Unlocking the Potential of a Historic Brand Marching to Their Own Drum
Georgia Military College (GMC) was challenged by declining enrollment, a small staff, and an even smaller budget. Their competitors? Large public universities and for-profit colleges with deep pockets. They tapped us to lead their first digital marketing program—a strategy that triaged immediate needs within 90 days. Today, smart, scalable marketing has driven year-over-year growth in enrollment with lower conversion costs and growing brand recognition at the school that “teaches students how to succeed in the classroom.”
The Challenge
In 2018, GMC called us to help with enrollment for their Online College. They had no dedicated marketing resources and relied solely on leads referred from the College’s main website. There were no active marketing programs for the Online College. They also needed help nurturing leads, as their manual approach limited outreach to only their most recent ones. This meant abandoning candidates who were slower to convert.Their competitors thrived on their household name reputations and massive budgets, while GMC had neither.
Our Approach
While some agencies require a months-long research process while clients wait to see results, we chose to launch a pilot program focused on low-hanging fruit. Using Paid Search, SEO, and Display Advertising, we generated a steady flow of applicants within 90 days. Custom-designed landing pages (rather than the college’s outdated website) provided a compelling view of the college, its programs, and values, while driving qualified leads at an average cost of $42. Weekly calls with GMC that focused on data analytics further boosted performance through iterative improvement.
Next, we developed the Online College’s first website. (Previously, it existed only as a small section of the main GMC website.) The new site focused entirely on the online experience and programs. With promotion through Paid Search and retargeting ads, leads increased 23% in the first six months. Cost-per-lead decreased.
In year two, we implemented HubSpot as a CRM and marketing automation tool. Prior to HubSpot, the admissions team used a combination of spreadsheets and email to track applicant progress and manage communications. With HubSpot, GMC automated much of this process, nurturing leads through email sequences and SMS campaigns that empowered admissions reps to enroll more applicants and lower Cost per Start.
Deliverables included:
Digital Marketing Pilot Program: our Paid Search and retargeting programs showed sustained leads within 90 days. Results from SEO work showed up a few months later.
Landing Pages: rather than relying on the college’s outdated (at the time) website, we developed compelling content on user-friendly landing pages that each focused on a specific program. Optimized for conversion, these landing pages generated leads almost immediately.
New Website: less than a year after we began working with the Online College, we developed their first website, which boosted more leads at a lower cost-per-lead.
HubSpot CRM: in year two, we implemented HubSpot, a CRM and marketing automation software that helped recruiters reach more applicants and drive enrollment without hiring additional staff. Marketing automation replaced spreadsheets and one-off emails with programmatic lead nurturing and drip campaigns.
Ongoing Collaboration: our weekly stand-up calls drove steady improvement by focusing on data-informed reports, expanding what worked, and addressing what hadn’t.
The Results
Two years into our partnership with GMC, COVID hit and reduced in-person enrollment by 32%. During the same period, headcount at the Online College more than doubled to 2,091 students. By 2023, the Online College stood at 3,285 students—nearly three times its size when we started our relationship five years earlier.
These results led GMC’s Junior College and satellite campuses to hire us in 2021 to tackle their larger, more complex hurdles. We kicked off our relationship with a website redesign, launched Search, Social, and Display campaigns, rolled out HubSpot, trained staff, and drove other substantial changes.
