How to Market Business Schools: Strategies, Tactics and Best Practices

Seismic changes in the global economy and the future of work leave business school deans everywhere seeking a fresh annunciation of why their business school still matters.

AACSB, GMAC and Poets & Quants stats show that business schools applications are on the rise. Business schools are striving to secure fair share of that growth in service of shaping the incoming class. To answer these questions, ambitious business school deans routinely approach Elliance for advice and execution of marketing strategy. Here is what we recommend:

Understand the Audience Deeply

Every student has a dream, a story, a spark. Begin by understanding their ambitions, challenges, and motivations. Know what drives them—not just academically, but personally. Because when you know their story, you can help shape their future. This holds true for all prospective students whether they’re pursuing a BBA, MBA, EMBA, specialized master’s, or general business degrees. This holds just as true for alumni, donors, employers, and partners.

Craft an Unforgettable Brand

Every great business school has a soul. It’s not just about rankings or facilities—it’s about what makes your school different, what it stands for, and how it changes lives. Craft a story that is authentic, inspiring, and deeply human. Tell a story that moves people, that makes them believe they’re part of something bigger. In the sea of sameness, brands win. The practice of branding demands that a business school:

1. Affirm its purpose.
2. Define a core promise that is enduring, immutable and indisputable.
3. Articulate a distinct and memorable brand image.
4. Position the school vis-a-vis peers.
5. Pursue a big idea, without which the school will be ignored.

From the website to campus visits, every touchpoint is an opportunity to inspire. Design experiences that show students what life at your school feels like—experiences that are intuitive, personalized, and unforgettable.

Rank on Search Engines and AI Generative Engines

Page one is destiny for both Google and Generative Engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google Gemini. If prospects can’t find the school, it won’t be considered. If corporations can’t find the school, they won’t recruit or partner.

The journey to Google and Generative Engine page one presence begins by creating an institutional Keyword Guide that contains clusters of keywords and phrases spanning strategic plan priorities, academic programs, brand ideals, and areas of thought leadership, research, innovation and intellectual capital..

Because fresh content is the fuel of Google and Generative Engines, create an editorial calendar. Never create a piece of new content without identifying the keyword first. You become the story you choose to tell.

Inspire Prospects with a Beautiful and Persuasive Website

A website is the digital soul of an institution. All roads lead to it. When designing a website, here are some guidelines a business school ought to follow:

1. Merchandise hope.
2. Don’t be a bore. A school can’t bore people into enrolling, or buying into its brand ideals. You must inspire prospects to inquire, visit and apply.
3. Secure Google page one rankings for all the school’s programs. If a program can’t be found, prospects won’t consider enrolling in it.
4. Romance prospects with sophisticated, high-fidelity academic program pages for all your programs.
   
   Feature courses, institutes, centers, talented faculty, students, successful alumni, internships, traditional and nontraditional career paths, recent employers and placement stats.
   
   Spotlight special scholarships. Highlight STEM designations to attract international students eligible for 36 months of extended practical training after graduation.
   
   Connect the classroom to various facets of experiential learning, including externships and internships, pro-bono projects, a host of business competitions, research assistantships, study abroad programs, public speaking, and more.
   
   Show how interdisciplinary centers of excellence and symposia funded by corporations, major foundations and other government sources are critical part of the academic experience.
   
   Connect the success of business school graduates with collaborative and teamwork aspects of your education in ways sufficiently concrete that it make sense to prospects and their parents.
   
   Demonstrate how graduates are transitioning into the world of meaningful work and the work of the future. 
   
   Underscore how employers prize the program alumni they have hired.
   
   Punctuate the argument with placement details such as top employers and starting salaries.
   
   Highlight your school’s rankings.
5. Tell stories of faculty imparting attention to detail, resilience, professionalism, inquiry, self-reflection, ethical awareness, discipline, discernment, and perspective — the things that lead students towards greater professional success. 
   
   Highlight how faculty and alumni are opening doors for students to gain internship experience, find job opportunities, and explore innovative career paths.

