How to Market Nursing Programs and Schools: Best Practices, Strategies and Examples

The best strategy for increasing enrollment in a nursing program is to use outcomes-based storytelling that emphasizes career outcomes and real-world impact of the program.

Using our investigative and strategic mindsets, Elliance has grown enrollment and enhanced reputation for more than six nursing programs, and more than ten medical schools and health-related programs. Let’s begin with three recent examples.

Nursing Programs Case Studies

Carlow University Nursing Program Outsmarting Fierce Competitors

With the best NCLEX pass rates amongst regional competitors, Carlow University graduates are highly sought after by regional hospitals. Carlow turned to Elliance to grow its applications and Google rankings.  Elliance did not disappoint.

Elliance created a persuasive nursing landing page and wrote 16 nursing blog posts that were widely shared amongst prospective students and their families.

Carlow nursing program’s brand awareness increased. The blog posts secured more than 30 Google page one rankings. Applications grew by 18%.

John Carroll University Launches a New Nursing Program

For generation, JCU graduates imbued with a spirit to serve had gone on to become nurses in the Cleveland region in respected institutions like the Cleveland Clinic. To claim its legacy, the new president turned to Elliance to help launch a new BSN program. Elliance mined LinkedIn to find and interview JCU graduates who had gone on to pursue successful nursing careers at amazing health institutions. These interviews and key findings became the cornerstone of argument construction for a sound rationale for launching the new nursing program.

Elliance created a persuasive nursing landing page and wrote 15 nursing blog posts that helped successfully launch the new BSN program.

Alvernia University Grows RN to BSN Program

Alvernia University turned to Elliance to grow its RN to BSN program. Elliance began the process by interviewing its seasoned faculty, program chair, students and alumni.

Based on key findings, Elliance first fortified the RN to BSN program page. Our SEO optimization earned the program Google top 3 positions locally and regionally for more than 10 keywords. Traffic on the program page grew by 54%. Request info clicks went up by 50%, visit us clicks went up by 432% and apply now clicks went up by 71%.

Next, Elliance created a persuasive landing page and creative ads. After persistent A/B testing of ads and landing page copy, the landing page started converting to leads at a strong 8.1%, three times better than the industry average.

Our investigations led to a heart warming mother-daughter nursing duo story which became the cornerstone of our social media campaign. The story got shared by 72 people on LinkedIn; on Twitter, the story was retweeted by J&J Nursing Notes with 3,860 followers, and CEO of NFP with 1,700 followers.

Our client was ecstatic and we co-presented our joint efforts and success at a reputable higher education conference.

Best Practices for Marketing a Nursing Program or School

Here are some best practices we use to launch, stabilize and increase enrollment in nursing programs and schools:

1. Gather Success and Achievement Stories: of students, alumni and seasoned faculty in various specialties.
2. Use Data to Reinforce Stories: of NCLEX scores, salary outcomes and placement stats.
3. Create Infographics: of nursing pathways, career pathways and mindsets.
4. Partner with Clinical Sites and Employers: be they hospitals, clinics or research centers.
5. Create Career Resources: to offer guidance to people interested in pursing nursing careers.
6. Offer Speaker Series: to appeal to generations of prospective, enrolled and seasoned nurses.
7. Build a Hight-Fidelity Optimized Website: to persuade, inform, delight and wow prospects and partners.
8. Create an Optimized Blog: to educate, convey thought leadership, and secure Google page one rankings.
9. Promote Everything: with paid advertising, social media, email marketing, open-house presentations, and webinars.
10. Measure Everything: because you can only manage what you can measure. Measure every click, every A/B test, scroll rates, SEO rankings, social shares, conversion rates, inquiries, visits, applications — and then take bold, decisive action based on data.

If you are seeking an experienced agency to help you launch or grow your nursing program or school, please contact us.