Effective online marketing for education

Turn your online marketing into predictable student enrollments

“Our team became better able to run successful in-house digital marketing campaigns to recruit international students to specific programs.”

Melissa Abache, Director of International Student Recruitment at Koç University, Türkiye

This course gives you practical overview of how student recruitment works in an online context. The focus is on building a (shared) understanding of how all the different parts of student recruitment work together: strategy, channels, measurement, budgeting, CRM

The course is designed to help you and your team:

Make better decisions
Collaborate with confidence – whether internally or with agencies
Get tangible results from your online marketing – even with limited resources

Already enrolled in the online course? Access the lessons in your dashboard.

This course is designed for...

This course is designed for higher education professionals who need to understand how all the moving parts of online marketing fit together.

Education marketers who want a solid foundation in digital student recruitment
Experienced digital marketers new to the education sector
Marketing and recruitment teams that want to build common understanding and sharpen their strategy
Managers who need to make better decisions on budgets, channels and agencies
Colleagues in comms, admissions, faculty or international offices whose job scope touches on student recruitment

What you'll learn in this course

The course gives you a clear, structured path through the key elements of effective online student recruitment – with a constant focus on how to apply it in your context.

Strategy: Essentials you need to know before you get started.
CRM and data: how to use enquiry and application data to improve your marketing.
Audience and journeys: how prospective students really move from awareness to enrolment.
Budgeting: how to create realistic budgets and decide where to invest first.
Channel mix: how search, social, display, email and offline activities work together.
Action planning: worksheets that help you translate lessons into concrete next steps.

Throughout the course, you’ll apply the theory to your day-to-day practice so you are doing useful work rather than just watching videos.

Choose the format that fits you

You can follow this course as an individual, or use it to upskill your whole team. Pick the format that matches your needs and budget.

Self-study online course

€ 200 / person

Full, life time access to the “Effective Online Marketing For Higher Education” video course
Covers strategy, budgeting, campaign mix, CRM and measuring results.
Worksheets to apply each lesson to your own programmes and markets.
Ideal for individual marketers or new team members.

Self-study + 1-on-1 strategy session

€ 1,000 / person

Everything in the self-study course
Three dedicated 60-minute 1-on-1 sessions with Guus
Includes “Quick Check” audit worth €500
30-minute dedicated 1-on-1 post-course check-in with Guus
Ideal for educational entrepreneurs and 1-person teams

Full-day Online team workshop

€ 2,500 / team (max 10)

Live online workshop for your team in MS Teams (1 full day or 2 half days)
Full focus on your own marketing priorities.
Includes get access to the self-study course for all participants
Includes “Quick Check” audit worth €500
Ideal for building a shared (cross-functional) team strategy

Full-day in-person team workshop

€ Price on request

Full-day workshop at your campus or staff event.
Tailored agenda built around your goals and current challenges.
Space for hands-on exercises using your own campaigns and data.
Suitable for Erasmus+ staff weeks, marketing away days and leadership retreats.

What past participants say

Efe Çarlık

Senior marketer at Koç University

“This course is a must for colleagues who want to improve their abilities and knowledge in digital marketing for student recruitment. The course made me see the bigger picture of digital marketing and brought ideas about how can we aggregate all digital marketing efforts to serve the ultimate strategy.”

Johanna Walsh

University of Galway

“The course is extremely helpful, particularly for colleagues working in student recruitment but perhaps not with extensive marketing background. I would also recommend the course to colleagues that are based in a College/Faculty within a University. I think the format of covering the chapters mixed in with assignments prior to the class time is good as you cover all of the material and then have the opportunity to review aspects and have considered the learnings prior to the class discussion. I would have much better confidence in running a campaign or appointing a digital marketing company to promote my University, following the completion of this course.”

Douglas Proctor

Irish Universities Association

“The Irish Universities Association was delighted to facilitate access to this course for a group of staff working across its seven member universities.
This training enabled 31 seasoned professionals in the Irish higher education sector to gain valuable new insights into their work in an online context, as well as tangible plans of action to support future student recruitment.”

Melissa Abache

Director of International Student Recruitment at Koç University

“By signing up for the course I wanted to help my team and different teams in our university in Communications and Graduate Schools speak the same language of digital marketing for student recruitment, whether domestic or international. Our aim was to become more fluent in the key concepts, measuring the performance of digital marketing campaigns and being able to brief and evaluate external agencies in a way that would reduce spending money or effort on the wrong things.

[…]

Today, I feel our team is able to completely run succesful in-house digital marketing campaigns to recruit international students to specific programs. Our area for further work is the measuring success part as it does involve having full control of several institutional websites but we’ll get there eventually.”

Is this course right for you?

This course is right for you, if:

You work in education and want a solid digital marketing foundation. The course is suitable for higher education institutions, language schools, summer programmes, small colleges and education agents
You want to deepen your understanding of student recruitment strategy, campaign planning and budgets, even if you do not run the campaigns yourself.
Your team or partners are active online, but the approach feels fragmented or ad-hoc and you want to get focused.
You want to become more data driven as a team, using CRM data and simple metrics and stop chasing the latest tactics.

It’s probably not the best fit if:

You do not work in the education sector
You are looking for a technical “how to click every button” course for a single platform or tool.
You’re looking for an advanced course. This course covers the fundamentals.
You want a short one-off keynote or prefer to dive deep into a specific aspect of education marketing.

Guus Goorts delivering an online workshop on his laptop

Practical questions (FAQ)

How much time should I plan for the self-study course?

Most participants spread the course over several weeks and combine watching the lessons with filling in the worksheets. You can go faster or slower depending on your schedule and how deep you want to go with the exercises.

What level of experience do I need?

You do not need to be a digital specialist. The course is suitable for marketers, recruiters and managers who already work in student recruitment and want to understand how online channels should support their goals. The course is also a very good starting point if you’re an experienced digital marketer new to the education sector.

Can several people from my institution join?

Yes. For teams, it often works well when colleagues each follow the self-study course, then come together for a workshop to build a shared action plan. Get in touch if you want to discuss a package for your team.

How does the 1-on-1 session work?

After you enrol in the course that includes the 1-on-1 session, I will contact you for a short intake – to understand your goals. During this conversation, we will also pick a time for the 1-on-1 session. So that during the strategy session, we can focus on what matters most to you.

How do the team workshops work?

Prior to the team workshop, we will schedule a short call to discuss your goals, audience and current setup. Based on that, we design a workshop agenda and exercises that fit your team. On the day itself, we work with your real examples so you can directly go to work with the output!

Can we pay by invoice rather than paying online?

Yes, in two ways: If you’re using the online check-out, you can choose to pay by bank transfer. Fill out the details and you will receive an invoice in the mail instantly. For the team programmes, simply contact me. I’ll prepare a full invoice for you once we confirm the requirements.

Ready to strengthen your online student recruitment?

Whether you want to upskill yourself or align your whole team, this course gives you a clear, practical framework for online student recruitment in higher education.