Creating Online Visibility for Community College: Locally, Nationally & Beyond 2013 How Do Students Choose a College?

 The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), AboutEdu (a nonprofit online education consumer group) and online leaders from community colleges across the country came together to collaborate & form the foundation of the OCC.  OnlineCommunityColleges.org (OCC) - a student-focused, trusted, searchable website featuring the online degree and certificate programs of community colleges. The OCC creates online visibility for CC through online marketing strategies.  The LeCroy Center (part of the DCCCD) – through the RFP process was chosen to be the operational manager of the OCC. 2 The Start

3 Why the Need?

Targets  Online students – displaced workers, traditional students, low income, unemployed, skills enhancement and 2 nd /3 rd careers  Providing a trusted and affordable option – students are too often guided to online education providers with the largest marketing budgets and the higher tuitions. Customer Service  Assisting students in the next step in their education – phone, , request form, live chat & texting

Together - The 10 OCC member colleges… Serve more than 600,000 students nationwide Have an inventory in excess of 2,000 online courses Collaboratively

Student-Focused WebsiteWebsite

Online Ads/Focus  Ads across national sites and keyword search (YouTube, Best Buy, USA Today and beyond) Print (minimal)  Newsweek – Best of Colleges & Universities Special Edition *Print is primarily used for college/member recruitment Marketing to Students

National marketing efforts began in March 2012, these include display advertising and keyword search. In such a short amount of time, the OCC is already Achieving AMAZING results! To date: - 15,000,000 impressions (the amount of times the OCC ads were viewed on national websites by prospective online students) - 50,000 visits to the website (clicks/visits to the OCC website) These numbers will continue to grow! Marketing to Students

Display Ad Example

& Social Media

Theresa Roffino, OCC/LeCroy, Kathy McFatter, OCC, For more information on OnlineCommunityColleges.org or call toll free A to Z OCC ( ) Q&A