Three CUES is GDA Integrated Services' free electronic newsletter. In each edition, we focus on only three items taken from our College & University Environmental Scanning (CUES) and our GDAIS research. Unlike most higher education newsletters, Three CUES often looks beyond news about colleges and universities to review greater social and marketing trends. Produced several times during the academic year, Three CUES not only provides information, but also offers observations and recommendations concerning each topic.
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Fall 2005 Edition:
Integrated Communications: How the Web and E-mail Are Changing the Way We Communicate with Prospective Students
Over the years, colleges have developed complex mail plans to communicate their messages to prospective college students. Often this communication begins in the sophomore year and doesn’t cease until the student has matriculated. In the last decade however, many of these plans have become stale and less effective as students have turned increasingly to college websites as a primary source of information. For graduate and professional schools and colleges targeting adult and non-traditional students, the stakes are even higher, because their prospective students use the Web almost exclusively to select programs.
Your website may not be very effective as a
recruitment tool
Too many audiences
Targeting
your audience
The average
teen spends fewer than EIGHT SECONDS looking at a Web page
before becoming impatient, and then moves on, never to
return again. The challenge for admissions and
communications professionals is to regularly attract
prospective students to the site, to engage them once
they’re there, and to keep them returning to the
site. No student makes up his or her mind about a
college in a single Web visit, so it is imperative to keep
students returning to the site throughout the three-year (or
longer) recruitment process. This is where e-mail comes in.
Broadcast
E-mail
Websites are passive: you post information about the
institution and are dependent on students to find the site,
to locate the appropriate information, and then to choose to
let you know who they are by filling out an online form or
sending the admissions office an e-mail. Adding an
e-mail campaign converts this otherwise passive medium into
an opportunity to reach out to students and drive them to
the website.
The Spam
Problem
Unfortunately, the proliferation of spam and the laws
against it have made getting these messages to students very
challenging. First, a college must cut through the
clutter of all the other e-mail messages out there.
Second, a college must bypass all the spam filters and tools
that have been developed to stop spam. Even if a
college is sending e-mail to a legitimate list of students
who have agreed to receive e-mail from your institution, you
still run the risk of having your mass e-mail message
filtered out of a student’s inbox by an overzealous spam
filter. There is an escalating arms race between
spammers and e-mail providers, and colleges sending harmless
bulk e-mail are caught in the crossfire. Few
admissions staffs can spare the time to keep up with the
ever-changing technology and regulations, and we strongly
recommend outsourcing rather than try to fight this battle
alone.
A legitimate service provider should:
Another challenge is developing a list of valid, qualified prospective students. GDAIS has extensive experience helping colleges overcome these issues, and can help identify e-mail vendors, craft effective messages, and select targeted search lists.
Determining what to say
55% of college-bound students begin
their college search before their junior year in high
school, so it is important to engage them early and keep
them engaged right up until they apply and enroll. To
do this effectively, it is imperative to know what types of
information they are looking for, and when students should
receive these messages. Through its extensive
research, GDAIS has identified which messages to convey to
students during each step of the recruitment process.
We work closely with our client colleges to help create
targeted messages designed to appeal to students throughout
the college search process.
Getting
results
We’ve found that students are most likely to respond to
focused, single-message e-mails that drive them to specific,
relevant parts of the website, rather than unfocused e-mails
that entice them to visit the homepage. We are also
vigilant about including a response mechanism in each
message. Including a response or “bounceback”
mechanism is another way to improve results because it
provides a way for students to communicate their specific
interests, questions or concerns to the admissions staff.
Bouncebacks can come in the form of an online form, a reply
e-mail, an electronic chat session or registration for an
event or campus visit.
Some of the advantages of using a response mechanism include:
Developing
a strategy
Does this mean that colleges can rely on the Web and
e-mail alone to communicate with prospective students?
NO! Our research and testing indicates that students
strongly prefer a mix of print and electronic
messages from colleges. GDAIS has worked extensively
with its college clients to take these broad strategies to
create customized, integrated communications plans designed
to work with their specific types of students.
Each college is different, and each requires a unique set of messages and message timing. Whether it is an audit of the effectiveness of your existing communications, the development of a communication plan that combines print and electronic communications, the development and execution of targeted e-mail campaigns, or the development of e-mail messages and mini-websites, there is help available.
