Why Differentiate the Collegiate Tour Experience

Differentiating college tours with branded merch

A few years ago, my son and I went on a college tour during his freshman year. With my branded merch antenna up, I noticed that some attendees were getting a branded merch gift bag and others did not (we did not). This made me curious. When the tour started, the leader asked for all of the admitted students in the room to stand up to be recognized. All of the standing students had the gift bag. I had my answer and it was a lightbulb moment!?

I thought this was genius. During all my years working with admissions offices, I never had the conversation of differentiating visitors. After this experience, I began to poll our clients and found this was not a common practice. Therefore, I recognized it as an opportunity.

College tours are a key ingredient to building a class. Colleges spend a lot of time perfecting the tour experience for everyone when it is understood that not all attendees have the same interest in enrolling. Every tour can include high school juniors who are exploring a wide range of colleges, students only on the tour because their parents are making them and the serious students who have applied or will apply.?

A marketing truism is to focus efforts on the most likely group to convert. Thus, the focus of the college should be to use this opportunity to ensure the tour is differentiated for their most likely to attend students with a thoughtful VIP experience.??

Differentiating the Experience

There are a number of options to differentiate the tour experience – from proactively offering meetings with admission reps to finding time with professors in desired majors. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is through recognizing particular students at the start of the tour as I had experienced. One of the reasons that I liked that particular experience is that it gave a visual demonstration to the entire tour of who is really interested. This does a few key things. First, this lets the admitted students see each other at the start of the tour. This allows the students (and parents) to know who to connect with while walking the campus and get a sense of who else may be attending. For the non-admitted attendees, this can give them an opportunity to talk with admitted families and can be a potential FOMO moment to encourage next steps.

Using branded merch is another easy way to differentiate the tour and provide a? VIP experience. Students love to receive merch as it provides excitement and a long-lasting memory. The messaging, artwork and product themes can be unique to where they are at in the funnel. To keep it unique, the products should be different from the other merch that they may already have or will receive along their enrollment journey.?

One additional strategy is to include the parents in on this VIP experience. Parents are influential in the final decision making. Use this opportunity to continue to build affinity with the parents. For example, have branded merch for parents of the admitted students. Ideas include sticker sheets that include parents (ex: Iowa State mom) and journals with a custom insert page that provides helpful information.???

Let the CRM Do the Work

With most interactions running through CRMs, use the system to sort tour attendees to preset specifications. It is up to each institution on who they want to differentiate, and can include students who have inquired, applied and/or have been accepted. Institutions need to look at the areas focus for their funnels and concentrate on the VIP experience to increase the likelihood of matriculating.????

Differentiating is key to many areas of the communication plan throughout the enrollment funnel. Ensure the tour experience matches this differentiation strategy for maximum results. Little investments and changes can go a long way to creating results.