Enrollment Manager

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

The economic downturn has had a direct impact at colleges and universities. In many cases, enrollments are stagnant or have declined. Financial aid costs have risen as increased unemployment and market drops have fueled growth in aggregate financial need for both new and returning students. Colleges are dealing with more financial need while simultaneously experiencing cuts in state financial aid. Often, institutional resources are scarce as returns on endowed investments have been disappointing. These conditions are likely to persist for at least the near future.

·         Perhaps the most important step institutional administrators can take is to re-evaluate their financial aid award policies. Are your packaging strategies structured in a manner that makes available the most aid to the most students?

·         Calculate average and mean financial need over the last three years to determine how the economy has specifically affected your students.

·         Determine changes in institutional expenditures for both merit/talent and need-based institutional aid. You may need to rebalance expenditure levels as a function of aid type based in the new economic realities.

·         Institutional leaders may need to reconsider pricing strategies.

·         Examine any changes in accounts receivable over the last three years. Ensure that perceived savings in financial aid costs are not just being transferred into increased student account balances.

·         Business Offices may need to make changes in collection policies. If you are waiting until the end of each term to contact accounts in arrears, you are probably making a mistake.

·         Believe it or not, now may be the time to make more exceptions and allow students and families even more time to catch up on outstanding balances. Decisions to be more aggressive in preventing students from enrolling in future terms due to balances will serve to increase overall attrition rates and deplete future revenue. It is definitely a balancing act and sometimes it makes more sense to increase the discount rates for some students to maintain enrollment levels, increase retention rates and generate needed revenue.

·         Invest in your Financial Aid Office to allow for increased ability to provide proactive financial counseling early in the cycle.

·         Expand payment plan options for your students and families. You might want to reduce or eliminate interest or enable payments to begin earlier in the cycle.

·         Be more aggressive ensuring your students meet deadlines for state financial aid programs.  thousands of eligible students miss out on grant programs every year because they do not apply  for financial aid in time to meet deadlines. Have your financial aid staff follow up systematically with all eligible students to make sure they are able to take advantage of available state funds.

·         Is your Financial Aid office taking full advantage of some of the smaller federal programs like SMART grants and TEACH grants?

·         The traditional financial aid appeal process may be insufficient to deal with the current economy. Sometimes, students deal with their inability to meet expenses by withdrawing rather than appealing their financial aid package. Institutional administrators may need to be more proactive in identifying possible appeals rather than waiting for the students to contact the Financial Aid Office.

·         Better communication with administrators across campus can be beneficial. Make sure that coaches, faculty, student services professionals and others keep their eyes and ears open to identify struggling students.

It is easy to become complacent with collection and financial aid policies. We get used to conducting business a certain way and do not take the time to consider that policies that may have been appropriate over the last five years are no longer the best approach. Current economic conditions should force all colleges and universities to at least conduct a little research and at least entertain some changes in policy and process.

Douglas Spadaro, Ph.D.
President
Premier Communications

David Waggoner, M.A.
Vice President
Premier Communications

As graduation speakers often point out, commencement is a time of celebration and new beginnings. Administration, faculty and staff are happy about another job well done. Parents and families evidence pride in children and relatives. And, most importantly, new graduates exalt in their accomplishments and look forward to the future.

A significant aspect of this future is the ongoing lifetime relationship that graduates have with the college as alumni. From your perspective, commencement is the start of cultivating positive relationships with your alumni. Clearly college administrators want to make the most of this day of transition as young adults move from being accomplished students to being loyal benefactors.

In the spring of 2009, Premier was approached by one of our long-term clients with a unique challenge: Was there a way to utilize our specialized collegiate communications expertise and technologies to enhance a rather routine ritual – commencement? After much brainstorming, the client and our creative staff developed the novel idea of a personalized graduation announcement and invitation. This concept plays off the idea of the diploma. Each diploma is personalized, so why not carry this theme to the commencement announcement as well?

An example of the finished product can be seen below. We have incorporated personalization in three places in the announcement: The graduate’s name, the degree earned, and the college by which it is awarded. Each student received five personalized invitations and matching envelopes. These were mailed by Premier in a college envelope directly to the graduating students. Also included in the package was a letter from the college’s Provost congratulating graduates on their achievement. In addition, an editable version of the invitation was made available on the college’s website so that students could download it and create their own personalized invitations if more were needed. Finally a supply of generic invitations and matching envelopes were provided directly to the college registrar for last minute additions to the graduation roster.

