Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | November 14th, 2019

Creating and curating content

Three of the top types of content in higher ed right now are infographics, videos and blogs. This may not come as a surprise considering prospects are seeking quick, bite-sized pieces of information they can consume while on the go. But how do you create and curate this type of content that is meaningful to your audience while on a budget and with limited time?

What’s the difference between creating and curating content?

Content creation is just that – creating your own original content and marketing it to your prospects. Content curation is utilizing existing information that is relevant to a certain topic and sharing it across multiple platforms.

So, you want to create content. Where do you start?

Anyone can be a content creator. You do not have to be a skilled writer or a seasoned designer. Although it may be easier to hire these resources, your budget may not always allow it. Here are some ways to develop DIY content for your school.

Create infographics: If you Google “create free infographics” there are several online tools providing pre-designed infographic templates. If you can come up with a main message and 3-4 supporting points, plug your information in and let the program do the rest. Most platforms allow you to upload your brand colors and logos and even create sizes appropriate for social media.
Create videos: Although a professionally recorded video is a good place to start, there are also other ways for you to create video content without spending a fortune or sacrificing quality. Many social media platforms allow you to “go live” at an event or stream events that can be recorded and posted after completion. You can also hire a student to take videos and then include those in your communications.
Blogs: Schools are filled with experts. Try tapping your peers in admissions, faculty members, current students and alumni. You can provide a list of topics that you’re seeking, or you can let them brainstorm on their own. Blogs are the most interesting when they have a personal angle. Let people use their voice and perspective to make your content even richer. Just be sure to edit for the brand and consistency.

How do you curate content?

For many traditional marketers, this may be a new concept, or at least something you were advised against in your training when you were told to always be creating something new. It turns out, however, that existing content can actually have more impact when presented in the right way.

Here are a few innovative ways to curate content within your organization:

Take findings from faculty whitepapers or research and distill the main points into an infographic.
Create a wrap-up article, email or blog post using syndicated content or recent news about a particular topic. Let an experienced staff member weigh in using a quote and you’ve got gold. Just be sure to cite your sources.
Comb through your organization’s social media channels to find popular threads and topics and create a simple animated slide show that you can re-share on multiple platforms.
Interview students about their experiences on a podcast, post it to your website and create a social media blast.

If you need more ideas on how to create new content or re-purpose existing content to develop meaningful interaction experiences with your #businessschools prospects, contact GPRS today. We can help you develop or curate intriguing content that fits within your strategy and budget.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | October 30th, 2019

Data-driven marketing: It’s not as complex as you think

Data can be your most powerful marketing resource. But using it can also become one of your biggest challenges if you’re not used to working with statistics, crunching numbers or harnessing large amounts of information to make informed marketing decisions. Here are some simple ways to start using data to strengthen your marketing campaigns, regardless of your comfort with data visualization tools.

Segment your communications

Even with a wealth of available market research and your own analytics, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to use data if you look at it in simple groupings. If you know 2-3 things about your audience – for example age, gender and zip code— you’re on your way to a segmented email campaign that can match programs to certain age ranges, discuss career benefits for men or women and promote on-campus or remote classes based on geography.

Diversify your channels

You can use data to expand your marketing campaign beyond emails. If you know from an industry whitepaper that video ads are trending or that millennials are using Snapchat more than Facebook, you can use this to develop a multi-channel strategy. For example, you may be surprised to find out that 60% of your prospects are on LinkedIn daily but that they don’t check their personal email more than 2 times a week.

Enhance the experience for your prospects

Using small, digestible pieces of data (from your own analytics) can make a huge difference in optimizing your school’s website and marketing campaigns. For example, if you notice that the area of your site with the largest viewership is student testimonials, you may think about curating ad content using personal student stories. Or, if your ROI page has high viewership, but not a lot of time spent on the page, consider beefing up that content since ROI is a huge decision factor for many prospective students. Starting small and expanding as you gain confidence with your data can have far-reaching effects.

If you’re looking for ways to use industry data or need advice on how to use your own analytics to improve your marketing, contact GPRS today.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | August 28th, 2019

3 tips to push past misconceptions and launch your new online program

If your school is facing the challenge of launching your first online program or expanding one, the next steps are not for the faint of heart. Regardless of your role: marketing, product development, recruiting or instructor, growing pains are inevitable. Read on to discover common challenges and some tips for overcoming them.

