Marketing Efforts
Districtwide Marketing Efforts to Increase Enrollment
The Los Rios colleges' marketing team is constantly updating and evolving our marketing efforts to increase access to our colleges.
We are focused on growing enrollment at all four colleges and creating a public face for our institutions that reflects our commitment to student success, equity, and inclusion. No longer does the old marketing "playbook" – flyers, posters, and the like – work by itself, and so we are responding to the changing times by expanding our reach in new and creative ways.
We are prioritizing the Los Rios' commitment to providing a student-focused experience for anyone seeking educational opportunities in our region despite the ever-changing environment.
Our strategy is to position Los Rios and its four colleges as the path "for everyone's future" to break down the real and perceived barriers to entry and create a sense of community when many need it most. To ensure an impactful campaign, our advertising is translated for cultural competency in both English and Spanish, and for some platforms, other languages as well. Advertising platforms we use include social media, email, direct mail, gas station screens, movie theaters, connected tv, billboards, television and radio.
This approach shows our communities that Los Rios is for every student – the working mom, the young activist, the recently unemployed, the anxious teenager, the historically underrepresented. We have solutions for everyone; therefore, the Los Rios colleges are for everyone and their future.
Marketing Campaign Examples
The following are examples of campaigns we are actively working on in partnership with 3fold Communications.
Annual 2024-2025 Marketing Campaign
For the 2024-2025 campaign, we have developed an integrated marketing strategy that combines grassroots efforts, community champions, and a mix of out-of-home, traditional, and digital advertising. This approach is designed to effectively connect with potential students, providing them with the essential resources, support, and connections they need to thrive. We've also recognized the importance of community touchpoints and are incorporating trusted messengers to enhance the credibility and reach of our messaging.
Additionally, we're leveraging owned and earned media opportunities to complement our grassroots marketing and paid advertising endeavors. This includes establishing relationships with local media outlets and influencers, developing organic social media campaigns, and collaborating with local business and civic leaders to promote audience-specific opportunities. Within our media touchpoint strategy, we are centering our efforts on a comprehensive, multifaceted campaign that leverages digital and social media, traditional media channels, and experiential elements to engage effectively with our target audiences.
To dig deeper and better connect with prospective students, we are creating a tailored journey to address their unique needs and preferences. This journey aims to build community trust and goodwill by mitigating common pain points associated with higher education, such as first-generation enrollment challenges and transportation issues. We plan to execute this through grassroots initiatives like community workshops, owned/earned media campaigns with trusted local brands, and digital storytelling using user-generated content.
Lastly, we seek to facilitate connection-making moments with Los Rios through various grassroots activities, owned/earned media content production, and strategic partnerships with local retailers. Our ultimate objective is to encourage registration and enrollment during key semesters by offering considerable support and breaking down registration tasks into manageable milestones. This will involve equipping community partners with resources and capturing audiences with digital and social media. We will also break ambitious objectives into smaller, achievable goals to guide prospective students through the enrollment process.
Results
Los Rios Community College District’s Fall 2024 marketing campaign demonstrated significant growth and engagement compared to the previous year. By adjusting our targeting strategies and shifting the campaign objective from awareness to traffic-driven goals, we successfully enhanced our outreach efforts. The campaign more than doubled impressions, generating over 9.6 million in 2024, indicating a substantially expanded reach across various platforms.
This surge in visibility translated to an increase in website sessions, with over 67,000 users exploring Los Rios’ offerings. We utilized multi-language messaging to help reach new audiences, with Spanish language content consistently recording above-benchmark engagement across channels.
Additionally, we extended the timeline of certain channels, allowing for greater visibility and interaction.
Annual 2023-2024 Marketing Campaign
Building upon the success of the "Be Both. Be All Three." campaign, we made the strategic decision to keep this campaign for the 2023-2024 year. The results achieved during the campaign further solidified its effectiveness, demonstrating our commitment to continued success.
Ads and Community Outreach
Asset Examples
Annual 2022-2023 Marketing Campaign
Goals
In the latest iteration of the district's annual marketing campaign, our goal is to get students who dropped out during the pandemic to come back and invite people who have never enrolled at Los Rios to consider it. To do this, we are focusing on our communities who have lots of outside responsibilities – taking care of kids, supporting aging parents, holding multiple jobs, and other commitments. They know getting a degree that gets them a sustainable career is the best move for themselves and their families, but don't see how they can make it work.
Our job, then, is to show them that at Los Rios we celebrate people like them who wear multiple hats and are juggling many responsibilities.
The "Be Both. Be All Three." campaign is a celebration of our communities' many identities – mom, dreamer, activist, student – and, eventually, graduate. With a key message of "Los Rios celebrates you," we will speak directly to our understanding of their multiple responsibilities and show them how we can be their support system while they earn a degree or credential.
