The best MBA recruitment strategies will result in an intake of high-achieving candidates and improve your institution’s reputation and revenue. Even if you have the lowest MBA acceptance rates in the USA or Canada, strong recruitment strategies will help you uphold your selectivity and high standards. In this article, we will discuss what MBA recruitment strategies will help you increase the number of quality applicants!
Note: If you are a university, business, or student organization representative and want to partner with us, visit our partnerships page.
Article Contents
5 min
read
Why Do You Need the Best MBA Recruitment Strategies?
As an institution of education, you need to have a healthy inflow of students. The main reasons this is so, include:
- The success of a university is gauged by the number of students they take in every year and adopting an effective recruitment strategy helps keep these numbers up.
- This is followed by healthy retention and graduation figures that show your university is a reliable source of educated professionals.
- Governments and charity bodies favor institutions that have a high success rate which means that to get funding and donations, you will have to prove that your graduation rates are high.
The end goal is to make sure that you have a healthy flow of new applicants and graduates each year to secure your institution's existence and growth into the future.
Looking for ways to increase MBA recruitment through university partnerships? Learn more about BeMo's university student benefits program. We offer your students top-tier MBA admissions consulting services for free, anytime, anywhere. We also provide unlimited student access to our expert career coaches so students can start their MBA on the right foot. And the best part? Universities and MBA programs can save money and increase their student retention numbers.
Best MBA Recruitment Strategy #1: Leverage Technology
A strong online presence
As an institution of excellence, you should have a strong digital presence with continuous social media and digital marketing campaigns to keep your content and image relevant.
One digital marketing strategy to adopt involves delivering messaging to prospective students at the time when they are most likely to act and respond in real-time to their queries. An interesting fact you can leverage is that when it comes to MBA programs, it can take prospective students "anywhere from three days to two years to start an application." This gives you a wide window of opportunity to convince them to join you.
A strong online presence is achieved by establishing your brand on the internet. You can do this using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank high on queries, creating content that students search for, and implementing social media marketing (SMM) campaigns to reach out to potential students via social media platforms.
Smart and targeted advertisement
Advertising isn’t about bombarding audiences to tears. It needs to be creative and targeted. Go out of your way to include various angles of your institution and faculty. Post details about popular or unique courses to attract attention to subjects that potential students would find exciting.
Examples would be doing highlights of your professors. They can talk about their experiences with your institution, and their careers as a whole. Many educators have a bit of a winding path that led them to where they are today and would be willing to share that voyage.
Another angle to approach it involves tapping into your alumni who have moved on to interesting or unique careers following graduation and asking them to share their experiences – both on campus and after they graduated.
Also, make sure you have a target demographic: for example, they could be college graduates, between the ages of 20 and 30 years, who have a background in a specific field (business, marketing, management, etc.), who are currently employed (if you prefer employed students for a particular ad), and so on. This way, you will have higher chance of reaction from them.
Go viral
Yes, going viral isn’t only for content creators. Focus on creating social media content and advertisements that tickle the funny bone while getting your message across.
Right now, TikTok is the social media platform to be on.. You need to leverage every opportunity you can get your hands on and for now, and in the foreseeable future, this is the platform to be on. Ohio University has an account that is filled with videos, for example. Although none have probably gone viral, any TikTok user can go through their collection to find information about what the university has to offer and even students’ videos on what it is like to study there.
You can even take it farther, like Western University, and sign on to Weibo or follow Princeton University and go on to Snapchat.
As an alternative, you can encourage your current MBA students to create social media content – and not just on TikTok – to show what it is like to be a student at your institution. They can serve as your brand ambassadors.
Implement a CRM tool
A CRM or customer relationship management tool is a very helpful tool when it comes to recruiting qualified students for your MBA program.
The tool allows you to learn about prospective MBA students and keep track of their journey through the enrollment funnel. This allows you to nurture relationships with prospects and have real-time insight into any issues that may occur during the process.
This will ensure none of your recruiting and admissions staff drops the ball and loses potential candidates before they have even joined your school.
