Early Results: Adult Student Recruitment Effectiveness Part II of II
Aug 06, 2017
(NOTE: The Adult Student Recruitment Effectiveness Self-Assessment is 19 statements in length, and takes less than 10 minutes to complete. And you can receive a free, no obligation consultation if you complete and submit the self-assessment. To learn more, click here.)
In Part I, we reviewed the early results for the first two sections of the Adult Student Recruitment Assessment – the “Thank you” page and automated emails. Though early the results are showing that there is a great deal of opportunity for colleges to improve their ‘Thank you’ pages and automated emails to make a more positive first impression with prospective adult students. To read Part I, click here.
In Part II, we will focus on the early results from the Nurturing section of the Assessment and end up with some statements about referral programs and capturing data necessary to identify effective and ineffective recruitment tactics.
Let’s start with Nurturing - there were 10 statements addressing the way a college responds to the prospective adult student from the moment of initial inquiry through the application phase and into enrollment in their first course.
The focus, as you will see below, was on gathering information to qualify and prioritize the individual as well as segmenting so that your team could deliver the right message and offer via the right media/communication channel at the right time to motivate the desired response or action.
Here’s what the early results are telling us…
You Are NOT Very Nurturing.
Nurturing is all about getting the right information to the right person at the right time via the right channel to motivate the right action or response.
You ask questions and based on the responses, you know what you need to do next. You make the right offers at the right time – meaning you don’t push “Enroll Now” when someone has just asked you for information about your institution and one of your program offerings.
That said, based on the early responses, there is a lot of room for improvement – and we will share them below under “Recommendations”. Oh, one other thing – these early responses are pretty much in line with what we see as part of our work.
We have a nurturing process in place that allows us to quickly identify which segment/persona the prospective student belongs to so that we can deliver the right messages and offers via the right media/communication channels.
No one has selected “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” – 100% did not agree with this statement!
We have a nurturing process for all prospective students that starts off with the assigned enrollment counselor attempting to personally contact the individual within 24-hours of the prospective student’s initial inquiry.
We have a nurturing process that ensures we continue to gather and analyze key data from the prospective student so we can qualify and prioritize them.
We have a nurturing process that that includes questions about the prospective student’s motivations, wants, needs, expectations and perceptions so we can identify which segment/persona they are part of.
We have a nurturing process in place that prioritizes prospective students based on their desired start date.
We have a nurturing process in place that clearly maps out what we will do in response to the prospective student’s action or inaction.
Only 20% responded “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to the statements listed above.
We have a nurturing process that ensures the prospective student quickly receives accurate, relevant data concerning their stated program of interest.
We have a nurturing process in place that quickly and efficiently identifies prospective students as “qualified” or “unqualified” to attend our institution so we can focus our resources on “qualified” individuals.
We have a nurturing process that delivers the right message and offer for each stage of the prospective student’s decision-making process. (From “Inquiry” to “Qualified Lead”, “Application Started”, “Application Submitted”, “Accepted” and “Enrolled”)
Only 40% responded “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to these three statements.
Our Recommendations
To sum up the above in one sentence – too many colleges are failing to respond quickly to inquiries from prospective new adult students and most colleges are knowingly responding with inaccurate, irrelevant information concerning the prospective students’ stated program of interest.
Our recommendation is for you to develop a process that helps you quickly, effectively, efficiently gather critical information from the prospective student so you can [a] qualify them, [b] prioritize them and [c] provide them with fast, easy access to accurate, relevant information throughout their decision-making process. And remember to gather the data you need to determine what is working, and what is not working so you can either fix what isn’t working or re-direct the resources associated with that ineffective activity to the effective activities.
Speaking from experience, you need to qualify those inquiries quickly and effectively because you don’t need to invest your limited resources chasing someone that can’t enroll.
But many will – they will treat every inquiry as ‘qualified and equal’ and they will start mailing materials and emailing and calling…only to find out in the application stage that the person would never be able to enroll.
