DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES, STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS AND STUDENT ENROLLMENT DECISIONS IN SELECTED PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

The recent Kenya National Bureau of Statistics report shows that private universities have been experiencing a significant drop in student enrollment rates since 2022. This pattern threatens the sustainability of private universities, since they rely on student admission rates. In response, these institutions leverage the power of digital media to attract learners. A review of the contemporary literature showed that digital marketing, including email, influencers, social media, SEO, and email marketing influence decision-making among the target audiences. This study’s main objective was to examine how digital marketing influence university enrollment decisions in private universities in Kenya. The specific objectives were to assess the influence of social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and influencer marketing on student enrollment decisions, hinging on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Engagement Theory and Social Influence Theory. The study employed a survey research design to collect and analyze primary data from current students in the three private universities in Kenya. Structured questionnaires were distributed across a sample of 382 students (n=382) drawn from the current 96,640 private university students consistently with Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) sampling method. The data was imported in MS Excel format and analyzed for descriptive, correlation and regression using SPSS V.29. A Pearson correlation analysis established that each factor has positively and significantly associated with private university enrollment. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses found that social media, influencer and SEO marketing influenced the student decisions to enroll in private universities. The influence was positive and statistically significant. Also, the multivariate regression analysis showed that these variables predicted university enrollment decisions jointly. The study also found that student characteristics moderated the link between digital marketing and university enrollment in both bivariate and multivariate regression analyses. Based on these findings, the research concluded that digital marketing has a positive influence on private university enrollment decisions. The study recommended that future research should assess other factors that influence student enrollment decisions, as digital marketing explained only 62.7% of the change in decision making among learners.