Maryville College

Digital Marketing Campaign

Maryville, TN | Completed 2023

After undergoing a brand redesign, Maryville College partnered with GMB for a digital marketing campaign to raise awareness for the College and its key programs.

For inspiration, we turned to the unique opportunities presented by Maryville’s location: the rich relationship between exploration and experience that the campus offered; the academic and professional partnerships nearby; successful student outcomes from local internships; and so much more. With these insights, we crafted digital strategy and a creative way to showcase what really separated Maryville from other institutions in its area.

The Goal:

To raise awareness of the new Maryville College brand and its key programs, including its newly added hospitality program

The Challenge:

Establishing awareness and trust for a new brand and program that Maryville’s audience may not be familiar with

The Opportunity:

To showcase the College’s new brand identity and build awareness around its one-of-a-kind programs by launching an integrated digital marketing campaign highlighting opportunities and experiences only Maryville (and its location) can provide

Focuses
Digital Strategy

Leaning into Location

Based on key findings and research, we detected a post-COVID shift in high school students opting to stay in-state for their college education. Leveraging these findings, we crafted a strategy that targeted students and families within a 50-mile radius of Maryville and also pulled in nearby regions that showed searches for the programs the College was promoting.

Support for Staying in State

Numbers don’t lie: Nationwide, 86% of full-time equivalent (FTE) students attended college near their high school and 81% of those in Tennessee chose to stay in-state. With that information, we built a strategy that supported this trend and spoke directly to students who preferred staying closer to home.

Setting Parameters

That’s not to say that we were thinking small. We set parameters for the digital campaign at a 50-mile radius to incorporate out-of-state as well as local interest. We also pulled in Hoover and Birmingham as additional markets and extended our search efforts into most of Tennessee. As we evaluated results, we had the ability to extend or restrict targeting based on the ad response.

Building Something Special

Short. Simple. Straightforward. That was the kind of language we leveraged for the campaign, which was brought to life with the newly redesigned brand elements. Focusing on benefits of Maryville’s location and the specific programs we were promoting, we were able to craft a compelling message and call to action that resonated with the target audience.

Emphasizing Local Opportunities

Another big location benefit? The opportunities students can only get at Maryville, which we highlighted on the landing pages that accompanied the digital ads. There, we expanded on details that made Maryville programs truly unique and effective for students; like the hospitality program’s partnership with Blackberry Farms, Luxury hotel and resort that provided students with a one-of-a-kind experience to practice hospitality in a modern and refined way.

Setting Up for Reporting Success

An additional goal of Maryville was to ensure that the data from its marketing efforts dropped into its tracking program correctly and that the analytics were set up for peak performance. We worked closely with the Maryville team to ensure proper set up and attribution for accurate results, reporting, and analysis for future evaluation.

Results: Record Enrollment Going into 2024

Through collaboration and A/B testing, we identified that messaging focused around creating memorable experiences with a hospitality degree resonated with our audience. Around 35% of the leads generated were for the hospitality program, showing that we created awareness, traction, and excitement over Maryville’s new degree offering.