Understanding Marketing Strategies that Work in Adult Studies Programs in Faith-Based Higher Education Institution

Colleges and universities across the United States are turning to non-traditional programs to help keep revenue afloat as traditional-aged students drop in numbers. As colleges turn to this source of revenue, many are doing so without proper guidance or evaluation of recent, relevant research on best practices for how to evaluate marketing strategies that work to attract non-traditional students. In this paper, the researcher aimed to identify best practices for how decisions are made in regard to marketing strategies that work for these institutions. More specifically, the researcher attempted to explore how marketing personnel select, design, implement, and evaluate marketing strategies which target adult students. The researcher researched and interviewed five private faith-based colleges throughout the United States through a case study approach with the intent of providing such colleges with best practices in regard to marketing. Findings indicated that all five CCCU colleges in this study had initiated the selection, design, and implementation of their recruitment marketing to adult students in partnership with independent advertising and marketing firms. Participants from all five colleges reported that they used Google Analytics to track source codes and click rates for landing pages on their websites. All participants also reported that their admissions and recruitment personnel were trained to collect data at the inquiry and/or application stage about how applicants had first heard of the school. Having these best practices may help institutions spend money appropriately and attract and retain the right student at their respective institutions. Future researchers should conduct studies with the goal of expanding this study's representation to marketing personnel beyond CCCU schools, and of assessing the efficacy of using SCT to make marketing decisions in comparison to other decision-making processes.