The results of this unique development effort were outstanding. The college received accolades from family, friends, and most importantly, new graduates - now alumni! Many of these new alumni framed the personalized invitations along with their diploma.

Providing graduates with personalized graduation announcements to be sent to family and friends is a small token of appreciation for their selection of your institution in the first place, and their perseverance in earning a college degree. It is a gesture that they will long remember as alumni. Above all, it’s an important step in the cultivating of a positive relationship with future donors!

Premier Communications is a strong proponent of variable data printing, and our technology enhances the image of those colleges and universities with whom we partner. Our print technology has reached the point where each piece coming off one of our high resolution printers can be unique. Of course personalized graduation announcements are only one application of this advanced technology, which includes personalized admissions postcards, personalized college flyers and brochures, personalized recruitment HTML e-mails, personalized development solicitations, and … (use your imagination!).

Premier believes that the application of personalized printing technology to the alumni development area offers our clients a unique opportunity to develop and maintain close, personal relationships with your most important benefactors. We urge all of our clients to take full advantage of commencement as the beginning of this life-long relationship.

April Clark
CAS Marketing Consultant
CAS

First, put on your “search engine thinking cap!” The more your creative folks can “think” like a search engine, the more successful your site will be. But strike a happy balance, don’t think so hard that your site becomes a spam victim.

Understanding how a search engine works is the second step. Search engines look at your HTML code within your web pages and try to extract the content of your text. Then this page text goes into the search engine’s index – which is a huge pool of Web site information – accompanied by the page’s input and output links. When you enter your search criteria, this causes a search engine to look through its index and pull a list of all the Web pages that include your requested search. Then that list is judged mostly on the number, high rating and honesty of the links that point to each page. So if your web site/pages do not include common search words, then your university site will rarely if ever show up on search lists. In fact, the search engines probably won’t even index your pages! Once the matching pages are identified in the search, the list is ranked according to relevance. Relevance is determined on many, many criteria – such as the number of times the keyword appears on your site and exactly where those keywords appear. HOWEVER… useless repeating of favorite keywords becomes spam software targets if you aren’t careful.

Back to “thinking like a search engine…” If you look at your existing web copy and you see that the first few paragraphs are much too wordy…. you need to change the copy. Also see if the titles for this page have your most important key words shown first (in some bad cases, they might be actually last!) A simple switching of the location of certain important search words for that page to the beginning, and the top of your page can really help to raise your ratings. This is putting to use the idea of keyword prominence and it works on both levels – within a title tag as well as the wider view,

within the whole page.

As you can see, it is a balancing act between honest placement

of keywords, and overkill which will trigger the spam penalty – and decrease your relevance score.

There is one more step you can use to encourage good behavior by the search engine – you can put your keywords in heading tags to emphasize them. Again look at what you are putting together – make sure the page structure is appealing, the content design includes the keywords inside heading tags, body copy and other tags – THEN be sure your copy is interesting and drives your readers to excitement about your institution.

Some guidelines for your writing:

Have at least a couple hundred words of copy for each page – all keyword focused.  Include images and your copyright statement.

When you are creating your links, be sure to include good keyword-rich text in your link text. Again, thinking like a search engine – leave out instruction such as “click here” or “for more information,” because they mean absolutely nothing to a search engine, so are wasted. Instead choose words that are relevant to the page you are linking to.

I mentioned the importance of links, the quality of links, and the connection of Google rankings to links. So, how do you build up your links? There are three basic supports that affect search engine optimization:

content - which means basing your content on the keywords that are popular with your target audience

architecture – which means creating a site architecture that is conducive to high search rankings

links – which means you want to attract inbound links that point to your site

These three supports work together to drive the desired traffic to your site. However, linking typically is the least utilized of the three, despite the fact that websites’ search rankings are totally dependent on other Webmasters linking to your site. No links equals no traffic. It is definitely NOT a sheer numbers game – the search engines use complicated algorithms to rank the value of a link. Important links such as msnbc.com count more than one from Heidi’s personal page.

So how do you improve your score? First, like any marketing ploy, you need to measure it. The Google Toolbar is available for free. Go to http://toolbar.google.com. The Google toolbar installs into your Web browser – either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Once installed the Google toolbar sports a small PageRank meter that indicates the importance of the page being currently viewed. Pretty cool!

