Navigating the "Outcomes Era" — Articulating a Compelling Value Proposition for Your College or University

Among the many challenges facing higher education in recent years is the increasing concern and skepticism around the costs and outcomes of a college education.

During our October 2024 OHO U conference, we explored this topic in a session with Danylle Kunkel and Tiffany Fishman of the Deloitte Center for Higher Education Excellence, who presented insights from the Deloitte 2024 Higher Education Trends report about the importance of conveying a clear and compelling value proposition in response to market demand for more clarity around the practical outcomes of a college education — what their report dubs "the outcomes era." We followed their presentation with a discussion of strategies and tactics marketers can use to meet these opportunities.

Highlight Social Mobility

In the current environment, it is important to highlight the social mobility your institution enables. Statistics on placement rates, salaries (both right after graduation and five to ten years on), and lifetime earnings for graduates of your institution are great places to start.

But more than numbers, telling the stories of your students and alumni will drive home your social mobility case. Where did they start from and where have they gone? What dreams did their education make possible? Your non-traditional, adult students can be a particularly rich source of such stories. How has your institution been able to cater to their needs? What outcomes has that support made possible?

And don’t forget that social mobility is a multi-generational story: the achievements of one generation provide a platform for the next generation to go even further. Alumni parents of current students may have interesting stories of this type to share.

Show Your Commitment to Inclusivity

You will also want to demonstrate that the social mobility you enable is available to all by showing your continuing commitment to inclusivity in a post-affirmative action world.

Start with the basics: inventory your written, photographic, and video content and make sure it accurately reflects your institution’s diversity. Under-representing the number of students from under-represented groups you have on your campus can make prospective students from those groups decide not to apply to your school. But over-representing those students — while tempting when you want to emphasize just how welcoming you are — can lead to disappointment and even attrition when students feel the diversity of your campus was misrepresented.

Your website’s diversity, equity, and inclusion section should also be reevaluated. In recent years, a DEI section has become an expectation for most higher ed websites. However, many schools have found that such sections see very little traffic from prospective students. This may be because the content in these sections tends to focus on the institution, rather than the student. 

Consider shifting the focus to answering a key question on the mind of nearly every prospective student: "Will I fit in?" While this approach still allows you to feature institutional efforts, it highlights the sense of community and belonging prospective students can expect to experience. This approach can also be effective for campuses that are now prohibited from using DEI terminology, as a "Community" or "Belonging" section can cater to students of every background.

Finally, remember that while students from underrepresented groups are interested in offerings specific to them, they are also interested in everything your institution has to offer. Make sure your campaigns address these students as whole people, not just representatives of their group.

Talk About Costs

Cost and debt after graduation are also major issues, so institutions must talk about costs with transparency.

The formulas determining what a particular student will pay can be quite complicated. Make sure your costs are easy to find on your website and present them as the total cost of attendance — not just tuition and fees. Cost calculators are a must and should not only be easy to find but also easy to use. Even better, work toward simplifying how your institution calculates tuition and fees. Such changes are difficult to make but would go a long way toward rebuilding public trust.

Also, remember that the cost of an education isn’t the same thing as the value of an education at your institution. Value encompasses not only what a student pays, but what they get in return. So make sure you present costs in the context of the benefits of a college education. ROI figures are important here but don’t forget to highlight the value of social mobility and dreams achieved. Show that your institution is worth the cost.

Develop and Promote New Programs

Creating new programs is key to better meeting "the needs and expectations of students, families, employers, and public officials." However, the substantial effort needed to create even a single new program is wasted if it fails to attract students. Set your institution up for success by bringing your marketing team into the loop early when developing new programs. 

No amount of promotion can make a new program successful if it is not aligned with labor market demands. Your marketing team can help during the early stages of program development by conducting market research to ensure there will be students interested in what you have to offer — and employers ready to hire them upon program completion. They can also help choose program names that reflect the keywords users will use to find that program.

Market research will also help you identify your target audiences and what they need and expect from your institution or program. Address audience needs and expectations directly and specifically in your digital marketing. This includes your ad copy, landing pages, emails, and other marketing collateral. You will want to emphasize how your new offerings will make your target audiences feel valued and supported. This might be program features like:

• Personal support, small class sizes, or mentorship
• Career coaching, networking opportunities, or personalized learning paths
• Flexibility and convenience

Showing how your institution or program promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and real-world problem-solving can help demonstrate program value and differentiate you from others. Putting that all together might sound like this: "With personalized career coaching and mentorship from industry leaders, our business master’s programs ensure you're not just another face in the crowd."

Better Meet the Needs and Expectations of Students, Families, Employers, and Public Officials

In a time of increased scrutiny of higher education, speaking with one voice is critical. If you don’t already have one, now is the time to create or update a messaging strategy for your institution. Audiences outside your institution will often understand a communication from any part of your institution as representing your entire institution. A messaging strategy can help those working in administrative offices communicate in ways that support the institution as a whole.

That strategy should include lawmakers and other public officials as an important secondary audience for all your communications. This is not that different from what you already do with your admissions communications, where the prospective student is your primary audience but their parents are also an important audience.

It can also be helpful to help your audiences understand — in advance — how free speech and academic freedom work on a college campus, and that disagreements and debates within an institution are a feature, not a bug, of higher education.

Identify Outcome-Centric Metrics Valued by Stakeholders

Your stakeholders want to understand how well you serve your students and your community. While a number will never capture the whole story, you should determine what metrics are the most important to your target audiences and how you can acquire them. This might include:

• Job placement rates
• Average starting salaries or expected salary increases
• Exam pass rates
• Top companies where students now work
• Accreditation and any notable rankings
• Economic impact on your community or region
• If appropriate, research outcomes such as patent applications

Be sure to share qualitative advantages of your institution/program that stakeholders value. This might include direct partnerships your institution or program has with businesses, internships, or job placements. Spotlight any prestigious faculty, research opportunities, cutting-edge technologies, or methodologies used in the coursework. Showing how your institution is rising to the challenge of AI is also important in the current environment.

Highlight your outcomes and make them easy to find on your website, in your digital marketing, and in other communications. When including metrics on a web page, provide definitions and sources for each and make sure they are updated at least annually. Consider a page dedicated to outcomes to provide a central location for those with questions about your institution’s success. But also share those outcome metrics and stories throughout the site to reach users who bypass the dedicated page.

Communicate Success, Impact, and Realized ROI

Stakeholders want to see the numbers. But remember that while ROI calculations are important they don’t tell the full story. Highly successful alumni in public service careers may have lower take-home pay than other alumni, but high life satisfaction. Supplementing and amplifying your metrics with alumni and outcome storytelling can paint the whole picture, including the social mobility your institution enables. For example, "Hear from our graduates who transformed their careers — like Jane, who pivoted from marketing to a senior leadership role at a major tech company."

Finally, highlight your institutional impact beyond the classroom. Economic impact studies can show how your institution lifts your local economy. Promote your small-business centers, clinics, and other ways your institution directly supports your community. And connect your research activities to the real (but sometimes long-term) benefits they bring.

Focus on the Mission

"The primary mission of higher education is to deliver high-quality education and contribute to societal progress. To fulfill this mission today and in the future, institutions must be willing to challenge the status quo, take risks, and innovate."

— Deloitte 2024 Higher Education Trends Report

The challenges facing higher education are real and not relenting any time soon. By focusing on illustrating outcomes and conveying your value proposition, you can gain a measurable advantage in taking them on.

Tess MacCurdy, Digital Marketing Strategist at OHO, Contributed to this blog post.