Depending on what environment you are recruiting from, you should establish a very good relationship with the individuals who have the most contact with your target audience.

In an undergraduate environment, the guidance counselor is usually the gate keeper for information. Some counselors take the extra step to inform their student charges on the next step in their education after high school. That’s fantasy land. Most are overworked with too many students too keep up with in a thousand lifetimes.

If you are in a graduate environment, your target audience is specific advisors or faculty members at undergraduate institutions. Some schools have dedicated advisors, but often times these duties for advising students on their graduate school options is relegated to a faculty member already saddled with classroom and research priorities.

How can you drive through the clutter and get to the top of their list? Several ways:

Gifts
I don’t mean lavish these overworked advisors with gold jewelry and chocolates (although I know they would appreciate it if you did). A simple acceptable gift may be a nice coffee mug, clock or a pen. Something that is useful, not just something that will be thrown in the corner and forgotten about. Of course, you have to make sure you are not violating any law by giving a gift, but I’ve never run into that problem throughout my career.

Regular Contact
It is imperative to contact these gatekeepers often and establish a rapport with as many as possible. Take them out to lunch if possible or bring along a small snack when you show up for a meeting. Low cost can go a long way.

Open House
Invite these individuals to your campus. If they touch, taste and feel your campus, they are more likely to recommend your school (as long as you present yourself well!) Many schools offer this option and will pay some or all of the travel expense. Get this into your budget.

Find out their interests
Sales 101 is to find out the interests of your contact and find some common ground. It could be something very small. If you notice that this person has an interest in fishing, send over articles of interest on the subject every once in a while. Use your imagination and be observant.

Communicate with specific faculty
Unless a school has a policy not to contact the faculty, it is a great opportunity to make these individuals as you ally. At a former institution, we had dozens of articulation agreements around the country and in 95% of those we were able to briefly speak to classes. We were having difficulty in getting into classes with one or our partner institutions and I suggested to my recruiters that we nicely go around the gatekeeper and communicate directly to the faculty. They indicated that the faculty had no interest in having anyone speak in their classes, even for 5 minutes. One of the faculty members the recruiter contacted indicated that it was his birthday on the day she was to visit. She made sure he had something sweet for his birthday (complete with a candle). Do you think she got into his class? You bet.

Hand written notes
If you meet someone or have a great conversation with him or her on the phone, send a nice hand written note. Does it take longer? Yes. Is it effective? You better believe it. How do you react when you receive a hand written note? It’s nice to see it when someone takes the initiative to physically write out a note. Take the time and reap the rewards.

You want to endear yourself to the advisor, guidance counselor, faculty member, or other gatekeeper. Not in a deceptive way, but in a friendly way. Long-term success with a particular school often hinges on your relationship with the main influencer. Don’t neglect this part of the process.

Probably the biggest pet peeve I have is a confusing brochure design. Yes, I have produced inadequate pieces in the distant past, but learned from my mistakes. Proper brochure design can come from many areas: other schools, a designer, past designs, etc. The key is to ensure the layout makes sense and produces the message you are interested in conveying.

Whether you have an in-house designer or contract this work to outside individuals, you need to drive the bus on the design and layout. Not good at this part? Then you need to get good at it or ask for help from a trusted colleague or professional. The Admissions office is the purveyor of the institutional message and that image might dictate whether a student comes to your institution or not.

Develop a Clear Message
If the student can’t figure out what you are trying to tell them, the time and effort has been wasted along with the money it took to attract that student. Identify what you want the student to do or learn and work backwards. Don’t assume the student will get the point.

Don’t Put Too Much in the Piece
You cannot say everything about your program in one brochure or marketing piece. It is impossible to cover it all unless you have a very small or specialized program, and even then it is near impossible. Try to say what you have to say in a three to four page brochure. If you said everything, that would be called a catalog and we all know how interesting the college catalog is!

Test the Design
Make sure you enlist the help of your current students or student workers to give you an honest assessment of the design. You are already paying student workers and they are the best target audience to assess your marketing. Don’t neglect this step and make sure they know you want an honest assessment of the piece. What does it say to them? Would they inquire for information based on this brochure or marketing piece? Does it cover the questions they might have? The key is to fix any ambiguities or problems before you go to press. Saves a lot of time and money.

