Assessing buyer behaviour triggers and marketing messages for online education college admission webpages

S. Paige Gardiner and Phillip A. Olt
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S. Paige Gardiner: Assistant Professor of Marketing, Utah Valley University, USA
Phillip A. Olt: Assistant Professor of Higher Education Student Affairs, Fort Hays State University, USA

Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing, 2020, vol. 5, issue 2, 173-189

Abstract: Higher education marketing has targeted the traditional college student with the campus visit, college viewbook and college admission website. Online higher education programmes, which recruit a nontraditional student consumer, are growing rapidly. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis study was to describe the buyer behaviour triggers and marketing messages that appeared on the college admission webpages for online education (OE) programmes. The study includes an examination of 313 marketing messages from the OE admission webpages of ten Midwestern colleges, collected between 1st September, 2018, and 31st November, 2018, in terms of what marketing messages were being communicated to prospective OE students. The phrases, words and images from the OE admission webpages were analysed and compared to a conceptual framework for OE student demands and preferences. Findings from the study highlight important considerations for how university marketing professionals may market to prospective students in a nontraditional OE context.

Keywords: online education marketing; online education student college choice; online education student preferences; higher education marketing; digital marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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