6. Create online viewbooks and microsites that distill the argument for the business school.
7. Streamline admissions process. Avoid frustrating prospective digital native students with arcane process. Develop an accepted student microsite.
8. Show how your school’s curriculum and other student experiences shape their foundation, bolster mental discipline, and develop broader habits. Make the case that curriculum nurtures the development of thirteen key skills for business success: situational analysis and reasoning, strategic thinking, data-driven decision making, critical and analytical thinking, innovative and creative thinking, leadership and emotional intelligence, ethical and responsible decision-making, global dexterity and cultural awareness, collaboration and interpersonal skills, risk-taking and resilience, empathy and customer-centric thinking, entrepreneurial mindset, and continuous learning and self-reflection
9. Showcase your strategic plans to understand the business school’s roadmap for navigating emerging challenges, how the school curriculum, pedagogy and resources are being directed to meet the needs of the changing landscape.
10. Showcase the large variety of clubs and organizations to mirror areas of competitive advantage and emerging specialties.
11. Spotlight experiential opportunities, externships and internships, research assistantships, pro-bono projects, working on advocacy projects, study abroad programs, public speaking, and more.
12. Highlight extracurricular events where your school’s prospects hang out.
13. Promote speaker series that attract surrounding communities with topics like data analytics, healthcare, space, international business, sports management and eSports, fintech and cryptocurrency, and more. Host hybrid events and promote them through digital and traditional platforms.
14. Make students and alumni the hero of the institutional journey, not the institution. Celebrate successful alumni. Show how alumni have gone on to assume leadership roles in their chosen areas of specialization.
15. Express Gen-Z and millennial diversity — religious, racial, and gender in your photography.
16. Feature brand anthem video to tell your brand story and why the school matters.
17. Create a resource hub as an extension of the school website. Feature symposiums, summits, graduate addresses, keynote speakers, and emerging topics of general interest. Promote all this via social media.

Connect and Build Relationships via Social Platforms

Turn on the charms and enhance a school’s likability using social platforms:

1. Tell better stories of impact and consequential work of students, talented faculty and successful alumni.
2. Promote social posts.
3. Create an editorial calendar.
4. Partner with influencers.
5. Measure metrics.
6. Keep an eye on peer institutions.

Win Hearts and Minds of Prospects with Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Business schools must fish where the fish are. Run integrative marketing with omni-channel micro-segmentation:

1. Identify pockets of receptive alumni and mission-aligned students. Understand right-fit demographic and psychographic micro-segments. How will you meet and exceed their needs?
2. Implement precise paid advertising campaigns with story landing pages and A/B testing. Have the discipline to feed the winning ads and landing page alternatives, and starve the losers.
3. Conduct persistent content/SEO/GEO marketing campaigns with educational, career counseling and thought leadership content.
4. Amplify via social media.
5. Execute charming email marketing campaigns.
6. Run traditional media advertising if you have spare budgets.

Inspire Alumni to Generate Referrals and Donate

Use alumni magazine and communications to share powerful stories of alumni successes, the school’s achievements, and its contributions to solving global challenges. Invite alumni to invitation-only webinars, live Q&A with industry leaders, or exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of the school’s innovative projects. Paint a compelling vision for the future of the school and how alumni play a key role in achieving it. Ask for alumni support—whether it’s mentoring, donating, referring or promoting the school.

Strengthen Reputation by Harnessing Content

A business school’s reputation isn’t built on advertising—it’s built on trust, experiences, and outcomes. It’s about delivering something so extraordinary that people can’t help but talk about it. Here is our advice for business schools:

Start by focusing on excellence—in academics, in student support, in innovation. A business school should create programs that are not just relevant but transformative. Empower your faculty to inspire, not just teach, and give your students the tools to change the world.

Next, tell your story. A reputation is shaped by what people believe about you, not just what you say. Share real stories of success—students achieving their dreams, alumni making an impact, and the difference your school is making in the world.

Then, obsess over the experience. From the first time a prospective student visits your website to the moment they graduate, every touchpoint matters. Make the experience seamless, personal, and unforgettable.

Finally, innovate relentlessly. The world is changing, and your graduates should lead that change. Be bold in your vision, unafraid to push boundaries, and always focused on what’s next.

A great reputation isn’t something a business schools creates—it’s something it earns by being authentic, consistent, and exceptional. That’s how it builds a school that people trust, respect, and aspire to be part of.

In practical terms, curate content, spark interactions and promote content in channels you control (“owned” media, such as the alumni magazine, thought leadership blog, website and social networks) and monitor the channels you don’t control (the social media of people/organizations in your network). Knowing that Google page one rankings are fueled by fresh content, transform school’s static print magazines into digital streams of SEO-optimized stories. Knowing that AI Generative Engines have a preference for facts, stats and quotes, encourage the faculty to supplement academic publishing with evidence-based thought leadership blogs. Know that the incremental Google and AI Generative Engine page one ranking gains will create a rising tide that will influence prospects and ultimately impact traditional university rankings. Digital publishing, informed by keyword intelligence, extends brand reach and unlocks donations.

Don’t just sponsor conferences, spur your dean and faculty to create new symposiums in emerging niche areas of institutional strength. Instead of asking faculty to attend conferences, direct them to speak as thought-leaders at these events. Encourage public programs officers to create lecture series that engage the broader academic, corporate, government and regional community.

Listen, Learn, and Adapt

The world is always changing, and so are students’ needs. Use data and feedback to refine your approach, ensuring you stay relevant, meaningful, and ahead of the curve. Great marketing is a living, breathing process.

We hope we get a chance to use our talent and experience in marketing of your business school to create a stream of happy brand ambassadors who not only go on to to do great things, but also become your brand ambassadors and lifelong donors. Please review our business school microsite, our  higher education marketing capabilities and consider partnering with us..