When did you last talk to one of your adult students?

When did you last talk to one of your adult students?

This is an interesting question that often goes unanswered. Why? Most of us are sitting in our offices, toiling away at each daily project given to us by our boss, a department head or some other project that is critical for our institution's success. We know there are adult education classes on campus (or on a nearby campus) and we know that there are students in those classes (after all, we in Marketing were instrumental in getting them there) yet, we rarely if EVER go talk to them! The excuses are many. "These are night classes, I have to be somewhere." or "What can they tell me? What would I ask them?" or maybe "I don't get paid any extra to stay late and track down these classes, talk to the professor, get permission to talk to a few of the students either before or after class, what a hassle!"

Well, let me tell you, you are missing a fabulous opportunity for some primary market research. Research that will answer any of the following questions:

·         Why did you decide to get your degree from XYZ University?

·         Was cost an issue to you?

·         Who influenced you in your decision to attend our school?

·         Have you had a good experience while attending classes here?

·         What were your expectations when you first started and what are they today?

·         Is there anything specific that you can tell me that made our institution stand out in your mind when looking for a (degree completion, advanced degree) program?

Imagine what you could do with all of that information! Say a majority of the students reference location as a key motivator. If there are a few students who have that point of view, I guarantee there are others who have the same issue. What if they say "fear" was a roadblock to going back to school. Fear of failing. Fear that they will be the oldest person in the class. Fear of not having enough time for work, class, family and hobbies. Ask them how they conquered their fear. Learn from them.

As with direct marketing, each mailing is a new test. What are you testing? If you don't know the answers to the above questions (and those are the tip of the iceberg) you have NO idea how to market your institution. Ask, learn, grow, test new ideas. That's what direct marketing is all about. The ability to test new ideas, new thoughts, new markets. But without a sound basis for the testing you're just wasting dollars and time.

Focus on learning as much as you can about your audience, not only demographically but also psychographically. Get out of your office. Walk around campus, set up a routine EACH semester to visit at least three different adult education classes and talk to the students. If you feel up to it and have the budget (ok, stop laughing now) invite a class to dinner on marketing. A small investment in a few meals will reap huge rewards with marketing success.

Contact David@marketmappingplus.com for more information on how to identify and reach your target markets.

Capture 100% of your E-mail campaign click throughs

Universities have always wanted to do e-mail campaigns but have had difficulty in capturing who is clicking through to their website or landing page. Clicking through is the first step in a prospect exploring their educational choices and by clicking through to YOUR website it shows they have a higher than average interest in your institution. However, getting a student to click through and then tell you who they are has always been the challange.

Market Mapping plus LLC has solved that problem. We now have a program where we deploy your e-mail campaign, AND when they click through, we will provide you with the e-mail address and name/postal address of the person who clicks through. You will receive this file for your own use! You can follow up with them, prospect, contact them by e-mail/direct mail to see if there is a fit between what you offer and what they are interested in.

If this is a program that you would be interested in, contact Market Mapping plus LLC today for a free quote. There are millions of prospective students out there looking to complete their degree or get an advanced degree. Let Market Mapping plus LLC help YOU identify and sell them.

Ideas from a Graduate Admissions Marketing Conference

I recently attended the Stamats Graduate Admissions Marketing Conference as one of their Corporate Sponsors. This was an enlightening conference that was filled with tips, techniques and ideas for targeting, reaching and communicating with graduate program prospects. Some of the most important ideas that I heard revolved around Web Analytics and the need for better, consistant tracking of your website, e-mails and social media.

HiPPO's- What they are and how do you deal with them?

One of the first items that struck me was the term HiPPO. NO, not an African animal, but a HiPPO is defined as the Highest Paid Person's Opinion. What this means is that when putting marketing plans together, the HiPPO will wield their power, not from knowledge but from their position of power. Whether it be the President, a Board member, a Dean, all of these people will influence your marketing decisions based on their perceptions, not based on fact. The most effective way to deflect a HiPPO is to develop quality analytics. Facts ALWAYS will take the power away from any detractor or power pusher since your facts trump anyone's opinion.

Hits- No, not the Soprano's or Elton John

This was an interesting topic. We always hear about how many "hits" your website has. Yet, most of us don't realize just what a "hit" is. Basically, if you have a home page with 14 graphics and text in it, when a visitor arrives, each picture will download. Suddenly you have 14 hits, yet, only one visitor. If 5 people visit you will then have 70 "hits". Not exactly what you wanted to know. You think you're doing great, but only had in reality 5 visitors.

When tracking website performance look at VISITORS, not hits. How many visitors did you have, how long did they stay on your website? What pages did they navigate to or did they abandon the site immediately. These are the telling statistics that you need to understand in order to build a case against your resident HiPPO.

Lifetime Value of a Student.

This was an interesting topic. I have used Lifetime Value of a Customer for many years with my retail and non-profit clients. Whenever I attempted to apply this idea to higher education I arrived at the conclusion that the lifetime value was while students are in school. Once they graduate, there is no value of a student. Boy, was I wrong! In reality while your student is attending your school, they have a great deal of value. But on graduation, that value changes from active student to Alumni. They join as an alumni, contribute to annual campaigns (I do this myself to the University of Minnesota), they create bequests and corporate giving programs. All events that can be quantified, evaluated and used to determine the true lifetime value of a student. 

Google Analytics

There is nothing more powerful than being able to see results as they happen on the web. You send out an e-mail campaign, you will se a jump in web results. Send our Direct Mail, see a spike in visitors. You will see where people are coming from, or where they are going. You can determine if people are spending time on your website, only to abandon it when something isn't there or doesn't work. We have a local Community College with many broken links. My wife has been looking into this school, yet, whenever she tries to find more information she tends to find a broken link. Analytics can help you identify these problems but they require you to actively look at what is going on with your site.

Remember, knowledge is power. The more facts you can bring to the table, the more effective you will be in deflecting your HiPPO's and that Dean who feels his course with 5 students should be on the home page. Google analytics has become easier to use, and much more effective in what it tracks. Take a few minutes to learn how to make it work. I know I will be doing that for MY firm.

I have other thoughts and they will follow shortly. These are some of the key ideas that I observed over the 2 day conference. If you have any questions or need any information about how Market Mapping Plus can help you effectively reach YOUR target audience, just let me know.