Higher Education Marketing Firm

The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that five BU students were found in the basement of a house in Allston occupied by members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. The students, all men, were taped together, clad only in underwear and covered in condiments like fish sauce, hot sauce and mustard as part of, police believe, a hazing ritual.  

For college basketball fans, this weekend is the Final Four, the culmination of March Madness. This is a sporting event that involves the 68 best college basketball teams playing each other in a single-elimination format that generates a lot of passion and exciting games. Fans travel the country following their favorite school as teams are eliminated until the Final Four teams and ultimately one champion is left. The common theme of this event is "survive and advance" to the next round; this survivor mentality makes the entire month a very tense time for players, coaches and fans alike.

Fortunately your own marketing strategy does not have to be so tense; we have many chances to establish a successful marketing program. Unlike the March Madness tournament, marketing is not a "one and done" exercise; when one marketing strategy "loses," you don't go home, but you get the opportunity to try something else.

Today's business owner has many option when it comes to both managing and marketing their business. Whatever the business you are in, many vendors specialize in those fields and finding a compatible business partner can help a business in many ways.

Colleges are able to hire a higher education marketing firm. Large companies are able to hire outside help for business process outsourcing solutions. Non-profit companies are able to partner with a post card mailing service. These are all ways that the business owner -- small or large -- can utilize to maximize their company's ROI.

The Allied Group works with their clients to help them understand what they need. We work to assess your situation and offer a solution to help you meet your needs. We understand that marketing and business management is not a "one and done" deal so take advantage of the options that are available to you.

So if you are watching the Final Four this weekend and are feeling the intensity of the "loser goes home" mentality, take comfort that your marketing and business plan is not "one and done" so you can utilize various methods to get to your goals.

Enjoy the games this weekend!

Admissions officials are often reminded of advantages that higher education can bring to students. These unquestionably include substantially higher lifetime earnings, ability to think critically and a broadened outlook. But research shows that the college experience can have an impact that neither students nor parents anticipate. It’s important for administrators, faculty and admissions officials to understand this effect, since they want to truly help those they educate.

Learning more than academics

A point observed by many is backed by science. Social psychologist and textbook author Dr. David Myers writes, “The teens and early twenties are important formative years (Krosnick & Alwin, 1989).  Attitudes are changeable during that time and the attitudes formed then tend to stabilize through middle adulthood.” Research beside that quoted here by Dr. Myers bears this out. For although some adults clearly change their opinions and beliefs, convictions formed during the college years have proved remarkably resilient.

Researcher James Davis (2004) combed through the National Opinion Research Center archives and found, for instance, that Americans who reached age 16 during the 1960s became more politically liberal than average and maintained that view for many years. 

This validates a groundbreaking study conducted with students from Bennington College. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Bennington students were primarily women from wealthier, more conservative families. The young professors who taught them leaned toward leftist political views. Their influence was strong and its effects long-lasting. Bennington women became much more liberal than others from the same social background. Some fifty years later, in the 1984 presidential election, Bennington alumnae in their 70s voted Democratic by a 3 to 1 margin while the same percentage of college educated women in that age group voted Republican. Dr. Myers noted, “Their views embraced at an impressionable time had survived a lifetime of wider experience.”

This highlights the power the college experience has to impact young people, perhaps for the rest of their lives. As often noted, this learning is not done in the classroom alone. Roommates, fraternity/sorority members and others can exert considerable influence as well, as illustrated by research conducted at Columbia University. It asked subjects, alone in a darkened room, to estimate how much a pinpoint of light moved.  This was an optical illusion – natural movement of their eyes made the stationary light appear to shift. 

Understandably, estimates varied widely - until researcher Muzafer Sherif put subjects in groups and asked them to look again. Participants were surprised that their companions’ assessments were so different than theirs.  But soon each group reached a middle-of-the-road compromise. When invited back a year later, each group member estimated the light’s movement by themselves, but still stuck to the group’s viewpoint. As eminent social psychologist Dr. Elliot Aronson put it, “These results suggest that people were relying on each other to define reality and came to privately accept the group estimate.”