Remember, your marketing pieces are just that – marketing. They are meant to move the student to take the next step. This could be an inquiry or an applicant. Either way, you want the student to follow logical steps guiding them to your institution as a matriculant. Use your website to convey the entire message, let the brochure do the directing.

I read an article in the Chronicle last week entitled, “For Courting Students, Glossy Viewbooks Lose Luster.” There is a lot of wisdom in this statement as many progressive enrollment professionals have thought and said the same thing.

The college viewbook has needed an overhaul for years, but I’m not convinced that it needs be scrapped all together – just tweaked. Department heads and other administrators always want their program(s) to be featured, or at least mentioned, in the viewbook. This situation has created some monstrous publications that are expensive to create, print and mail. There is a better way.

The viewbook can be scaled back to the bare bones. An institution can use the money devoted to the former publication in a much more economical and efficient manner. By creating a small general viewbook, targeted publications based on program interest, and companion email messages; an institution can spread out its message. If the enrollment office goes through the whole budget on one publication, there is only one shot to impress the potential student. If the message is spread out over several months with more economical pieces, there is a better chance to cut through the clutter of competing schools. Repetition will breed familiarity and familiarity will lead to…viola’…. more applications.

Don’t forget the electronic component when designing your strategy! It costs very little to publish content on the school website and the mailing cost is removed. Use the tools you already have in place to further your message.

The Admissions Guy can evaluate your publications to target the right students within your current budget. Contact us today for a FREE one-hour evaluation of your current communications plan.

A recent tradition at the University of Pennsylvania is the “Likely Letter.” This is a great way to invite a specific group of applicants to join the ranks of all other incoming freshmen. I absolutely love it.

From the Daily Pennsylvanian:

In particular, the Office of Admissions focused its likely campaign this year on students who expressed an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as those with an interest in the arts.

“We’re going after some of the top academic students, and within that, we’re making it more refined going after some subject areas and some geographic areas,” Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said.

Take a look at the video each of the 230 students on the class of 2016 “Likely” list received:

Even though a very small group of students received this invitation, thousands more have viewed the video and read the stories about this program. I believe this option has vaulted Penn to an even more elite crowd. Good work Dean Furda and the rest of the Penn Admissions staff.

What do you think? Does your school have a cool and innovative idea? Drop us a note or make a comment below. If it’s interesting, we’ll write about your program. We learn more from each other.

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton

When your recruiters fan out to high schools, colleges or other prospective student events, how do they present themselves? What does the display look like? Is it inviting to the prospective student?

The representative must be engaging and gregarious, but do the marketing materials tell your whole story? I have modified a recent blog post from Skyline Displays to relate to enrollment managers.

Backgrounds are important: The backdrop, display, or table-top piece should give the student a great idea of your brand image and message. It should tell your story in a quick, concise way. Kind of like a billboard.

Choose words wisely: The recruiter should have a standard story that will stay consistent across the spectrum of students. As one of my favorite coaches used to day, “Practice Makes Permanent.”

Image: Do your recruiters wear the school colors at events or do they wear professional attire? This has to be audience specific. The undergraduate market is much less impressed with attire than is the professional or graduate school prospective student. When I worked in the professional school environment I wore a tie and a jacket. This was to project a certain image of the institution. This strategy would not have worked in the undergraduate area.

Venue: Ask yourself – is this event going to further our cause and help us reach our enrollment goals? Sometimes this is a little hard to track, but if you are expanding your image, making the right connections or planning for the future, then it is probably a good investment. If not, you might want to skip it and concentrate your efforts someplace else.

Sound bites: Your recruiters should have a set script that they say to students when they first meet them. A quick short sentence should be enough to convey your story. Sound bites work for the politicians, they will work for your institution.

Enthusiasm: The representatives of the institution must be enthusiastic from start to finish. It is difficult to do this when you’ve been talking and shaking hands with people for 5 hours, but that last person is as important as the first. I have actually gained several students for my institutions by simply staying around until the end of the event when most of my competition had already called it day. Each matriculated student meant about $75,000 in tuition. Do you think the extra 30 minutes was worth it?

