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EducationDynamics’ Market Research and Advisory Services division, the industry leader in adult student market analysis, today announced its new customized market assessment service, the “Online Student Market Analysis.” This three-part market overview, tailored to a school’s individual market “footprint” and competitive landscape, is designed to help individual colleges and universities understand supply and demand in their specific market space.
The service comes at a time when more schools are realizing the importance of understanding their specific market opportunity in the burgeoning online area of higher education. According to the Sloan Consortium, online enrollments continue to grow at rates far in excess of the total education student population, and “the 17 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.”
“Online education is a highly competitive, complex and dynamic market,” notes Carol Aslanian, senior vice president of Market Research and Advisory Services. “The three studies that comprise the ‘Online Student Market Analysis’ provide college marketers the ability to target their efforts to achieve a high return on investment. This is especially crucial information for schools contemplating whether to take traditional programs online, add additional courses or degrees to their existing online offerings, or commit to new online marketing approaches. Schools need to know what’s worth investing in.”
The three assessments included in the “Online Student Market Analysis” are designed to identify who and where prospects are, their learning preferences and characteristics of competitors’ programs. Major aspects of the research are drawn from Education Dynamics’ proprietary database of prospects who are actively seeking online programs, an unprecedented database that has grown to some 4 million unique visitors per month.
Specifically, Study 1: Density Mapping and Demography of Online Learners, identifies concentrations of potential online learners using a combination of proprietary information from EducationDynamics’ databases of prospective students and the school’s current online students (if applicable). This assessment helps schools identify “target-rich” clusters of potential online learners, more effectively tailor marketing efforts to those locations and demographics, and strategically choose and place media to most successfully (and cost-effectively) reach the intended audience.
Study 2: Demand among Prospective Online Learners, identifies prospects’ geographic (state, region, national), program-subject and degree-level preferences. Not only does this study enable schools to most effectively align their course offerings, delivery formats, support services, and pricing options to market preferences, it also provides a detailed picture of how prospects currently view those schools’ offerings―and possibly identify areas for improvement.
Study 3: Supply among Competitor Institutions, analyzes the programs and services of the institutions specified by the client institutions, and those most often mentioned by prospects interviewed by Market Research and Advisory Services. By identifying competitors’ market offerings, this assessment helps schools make such strategic decisions as whether to:
- duplicate others’ offerings―there may be unmet demand among online students not yet enrolled at colleges or some enrolled students may transfer to your institution;
- design new offerings―demand for current online offerings may already be satisfied, or a school’s unique resources may enable it to create online programs in high demand that other colleges cannot readily duplicate; or
- coordinate online offerings―adding upper-division programs to complete what other colleges have begun or adding lower-division programs that other colleges can complete.
The “Online Student Market Analysis” is one of several custom research offerings from Market Research and Advisory Services that help schools establish or refine their business strategy. Additional studies, all led by Carol Aslanian, a pioneer and renowned thought-leader in adult student market research, include “Graduate Student Market Analysis” and “Adult Student Market Analysis.” Many schools also rely on studies that provide custom analysis of Employers, Prospective Students Who Did Not Enroll, Early Leavers, Institutional Audits, and more.
About EducationDynamics
EducationDynamics (educationdynamics.com), a portfolio company of Halyard Capital, is higher education’s leading marketing services company dedicated to helping institutions find, enroll and retain students. Its content-rich and highly visible education websites, including EarnMyDegree.com, eLearners.com, GradSchools.com, StudyAbroad.com, and its more than 50 special interest microsites, make EducationDynamics the premier provider of qualified prospective students for colleges and universities. In addition, the company offers a full suite of Web-delivered services proven to drive enrollment growth and reduce student attrition. Through its Market Research and Advisory Services division, the company brings a decade of proprietary research, unparalleled market and student intelligence, and best practice insights to its clients.
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