Case study 07 · Education
Lincoln Tech Institute
Each new student was costing $432 to enroll, and social media was barely in use. James built the school's first social program and brought it down to $38 per enrolled student.
- Client
- Technical school, 21 campuses in 14 states
- Role
- James Robinson, Social Media Director · 2018–2020
- The work
- Social media program, platform content, video, location-based campaigns
The situation
Lincoln Tech trains welders, auto techs, HVAC techs, and healthcare workers at 21 campuses in 14 states. Enrollment was falling. Scrutiny of for-profit schools was rising. And the cost of each enrolled student had climbed to $432.
The people the school wanted to reach were on Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube every day. The school barely was.
What was at stake
At $432 per student, enrollment cost put a ceiling on how many future students every campus could afford to reach. Cutting it without lowering quality would change the math for all 21.
What James did
- 01Built the school's first social media function from zero: strategy, platforms, content, budget, and measurement for all 21 campuses.
- 02Made content for each platform instead of one ad pasted everywhere. It showed real students, real shops, and real career outcomes, so a future student could picture themselves in the class.
- 03Showed up where the crowd already was. At Power 105.1's Powerhouse concert in Newark, a Snapchat filter put the Lincoln Tech logo on concertgoers' snaps for seven hours.
What changed
The proof
The lesson
When a channel gets expensive, a better ad on the same channel rarely fixes it. Find where your buyer is paying attention before your competitors do.
Paying too much for every new customer?
Book a free Find My Missed Revenue review. James looks at where your ad dollars go and where leads slip after they come in, and shows you what to fix first.