Staying power: Your representatives must keep telling the story, even after they are tired of saying the same thing over and over and over. Repetition is the key to learning. My new recruiters used to think I was crazy when I told them that I practiced my speech at least twice before talking to a student group. I had given that talk at least a couple hundred times, but I always wanted everything to come out with little effort and as genuine as possible. Reading from PowerPoint slides or from a script is boring. Make sure your representatives captivate their audience.

The key to a great visit is training, training, and more training. Admissions personnel should constantly be assessed – not just at the yearly staff evaluation. Your recruiters are your sales force. Give them the tools necessary to do their job.

Is customer service dead? We have all had bad experiences with call centers and unknowledgeable sales people. Simply go into any major department store chain and ask about a product. The blank stare from the employee will tell you the whole story.

I bought a new iMac this week and wanted to connect my stand-alone monitor to the new system. (It is much easier to work on multiple projects with one or two extra monitors connected to the computer.) I found that I needed a special adapter to make all my dreams come true. Like most of us, I did a Google search for the product, found the best price, and made the purchase. I didn’t expect what I received next.

A couple hours after I made my purchase, I received a call. The gentlemen on the other end of the phone indicated he was from the company I ordered the part from and just wanted to verify my order and make an introduction. He indicated that his company handles every order personally to make sure of accuracy of the order, address, etc. I had no idea any company actually did that in this day and age. I had a nice conversation with the associate and hung up with a smile on my face.

What can enrollment professionals learn from this experience? Are you providing great service to your clients (potential students)? Are you really?

During my career we always surveyed incoming students on a variety of factors, but the questions all led back to why they chose the school. Always in the top three was the excellent customer service they were given by my recruiters and advisors. Don’t discount that relationship between your staff and the student – it will put you over the top and make a huge difference.

BTW – the name of the company I referenced is Sweetwater. (Make sure to ask for Alan Finkbeiner if you call.) I will be a regular customer.

One of my favorite bloggers is Jeff Bullas. I like the links and the information he presents. Below is a discussion about Strategies To Make Your Website an Inbound Online Marketing Machine. I liked the list so much I decided to post this nearly intact, but I did edit the article for space. You can see the entire article here.

1. Be Yourself (Authentic)
We are all unique and different and your company needs to display that.

2. Be The Thought Leader and Teacher
• Do not sell, but engage (trying to sell just turns prospective clients away)
• Provide online tutorials and how to’s.
• Stop the corporate speak and gobbledygook and provide content in a variety of ways because everyone learns in different ways. Educational theory shows that some people are visual, others are verbal and others are kinesthetic and a multiple variety of stimulus reinforces learning and recall, so provide the same content in a variety of ways such as
o Text
o Video
o Presentations
o Podcasts
o Webinars
o Slideshows

3. Plan and Write Content for the Markets You Are Targeting
Every business has different market segments within their client base and they all have their own issues and problems and pain points that you need to provide answers to. So when you are developing content for your website or blog you need to consider writing content that addresses each customer persona.
• Who are you selling to?
• What are their goals and aspirations?
• What are their problems?
Some companies even develop and maintain multiple blogs that provides content for thirteen different segments or styles.

4. Have a Great Headline For Your Content
Did you know that on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest? This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece. Here are some headline types and examples:

• Get What You Want (In Health, Wealth, Relationships, Time and Lifestyle) eg.. The Secret To Getting More Money For Your Property !
• Crystal Ball and History eg.. 10 Predictions on the Future of Social Media
• Problems and Fears eg … Get Rid of Your Debt Once and For All
• Fact, Fiction, Truth and Lies example.. Little Known Ways To Make Money On The Stock Exchange
• How To, Tricks Of The Trade. such as.. How To Plan The Ultimate Holiday
• Best and Worst eg The 10 Worst Mistakes Made by Bloggers

5. Amplify Your Message through Social Media
The Top 5 Social Media channels to consider using depending on your target markets are
• Facebook (80%),
• Twitter (66%),
• YouTube (55%),
• LinkedIn (49%) and
• Blogs (43%).
Also consider using multiple social media channels as it amplifies your message and gives it the best chance to go viral.