Thus, students who come to campus for a degree in nursing, business or engineering may receive an education they didn’t expect. We ourselves may find that some of our views still reflect opinions expressed by professors and college friends. Said Dr. Myers, “Young people might therefore be advised to choose their social influences - the groups they join, the media they imbibe, the roles they adopt – carefully.” This research also highlights the serious responsibility institutions have toward undergraduate students. The entire college experience will mold their thinking. Do they realize that? Will all the features of that mold truly benefit them? 

The Allied Group is a higher education marketing firm offering Search, Conversion and Yield Programs to the admissions community.

Research shows that time-pressed Millennial hs students prefer well-known brands. What chance do worthy but lesser-known colleges have to compete? Consider:
 
While researching ways to increase inquiries last spring, I found myself in a parking lot packed with hs students at the NACAC College Fair in Boston and decided to hold an impromptu focus group. To my amazement, the juniors I spoke with already had already put together their short lists and planned on talking with just 3-5 institutions at the Fair. I asked if there was anything a college that wasn’t on their list could do to gain consideration. They gave two answers: 

• Give away free stuff (NACAC wouldn’t be thrilled with that!)
• Make an impressive presentation

This experience reinforced two important points. First, it showed the wisdom of a recommendation made in a Search Expert presentation at NEACAC this year:  “Starting early is key.” As Strauss and Howe point out, Millennials are big brand shoppers. Research shows that people who are pressed for time look for shortcuts, and a strong brand provides an easy one. Therefore, it’s crucial that students learn about your institution very early in the process. And if your college is not in the news regularly, it’s clear that you’ll need to do some good PR work with freshmen and then search sophomores if you’re going to make many short lists.

Students may have learned this approach from their parents. Internationally respected research firm Global Reviews conducted a marketing study on people buying insurance on the Internet. It showed that, just like prospective freshmen, those who buy insurance online often start their search with a preferred list of providers in mind. But a full 35% of those who did ended up buying their insurance from a firm that was not on that list.

What made the difference? Global Reviews CEO Greg Muller stated our second key point: “Strong brand awareness can get people to your website, but a better customer experience from a lesser known brand can often win out.” College websites are often well-designed, but actual experience shows that sites that get the right kind of commitments from visitors generate more applications and higher yield rates.  In addition, one state institution broke the mold at the Boston NACAC College Fair, displaying videos in their double-size booth. Their VP of Enrollment reported that her inquiry level for that fair was the best yet.

When students approach your website or your booth, the better experience they have, the more likely they are to investigate further. And when they do, the enjoyable encounter they have may help your institution leapfrog the big brand universities and enroll students who had hardly heard of you when they began their college search.

The Allied Group is an award-winning marketing communications company offering personalized direct marketing, publications/web design and full service fulfillment to higher education institutions.

Although the economists have declared that the Great Recession is over, both admissions officials and higher education marketing firms are aware of the continuing need to strengthen their efforts to yield accepted students. Demographic shifts have reduced the population of students who can afford to foot the bill for their education.   Incoming freshman classes will increasingly be made up of those who can least afford tuition. It will become all the more important for institutions to enroll a higher percentage of those who can afford to pay. Besides “full payers,” colleges have other demographic groups they have targeted, like high-achieving students of color and other well qualified prospective freshmen with lower incomes. Institutional requirements demand a strong yield rate.

Marketing Communication Strategies that Improve Yield

Institutions can often improve their yield rates by using a combination of psychology, technology and good marketing communication campaign design. One to one communication in the form of customized, personalized pieces sent by direct mail has proven to be particularly effective in increasing yield rates. It helps colleges avoid wasting the good marketing efforts they’ve executed higher in the admissions recruitment funnel. During the admissions cycle, many institutions have done an excellent job in giving prospective freshmen the information they need to make wise college choices. This is a good strategy for both yield and retention. 

