4 Proven Strategies for Boosting Masters Program Enrollment

In serving over 100 colleges and universities in the paste 30 years, Elliance has identified 22 best practices for boosting enrollment in masters programs. Today, I’ll focus on 4 crucial strategies often overlooked by graduate enrollment and marketing teams.

Write SEO/GEO Optimized Blog Posts

Fresh content is the lifeblood of Google and Generative Engine (ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini) rankings. Blogs written by subject matter experts, optimized by Elliance have transported our client brands nationally and internationally to far corners of the world.

One illustration is the insightful blog writing by Phoebe Milliken, who chairs the Master’s in Peacebuilding at Hartford International University. Elliance SEO/GEO optimized each of her blog posts. The outcome: top Google rankings for vital keywords and the successful achievement of enrollment targets year after year.

Partner with Undergraduate Programs

Partnering with undergraduate programs is a smart strategy for growing master’s program enrollment because it creates seamless academic feeders, builds early interest, and fosters long-term loyalty among students already familiar with the institution.

One standout example we saw was the Associate Dean of Carnegie Mellon’s MS in Information Systems program, who built lasting ties with undergraduate programs worldwide by consistently visiting campuses and guest lecturing.

Partner with Employers

Partnering with employers is a powerful strategy for growing master’s program enrollment because it aligns academic offerings with workforce needs, provides tuition support opportunities, and ensures a steady pipeline of motivated, career-focused students.

Take, for example, William Woods University which partnered with school systems across the state of Missouri to offer a portfolio of online masters programs in education to teachers in their homes and schools. In seven consecutive years we served them, they enjoyed growth in their masters enrollment.

Empower Faculty/Program Chairs to Follow Up with Inquiries

When master’s program chairs personally follow up with inquiries, it builds trust, signals genuine investment, and often becomes the decisive factor in a student’s enrollment decision. Moreover, they can feed the intelligence to the agency partner so it can tighten the argument construction in ads, landing pages and program pages.

Carnegie Mellon’s former Dean of Computer Science, having experienced a shortage of skilled product managers at Google, created the world’s first MS in Product Management by combining expertise from CMU’s top business and tech schools. After a lackluster launch based on the belief that “if you build it, they will come,” the program partnered with Elliance, who recommended premium branding, thought-leadership content, and targeted paid media to attract high-value leads. Elliance further advised personal follow-ups by the program director to build trust and convert inquiries into exceptional incoming classes while laying the foundation for long-term mentorship and placement success. The system worked like magic.

Contact us if you are seeking a smart higher education marketing agency which can help you generate enrollment growth in your masters programs.