6. Build Your Subscriber List RSS for Your Blog, Email and for your e-Newsletter
Offer a variety of ways for people to subscribe at different locations on your website and blog such as at the top, the bottom and on the side panel (make it as easy as possible)

7. Search Engine Optimization
It boils down to this: If people think you’re important, so will Google. This perplexes many webmasters and online marketers, since they wonder how people will consider them important when people use search engines to find things online in the first place. How are you important if you’re invisible in the search engines to start with?

And how does Google know people think you’re important any¬way? For one, they know because people link to you, and Google fol¬lows those links to index and rank web pages. And thanks to services such as
• Google Toolbar
• Google Analytics
• Feedburner
• Google Reader

Gmail and other applications that keep you logged-in to your Google account
Google has an enormous amount of usage data that shows what people actually spend time doing online. So, there’s that. But how do you kick it off?
To get people to link to you and generally pay attention in the first place, you have to start thinking about authority in a different sense.

8: Have The Website and Blog developed with well-written code

Use a developer that does the basics well for your Website and blog
Website:
Two aspects to consider On-site and Off-site Optimization

On-Site Optimization.
This where they research and investigate your existing website design, build and content and recommend changes to elements such as
Keywords and Phrases
Meta Descriptions
Keywords added as Metadata,
Search Engine friendly URL’s
Title to contain keywords
Restructuring website content
Make text more readable and user friendly on website
Offer different media formats
Clean coding structure optimized for search engine crawlers

Off-Site Optimization
This is where we research and recommend activities to improve Google search that are not dependent on your existing website but strategies that can be undertaken to improve search engines ranking of the company’s website.
This can be achieved through
• Link Building
• Blog commenting
• Press Releases
• Forums
• Directory Submissions
• Article submissions
• Interacting with Social Media Channels such as
o YouTube
o Facebook
o LinkedIn
o Twitter
o Blog
• Engaging Bloggers
• Developing content for your various target market “personas” such as for example for a non profit site
o Students and Researchers at Universities
o NGO’s (such as World Bank and United Nations)
o Business and Business Leaders
o Foundations

Blog
You’ll hear time and again that WordPress is the best way to build a site and that it’s extremely SEO friendly. The Thesis framework for Word¬Press is worth considering, even Google’s own Matt Cutts, search legend Danny Sullivan, and some of the top SEOs and profession¬al bloggers around use Thesis for their own sites.

9. Design Your Website To Enhance Your Brand and Authority
If you want to look professional then the website has to give your brand an image that can in a lot of cases make you look bigger than your competitors because they are sloppy with their website design. Do not overlook this.

10. Nourish Your Tribe
Once you have started providing information that solves your customers and subscribers needs, continue to develop and your grow your content so that they want to keep coming back again and again.
So could your business do with a bit of digital optimizing of your inbound marketing so you don’t have to cold call again? Looking forward to hearing your story.

I would encourage you to subscribe to Jeff’s Twitter updates and blog posts. I will warn you, he does tweet a ton, but most of the links are great for the enrollment professional.

How are your reps doing with potential students? Do they express genuine interest or do they seem disengaged? Are they doing all they can to cultivate a relationship with the student?

I managed a recruiting staff for over a decade and always hoped that my recruiters were properly interacting with students. Fortunately, I had several seasoned reps that were correctly trained before heading out on the road and constantly evaluated. Did I really know they were doing their job? No.

I have always been a hands-on manager and loved heading into the field and interacting with students. In my travels to graduate fairs and other events, I witnessed extreme antisocial behavior from recruiters representing other schools. I was always appalled, but not surprised. In my files I have pictures of these reps reading books, checking phone messages, and basically putting forth a bad image of the institution. A future post may include a sample of these pictures.

A company called Skyline Exhibits, produces continual blog posts about a variety of issues. Many of the posts are very trade show oriented, but some of the concepts are relevant to the higher education professional. I have included a snippet of their latest post below.

1. Use Eye Contact to Initiate a Conversation:
Check out a previous post on the Power of Eye Contact. Making solid eye contact and simply initiating contact with an attendee is the first step. Use engaging phrases, or “pick-up lines.” A favorite one? “Hi.” Just as simple as that!
In case that’s not your style, here are a few more:
“So what brings you to the show?”
“Are you looking for anything specific here at the show?”
If they are noticing something specific about your trade show exhibit, ask “What do you think about product X or product Y?”