Marketing Touchpoints
We are focusing on multilingual mass distribution; meaning, we want to be everywhere that our students are being responsible and where they might be trying to escape their responsibilities. These marketing touchpoint opportunities include:
-
TV/Video
- Univision
- Entravision
- CrossingsTV
- ABC
- KCRA
- Magnite
- YouTube Audio
- Pandora
- Audacy
- Entravision
- KCRA
- Magnite
- YouTube
-
Digital
- YouTube
- Google Responsive Display
- Google Paid Search
- Outbrain Native
-
Social
- Snapchat
- Tik Tok
-
Audio
- Twitch
-
Traditional
- Theaters
- Coinstars
- Digital and traditional billboards
- Gas toppers
- Direct mail
- Comstock's Magazine
-
Custom Partnerships
- California Afterschool Network
- Sacramento Republic FC
- Last Supper Society "Hella Juneteenth"
-
Other
- Custom drone show
Asset Examples
Media Plans
Fall 2022
Spring 2023
Results
The following are the results from our 2022-2023 "Be Both. Be All Three." campaign:
- 50 million impressions
- 134,000 clicks
- 54,000 new users to website
- 84,000 website sessions
- 25+ unique media vendors
- 7+ language translations
- 150+ unique media placements
- $50,000 in added value
- 33% increase in YoY web traffic
- 64% increase in semester-over-semester traffic from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023
- The "See Your Future" drone show helped increase organic web traffic by 2.4% within 24-hours
- Google Paid Search saw a record-high campaign CTR of 20.6%
- Increased enrollment by 5.21%
Career Education Marketing Campaign
Summary
In 2022, Los Rios is building the frequency and reach of its Career Education marketing – advertising designed to interest target audiences in the district’s direct-to-career pathway programs. To fill program enrollment of prioritized Career Education programs for the year’s semesters, we will be showing Sacramentans that Los Rios is where people get careers, not jobs. This is especially important to reach people who would benefit most from a sustainable career that uplifts them, their families, and their communities.
Our job, then, is to show them that at Los Rios, we provide flexible, efficient, and affordable ways to find a career they love that will also increase their economic and social mobility.
The "Meet Future You” campaign is a powerful play on the belief that you can only believe what you can see. The campaign captures audiences picturing future versions of themselves, dressed in the uniforms of their profession, supporting their families, and enjoying their career.
Marketing Touchpoints
Our media strategy is to be where our target audiences are when they look for a career change, upskilling, or reskilling. We’ll do this by highlighting these opportunities in contextually relevant environments across digital, social, and native channels. These marketing touchpoint opportunities include:
-
TV/Video
- Entravision
- Magnite
- YouTube
-
Digital
- Google Responsive Display
- Google Paid Search
- Outbrain Native
-
Social
- Snapchat
- Tik Tok
- Social influencers
-
Audio
- Audacy
- Entravision
-
Traditional
- Direct mail
-
Custom Partnerships
- Sacramento Republic FC
-
Other
- Custom drone show
Asset Examples
Media Plan
Results
The following are the results from our Career Education campaign:
- 2+ language translations
- 95 hours of video shoot production
- 3 social media influencers
- 51,373 unique page views
- 88% of page views came from the paid campaign
- 1,561% increase in page views from 2022
- Google Paid Search saw a record-high campaign CTR of 25.68%
- Increased enrollment by 5.21%
2020-2022 For Every Future (FEF) General Recruitment and Career Education Recruitment
Goals
- Increase the number of Black and Latino/a students.
- Increase the number of units students take in general.
- Encourage all students to enroll full-time.
- Remind existing students that Los Rios is there to serve them and provide sustained wraparound support.
Strategy
- Reach audiences where they are most by focusing on "and" not "or" marketing.
Tactics
- Facebook (paid and organic)
- Instagram (paid and organic)
- Snapchat (paid and organic)
- TikTok (paid and organic)
- Social media "takeovers"
- Google Responsive Display
- Google Search
- College, district, and specific campaign websites
- Direct Mail
- "Acceptance" letters to regional high school graduates
- Posters and signage
- Outbrain (Native Content)
- Multilingual marketing
- English and Spanish radio
- Digital radio (including Pandora)
- College-specific billboards and signage
- Terrestrial radio (English and Spanish)
- Event sponsorships:
- El Panteón Latino Center for Culture and Arts
- Raley's and Sacramento Kings: "Shop Like a King" and "Eat Like a King"
- Research:
- Virtual focus groups
- Virtual student interviews
Asset Examples
Handshake Platform Recruitment
Goals
- Ensure Los Rios students and alumni have access to jobs, careers, internships, and volunteer opportunities by spotlighting the Handshake platform.
