Customer stories

Flatiron School Activates and Optimizes Full-Funnel Marketing on LinkedIn

Illustration of three people sitting at table in front of laptop. A clock and artwork is on the wall.

The late Coach John Wooden said it best: “Teamwork is not a preference; it’s a requirement.” Teamwork makes the dream work in both sports and in business settings. While the UCLA Bruins have Pauley Pavilion to display their collaboration skills, marketers, community managers and career coaches working for education providers have LinkedIn to showcase what it means to work together effectively.   

Although these departments are measured on different KPIs, ultimately, they are working toward the same goals: engaging prospective students, increasing enrollments, and building a strong network. Hitting on those goals perfectly aligns with a full-funnel marketing approach. 

Illustration of full funnel path

That approach is precisely what the various teams at Flatiron School are putting into action on LinkedIn – and to great effect. 

Teams Converge on LinkedIn 

Flatiron School offers immersive, outcomes-driven courses for students looking to launch a career in software engineering, cybersecurity, data science or product design. It also offers targeted education solutions for enterprise organizations and is frequently ranked as a top coding bootcamp by industry publications. 

Whether marketing free workshops or certificate programs, Flatiron’s career coaches, employer partnership managers, community managers and performance marketers each play a role. The LinkedIn platform serves as a nucleus for these teams to converge with great success, enabling Flatiron to successfully leverage both organic and paid features throughout the funnel. 

Building Awareness and Reach 

While Flatiron School’s marketing team delivers LinkedIn Video and Image ads in feed for both awareness and reach, it leverages Message Ads for prospecting. In fact, Sponsored Message Ads have been the main driver of applications for Flatiron via LinkedIn. According to Philippe Hebert, Performance Marketing Lead at Flatiron School: “We’ve seen steady applications coming from our Sponsored Message Ad campaign and, more recently, from our general awareness campaigns on LinkedIn that leverage video.”  

Hebert underscores that these applicants tend to closely match the school’s target audience and those who are more likely to matriculate to the bootcamp. These include individuals working in job functions such as Operations, Engineering, Business Development, IT and Education.  

Converting Prospective Students  

To stay top of mind with prospective students, Flatiron leverages retargeting across all social platforms. On LinkedIn, it uses Message Ads to retarget its website visitors. As Hebert says, “Applications from our Message Ads campaign come at a very efficient CPA, but what we really love is the conversion rate down the funnel.”  

LinkedIn CPAs are comparable to the remarketing campaigns of the school’s other social channels. That said, Flatiron has seen conversion rates 2-3x higher down funnel (from application to matriculation) with Message Ads compared to other forms of remarketing. “That’s where the real value is. We’ll always take quality over quantity, especially considering the length of our lifecycle,” Hebert continues. 

The school finds that the personalized touch and custom messaging of Message Ads resonates more with its target audience. As a result, prospective students are more likely to engage and take the necessary steps to matriculate rather than simply just apply. 

Keeping Students Engaged  

Flatiron School remains engaged on LinkedIn once someone moves from prospective student to enrolled. By fostering a community on LinkedIn, Flatiron’s Community Management Team keeps students engaged and motivated to complete their short courses and take the next step on their career path.   

According to Emilia Rodowicz, Social Media Manager at Flatiron School, the school currently runs two official LinkedIn Groups. One is for Flatiron School alumni — a place for sharing job openings, resources, tech field conversation starters, and the latest from their peers. The intent of the second LinkedIn group is to create a space for all things Flatiron, open to staff, students, and anyone associated with the school.   

At Flatiron School, the goal is not just to provide a course but to teach students the skills and build the confidence they need to launch a career in the tech industry. “While other vehicles offered through Flatiron School foster communication, what sets the LinkedIn group apart is the ability to cast a wider net within our community. That's especially practical when students are looking for more broad project feedback or conversing about shared experiences,” says Rodowicz. The group is a resource that remains with students post-graduation, naturally evolving into personal/ professional connections on the platform with instructors, coaches, staff and peers.  

Supporting Jobs and Life After Flatiron 

Once a Flatiron student completes their bootcamp, the next step is to find a job using their newly minted skills. Knowing that it’s a challenging experience to change careers, the Flatiron Career Services Team is committed to helping graduates get hired in the tech industry. Here’s more detail from Vicki Aubin, Senior Manager Career Coaching, and Amelia Tidona, Director of Employer Partnerships, at Flatiron School. 

“Our career coaches educate and guide students on the critical role that LinkedIn plays in their career goals post-graduation, and how to best leverage it in their job search. We cover everything from cultivating their online brand to expanding their professional network, identifying job leads, and more,” explains Aubin. 

As Rodowicz underscores, building a community goes a long way, especially on LinkedIn, which she refers to as “the social media gold standard for professional online networking.” “At Flatiron School, we don’t just hope our students graduate and we never see them again. We aim to maintain an active relationship with graduates by inviting them back for speaking engagements, through mentorship, and more,” she explains.  

Once Flatiron graduates launch a career, the school celebrates. According to Rodowicz, LinkedIn posts featuring real students – whether about their transition into tech, celebrating cohort graduations and new jobs, or simply sharing a #FlatironGrad’s selfie – generate the highest engagement, hands down. “It goes deeper than receiving engagement on our LinkedIn posts or the ‘what’s in it for us’ from students post-graduation. Flatiron School is genuinely interested in seeing our community do well. We actively monitor our LinkedIn mentions to celebrate the successes of our community after graduation and outside of work hours,” Rodowicz explains. 

In fact, Flatiron says its graduates overwhelmingly cite LinkedIn as an invaluable tool in their job search. Many credit LinkedIn for helping them land their first job after graduation, such as through a direct job application or a referral from a LinkedIn connection. 

Flatiron’s Employer Partnerships team leverages LinkedIn for direct outreach to employers potentially interested in hiring Flatiron graduates. “The tool has been an invaluable method for our team to engage with hiring managers and recruiters all over the country,” Tidona says.   

Best Practices for Full-Funnel Marketing on LinkedIn 

To follow in the footsteps of Flatiron and take advantage of the LinkedIn platform, here are best practices for full-funnel marketing that every education provider can leverage to align with the prospective student journey.  

  • Ensure your teams are in sync with prospective students at each stage of their enrollment journey.  
  • Use data to better understand who your target audience is. By doing so, you’ll be positioned to develop an engagement and conversion strategy according to where potential students are on the path to enrollment. 
  • Offer relevant content at each stage.  
    1. Acquisition: Start by driving brand awareness, such as by offering infographics, career trends, or videos highlighting student life.  
    2. Nurturing: Showcase student success stories, open houses and webinars – and make sure you track warm leads and make them visible to your direct response team.  
    3. Conversion: Consider promoting scholarships, fee waivers, and salary ranges in paid and organic posts.  
Illustration of funnel - Brand Awareness, Nurture, Conversion

Activate a Full-Funnel Approach on LinkedIn 

The most effective marketers align with the complete student journey by activating a full-funnel marketing approach. As this real-world example shows, doing so on the world’s largest platform of professionals pays off. Your team of marketers, community managers and career coaches can do the same and achieve impressive results for their efforts by calling upon the best practices shared here along with LinkedIn’s built-in tools and solutions.   

Read this case study to learn more about Flatiron School’s success with full-funnel marketing on LinkedIn.