Marketing of Online Job Training Wins National Award for Global Campus

Submitted

Kay Murphy (right), director of marketing and communications, and Heidi Wells, content strategist, present a poster about the award-winning Reimagine marketing campaign Nov. 30 in New Orleans.

A national organization has recognized the U of A Global Campus for its marketing of a federally funded online job training program to Arkansans affected by COVID-19.

The Global Campus received the silver Excellence in Marketing award from a national association for professional, continuing and online education in December for its Reimagine Arkansas Workforce Project campaign.

Staff of U of A Professional and Workforce Development, a division of the Global Campus, developed and implemented the statewide Reimagine Arkansas Workforce Project. The team helped write a grant application to the U.S. Department of Education explaining how the Global Campus could execute the statewide training program. A $13.6 million grant was awarded to the Arkansas Workforce Development Board and the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, and Reimagine partners include state agencies, Global Campus, Shorter College and Idatafy LLC.

The Global Campus marketing and communications team worked with the professional development team in Bentonville and an outside vendor to plan and execute a limited paid marketing plan that was strengthened by a detailed statewide grassroots campaign.

The Global Campus accepted the award during the 2022 UPCEA MEMS: Marketing, Enrollment Management, Student Success conference Nov. 30-Dec. 2 in New Orleans. UPCEA, based in Washington, has more than 6,000 individual members from major public and private institutions across the United States. Other winners of the silver award represented Toronto Metropolitan University, which also won the only gold award, and Harvard University.

"It is wonderful to be recognized by our peers in higher education for the high caliber of marketing work being done by Global Campus," said Cheryl Murphy, vice provost of distance education. "I am very proud of the Professional and Workforce Development and Marketing and Communications teams who worked collaboratively to make Arkansans aware of the federal funds available to pay for online job training. Their work is particularly significant because this free online training creates opportunity, opening new doors for people to go into a field they want to pursue and, ultimately, improving the lives of Arkansans and Arkansas' economy."

To market Reimagine, the Global Campus teams:

• Held information-gathering online meetings with state agencies, groups and industry leaders to learn what grassroots efforts would reach people across Arkansas who needed training and who served or employed people who needed training.
• Designed a multi-page website for the target audiences.
• Designed and shared downloadable messages and images groups could use to promote the project.
• Launched paid advertising flights with Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads.
• Scheduled presentations at workforce centers across Arkansas.
• Watched website data to ensure the campaign was engaging audiences and collected application data to monitor programs toward goals.

Data showed the initial period of paid advertising was more successful than grassroots efforts alone, according to an analysis of the campaign, but grassroots efforts combined with paid advertising stretched a limited marketing budget. The campaign efforts were amplified by stakeholders using the promotional material provided by Global Campus, the analysis showed, and pooling human resources from different teams made a comprehensive marketing approach possible.

Kay Murphy, director of the marketing and communications team, and Heidi Wells, content strategist, presented a poster explaining the Reimagine campaign and accepted the marketing award in New Orleans.

The Reimagine project reached its goal of 2,000 enrollments by the end of 2022, nine months ahead of the end of the three-year grant period. Funding is still available, and applications are still being taken online. The funding is also available to residents of a neighboring state who work in Arkansas. More than 100 courses are available, and funding will pay for one course per applicant.