Strategy
- Get the attention of students who are too busy to activate their Handshake profiles by showing them that the platform serves as a one-stop-shop.
Assets
- Creative assets are in development and set to launch in February/March 2022.
Calling Campaign Examples
We are leveraging our new Call Center – a collaboration between the four Los Rios colleges launched during the pandemic – to reach out to students directly via text and phone.
The Call Center staff is multilingual and trained to help students get the information they need to get – and stay – enrolled.
Career Education Re-Enrollment
2,985 Outgoing Calls
Goal
- To re-enroll Career Education students who were unable to take courses because of the pandemic by issuing a notification of return of courses and offering help to them re-enroll.
Drops for Non-Payment
5,196 Outgoing Calls
Goal
- To contact students at risk of being dropped for non-payment.
Spring 2022 General Enrollment
16,398 Outgoing Calls
Goal
- To reach out to students whose priority registration dates have passed but who have not enrolled.
Spring 2022 Second 8-Week Enrollment
2,048 Outgoing Calls
Goal
- To reach out to students previously enrolled in second 8-week courses who have not yet enrolled.
CCCApply
1,030 Outgoing Calls
Goal
- To contact students who have applied through CCCApply but have not completed their application.
Community-Based Organization Outreach
It's not enough to interview students, build ads around them, and use those ads to encourage new students to enroll or current students to register for the next semester. We know that to engage our audience, we need to authentically connect one-on-one with them and their influencers.
To do this, we form important alliances with community-based organizations (CBOs) working locally to repair disparities and bridge the information gap.
Sacramento Republic Football Club
Los Rios is excited to announce our partnership with the Sacramento Republic Football Club (FC), Sacramento's hometown soccer team. Our objectives are to partner with the Republic to grow our enrollment, be where our communities are, and increase the success rates for our region's underserved populations. To see our partnership in action, be sure to attend one of their 18 home matches and playoff season games, or tune into Fox40 News, ESPN+, and ESPN2. Examples of advertising include presenting sponsorship placements, in-stadium signage, fan zone activations, broadcast features, social media content, and more.
California Afterschool Network
California Afterschool Network (CAN) is a CBO whose mission is to provide professionals, advocates, and community members the tools and resources necessary to build high-quality, out-of-school time programs in California. CAN is hosting a flagship event on June 14 through 17 for the state's afterschool programs and will be largely attended by coordinators and program directors. This is an opportunity to get in front of people who serve hard-to-reach students and their parents that utilize afterschool programs.
Latino Center for Arts & Culture
Los Rios engaged in the Latino Center for Arts & Culture's Día de Los Muertos "El Panteón de Sacramento 2021" event on October 28 through 30, 2021. The centuries-old tradition of Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) was celebrated this year on the grounds of the Latino Center of Art and Culture. The annual LCAC event, El Panteón de Sacramento, featured the recreation of a candlelit Mexican cemetery and chapel accompanied by live performances from The Lico Music Academy, a 24-piece music group from Los Angeles.
Los Rios was a premier sponsor of the event, earning public praise for its Los Rios Promise program. Additionally, a local artist commissioned an "ofrenda alter" on behalf of Los Rios to raise the profile of public education and community access. Attendees who were spoken to on behalf of Los Rios included Councilmember Eric Guerra and General Consulate of Mexico Lilliana Ferrer.
Raley's and the Sacramento Kings: Eat Like a King
Eat Like a King is an annual Sacramento Kings event where the Kings invite nonprofits to fill a table of ten (10) with people from the community who use that nonprofit service (for example, Boys and Girls Club, WEAVE, and YMCA) to have a hosted holiday meal by the Sacramento Kings and an opportunity to meet and greet with the players. This event was held on December 6, 2021, and Los Rios sponsored by providing materials on the Los Rios Promise and utilizing co-branding opportunities for public awareness.
Raleys and Sacramento Kings: Shop Like a King
Shop Like a King is an opportunity to directly impact socioeconomically disadvantaged Sacramento families. The holiday season brings a heightened awareness to those with and those without and Raleys and the Sacramento Kings seek to close that gap. The event's intention is to bring hope to families without it and to lift the burden of food insecurity for families. This event was held on Thursday, December 16, 2021, and Los Rios included material about the Los Rios Promise within each grocery bag of food provided to selected families.
Our marketing team is pursuing additional community activations, including partnerships with:
- Pivot Sacramento
- Harrison Barnes Foundation
- Sierra Health Foundation
Always "On"
We never know when new students are considering starting their educational journey at Los Rios, so our campaign is "always on." This means marketing exists throughout our region during the entire calendar year and investments deepen during peak enrollment periods.
We are also leveraging outreach efforts underway at our colleges to focus on key initiatives like parent and community outreach and awareness and more.