Case Study: How upGrad's LinkedIn marketing strategy resulted in 20% deduction on CPL

To build awareness about new offerings amongst working professionals and aspiring students, upGrad used LinkedIn for strategic outreach.

With an aim to reach potential learners who would benefit from their multitude of offerings, upGrad decided to leverage LinkedIn as their platform of choice. They were not just looking to build awareness for brand upGrad, but also facilitate a hike in the number of people showing interest to enrol in their various courses. upGrad's marketing team thus zeroed in on an always-on content marketing approach that helped them balance their brand and demand objectives.

Brand Introduction

Founded in 2015, upGrad is an online higher education platform providing courses in Data Science, Technology, Management and Law. Each program is designed in collaboration with established universities such as IIT Madras, MICA, and NMIMS Global Access. The brand aims at providing quality education to help students build careers of tomorrow. 

Objective 

In line with the growing demand for online learning and their brand proposition of 'Lifetime Learning', upGrad launched an array of new online programs, to attract a wider audience. With an objective of building awareness around their new offerings amongst working professionals and aspiring students, the brand zeroed in on LinkedIn for delivering strategic outreach.

Creative Idea 

upGrad adopted a two-fold approach on LinkedIn with an 'always-on' content marketing strategy at its core. The idea was to build brand upGrad in the industry but also deliver on their enrolment objective. 

Execution 

upGrad aimed to reach ambitious professionals who often seek new opportunities and are looking to upskill. According to statistics, LinkedIn members are 2x more intent-driven and 1.7x more receptive to ads - an opportunity for upGrad to deliver better engagement with aspirational content. Further, the professional networking platform offers an array of targeting options most effective to reach non-traditional learners and nurture them along their decision-making journey. 

As a part of their 'always-on' strategy, upGrad tailored content for every stage of the learner's decision-making journey. The approach aimed to achieve three broad objectives - Awareness, Consideration, Conversion.

• For Awareness, upGrad created solution-oriented content around recurring professional debates and topics discussed often. 

• To build consideration, the brand gave users a chance to meet the mentors and draw inspiration from success stories. 

• As a part of their last-mile conversion strategy, upGrad consistently sponsored eye-catchy posts with lead generation forms that delivered quality leads from a nurtured audience.

Over a period, the brand has created a healthy balance between their organic content and sponsored posts to reach and nurture net-new prospective learners. They have consistently monitored campaigns to nail their targeting approach, reaching specific job titles, roles, behaviours, and interests for each of their courses. 

Finally, the marketing team at upGrad has embraced a long-term test and learn approach and are always optimizing their messaging and creatives. 

Results 

A combination of the right platform, a strategic approach and finding a responsive target audience has helped upGrad unlock their marketing goals on LinkedIn. 

• 56% increase in unique visitors to upGrad's LinkedIn page 
• 87% increase in organic following in just 60 days
• 2.3X lift in brand mentions on LinkedIn
• 20% decrease in cost-per-lead
• 2X improvement in the lead-to-enrolment numbers

You can read more LinkedIn success stories here.