PS&L Blog

This month marks my 30^th anniversary in higher education marketing and admissions.   On January 21,1982 I started as a High School Admissions Representative, my first real job out of college and since then I have never considered another field.

As a consultant with Paskill Stapleton & Lord I talk to many admissions, enrollment and marketing people from many schools. This gives me a nice 100,000 foot view of the land, and from this vantage point I can see that many of the pain points that confront us today existed 30 years ago.

1982 vs. 2012:  Same challenges, different year

• The enrollment funnel is laden with details and getting students to follow through requires a strong relationship

Is there any other transaction in life that has as many details as enrolling in college?  Converting students from inquired to applied to accepted to deposited to matriculated transpires over months or years and entails too many calls, contacts, papers, signatures and thresholds to count.   Quantity of details and quality of execution is required for success.  No matter how connected and electronically efficient we are in 2012, we still have to work hard to motivate students to follow through on a myriad of details before they commit to coming to school.  And despite our electronic world, people still expect and deserve personal service: I would say in fact even more so.

No amount of digital automation replaces the personal relationship that you need to forge with prospects. This personal touch is often reflected in yield and retention rates. Recruiting always will be a personal transaction and the better the relationship, the better the result.

•  Fear of cost and the affordability dilemma

Now and then, admissions recruiters are afraid to discuss cost and families do not want to see the real bottom line.  Today, tuition and costs are higher in relation to other expenses than they were 30 years ago, but the emotions are just as high. The motivators of what drives people to want a college degree are the same as they were in 1982 and most people were not and are not prepared for the bill. Recruiters, like other sales professionals, must know how to deal with sticker shock and sell value and outcomes.

Selling an intangible that can cost six figures is a challenging job for mature and seasoned professionals and it requires strategy and skill.  New and veteran recruiters need training and encouragement. Every team needs to be built and maintained.

•  The viewbook is a school’s calling card

Today, websites now take the credit for making first impressions, yet the printed viewbook still plays a major role in a college marketing strategy. It also represents a significant portion of the marketing budget.  How to handle the viewbook, what it should look like, how many pages it has and what it should say was and is a common debate on campus.

The viewbook is a staple of higher education marketing and I think it is amazing that the bucolic campus setting is still a popular scene found on the pages.  Photography coupled with powerful messaging in a tangible published format has not lost its popularity nor its “shelf-life” value.   Thanks to digital inventions like variable data printing and QR code technology, viewbooks are much smarter than they were 30 years ago.  Making your ivy covered buildings and smiling students look more appealing than the images in your competitor’s viewbook continues to be the goal.

• The economy and impact on enrollment

In 1982, the unemployment rate in Western Pennsylvania (my territory) was over 12%.  Nationally the unemployment rate was over 10%.  The U.S. economy is known for these unfortunate cycles and the higher education economy is impacted in a unique way.  What defines a bad economy and a good economy in higher education is different depending who you are talking to and when.  For certain it forces change of the marketing strategy.  We have to adapt the 5 Ps (placement, product, pricing, prestige, promotion) and I find this to be one of most compelling challenges of our profession.

If these are the pain points that haven’t changed in 30 years, then what has changed?

1982 vs. 2012:  What’s new?

Thirty years ago I was typing on a typewriter, listening to music on cassettes and using a pay phone when I was on the road as a High School Admissions Representative. The world of communication has undergone several revolutions since then, and that has had a profound effect on the world of higher education marketing and enrollment.

• Birth year matters

In 1982 I was a Baby Boomer talking to Baby Boomers.  Today, as a Baby Boomer I need to know the communication style nuances of my generation as well as Millenials, GenXs, Gen Ys and Gen Zs. The sociologists that study and define these groups say the groups will demarcate even more often as the years go on.

Also new is the fact that “non-traditional” aged students now outnumber the traditional aged students and every college admissions department is segmented accordingly – a necessary and good thing.

•  Telephones, etiquette and conversations

Cell phones are fast replacing traditional land-line phones and becoming the sole source of connecting for a conversation.  While many people sleep with their cell phone, it is more difficult to reach someone directly than ever before.  For admissions this is a dilemma and a topic that I explored in an earlier blog.  Today, due to caller ID and voicemail, answering one’s cell phone is clearly a choice of ‘to do or not to do.’ Further, modern telephone etiquette does not include returning phone calls.  In admissions we have to give prospects more reason to want to talk with us and thus respond to our calls.

Another change with regard to telephones is the ubiquity of campus voicemail.  Today it is rare to connect to a live operator when calling a school, even when hitting the zero key.  This plus voicemail menus, voice activated menus and departmental voice mail boxes do not fare well with developing relationships with prospects.  I am also flummoxed when I call a school (obviously to engage in a conversation) and the voicemail greeting begins with “visit our website at www….”

There is no simple way to connect.  The choices are many: Facebook, Twitter, email, snail mail, texting or the old-fashioned phone call.   Instead of one-way-to-connect-fits-all – the communication mode varies and it usually depends on the generation of the prospect.

• Advertising

The University Marketing Director’s job was much simpler 30 years ago. These days advertising to attract students in general is quite complex.  CPC, CPI, CPL, Google AdWords, DMA, and don’t forget Facebook, mobile ads, traditional print, TV and billboards.

Though television advertising for colleges is not new for 2012 it certainly is more widespread and common than it was 30 years ago.  In the late 1980s the for-profit sector started advertising on television and at the time it was considered outside the box and aggressive.  Today most not-for-profit schools advertise on TV just to compete.  The for-profit sector continues to awe in terms of reach and expenditure.

• Doing business on the World Wide Web

How did we reach our enrollment goals in the 80s when there was no internet, email or electronic aps?  Recollection of not having these luxuries is perhaps what makes me feel oldest.   Websites and now mobile websites are challenging us to re-think how we do business and how we can recruit and enroll more cost-efficiently.  The inventions are fascinating and while they are supposed to make admissions “easier”, figuring out how to use new technology to the best advantage certainly gives us more to do.

When I got into this profession 30 years ago I recognized that higher education admissions is a craft, a science and a challenge. What makes it such an exciting profession is the fact that it reflects the changes of our culture. To succeed we need to be able to adapt to the changing technology and habits of our prospective students while never losing sight of the fact that humans still respond best to authentic relationships.

All the best!