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George Mason University
5 minute read

Student Connections That Achieve Record Enrollment

Challenge


As Virginia’s largest public research university, George Mason University is intentional about prioritizing student needs from the moment it starts reaching out to prospective students. Each academic year, there are ambitious enrollment goals to supersede the previous year’s class size without sacrificing academic quality. This year, the team members were especially focused on proudly promoting their university’s rebrand efforts while strengthening their out-of-state markets that had flattened during the pandemic and continuing to achieve strong in-state enrollment.


Solution


George Mason teamed up with its long-time partner Encoura to set up student search and marketing strategies that would best achieve its enrollment goals. It leaned into the market and competitive analyses in Insights Cloud™ to understand its markets, empower the admissions team to own their assigned recruitment territories, and strategically plan the travel season. These insights – in addition to Eduventures® Research – also informed its marketing strategy as it launched multimedia experiences to engage students and their families across channels with messaging that would best resonate with them.

Funnel Optimization

Strategic Enrollment Consulting

Funnel & Market Analysis

Advanced Student Search

Encoura Combined Dataset

Smart+® Predictive Model

Technology

Enrollment Lens®

Class Planner®

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It’s obvious in our funnel how Encoura has contributed to our enrollment success. Our partnership has helped us generate more applications and improved our conversion rates at each stage of the funnel. Our growth [of nearly 10%] over the last three years has been amazing.
Dean of Admission
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Results

With the right data to back up its strategies, George Mason successfully connected with students across programs and geographic markets. Digital marketing efforts strengthened engagement throughout the funnel, resulting in tens of thousands of interactions from students and their parents/guardians. Through its student-focused recruitment and communications, the university boosted both in-state and out-of-state applications resulting in the highest total enrollment in the history of the school.

Website engagement 5 times higher than previous campaigns
Strengthened yield with tens of thousands of digital interactions from students and their parents/guardians
Website engagement 5 times higher than previous campaigns
11% increase in in-state applications
Website engagement 5 times higher than previous campaigns
19% gain in out-of-state applications
Website engagement 5 times higher than previous campaigns
Achieved highest total enrollment in the history of the school
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Encoura is ready to connect with you to get started on your best strategy. Learn more about how higher education leaders are better understanding their market to take their institutions to the next level.