Next, you need to prioritize them so you can focus on those that want to start classes NOW versus later. That’s the importance of asking “Desired start date”!
Lastly, you need to be relevant and provide accurate information that the prospective student needs now – yet so many nurturing processes are set up to do nothing but push out a series of several emails regardless of what the individual wants or needs.
For example, “Sam” is more concerned about time management and organization so he can succeed in college while working and raising two children with his spouse. Yet you send him information about scholarships because that’s what all new inquiries receive in their 3rd email.
To learn more about how to set up and manage a more effective nurturing process, click to download our white paper entitled Developing Messages and Offers That Increase Adult Enrollments.
Referral Programs Are Extremely Rare
Some colleges have referral programs that generate 20%, 30%, up to 40% of their new student starts!
Referrals can, if properly managed, generate a substantial number of adult enrollments but the challenge is that for most colleges, referral programs are not well thought-out or implemented.
Fewer than 20% responded with “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to “We have a written process for our referral program, and that program has one person responsible for achieving the enrollment goals for the referral program.”
Our recommendation is to sit down, develop a formal process for referrals and then put one person in charge the program. Informal programs can’t be counted on for consistently delivering results so set some goals and objectives. Develop a budget and put someone in charge of the results.
Measuring Effectiveness is Also Rare
We included the following two statements about capturing data that would help identify what recruitment activities worked and which activities did not work.
Approximately 40% selected “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to “We know which efforts are producing the most enrollments, and which efforts are producing the least enrollments” – which means more than 50% don’t know the answer to this important question.
And approximately 20% responded with “Somewhat Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to “We have a process in place for tracking the effectiveness of our recruitment efforts so that we can allocate resources based on our return on investment.”
Our recommendation is that you need to be able to quickly, accurately identify those efforts that warrant additional funding and support from your team and institution. And when something is not covering its costs, you need to be able to redirect as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Though the results are from early responders to the self-assessment, they do line up with our own earlier research.
The fact that this is self-reported means this isn’t a surprise to those responsible for recruiting adult students –but the traditional reasons why these things can occur live on.
We don’t have the staff. That can mean two things – the bandwidth or the expertise. That’s fine but when has it ever been acceptable for anyone in a position of authority and responsibility to accept the fact that they don’t have the resources necessary to succeed?
The solution to this is hire internally, hire externally or train and development.
That solution typically leads to the next excuse – lack of budget. And that gets us to those statements listed above that address your ability to track performance. You know it as well as I know it – 20% of what you do is driving 80% of the positive results and that means 80% of what you do is under-performing. Identify the under-performing activities and redirect the budget to hiring the staff so you have the bandwidth and expertise, hiring external expertise and manpower or train and development your current staff.
Some of the recommendations made above are going to pay for themselves in short order – the rest will soon after. And with that comes the benefit of freeing up your time to focus on other key needs.
For example, let’s say you generate 100 inquiries this week for graduate programs. Most colleges are treating all 100 as equal – but [ex] 25 are interested in starting in a couple of week and the rest are looking at January starts. Imagine the time you save nurturing the 75 prospective students interested in January starts via email rather than phone calls, meetings etc. And imagine how more effective you will be by focusing on the 25 that want to start later this month!
(NOTE: The Adult Student Recruitment Effectiveness Self-Assessment is 19 statements in length, and takes less than 10 minutes to complete. And you can receive a free, no obligation consultation if you complete and submit the self-assessment. To learn more, click here.)
Patrick McGraw is VP of Higher Educaton Marketing Services and has more than 25 years experience in market research, competitive intelligence, business intelligence including database marketing and CRM, strategic planning, brand development and management as well as operations/campaign management. His work has consistently helped his clients and employers develop and implement more efficient ways to attract and retain profitable customers, enter new markets and launch new products. His areas of focus include the education, hospitality, travel and tourism, hi-tech, telecommunications, financial services, and retail industries on both the agency and customer sides.
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