01 · Company Overview
Pearson is one of the world's largest education companies, operating in 70+ countries. The specific mandate was the London Business School (LBS) Executive Programme; a premium, globally competitive qualification targeting senior professionals.
| Dimension | Detail |
|---|
| Product | LBS Executive Programme; a premium online qualification for senior professionals |
| Target audience | Senior professionals (managers, directors) in India, US, UK, Middle East, and beyond |
| Price point | High-ticket (international programme pricing); trust and qualification are key purchase drivers |
| Business goal | Expand enrolments globally beyond existing markets. Improve lead quality and conversion rates. |
02 · Market Context
Rs 1.8L Cr
India EdTech market size; one of the fastest-growing globally
62%
Professionals seeking upskilling; post-pandemic skills demand surge
$40B+
Global executive education market; premium segment growing 15% YoY
Why international expansion was the right bet: The LBS programme already had strong India traction. The question was: which other markets had the same profile of high-earning English-speaking professionals willing to invest in international executive education? This wasn't a spray-and-pray international push; it required rapid testing to identify which geographies converted before scaling spend.
03 · Target Geographies
| Target Geography | Why It Made Sense | Channel Priority |
|---|
| India | Established base, strong aspirational pull for LBS brand | Google Search + LinkedIn |
| Middle East | Large base of senior Indian diaspora professionals, high disposable income | Meta + LinkedIn + Google |
| UK / Europe | Proximity to LBS campus creates credibility, working professionals seeking MBA alternatives | Google Search + LinkedIn |
| Southeast Asia | Growing professional class, English-speaking markets, strong appetite for global credentials | Meta + Google |
04 · Audience Insight; Personas
| Persona | Motivation | Trigger | Objection to Address |
|---|
| Senior Manager (India) | Needs a credible global credential to break the India-only ceiling in their career | Promotion plateau, international job opportunity | "Is this as credible as a full MBA?" |
| UAE Professional (Indian diaspora) | Already earning well, wants the LBS network and global brand | Performance review, peer getting promoted | "Can I do this while working full-time?" |
| UK Professional | Wants a flexible executive qualification, drawn to LBS proximity and alumni network | Company-sponsored learning budget | "How is this different from part-time MBA?" |
The Trust Insight: For high-ticket executive education, the ad is never the conversion point; it is the entry point. The job of the ad is to earn the click. The job of the landing page is to earn the trust. The job of the email drip is to earn the call. I structured the funnel accordingly: acquisition media drove top-of-funnel; landing pages handled geo-specific trust; email nurture handled objections and booked the call.
05 · Strategy
| My Thinking | What I Did and Why |
|---|
| Testing geographies before scaling is cheaper than scaling into the wrong ones. | Ran rapid platform and audience mix tests across 8 geographies simultaneously with small budgets. Measured CPL and lead-to-qualified-lead rate per market over 2 weeks before increasing any budget. Identified 4 high-converting markets vs 4 that had high volume but poor quality. |
| A generic landing page converts poorly across different markets. | Built dedicated landing pages for India, UK, and Middle East with local testimonials, geo-specific copy, and region-relevant CTAs. Geo-specific pages converted at 2.1x higher rate than the generic international page. |
| LinkedIn is expensive but essential for reaching professionals at work-mind. | Ran LinkedIn Lead Gen campaigns targeting job titles (VP, Director, General Manager) alongside Google Search and Meta for interest-based prospecting. LinkedIn produced 35% of total qualified leads at 1.4x CPL vs Meta; still positive on conversion-adjusted basis. |
| Lead volume without nurture is wasted. Most B2C education purchases require 3-5 touchpoints. | Set up segmented drip email sequences by lead stage: new lead (programme overview + student testimonials), engaged (schedule a call CTA + employer sponsorship guide), cold (reactivation with scholarship/deadline urgency). Email nurture improved lead-to-booked-call rate by 28%. |
| If the sales team is marking leads as unqualified, the campaign needs to fix its targeting. | Set up weekly lead quality feedback loop with the Pearson sales team. Used this to refine audience targeting; excluding job seniority levels that consistently failed to qualify, and adding lookalike seeds built from enrolled students. 45% improvement in average qualified lead rate over 3 months. |
06 · Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|
| Qualified lead rate | 45% improvement in average qualified lead rate over 3 months |
| New countries | Enrolments achieved from 10 new countries not previously converting |
| Programme registrations | 2.5x growth |
| Lead-to-enrolment conversion | 32% growth |
| Geo-specific landing pages | 2.1x conversion lift over generic international page |
Key Learning: Geographic expansion in high-ticket education requires a test-and-qualify approach, not a broadcast approach. Running small budgets across many markets to identify which convert before scaling is dramatically more efficient than spreading a large budget based on assumption. The markets that looked biggest on paper were not always the markets that converted best.