How to Fill Your Class Without Name Buys and Travel

Navigating A New Virtual Reality

In 2014 I wrote a piece for LinkedIn titled “Blowing the Whistle on Admissions Recruitment Mail”. The article received a great response for the time … upwards of 7,000 reads. The majority of the comments were complimentary, praising a position that centered around a better way to help students match up with schools.

Then … Nothing changed.

Later that year I wrote another piece discussing how to make the large national college fair process simpler and more effective for students. Aptly titled, “If it ain’t broke, fix it” … I dove into how we can leverage technology to help better match students to best fit schools to make the college fair process better. While there were no comments, I received dozens of private replies from people agreeing with the sentiment but not comfortable sharing their position publicly given the critical look at an admissions tradition.

Then, predictably … Nothing changed.

Filling the Cracks in the Funnel

While much of my career has been spent developing strategies to boost demand (first at Zinch/Chegg helping students connect with their best fit schools using matching algorithms and later at NRCCUA, pre-ACT acquisition, helping institutions build digital marketing strategies), I came to PlatformQ Education namely because of the opportunity to move further down the funnel and focus on helping institutions nail down a stronger conversion and yield strategy. 

My hunch was that in light of recent demographic trends and forthcoming economic considerations, institutions would have to figure out better ways to get more out of their funnel without consistently trying to squeeze more water out of the rock that is their search lists.

Enter COVID-19

April 2020 was a transformative month for the higher education community. It was the month that institutions finally had to take the leap and truly leverage online tools to reach and support incoming students. Many chose Conduit. Some decided to piece together tools and resources in partnership with their IT and marketing departments. Others used social media a little more than usual. No matter how it got done in the spring; long-term it will take a combination of strategy and the right software to build an effective plan for engaging students. 

In enrollment marketing we are really good at holding on to existing strategies when we add new things. 

• We didn’t stop sending letters when we started sending emails
• We didn’t stop traveling when we started buying digital advertising
• We didn’t stop calling students when we started using texting

Good enrollment managers adapt and find ways to layer new strategies in with legacy plans. Moving forward it will not be about “if” you decide to host virtual events to support your enrollment outcomes, but rather, how often and how well.

Filling your 2021 Class Without Lists and Travel

Given recent events and forecasted challenges, filling a 2021 class with traditional tactics like large scale search buys and robust travel schedules is going to be impossible. It’s important to understand this now to give yourself time to adapt. A digital-first enrollment strategy is going to take five things to be successful:

1. A solid digital marketing plan that includes SEO, SEM, and a combination of lookalike audiences and location-based marketing strategies to effectively introduce your brand to best-fit prospects. Additionally, it is critical to capitalize on organic and paid traffic with an easy-to-navigate web experience that allows you to capture interest and immediately engage students with relevant content. The purpose of list buys was to build interest. Now, it’s about capitalizing on interest that is real at that moment (via Google, social, your .edu and other digital sources like college help sites).
2. Effective use of your data to continuously engage and support your prospective students as they progress through a largely self-guided admissions process. This may include technology like Capture Higher Ed’s Behavioral Intelligence Platform to help serve meaningful and targeted messaging to your prospects as they navigate your website and other web properties they may engage with you on along the way.
3. A combination of email and SMS messaging tailored to each student’s needs will be paramount to stand out from the crowd. With smaller pools will come the need to truly focus on segmented messaging and personalization to where students are in the process.
4. The opportunity for students to connect live via site chat with your team. In times of high stress parents and students want to speak with a person but they may be hesitant to pick up the phone. A live chat tool, like the one used by UMKC, can help identify prospects while also better supporting students in real-time.
5. A combination of live, pre-recorded and on-demand video content to help students with key portions of their process.

This may include: 

Virtual application workshops to help students who may be stuck in the process

FAFSA completion workshops to support students and their families

Academic showcase sessions to boost discovery in lieu of on campus open houses

Student and alumni panels to share authentic perspectives of life on campus and outcomes

Conduit allows you to combine your live content with on-demand content to provide a much more interactive experience than a static virtual tour that is far more measurable than simply clicking “go live” or “upload” on a social media site.

You Can Do It

While a typical recruitment process has been anchored by key initiatives like buying lists to fuel an inquiry pool and travel for cherished face-to-face interaction, the reality of today’s environment is going to render those opportunities impossible. If you have to bid farewell to fall travel, it’s important to get your strategy for online, in line, now. Plan for a new virtual reality where you need to think “digital first”. 

If and when travel and lists return to your arsenal, they should be given their appropriate place in your budget planning … where digital has been for the past decade.