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Assessing buyer behaviour triggers and marketing messages for online education college admission webpages
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
5
(2),
173-189
(2020)
Abstract
Higher education marketing has targeted the traditional college student with the campus visit, college viewbook and college admission website. Online higher education programmes, which recruit a nontraditional student consumer, are growing rapidly. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis study was to describe the buyer behaviour triggers and marketing messages that appeared on the college admission webpages for online education (OE) programmes. The study includes an examination of 313 marketing messages from the OE admission webpages of ten Midwestern colleges, collected between 1st September, 2018, and 31st November, 2018, in terms of what marketing messages were being communicated to prospective OE students. The phrases, words and images from the OE admission webpages were analysed and compared to a conceptual framework for OE student demands and preferences. Findings from the study highlight important considerations for how university marketing professionals may market to prospective students in a nontraditional OE context.
Keywords: online education marketing; online education student college choice; online education student preferences; higher education marketing; digital marketing
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
S. Paige Gardiner is an Assistant Faculty of Marketing at the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University (UVU). Paige teaches and researches digital marketing, and she serves as the Digital Marketing Programme Coordinator for the UVU Digital Marketing Major. Her love for students drives her research, which focuses on how institutions of higher education can use digital marketing to create opportunities for prospective students to enter and complete college. She previously served on the American Marketing Association (AMA) International Collegiate Council, which is a board of 12 faculty members from around the nation who oversee collegiate AMA student chapters. Paige has been awarded many teaching and advising awards, and she has been recognised as the Hugh G. Wells American Marketing Association National Advisor of the year.
Phillip A. Olt is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Student Affairs at Fort Hays State University (Hays, Kansas, USA). His research agenda focuses on (1) the interaction of distance learners with their higher education institution and its employees, (2) external influences that affect the nature and functions of American higher education and (3) emergent and hybrid qualitative research methodology.