2. Engage and Qualify Them:
Now that you have their attention you need to pique their interest and qualify them as a potential lead. This means asking a few questions and getting them to provide as much information as possible. You might not be able to spend a lot of time with this person so you want to make sure that if you or someone else follows up with them after the show, they will have all of the information that they need. Ask them if they have tried your product or know your company. Ask them what they thought of the current product or service they are using — what do they like or dislike about it? Take a lot of clear notes, as this is valuable information that will help you reestablish the connection that you’ve created during the follow up.

3. Exchange information and Determine a Next Step:
Now that you have engaged and qualified them, determine what the next step is and make sure you both know what that is going to be. Get their contact information so you don’t leave it up to them to follow up. Think of it this way: they are the bombshell that is getting approached by every guy in the bar. Chances are, they just might not remember you. Don’t take it personally though – they will be talking to a lot of people over the course of the show. If you will personally be following up with them after the show, give them your contact information. If someone else will be doing the follow up, let the attendee know you will be passing along all of the information you have and they will be contacted by someone else soon.

These points can be easily modified to fit your program. Make sure your reps are doing everything possible during the campus visits. It’s too expensive to leave it all to chance.

I am always looking for great marketing tools for little or no money. A college friend of mine is CEO of Leave Your Mark Marketing Solutions and always seems to find the coolest tools to use. He developed a presentation for his company using an online service called Prezi. Take a look at the video below.

This entire video was done using the Prezi software. The music was purchased from a royalty free site, but this is a very minimal cost.

I’m sure I’m speaking for many of my readers that many of us are bored with the typical presentation. Powerpoint is a great tool to use, but if you want to up the stakes, the Prezi online software is a great alternative. The best part – they have a version which is free for those educators and students possessing a .edu email address. How cool is that?

I look at this as a great tool to present ideas in a new and exciting format. (i.e. Look for an upcoming video from The Admissions Guy using this software.) Imagine throwing this on your website or using it in a classroom or group presentation. What an impact you will have and you will be apart from your competition. There is a slight learning curve, but how can you argue with those results?

I just wish I were receiving compensation from Prezi for this endorsement!

When Facebook started their Fan Pages, I knew the institution I worked for needed a presence. We already had a group page, but this was not as slick as the Fan Page. This created a more polished look.

The institution was going through some management changes and I had to present the idea directly to the President. I found out very quickly that he did not understand the technology and shunned the new idea. It took at least 8-months and a ton of discussion to gain permission to establish the page. I never really understood the reluctance to pull the trigger, but I ran across an article from Jeff Bullas, “28 Reasons Why The CEO Is Afraid Of Social Media.” In the article, Jeff lists the reasons that high level administrators are reluctant to dive into social media:

- It is detrimental to employee productivity
- It could damage the company’s reputation
- Security risk
- Fear of the unknown
- We already have information overload
- Don’t know enough about it
- So much of what’s discussed online is shallow and we have real work to do
- We don’t have the time or resources to contribute and moderate
- Our customers don’t use it
- Traditional media is still bigger, we will use Social Media when it is more mainstream
- It doesn’t fit into current structures
- No guaranteed results
- The tools to measure and analyze Social Media aren’t mature enough yet
- We are in B2B and who wants to hear about our boring product on a blog or twitter
- We will lose control of our brand and image
- Upper management won’t provide support
- Waiting on ROI (return on investment) with facts and figures
- We are afraid of making a mistake
- Lack of experience
- Ignorance
- Unwilling to be transparent
- Confusion
- No money
- No expertise
- Lack of leadership
- Terrified of feedback and truth
- The “newness” of it, going to wait.
- High degree of skepticism

I believe this list covers most of the push back I’ve received over the years. While I haven’t heard every excuse on this list, I’ve heard most of them at one point or another.

I am really interested in what all my readers think on this issue. What kind of excuses have you received from those at a higher pay grade than yourself regarding the use of social media? How did you handle the excuse?

Is this simply a matter of the older generation not understanding new technology or is there something else a brew here? What say you?