Research has consistently proven that decisions based on careful consideration of the facts are considerably stronger and longer-lasting than decisions made emotionally, like attending a particular college to maintain family tradition or because high school friends will enroll there. As eminent social psychologist Dr. Elliot Aronson summed up the research, “people who base their attitudes on a careful analysis of the arguments are more likely to maintain this attitude over time, more likely to behave consistently with this attitude and more resistant to counter-persuasion than people who base their attitude on peripheral cues.”

Prospects who have taken the time to consider the facts, perhaps even visiting the college have found things that they liked – otherwise they would probably not have applied. Reminding these students of what attracted them to the institution in the first place has had a highly positive effect on yield rates. Two institutions – the University of Hartford and Southern New Hampshire University experienced double-digit deposit rate increases after sending accepted students One to One personalized yield publications that directly spoke to what was most important to them in their college choice. If you’d like to read the case study, When Yield is a Problem it’s Time to Get Personal, please email me at lrondeau@thealliedgrp.com and I’ll send you a copy.

Another strategy caused one university to see a dramatic increase in the yield rate of students taking part in a yield marketing test. The institution employed a tactic that had previously helped Proctor & Gamble enjoy their most successful new product launch in history. You can read about it in “Gaining an Edge in College Admissions Yield – Part Two.” Stay tuned.

Admissions officers and higher education marketing firms know that it’s very hard to encourage a student to inquire or apply if he/she won’t even read your Search letter or email. Student Search is one of the most critical aspects of higher education marketing.   As the recession pushes down admissions yield rates, having a sufficient number of inquiries and applications becomes even more important. 

Searching Overburdened Students

Marketing to prospective college students is becoming ever more challenging. As Strauss and Howe’s research revealed, the Millennial generation is one of the most stressed-out generations in history. Students feel understandable pressure to get good grades and take part in a myriad of extracurricular activities. When the Search season begins, most prospective college students will be buried under an avalanche of Search letters. Many will look very similar. And the student’s electronic inbox will resemble their mailbox; it will be totally clogged with admissions Search email messages. Which messages will they read and what will encourage them to respond?

This will be no problem for institutions with a great brand. A Search letter from Harvard, Princeton or Yale will certainly by opened – it may be framed. But there are many high quality but less famous institutions that could be a perfect fit for individual students. Due to time pressures, many of their letters and emails will go unopened by both students and parents. What’s an admissions marketing staff to do?

Research to the Rescue

Research can come to the rescue. Both marketers and psychologists have conducted controlled scientific studies to uncover what makes busy people, particularly teenagers respond. Social psychology research is particularly helpful here – most of its research subjects are college students. Whether your college’s admissions department sends emails, or letter/post card mailings, what are some factors that research shows can help get your admissions marketing communication noticed?

Aside from strong branding, perhaps the most important is personal relevance. A key study cited by eminent social psychologist and author Elliot Aronson, PhD found that college students carefully evaluated information only if they found it personally relevant (Petty, Cacioppo & Goldman). It will often take a lot of careful evaluation for a student to decide to enroll at your institution. Sending a personally relevant Search piece is a good start. 

Making Search Personally Relevant to Students

Prospective college students who have recently taken the SAT or ACT have provided fresh information on their academic interests. There's no need for data appending. Featuring their intended major has gotten good results in the past. According to a Hewlett-Packard report, Albertson College increased its Search response rate from 2.2% to 18.7% a few years ago by highlighting students’ intended major and varsity sports interest (where applicable).

Clearly, having fresh, accurate data can help you make your Search letters, postcards and emails personally relevant to students, which will get them read. But students change their minds, and unless your database is up to date the major you feature may no longer be pertinent. Featuring it would make your Search efforts yesterday’s news. 

What if your Data isn’t Fresh?

Would a mass marketing approach be better and safer to use? That approach could mean that your letters, postcard mailings and emails will look like what everyone else is sending. How will the students to whom you’re marketing determine whether or not to open and read your communication? The research cited by Dr. Aronson showed that when the communication wasn’t personally relevant to students, they used decision shortcuts or heuristics to judge its value. What decision shortcuts do prospects use? You can read about a number of them in the white paper, The Psychology of Search. To get a copy, email me at lrondeau@thealliedgrp.com.