuable information to build trust, confidence, and urgency to maximize the impact of your overall digital marketing efforts.
Social Media Services
We take a tailored approach that engages prospective grad students where they’re at, so you don’t waste time and money on social media or influencer campaigns that miss the mark.
35+
higher education institution
clients
100+
programs in top 3 ranking on Google organic results
300%
increase in PPC ‘apply now’ conversions
850%
increase in leads for higher ed clients
We Know Graduate Program Marketing
Today’s prospective graduate students are a pragmatic, outcome-driven bunch, especially when compared to traditional undergraduate students. To reach them where they’re at, higher ed marketers need to appeal to their desire to advance their careers — and communicate what sets their graduate degrees apart from an increasingly crowded competitive field.
Here are some of the unique characteristics of prospective graduate and master’s degree students:
Age and Life Stage
Master’s degree prospects are generally older and may be at different life stages compared to bachelor’s degree prospects. They might be professionals looking to upskill, change careers, or accelerate their current career path.
Professional Experience
Master’s prospects often have work experience and specific career goals. They are looking to further their education in a way that directly benefits their current or future career paths.
Research-Oriented
The decision-making process for master’s degree prospects is often more rigorous and research-intensive. They are more likely to scrutinize program specifics, outcomes data, and ROI meticulously.
Motivation and Career Goals
While bachelor’s students might be motivated by the college experience or the pursuit of a broad field of study, master’s students are typically more focused on specific career outcomes, skill acquisition, and personal growth in their field.
Financial Pressures
Master’s students are more likely to be financially independent and may be balancing education costs with other financial responsibilities like a mortgage, family, or existing student loans.
Expectation for Practical Outcomes
Master’s students expect their degree to have a tangible impact on their career trajectory. They look for programs that offer practical experiences, industry connections, and opportunities for applied learning. They look for programs that offer specific, niche areas of study that align closely with their career goals.
Our Work
Hear it from our clients
Vital provided my team with the guidance and expertise we needed in order to maximize synergies across our omnichannel network of digital transformative initiatives.
— Andy Kauffman
Digital Marketing Strategist, University of San Diego Online
Before Vital, we struggled to have the discipline to measure results and quantify our paid strategies. Now we know exactly what’s working. Better yet, Vital pushes us to continually improve, so we’re able stay competitive in a really tough enrollment market.
— Kim Downey
Digital Marketing Strategist, UMass
Recognition for Our Work in Higher Education
Unique Challenges of Graduate Degree Marketing
In an increasingly competitive graduate degree market, you need a digital marketing partner who understands that not all higher education enrollment challenges are alike.
#1. Diverse Audience Backgrounds
Graduate programs often attract students from a wide array of backgrounds, both academically and professionally. We draw from our deep expertise combined with program-specific audience research to craft marketing messages that resonate across this diverse spectrum.
#2. Experience & Expectations
Unlike undergraduates, master’s degree prospects often have substantial professional experience and advanced knowledge in their field. Our strategists and specialists develop content and engagement opportunities that acknowledge and respect your audience’s professional status and intellectual maturity.
#3. Demonstrating Clear ROI
Prospective graduate students are keenly interested in understanding the return on investment (ROI) of their degree. They want concrete data on job placements, salary increments, and career advancement opportunities post-graduation.
#4. Work-Life Balance
Many graduate degree candidates are working professionals who need to balance their studies with their job and personal life. We ensure that marketing messages highlight the benefits of flexible program structures, online learning options, and part-time schedules.
#5. Financial Considerations
The financial commitment for a graduate degree is significant, and many prospects are funding their education independently. We take an ROI-focused approach that puts scholarships, financial aid, and the overall cost-benefit equation front and center.
#6. Network & Connections
Prospective graduate students are interested in the network they will be joining. They value the quality of faculty, alumni success, and the professional opportunities the program will open for them.
#7.Geography
Unlike residential undergraduate schools, which are more likely to draw from a regional audience, graduate programs must compete in a geographical free-for-all. When the competition is everywhere, we understand how to make your programs first in line.
#8. Application Inertia
Perhaps the toughest competitor for many graduate programs isn’t other higher ed institutions — it’s the decision to put off application and enrollment, sometimes indefinitely. We apply proven tactics to generate the urgency needed to encourage prospects to take the next step now.