Please contact Topher Small at 860-388-3958 or topher@dehne.com if you would like to discuss integrated communications and explore an integrated communications strategy for your institution.
Few activities associated with the recruitment of students causes more anxiety among admission counselors than the telephone, yet research shows that the telephone is third in effectiveness behind the campus visit and the off-campus interview among available recruitment devices.
Admissions is a people business and the telephone is second only to face-to-face contact in providing meaningful contact between people. If you are not taking advantage of Alexander’s little invention, you are missing a tremendous opportunity. The central question is how one uses the telephone effectively as a recruitment device and not frustrate and/or burn out the admission staff in the process? The answer is to save the important calls for the counselors and outsource the other calls to a vendor who is able to complete many more calls, with better results in a shorter period of time than using admissions staff or student callers.
Although there are literally dozens of different kinds of recruitment calls they typically fall under three general categories.
Screening: these are basically short cold calls designed to determine the level of interest of students in the prospect pool. The emphasis is more on the quantity of contacts than the quality of the conversation that takes place between the prospect and the caller. These are frequently done by admission counselors who are given a weekly quota of calls or by student callers. There are two problems with this. First, with everything else going on in an admission office it takes far too long to cover a large number of prospects. By the time they have worked their way through the pool, eighty percent of the students have decided to enroll elsewhere. Second it creates tremendous burn-out with individual staff members. After a year or two of doing these calls, far too many counselors turn to another line of work.
Calls to action: these include things such as invitations to open houses and off campus receptions or requests to file financial aid forms, etc. Calls of this type present opportunities for the caller to engage in more meaningful conversation about the prospect and require some counseling and persuasive skills. Once again the sheer number and the limited time available to make the calls make it difficult for the admission staff to cover this need. Typically the result is that the calls do not get made.
Direct recruitment calls: While these come in dozens of varieties they all involve the development of a counseling relationship between the prospect and the admission counselor. They are critical to the recruitment process and they should be made by professional members of the admission staff. If they are spending time doing the screening and call to action calls, they simply will not have the time to do the recruitment calls effectively.
The Solution
We believe it makes great sense to outsource the screening and call to action calls. They can get done faster and more effectively by professional telerecruiters. Outsourcing helps to reduce staff burn-out and allows counselors to spend their time doing the things that will have the greatest impact on the recruitment of the freshman class.GDA Integrated Services offers two different kinds of callers for these activities. For large scale screening projects that require little or no counseling with prospects we use a corps of professionals who do not necessarily have specific admissions experience. They are experienced in using the phone to ask a prescribed series of questions and provide basic information. They are the ones to use if you are trying to cover the larger numbers in a short period of time and your primary motivation is evaluating and culling the prospect pool. These calls are typically less expensive because they are of shorter duration than other kinds of telerecruiting contacts.
We have another corps of professional callers who are all professional admissions officers and are highly experienced in using the telephone to persuade students to take the next step in the admission process. These are the “call to action” and “direct recruitment” contacts. The callers go through a training process that allows them to become very familiar with the colleges they are representing and in effect serve as surrogate admissions counselors. They can discuss everything from financial aid to study abroad and medical school admissions rates and procedures. It is not uncommon for these calls to last twenty to thirty minutes and they frequently play a major role in the recruitment process.
Please feel free to call GDA’s Old Saybrook office at 860-388-3958 if you would like to discuss these tele-counseling services.
With all the talk in admissions circles about declining response rates to Search and diminishing prospect/inquiry pools it is important not to lose sight of the most important source of new student interest, word of mouth. Our market research shows that over 70% of enrolled students first heard about their college choice through word of mouth. The percentage is even higher for the best known places and frequently a sign of major problems when the percentage is below 50% at lesser known institutions. While visibility and prestige are important, and word of mouth not easily influenced directly by colleges, it is important for you to develop word-of-mouth marketing strategies to try to influence this important source of information about your institution.
Word-of-mouth marketing is more effective than traditional marketing (advertising, direct mail, etc.) because the person communicating the message about a product or service is, or is perceived to be, a trusted friend, colleague or advisor. The fact that the recommendation and/or message is coming from an independent third party and not the entity producing the product or services, gives word-of-mouth marketing instant credibility. And because word of mouth is usually a one-on-one exchange, the message has a high degree of personalization that makes it easier for the prospect to see the value to him/her. All of these factors help speed the decision process.
