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.
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.
Strategic Enrollment Consulting
Funnel & Market Analysis
Encoura Combined Dataset
Smart+® Predictive Model
Enrollment Lens®
Class Planner®
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.