Put your cursor over the meter and a numerical score between 0 and 10 displays – 0 being the worst and 10 being the best. All the scores are not equal – it is much easier to move from 3 to 4, than the huge move from 7 to 8!! Be aware that there is a lag in reporting current scores, so Google Toolbar is an approximation, good for comparison. You can find other measuring tools like mozRank.

Generally speaking, the best links are obtained by merit by offering noteworthy, valuable content on your web site. When Webmasters and bloggers find out you have content worthy of their notice – they are moved to link. This is known as “link bait.” Think of “scoops,” humor, tools, downloads, how-tos, original research, event coverage,

quizzes, or other historic information. I think you can see how some of these “link bait” topics can tie in with your institution’s web pages.

Here are some things you can do to find and attract good links. Proactively solicit links carefully. Identify good targets by reviewing the links of competitive sites (like similar institutions to yours) and sites in your keyword market. What shows up when you search on your own target keywords? What do you see when you check their links? When you visit, suggest a link as a site visitor, or contact them representing yourself from your site. As in many pursuits, communicating accomplishes your goals. You can offer them some encouragement to include a link to your site by giving them constructive feedback on their site, as well as including your link. If you notice a problem with their site, tell them. The art of linking involves cooperation to become a win-win situation. It isn’t necessarily easy.

The next hint is to “Build Outside the Box.” Don’t go where everyone else goes. Think differently. Be creative. Involve your students in your brainstorming sessions. They know what links will attract potential new students to your site. Add those links. Don’t forget to be blogging – blogs typically attract more links than e-commerce sites. Did you ever hear about blog carnivals? Find a directory at blogcarnival.org – organized by topic.

Blog carnivals constantly link to worthy sites. They focus on different topics where the participating bloggers share their newest finds in lots of different items like articles, blog posts, events, etc. If you connect the upcoming week’s blogger with helpful suggestions for content (and links) to feature, your email will be welcomed. It’s a whole new world out there and if your web site is to continue to be vibrant and well-visited, you need to keep up on all the new possibilities. Be creative, attract new and powerful links and you will see an increase in higher quality visitors to your web site.

Bill Firman
Dean of Admission
Wesley College

In February 2008 Wesley College purchased 100,000 names of high school juniors who had taken the SAT. These students were sent a “personalized URL card” [PURL]. This  ard was a slightly larger-than-postcard- sized, high-gloss photo of a cell phone with a  ersonalized message on the screen saying, “Hi, [first name]! You have 1 message, from  Wesley College”. On the reverse were instructions for going to their own personalized Wesley web site: firstname.lastname.@wesley.com. From that site, students were provided with links to 15 different points of interest on the Wesley web site [financial aid, cost, student life, etc].

Once the students accessed their web site, their data was downloaded to our database. At that point, they became a Wesley inquiry and received new promotional materials including a viewbook, visitor’s guide and an open house invitation. They also became part of a six-letter direct mail series [sent over six months] from various alumni of the College [as well as the President] discussing different strengths of the College.

These prospective students were contacted via telephone by our evening telecounselors who called to discuss their eligibility for Wesley academic scholarships and grants and to encourage them to apply for admission.

Those various stages of contact [PURL, viewbooks, letter series, phone calls] over a six-month period beginning with those 100,000 in February 2008 [and followed up with another separate group of 100,000 now-rising seniors in June 2008, who had taken the SAT] generated a record applicant pool. Applications increased 63% compared to the previous year. Once the students applied, our exceptional admissions team entered into the process and began their work.

We were fortunate that we started the admissions cycle in September 2008 with a full staff [as we know, not always the case in admissions] of five very capable and dedicated admission counselors.

These counselors maintained a communications plan [phone, email, and letter] of sustained monthly contact with each applicant throughout the cycle. This sustained communication provided applicants with constant updates on their applications, including materials still needed to complete the application review, important information on the financial aid process, invitations to visit campus for individual tours and other pertinent information.

More applications made possible improvement in the academic profile of the fall 2009 class. We were able to be more selective about those offered admission to the College for Fall 2009. The applicant pool was so large, that even with greater selectivity, we were still able to generate a large pool of accepted students.

Once a student was accepted, the counselors continued their intense communication with the student, with the messages slightly altered to include more follow-up on the student’s financial aid application. At this stage in the cycle, the counselors had one goal: remove every conceivable barrier that would keep an accepted student from making an enrollment deposit. These obstacles may be financial, academic, social, or a combination thereof. Obviously, we were unable to remove every obstacle for every student. Once an obstacle arrived that could not be overcome, invariably the student would decline our offer of admission. This was positive, though, in that it allowed the counselors to concentrate their efforts on a steady pool of actively interested accepted students.