Internal pushback

Whether your school is innovative or rooted in deep tradition and slow to change, it is likely that someone (or many people) will oppose this shift. If it’s different from the way you’ve done things in the past, there will be resistance. But the truth is, online education is quickly becoming less of a trend and more of a mainstay. There is a way to do both; so focusing on that can really help push through some of the barriers.

So much competition

Let’s address some misconceptions. Institutions tend to think that going “online” can be overwhelming because it changes their entire market. Should you begin marketing in Australia, Greenland and Europe? Should you hire a translator to write all of your content in Japanese? How will you compete with the online education goliaths?

Relax. Trends have shown that although online programs do give you more opportunities to reach more people, it is more likely that you will have your best luck with your current geographic target where your brand is already well known. This is a great starting point and you can slowly expand your geography by 100 miles or so to see when the demand tops off, and then gradually pull back to achieve a balance.

The question of “how?”

Online content is very different from content that is delivered in person. A fair amount of work can go into converting existing content into an online format, building new content that keeps students engaged and making sure it still aligns with your brand. And then there are the questions about marketing, recruiting and cost structure, to name a few. As you are delving into the deep questions, you’ll need an experienced partner to help you plan, and help ensure success.

For schools looking to launch a new online program, expand existing ones, or possibly transition away from a traditional Online Program Manager (OPM), GPRS offers de-coupled services to help you accelerate growth and market programs. With powerful lead generation services, as well as call center solutions, we can help you increase market awareness while building a steady stream of qualified candidates, and enrollments. Contact GPRS today to learn more.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | August 15th, 2019

Connecting with prospective students

Are you overloaded trying to keep up with all of your prospects? The right tactics, and the right partner, can help you optimize the middle of your recruitment funnel for greater enrollment results.

Your admissions staff is the first point of contact for most prospective students and follow-up time is crucial for making that first impression a positive one. In our 24/7 world, leads are expecting their schools of choice to be “always on.” So how do you balance your leads’ demand for instant communication with your recruiting team’s bandwidth?

If you’re concerned (and you should be) about asking your team to respond to texts, calls and emails at 3 a.m., here are a few tips to lighten the load as you prepare for your next big recruiting wave.

Automated (personal) emails

You’ve probably done it – you’ve signed up for a newsletter, entered a sweepstakes or requested more info about a product. You check your inbox and hit refresh. You refresh again. Where is your confirmation email? Did you accidentally type the wrong info? Did your email go into a black hole? Should you try again? These are things that you never want your prospective students to wonder, especially when they are considering a high-dollar purchase (your degree program).

When you have an automated email campaign that spurs an immediate response from your school, the prospect is immediately gratified and will be less likely to regret taking that first step to inquire. Your first email doesn’t have the be fancy or even include a ton of information. Just a quick note to acknowledge them and let them know you’ll be following up with them soon will go a long way. Here are some tips on creating a custom email campaign using your CRM.

Text or phone call follow-up

Here’s where your admissions team can experience a backlog if your volume is too high. Voicemails and requests for information can pile up quickly and it may take some extra resources to help get back on track. Using a contact center can help by screening applicants, categorizing requests and handing off qualified leads when appropriate. And when they take the time to get to know the ins and outs of your school’s recruiting process, they can align communications with your brand and handoff prospects to your recruiting team seamlessly, giving you more time to focus on pulling them through the funnel.

Real-time tracking

When you are using resources like automated email and a contact center to engage with your prospects on an ongoing basis, tracking is critical. Not only do you want to monitor communications, but you also want to keep a close eye on what’s performing well so that you can continue to optimize. When you are searching for a contact center to use, just make sure they can help you track communications and integrate with your CRM for real-time data collection.

If you’re looking for resources to improve your customer experience, GPRS can help. Our contact center provides both inbound and outbound coverage for your program inquiries, as well as timely email follow-up. We use state-of-the-art technology with real-time call monitoring and recording capabilities to ensure our team is consistently an extension of yours. And we can enter every communication directly into your existing CRM for seamless handoffs to internal staff at the perfect time. Contact GPRS today to learn more.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | July 31st, 2019

Marketing approaches: Key differences in marketing executive education vs. degree programs

Can you use the same marketing campaign, channels and budget to market your degree programs and executive education? You can, but you may not be thrilled with the results.

The truth is, although both leverage your brand and aim to educate students, these audiences differ quite a bit and so should your approach to communicating with them. Besides the demographics, here are a few key points of differentiation that are important to consider when crafting your marketing strategy for these unique groups.