Current and past students are the ultimate sales people because they are a college’s target audience and therefore know the target audience better than the college does. They can find others with similar interests more effectively, and because they are going through the experience, they can communicate their experiences, and the value of the program, in words that prospects will understand. It is not uncommon for student advocates to walk prospects through the decision process until they understand and make an informed decision. Once these new students register for courses and start taking courses, the new student and the referring student reinforce and justify the choice/decision they made about enrolling. New students are now ready to become advocates of the college and start the process all over again by bringing new students into the program.
This is obviously why retention is so important to a college’s enrollment management effort. Every student who withdraws becomes not only a lost word-of-mouth opportunity, but frequently a negative force in the word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
Aspects of Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy
A word-of-mouth marketing strategy should consist of the following aspects:
Create Key Messages
In spreading the word about a college, current and past students develop their own unique way of describing it, why they chose it, what it means to them and what they expect to get out of the experience. In addition, they may customize the information they present depending on who they are talking to.
While this personalized approach is very desirable and effective, one can also facilitate word-of-mouth marketing by creating key messages that are concise, easy to communicate, and are easily understood. By tightly weaving these key messages into all of the college’s materials, websites, conversations with each other and your students, one can create consistent messages that will influence what your advocates say to others and help them spread the word more effectively.
Key messages communicate complete ideas simply and compactly. Key messages are more than taglines because they help people understand what the college is and has to offer. Key messages should also help people make a connection between their values, attitudes or lifestyle preferences and yours, allowing them to become emotionally invested and attached. The messages must be continually refined until they are as concise and effective as possible.
Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is an important component of word-of-mouth marketing. It should provide the basis for strategic decisions and provide suggestions, complaints, praise, and more. Listening to your customers (students) will help a college find out what works, what needs improvement, what they value most about it, and what they say about you when they recommend the college to others.
By gathering feedback at every opportunity, making it easy for students to provide feedback, sharing feedback throughout the college, and focusing on continual improvement, one can help ensure a positive customer experience. By continually improving the experience, you create more satisfied customers. And, those satisfied customers are the people you want to spread the word about our program.
In addition, the fact that you are asking for input from students, and communicating any changes back, shows them that you value their opinions. This will not only add to their overall student experience and to what they have to say about the college, but it will help them bond with the college a thereby decrease the likelihood of attrition. As an added benefit you can use the gathered information, such as quotes, praise and statistics in your marketing materials and on your website, which in turn will lead to more word of mouth.
Build and Foster Word-of-Mouth Networks
Word of mouth consists of the many conversations that take place in person, by phone, on the Web, in chat rooms and on bulletin boards, via e-mail and even in the media. By identifying existing word-of-mouth networks, building new ones and establishing relationships with the people utilizing these networks, a college can facilitate and speed word-of-mouth communication.
Key connections, trusted sources that disseminate information quickly, in word-of-mouth networks have been termed hubs. Some examples include:
By identifying these people, establishing relationships with them, and providing them with a steady flow of information, one can increase word of mouth due to the fact that you are giving them more reasons to talk about the college and can influence what they are saying about it.
Create a Community
Creating a community for students will enhance the student experience, provide a sense of belonging, and help students feel that they are part of something larger than just taking a series of courses or pursuing a degree. Other benefits of creating a community are that it will help students connect with like-minded people, build loyalty, and create opportunities for feedback.
By creating a community, and providing opportunities for memorable experiences, we will be arming our students with meaningful stories about the college that can be easily and effectively shared with others.
GDA Integrated Services works with colleges to help them develop word-of- mouth marketing plans. We believe that it is not only central to a successful recruitment program but it is also critical for the development of an institution-wide integrated marketing plan. For further information call 860-388-3958.
GDA Integrated Services is a marketing consulting, research, strategic planning and services firm specializing in customized, integrated marketing solutions that help colleges and universities compete successfully for students, funds and visibility in the twenty-first century.
We provide colleges and universities with the following services:
For a complete listing of our services, please see our website at www.gdais.com.