Advertise added courses and faculties
Advertise any new courses or faculties that have opened in your university.
This serves as a sign that your institute is always evolving and growing. It also indicates that you care about keeping visitors (including potential candidates) updated on any new changes that occur on campus – including updates to your curriculum and teaching methods.
You can also consider faculty restructuring, upgrading technology, and updating of curriculum as part of this campaign.
Offer online MBAs
Not everyone has to be physically present in your classes to earn an MBA degree. You can increase your local and global attendance by offering online MBAs.
As long as the candidates have reliable internet connections and can follow lectures, there is no reason why they can’t join your university and graduate.
Best MBA Recruitment Strategy #2: Reach Out to Potential Candidates
Best MBA Recruitment Strategy #3: Inform Candidates of Help and Benefits You Offer
Conclusion
The best MBA recruitment strategies we have seen help your university grow and maintain relevance in the education sector. It doesn’t matter if you are the easiest Ivy League school to get into, it still helps you grow your candidate intake and remain profitable to continue teaching more students.
Another point to remember is that you need to stay on top of marketing and technology trends to ensure you have the maximum exposure possible.
Finally, help your students graduate and succeed beyond your school as they will be living testimonies of your effective education.
FAQ
1. What is the main advantage of adopting MBA recruitment strategies?
Your university is a business that needs to make money to teach students – including MBA students. Adopting MBA recruitment policies will help you generate a healthy cash flow by helping them get their second degrees at your institution. This will ensure a healthy education cycle.
2. Is it difficult to recruit new MBA candidates?
The number of students graduating from college and higher education has been facing a stall. Although they are holding steady for now, there are signs that these numbers could fall soon. The main reasons for this drop in the number of new candidates are financial issues – not being able to pay tuition fees, etc. – and the internet making it easier for non-graduates to find jobs, thus reducing the need for qualifications.
3. What kind of tools can I leverage in an MBA recruitment strategy?
All is fair when it comes to the tools you need to leverage for the success of your institution. You can use the internet, social media platforms, influencers, meetings, sponsorships, and scholarships – anything to attract a healthy number of students. As a matter of fact, the more tools, the better your chances.
4. What are some offline MBA recruitment strategies?
Apart from online strategies, you should be able to reach out to potential candidates using real-world strategies. This includes one-on-one meet and greets, holding conferences and sessions, as well as sponsoring various events that attract and cater to your potential candidates. You should also have open offices to meet people that decide to walk in and meet one of your representatives.
5. How does improving your MBA student retention affect your recruitment?
Your student retention affects your recruitment process because it influences the thoughts they may have about your graduation rates. New candidates perform thorough research before they decide a university is right for their continued education. They will have a positive outlook on your institution if you have healthy retention and graduation rates.
6. How can we increase our MBA retention rates?
The best way to increase your university MBA retention is to engage with your students. This starts with the very first communication you make with them when they apply or reach out to you asking for information on how to apply. You need to guide them through the entire process and once they have become students you need to ensure they have healthy academic and social lives. Support should be given to them wherever they are lacking via tuition, guidance, and counseling which should continue until they graduate and leave your campus.
7. Should our MBA recruitment strategy include international students?
Yes, of course. Your student intake should consider applicants from anywhere in the world. You need to give them extra attention as they will have to overcome much more obstacles than the local candidates. You should even consider a separate department for strictly handling such applicants. Also, make sure you have the means to communicate with them clearly by translating your website and instructions into various languages.
8. What social media platforms are best suited for MBA recruitment strategies?
The simple answer is all of them are. As long as you can be creative enough to create the content for a platform, you will always be able to reach out to new customers. With that being said, the best place to meet professionals will be LinkedIn. This is where you should target professionals seeking to advance their education. Otherwise, it is all about creating content and sharing them on the platform of choice which should include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you are looking for international audiences you can research the most popular platforms in a country and create content for it.
Like our blog? Write for us! >>
Have a question? Ask our admissions experts below and we'll answer your questions!
Comments