Cost

Although this seems obvious, when you are asking someone to invest $2,000 in a program vs. $100,000, you can benefit from different messaging strategies. Here’s how you can address the cost difference:

Executive Education: focus on the immediate benefits like sharpened skills, applicable case studies, and resume boosters
Degree Programs: tout the long term benefits like network, strategic vision and upward mobility

Investment of Time

A 2-3 day program or online course takes less planning for than a 1-2 year commitment. Here’s how you can address the time investment difference:

Executive Education: make it easy for them to come to your program, give them enough notice so they can ask their manager for a couple of days to attend a training and emphasize immediate rewards
Degree Programs: address the barriers to their time commitment like family and career and assure them it will pay off in the long-run

Decision Cycle

Because of the cost and time investment, the decision-making process can either be quick or something they consider for up to 5 years. Here’s how you can stay integrated into their decision cycle:

Executive Education: stay top-of-mind, promote your calendar, and offer thought leadership and value-added content throughout the year so that when it’s time for them to act, you’re the first choice
Degree Programs: depending on the program, lead cycle time can vary greatly; be sure to stay in their consideration set with these tips

Motivation

What motivates a working professional to attend a short program may be completely different from the goals of someone considering a degree program. Here’s how you can address different motivation sets.

Executive Education: focus on the immediate need to fill a skill gap and sell the return on investment for the employee and the organization (it is often the talent manager or supervisor helping make the decision)
Degree Programs: emphasize the long-term benefits, career trajectory, network and the return on investment

If you’re looking for more ways to hone in on your strategy for promoting a variety of programs at your school, GPRS can help. Leverage our long-term partnerships with universities in both the degree and executive education spaces to create a solid marketing plan that can address these unique audiences.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | July 12th, 2019

Ways to track your marketing spend, optimize your campaigns and find an ROI for your graduate student recruitment campaigns

One of the biggest questions that universities have about their marketing is related to its effectiveness. How do you know if your marketing spend is making a difference?

If you’re not sure if your recent spike or dip in interest, leads or applicants is related to your advertising, the competition, the economy or something else, you’re not alone. Gauging peaks and valleys and determining the root causes of what’s going on in your funnel can be difficult and often cryptic. Assuming that your marketing campaign is based on a sound strategy and tied to your enrollment goals, the next most important thing you can do related to your spend is to track it carefully so you can use data to optimize your campaigns for greater success.

But what data should you be looking at to gauge ROI? Here are the key metrics that can determine if your efforts are moving the needle.

Digital advertising is measured in 3 key ways (that matter to you): Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Lead (CPL) and Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – or seated student. This translates to: how much did you spend to get someone to click on your ad, convert into a lead, and then turn into a seated student?

In higher ed digital advertising, you often can’t get a true CPA until you have your final seated class. At that point, you can do a match-back process utilizing your reporting dashboard to see how many seated students came from your marketing. But since that may happen at the end of the year, the CPC and CPL are what you should be measuring and optimizing throughout your recruiting season.

Your digital agency will know what is typical by channel (i.e. LinkedIn vs. Facebook vs. retargeting) and can advise you on whether your campaigns are working or need to be adjusted – monthly, weekly or even daily. It is typical to start with a higher CPC which will lower as your campaign becomes more efficient. This often translates to a lower CPL because the people who are clicking on your ads are more qualified leads.

If you take it a step further and use a sophisticated campaign optimization platform that ties in with your CRM and aggregates all of the data in real time, you can get even smarter with your spend. When you can track every program inquiry back to not only a specific marketing campaign, but also to a particular image, message and ad size, you can powerfully optimize your campaigns and match your enrollment data back to your marketing efforts to prove ROI at the end of the year.

If you’re looking for an agency that is well-versed in digital campaign optimizations, GPRS is your partner. Our proprietary lead optimization system, GP Insights^TM, shows your real-time campaign data and can even display industry benchmark data showing how your peers and competition are trending. Give us a call and we’ll be happy to give you a demo.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | June 26th, 2019

Enrollment Marketing: The value of digital strategy from a specialized firm

In most retail or consumer goods businesses, a good digital agency will be successful in helping meet revenue goals. But finding a firm that has experience in education and enrollment marketing is taking it a step further. Higher ed is a definite “niche market” and working with a firm that is both qualified in digital advertising AND has education expertise is key to success.

Here are a few insights on how to select an agency to help you with your enrollment goals.

