Marketing and Recruitment

Noodle was built to create and thoughtfully scale great programs. We strive to be transparent, making data about marketing and recruitment available in accessible and actionable formats. Integrating your internal strengths with best-in-class providers and enabling the synthesis of online and on-campus operations, we offer a level of flexibility simply not available with other OPMs. We’re aligned to the goals of the school and university; you retain the ability to recruit among specific demographic or geographic groups and to shift marketing efforts on a moment’s notice.

Marketing

Marketing efforts are the primary driver of applicants to new online programs. They also communicate an institution’s values, mission and brand. Noodle understands this and collaborates with universities to ensure their marketing efforts enhance their reputations.

Marketing is, regrettably, one of the most expensive aspects of developing new online programs and maintaining existing ones. Naturally, costs will vary based on location, area of study, and degree level. But without deeply experienced people navigating the complex vendor ecosystem, marketing costs could quickly get out of control.

Luckily, marketing is a core strength of Noodle. Our team is experienced in every facet of marketing— including strategy, logistics, media buying, enhancements, and search engine optimization.

To help each college achieve its marketing goals, Noodle will provide:

Strategic Advice & Market Research
We begin by conducting a detailed market analysis based on Department of Labor data and national and regional employment trends, looking deeply into the competitive landscape of each subject area. This elucidates the viability of the programs each school is looking to build. Our reports will include analyses of online competitors’ pricing, admissions standards and requirements for graduation, providing important guidance as clients begin to launch and position themselves in the marketplace.

Web Design & Content Management
‍Noodle will design a robust, search-engine-optimized portal for each program. Within days, a school can deploy a differentiated site on a subdomain with the correct look and feel and connections to its CRM and recruiting teams. We can also launch and manage micro-sites to reach various submarkets.

‍Paid Advertising
‍A key part of Noodles’ work will be to build, launch and manage a paid media strategy for each college. We will develop, deploy and optimize a paid media strategy that generates interest from the most-ideal prospective students at the lowest possible cost.

‍Search Engine Optimization and Inbound Marketing
‍Despite the importance of paid media efforts, the most enthusiastic prospects — and those most easily converted into students — are those who arrive at your website organically. An organic or inbound visit is one that is triggered by a prospective student searching for your school, a program, or any other number of long-tail queries via the search engines. To identify and nurture this crucial audience, Noodle will build and manage a comprehensive Inbound Marketing plan. The foundation of the plan starts with in-depth keyword research (SEO) coupled with a complete understanding of your target audience.

‍Conversion Rate Optimization
‍You probably have yet to come across an OPM that offers CRO as part of their marketing services. The goal of CRO is to convert as many of the visitors to your website as possible into applicants.

CRO means figuring out what visitors to your site are looking for when they arrive and then delivering it to them. It can take many forms based on your overall goals. Sometimes it involves design features like making your call-to-action buttons more eye-catching, changing their placement on the page, or even testing the button copy itself. At other times it means removing complicated steps from your conversion funnel, or minimizing on-page copy or forms, as any type of friction can prevent a conversion. CRO always involves A/B testing.

A/B or split testing involves comparing two versions of a web page to see which one performs better. When competition is so high, especially on paid advertising channels like Google Adwords, it’s important to not waste a single opportunity to convert a prospective student. We make sure your program microsites and landing pages are optimized for conversions.

‍Lead Nurturing
‍Once you successfully convert a visitor into a lead, the next step is to get the lead (prospective student) to complete an application. Without a thoughtful lead-nurturing strategy, it is very difficult to grow your student pipeline.

In most cases, lead-nurturing will be deployed utilizing a marketing automation platform. Touch points can include phone, text and email. Just as was the case with CRO, A/B testing is particularly important when it comes to lead-nurturing campaigns. What you communicate, how you communicate it and when, are all important factors when it comes to guiding students across the application finish line.

Noodle will work collaboratively with your internal communications team as well as selected marketing providers to build and manage lead-nurturing campaigns that keep your student pipeline full.

Student Recruitment

Prior to the online age, the student demographic at a given institution was, in general, more locally focused and based on students’ biases on regional affiliation or connection to the university. The wave of online education has created a huge opportunity for universities to become national brands. In order to accomplish this, sophisticated strategic marketing needs to be supplemented with dedicated enrollment counselors who follow up with inquiries to drive interest in your online programs.

Noodle is dedicated to understanding your institution’s mission and unique position in the marketplace, which includes the admission and recruitment processes and protocols currently being utilized. Integrating with and not simply replacing existing efforts is one of Noodles’ highest priorities. Our goal is to build upon successful existing operations while making enhancements to allow for nationwide recruitment.

Each online program offered at your institution will receive a dedicated Noodle-sourced recruitment center oriented to embrace your mission and unique position in the marketplace. Enrollment Counselors are thoroughly trained, coached and monitored to ensure that the respective colleges are properly represented and prospective students adequately supported through the process.

In addition to embracing your school’s unique culture and spirit, the enrollment counselors qualify inquiries to ensure their fit. They also counsel prospective students through the application process to ensure they are making strong academic choices, meeting admissions deadlines and properly gathering required application items.

Long before the first lead is contacted, Noodle will have ensured message alignment and strict compliance with all pertinent regulations. Once marketing begins, Noodle will provide your team with clear and complete data.