Essential Reading
Ebooks: Digital Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education
What’s in the eBook? This 30-page guide is your digital marketing playbook for attracting more qualified applicants, building your academic brand, and bridging the gap between acceptance and enrollment to fill more seats and grow your school’s programs.
Why choose Vital as your higher education digital marketing partner
For over 20 years, we’ve been finding new ways to enable higher education institutions to achieve the goals that matter most to their success. When you partner with Vital, you get:
- A future-proof foundation
- A plan for growth
- Comprehensive strategies that beat the competition
- Data-driven continuous improvement
- A process you can rely on
- A partner you can trust
Our Graduate Degree Marketing Service Specialties
When it comes to graduate program websites, digital marketing strategy, SEO, and paid digital media, we have a lot to share about our unique approach.
Graduate Program Website Design & Development
From an air-tight technical foundation to intuitive user experiences, conversion rate optimization strategy, and more, we build high-performance websites tailored to today’s busy, career-focused prospective grad students.
Digital Marketing Strategy for Graduate Programs
We tailor our strategies to reach working professionals at every stage in their journey — so you can dramatically increase leads and successfully convert more enrollees.
SEO Strategy for Graduate Degree Programs
We combine our deep understanding of the graduate degree market with data-driven methodologies to ensure that your content ranks for high-intent searches, driving more qualified traffic to your site.
Paid Digital Media (PPC) for Graduate Schools
Our proven strategies dramatically reduce costs and increase effectiveness by applying graduate program-specific approaches and harnessing the power of AI to drive continuous improvement.
Time-tested Strategies for Future-Focused Graduate Degree Programs
With over a decade of experience in graduate degree marketing for some of the fastest-growing programs in the U.S., we apply a proven approach to attracting, nurturing, and converting leads in this highly pragmatic, career-driven space.
Be…
Helpful
We make it our business to understand what your future online students need in order to make their lives easier. Then we make and execute a plan to consistently deliver helpful content, so your online degree programs are top-of-mind when it’s time to make the choice to apply and enroll.
Authentic
We bake authentic social proof into every website and every content-driven digital marketing strategy we deploy, so your online programs can build trust and connect on a human level in an increasingly impersonal world.
Inspirational
We work with you to tell the story of how your online degree programs enable your students to accomplish their dreams, making it as easy as possible for prospects to choose you over the competition.
Everywhere
We apply a highly disciplined, data-driven approach to ensuring that your institution shows up at exactly the right time, in front of exactly the right audience, every time, so your online programs will thrive for years to come.
Our Process
We combine deep expertise in graduate degree programs with a foundation in digital marketing for some of today’s most innovative higher education brands to create a proven approach to growing your programs’ enrollment and revenue.
Step one: Intake and assessment
Our higher education specialists take stock of your digital marketing performance with a baseline assessment of your current online presence and marketing activities.
Step two: Discovery and research
We conduct a thorough discovery into your school’s brand, your digital marketing goals, your audience, and your major competitors.
Step three: Plan the work
Based on your goals and your budget, we create a plan for building your digital marketing foundation and a monthly calendar for tactical deployment, with key performance indicators (KPIs) to define and measure success.
Step four: Work the plan
Our team of strategists, designers, developers, and writers partners with your internal marketing team to create digital assets, build your content library, and execute your plan.
Step five: Measure, improve, repeat
We measure and report on your customized KPIs weekly and use the data to adjust tactics and improve performance. Our expertise allows us to balance the patience necessary for long-term improvements with the agility to respond immediately to fast-moving metrics.
The graduate degree program marketing agency that combines fanatical discipline with inspired creativity
The Vital offices are filled with marketing nerds who can fill you in on the latest search engine algorithm updates, or wax poetic about the virtues of open source content management systems (CMS). We’re also home to some of the most innovative creative minds in the business. More often than not, the nerds and the creatives are one and the same. We get a kick out of solving problems your competitors don’t even realize they have. And we love to talk shop.
Let’s Talk
Ready to start a digital marketing or website redesign project for your graduate degrees? So are we! Let’s get the ball rolling. Our team will be in touch within 48 hours.