They’ve been around the block (with a solid and varied education client roster)

You recognize their past clients. You may have even seen some of their recent work. Although digital marketing is all about innovation and new tactics, it’s important to select a firm that’s been doing this for a while. They can spot a good opportunity and weed out the bad ones. They’ve “been there done that” and can share new perspectives in your strategy sessions based on their breadth and depth of knowledge on how to meet enrollment goals.

They can prove their results (think case studies)

When you ask them about past results, they readily respond with client testimonials and proven ROI. The firms that you want to work with to fulfill your enrollment goals have done this for other schools and they’re proud of their results. You might be the next client they use for a case study!

Your peers know about them (and recommend them)

The last time you were at a conference, connecting with your peers from other schools, this firm may have come up in conversation. Nothing speaks more strongly than a recommendation from a peer. It’s likely that if the admissions director or CMO at a peer school is singing their praises, there’s something worth looking into.

They have their roots in education (although they may serve other industries)

Starting with retail or consumer goods and then backing into education is very different than originating in the higher ed space. You don’t want to be the guinea pig. Chances are, if they haven’t had an education client before, or have only worked with one or two, you’ll be paying heavily for their learning curve. Instead, look for a firm that has a strong background in your space and understands the sales funnel for prospective students. This is especially true with the specialized niche of graduate programs.

If you’re looking for an agency that has all 4 of the criteria listed above, GPRS is your ideal partner. Give us a call and we’ll be happy to share those case studies with you.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | June 12th, 2019

Navigating the Generational Divide: Communicating to Prospects

Baby boomers. Gen X. Millennials. Each generation has different value sets, core motivations and media consumption habits. Make the most of your communications to each group, and bridge the gap with some universal messaging that applies to all.

Millennials are in the work force and Boomers are slowly starting to transition out of the professional landscape. You’ve been inundated with information about how these groups consume information. But how do you handle communications when you’re marketing a program that may include more than one generation?

Universal Messaging

Marketers can go crazy trying to integrate the buzz words that are important to different market segments. Make sure you don’t offend anyone. Use the right mix of humor. Try to include data that is relevant to a certain career stage, or you’ll lose them. If your head is spinning, wondering how you can stay relevant, consider this – there are some universal messages in education that cut through any generational divide. Those are:

Value – Who wants to pay more than something is worth?
Return on investment – Most people are looking for a payoff on the time and money they’ve spent.
Personal connections – We are all human. Relationships matter. Make sure your prospects know you care and are available to help them.
Flexibility – Regardless of career or life stage, we can all use a little more time and control over our schedule to focus on things that are important to us.

Communication Tracks

In a recent blog, we discussed using segmentation to bucket your communication strategies. One way to do this is to segment by age group. For emails, if you have birthdate or years of work experience, you might be able to use that knowledge to craft different messages aimed at core motivations. For advertising and social media, you can depend on certain channels. Check out this infographic showing media consumption habits across generations.

Event Strategy

Wondering why your Preview Day attendance has dropped? Thinking about trying a webinar for the first time? Are you open to testing new types of events? What worked 10 years ago to market an Executive MBA program at a 3 hour event on a Saturday may not yield the same response today. Why? Because when you were marketing your program 10 years ago it was to Boomers who may have been amenable to that type of event. But now, you’re marketing to GenX and even some ambitious Millennials. They don’t have the time to attend this event, although they would attend class if they were accepted to the program. These generations are less likely to invest time in something that is not a sure thing.

Bottom line: Innovation can work in your favor. Try a webinar or a coffee chat. Hold an info session at a restaurant near a business park. You can still keep your favorite events, but it can’t hurt to add new ones to the mix.

Marketing Materials

Have you checked out your competition online recently? You may be surprised at what materials they are offering to prospective students. In an age where the website is king, even supplemental information is shifting. Standard brochures are morphing into videos and blogs. Photo albums are now social feeds.

If you’re looking for ways to innovate to connect with your target, we can help. Get tips to engage prospects on their terms so you can get the most from your communications strategies. Contact GPRS.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | June 11th, 2019

Pattern matching: The 10 most important marketing and recruiting insights derived from working across 120 graduate business programs

Eighteen years and more than 120 different graduate business programs.

Do we have your attention?

Our first-hand experiences have unearthed a treasure of insights. And, here’s a unique opportunity for you to take a peek inside. Join Graduate Program Recruitment Solutions (GPRS) President of University Partnerships, Anthony Campisi, at the 2019 GMAC Annual Conference as he gives you a rare look at how to enable your graduate programs to thrive, even during challenging times.

