Supporting Your Recruitment Strategy with Digital Tools

Is it sometimes difficult to imagine how dynamic content — toasters, popovers, image swaps and web retargeting — might be used to promote your graduate recruitment strategy? Every day, Capture Higher Ed’s partners are deploying the power of marketing automation in creative, purposeful ways that are specific to their recruitment strategy needs.

Toasters
One Capture partner, a mid-sized Catholic university in the Midwest, just began a campaign that is serving a toaster — a small graphic that slides up from the bottom right corner of the web page and displays for about 30 seconds — to anonymous and identified prospective students who visit three or more graduate pages on the university’s website.

Recruitment StrategyA person showing that level of activity obviously is searching for more information. Why not offer them some?

With the heading “LEARN. ADVANCE. MUNCH,” the toaster rises up and informs the visitor about a Graduate Studies Information Session later in the month. The session is an opportunity to learn about specific programs directly from faculty members. It also includes food, which would account for “MUNCH” in the headline. At the bottom of the toaster is a registration button; the best toasters have a specific call to action.

Recruitment StrategyThe same school has an on-going campaign that serves a more general toaster — “Thinking About Grad School?” — to visitors who land on specific graduate-related pages on their website. The graphic includes a button to learn about the school’s graduate and professional programs.

Another Capture partner, an art institute in the Northeast, is deploying toasters to visitors who research two or more of their graduate studies and admissions pages that highlight an important fact about its programs. “Get Your Grad Degree!” the toaster says, and then reads: “We offer an MAT and low residency MFA programs.” An “Apply Today” button is on the bottom.

Recruitment StrategyThe great thing about toasters is that they can be programmed to go deep or go broad — to show to very precise groups of visitors or to a larger populace.

Popover
Some of our partners are using popovers to give more information about their graduate programs. A popover is typically a graphic, or a short piece of HTML content like a video, that takes over the full webpage and must be closed in order to view the original page content. (Popovers will display only once, regardless of the action taken by the visitor.)

A Capture partner, a mid-sized private university in the Northeast, currently uses a popover to offer information on scholarships to graduate prospects researching on their website. Anonymous and identified non-applicants who go to four or more of its graduate studies pages see the popover that reads: “We’re Committed to Affordability,” which then offers a link to learn more about significant, merit-based scholarships to graduate students.

Like toasters, successful popovers should have a specific call to action that is clearly defined for the visitor.

Web Retargeting
Several of our graduate partners also are using web retargeting, which involves serving customized ads to those who have visited your website. It’s a great recruitment strategy to keep your brand in front of a prospective student and also can serve as a reminder to complete an action, like registering for an information session, filling out an identification form or even applying.

Through retargeting, past visitors to one of our partners graduate pages are reminded through an ad to learn more about the school’s 15 graduate degree and certificate programs. The same school uses another retargeted ad to promote its 12-month master’s in finance program.

Another partner, a mid-sized private university in Florida, is using retargeted ads to remind past visitors that you can “Finish Your Bachelor’s Degree Online In Less Time.” The ad touts the school’s online program designed for busy adults — and it finds them where they likely are … online.

These are just a few of the ways graduate schools are applying the digital tools of Capture’s state-of-the-art tool kit. The possibilities are many, varied and always adaptable to the specific needs of any recruitment strategy.

By Kevin Hyde, Senior Content Writer, Capture Higher Ed