Point Loma Nazarene University

Mapping the Path to Enrollment Growth

Point Loma Nazarene University partnered with Red Door Interactive to address declining enrollment in its Adult Undergraduate Programs. By uncovering deeper audience insights through a custom Customer Journey Map, the team built a clearer, more empathetic foundation for future enrollment and marketing strategies.

Industry

Education

Channels

Brand Strategy & Creative

Explore the partnership

Point Loma Nazarene University

The Opportunity

PLNU faced a growing challenge with enrollment in its Adult Undergraduate Programs. To help close the gap, the university needed a stronger way to connect with and better understand prospective adult students.

The Insight

Before recommending new tactics, we suggested a foundational shift toward deeper audience understanding. A data-informed Customer Journey Map would bring clarity and empathy to key student decision points and help guide future enrollment efforts.

Strategic Workshop

Aligning on Audience and Goals

The engagement began with a Strategic Marketing Workshop designed to align PLNU stakeholders and Red Door Interactive around shared goals, assumptions, and challenges. Through collaborative discussion, the team examined current enrollment perceptions, internal knowledge gaps, and existing touchpoints across the student journey. This workshop created alignment across departments while establishing a clear foundation for more targeted, student-centered strategy development.

Outdoor amphitheater with a small stage, surrounded by trees, under a cloudy sky with the sun setting in the background.

Journey Mapping

Bringing the Student Experience to Life

Using insights gathered from the workshop and supporting data, we developed a custom Customer Journey Map that segmented prospective adult learners by mindset and motivation. Each journey captured what students were doing, thinking, and feeling across key touchpoints, while highlighting pain points and moments of opportunity. The result was a clear, visual framework that made the enrollment experience tangible—and actionable—for internal teams.

Confident woman in a gray blazer stands in front of a classroom, with students seated and engaged in the background.

Two students in a classroom share a friendly conversation, smiling and holding pens, with others blurred in the background.

Design for Adoption

Making Strategy Stick Internally

Aligned with PLNU’s internal branding and built for ease of use, it could be shared, updated, and applied across departments. From informing messaging strategy to guiding content development and team alignment, the map was built to support ongoing decision-making.