Outstanding Project
Institutional Effectiveness and Marketing Collaboration: Using Data-Driven Decision-Making to Measure and Improve College Marketing Strategies
Led by Project Team Members: Oleg Bespalov, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Moorpark College; James Schuelke, Director of Outreach and Marketing, Oxnard College; Gabby Chacon, Sr. Administrative Assistant, Moorpark College; Karla Montenegro Gonzalez, PACE Program Coordinator, Moorpark College; and Jennifer Lawler, PACE Counselor, Moorpark College
Projection Description:
In light of declining enrollments, colleges are increasing their marketing efforts. How can Institutional Effectiveness support these marketing initiatives to help improve their chances of increasing enrollment?
Moorpark College (MC) shared how they used data-driven marketing to grow a program designed for adult students from 0 to 500 students, or about 4% of the college's full-time equivalent students, in just two years. The project provided key evidence that utilizing data can improve marketing and lead to higher enrollments among historically marginalized student groups.
The college initially focused on students participating in the college's Program for Accelerated College Education (PACE), whose average age was older than the general student population at MC, and whose ethnic background was more diverse. Given the structure of the program, where students take two courses every eight weeks, PACE students were shown to have better outcomes than non-PACE adult students. In a recent survey, 90% of PACE students agreed with the statement, "I am able to stay enrolled at Moorpark College because of the PACE program. If PACE did not exist, I would drop out or enroll at another college/university."
The types of marketing data analyses (surveys, A/B tests, control and treatment groups) that were conducted at MC are considered the norm for large and for-profit universities, but remain novel and innovative at community colleges, which typically have much smaller marketing budgets.
Given the success of the PACE program at MC, the other two colleges in its district have decided to start or reincarnate their own PACE program, and the MC project team will be helping their colleagues implement their programs, including establishing their own marketing research protocols.
The project team showed that these kinds of tools were easily adaptable and could be used to market other college programs immediately. These insights are helping to level the playing field to ensure more programs and departments can effectively recruit students with fewer resources.