From June 19-21 in Denver, CO, hundreds of industry professionals will converge to share ideas, trends and best practices at the Graduate Management Admissions Council’s 2019 Annual Conference. Complete your stay in the mile-high city with Anthony on Friday, June 21st, from 8:30am – 9:45am, as he presents insights developed working with top graduate programs.

Session Title:

Pattern Matching: The 10 Most Important Marketing and Recruiting Insights Derived from Working across 120 Graduate Business Programs

Session Description:

In this session you will have the unique opportunity to explore the top 10 marketing and recruiting trends that have led to enrollment success across more than 120 different graduate business programs, including MBA, EMBA, Working Professionals, Specialty Masters and Online programs.

Patterns that have emerged time and time again, leading to increased program inquiries, diversification in applicant pool and higher matriculation yield rates.

You will learn:

• What type of content encourages more women to apply to graduate programs
• How many form fields is the sweet spot for an information request form
• You may be closer to an enrollment with your older leads than you are with your newer ones
• To tone down your “calls to action”
• The truth about which geographies online programs are most successful in
• Who your biggest competitor is – spoiler alert – it’s none of the schools you think!

Expect to leave this session with insights that will exponentially increase your market penetration.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | May 29th, 2019

Maximizing CRM: Unique communications tracks, content and frequency

Customer Relationship Management. There are platforms designed around this idea, but even if you don’t have a formal platform, but rather a process, every B-school can benefit from a communications map to keep leads and prospects engaged.

Find out how you can manage your relationships with prospective students using different communications tracks, content and frequency.

Communications Tracks

Once a lead enters into your system, you’ve likely obtained some key information that will help you tailor the messages you send them. Or, if they entered in through a short info request form, you can always follow up to find out more about them. These demographics can be considered as you segment your messaging:

Gender
Geographic location
Specialty groups: military, healthcare, etc.
Program of interest
Entry year
Title
Industry
Age

When you know any or all of these aspects of a person’s background, you can assign them into a “track” within your communications map that is in addition to the general communications track that everyone receives. For example, if you are located in Michigan and you’re offering information sessions in Ohio, it probably makes sense to tell prospects from Ohio that you’ll be in their area with a personal message. Or, if you are offering a military scholarship, consider sending out a separate communications flow to the military applicants in your pool. In addition, you can further segment messaging based on industries like healthcare or IT to communicate the benefits of your program.

Content Variation

Not everyone responds the same to the same message. Just as we discussed above, you have a melting pot of people in your funnel and they are all looking for different things. Once you’ve determined your communications tracks, you can decide on the content. For the general communications track that everyone receives, you can use program features & benefits, ROI and admissions criteria & events. Once you start digging into your segmentation, try to focus on the core motivations of each sub-group. Here are some examples:

For gender-tailored content, consider:
- Women: climb the corporate ladder, flexibility, lead with confidence, advance your pay scale, collaborative environment that values your talents
- Men: prepare yourself for leadership, powerfully elevate your career, make an impact, become a dealmaker, reposition your career, solidify your advancement
For age differences, consider:
- Millennials: be transparent, get to the point, focus on their goals and community
- Gen X: include data, emphasize results, stay away from clichés
- Boomers: try clever humor, focus on how you can make their lives better
For industry ideas, consider messaging targeted at how your program can impact those in these fields/stages of career:
- Healthcare
- Entrepreneurs
- Executives vs. career launchers
- IT
- Strategy
- Marketing
- Finance

The goal here is to focus on what motivates these segments and fine-tune your messaging to connect with them.

Frequency

While some prospects are hyper-engaged and ready to act right now, there are others who are just starting their search and want to “browse.” So how do you strike the balance of giving everyone what they need, when they need it, but not turning them off? The answer is a structured plan. Even for the hottest prospects, you want to be sure you’re not coming on too strong.

For all prospects, consider an email campaign, or a communications map that is auto-triggered to send messages every 10 days (following lead entrance into the system). For the active leads, you can layer on a calling or text campaign. In addition, you may consider mailings, i.e. sending your brochure, a postcard with events (although these may be hard to track). Also, don’t discount the power of social media. This is a great supplement to the communications you’re sending because the prospects can consume this information on their terms, giving them the feeling of control. If they are following you, it is likely that they are seeing what you’re posting every 1-3 days. Be sure to vary your content, and also be aware of what you’re posting on social to reduce duplication.

By mapping out your communications, considering your audience’s motivations and varying your frequency, you can find ways to connect with your prospects on their terms.

Find out more about how to engage prospects with email nurture campaigns through your CRM platform. Contact GPRS.