Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Accelerating New Program Growth with Enrollment Marketing

184 qualified leads generated

100%+ enrollment increase

Sustainable program growth

BACKGROUND:

SIUE’s Surveying and Geomatics (BS) program helps meet regional workforce needs by preparing students for in-demand careers in geospatial sciences. As the only program of its kind within 300 miles of St. Louis, it offers hands-on, career-focused training that leads to professional licensure. Graduates go on to become land surveyors, drone mapping specialists, GIS analysts, and more—helping shape the future of infrastructure, planning, and design.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

Awareness was the primary problem SIUE faced in growing this program. While the Surveying and Geomatics (BS) program offers a nearly-guaranteed path to a highly successful career, and is one of the only programs of its kind, it is also a new program.

While the field of construction and/or engineering is a popular one, the Surveying & Geomatics profession isn’t well known and not many prospective students are aware of this specific degree or the career opportunities made available by a Surveying & Geomatics licensure.

As a new program, SIUE had little historical data and struggled to know how best to speak to prospective students in a way that effectively engaged and marketed to them.

Goals

Double enrollments between 2024 and Fall of 2025

Graduate 50 students per year by the end of the 2028

Establish student-centric messaging for consistency between Admissions, Advisory Board, Mentors and other key players in the enrollment process.

Develop effective, ever-green marketing assets to support ongoing campaigns and lead generation efforts

THE SOLUTION:

To address SIUE’s goals for the Surveying and Geomatics (BS) program, we began with a Custom Enrollment Growth Roadmap. This helped them establish clear goals and KPIs, and evaluate current marketing efforts and assets for effectiveness.

Armed with a strategic path forward, SIUE worked with us to implement a Lead-to-Enrollment System, coordinating with Admissions, Program leaders, and Hiring Partners to personalize outreach and guide applicants into Mentorship and Tuition Assistance.

This included:

A Clear Brand Message & Messaging Workshop

We held a Messaging Workshop to equip their advisory board in using their new messaging framework for effective outreach and improving the student inquiry experience. This allowed their team to shift to a more student-centric, value-based message–highlighting how the program aligns with students' career goals, interests, and real-world applications in surveying and geomatics.

An Automated Funnel & Custom Lead-to-Enrollment System

An Automated Enrollment Funnel helped SIUE to accelerate their lead generation efforts. This included an optimized landing page, career guide opt-in, targeted nurture emails, and an SMS campaign to help attract leads, keep them engaged, and guide them toward enrolling in the program.

Enrollment Campaign Landing Page

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Lead Generator

Email & SMS Campaign Automation

A Targeted Meta Ads Campaign

To increase awareness and bring more prospective students into the Enrollment Funnel, SIUE worked with us to create a Meta Ads campaign for the Surveying and Geomatics (BS) program. Traffic ads were used to build audience and awareness, retargeting ads were used to increase conversions among those who showed interest but hadn’t yet taken action.

THE RESULTS:

By partnering with Greenstone Media, SIUE was confidently able to identify marketing efforts to cut or capitalize on, and new areas to lean into.
Together, we created and implemented a new enrollment growth strategy that lead them to surpass their goal to double enrollments for the Surverying and Geomaics (BS) program.
Starting at 9 students in 2024, and growing to a new total of 26 by Fall 2025 they are now re-investing into an even more robust plan for exponential growth in 2026!

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