With these remaining students, as obstacles were removed [financial aid awards, tours of the campus confirming the student’s original belief that Wesley was a good fit, etc], students began depositing. They did so earlier and in greater numbers than in history. Eventually, an all-time record number of them enrolled at Wesley in the Fall.
 

How did Wesley do it?

• A great deal of hard work by a dedicated staff of counselors and support staff who provided better client service to potential students than competing institutions were able to deliver.

• We purchased more search names.

• We had our staff in place earlier than ever.

• We had a firm recruiting plan – the seeds of which were actually started back in October 2007 when we began creating new recruiting materials like viewbooks, visitors guides, posters, etc] – from which we never strayed.
 

David Ruderman
Vice President of Education Marketing
Greenwood & Hall

You are thinking about expanding your degree programs online? Or,  you are thinking of starting online degree programs. The research has been completed showing an opportunity in the marketplace due to economic times or to meet unmet demand. Back-end systems are in place for delivery of instruction. The enrollment management and marketing teams have been tasked to develop marketing plans and related back-end systems to generate and follow-up on leads. Basically the same process that would be employed for the introduction of any new program at your institution, right? Possibly not.

Competition for a share of prospective students’ attention is at an all-time high and is growing exponentially. It’s imperative that you have a systematic process in place to generate, qualify and move leads for on-line offerings through the enrollment pipeline - and systems in place to regularly evaluate and optimize the program.

Below is a checklist of best practices to grow your online programs. Work with your enrollment management team to ensure these are in place, or bring in experts to help you move forward.

• Work with an interactive firm that specializes in online lead generation, preferably with experience in education. Agencies with experience in traditional media are a plus, especially if you are marketing your online programs in your existing market area.
• Test keywords and creative to determine what’s working and what’s not on a regular basis. Randomize messaging and creative to test campaigns against each other.
• Define cost per lead and cost per start targets.
• Create and optimize landing pages to drive prospective students to inquiry status.
• Make sure your website provides the information prospective students need - and that it drives visitors to inquire.
• Create customer relationship management (CRM) systems to follow up on leads within 5 minutes of inquiry and to regularly communicate with prospective students.
• Implement systems to offer financial aid advising and student services 24/7.
• And, once they become students implement processes to regularly communicate with students to increase retention.

Food for thought in selecting an interactive marketing firm: Many interactive firms have experience with corporate clients, but do not have expertise working with the myriad lead aggregators and lead generation vendors. Many traditional advertising agencies promote their interactive expertise - but many traditional advertising agencies outsource interactive marketing to outside firms. you can do paid search, pay-per-lead and search engine optimization on your own, but it’s a complicated ever-changing evolving space.

Opportunities for growth of online programs are tremendous, but effectively generating leads requires specific marketing expertise that your current enrollment managers may not have. And, quick follow-up is essential - or prospective students move on to the next institution. Assess your capabilities and do not assume that because you have effective systems in place to recruit students on-ground that these can be directly transferred to online programs.

David Ruderman is Senior Vice President for Education Marketing at Greenwood & Hall, a leading provider of relationship management solutions to educational institutions and major non-profit organizations. For more information, visit www.greenwoodhall.com.

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

As the first female President in the history of Ferrum College in Ferrum, Virginia, Dr. Jennifer Braaten has presided over a period of unprecedented growth. The number of admission applications has increased significantly while new student enrollments have grown.

When Dr. Braaten started at Ferrum in 2002, the College enrolled approximately 925 students. The College will pass the 1,400 mark for total enrollment this year, which means total enrollment has grown more than 50% during her tenure! Passing this milestone during one of the most difficult economic periods in decades is and extraordinary accomplishment.

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

While many colleges and universities have experienced enrollment declines as competition for students increases and the economy sours. Dr. Carol Seavor of Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke, Virginia has overseen unprecedented growth.

I began working with Dr. Seavor toward the end of 2003. An enrollment audit was conducted to examine practices and procedures with an eye toward recommending strategies that would enable academic program expansion, net revenue increases and enrollment growth.

• A new pricing model was introduced that doubled the charge for tuition in a single cycle.
• The financial aid operation was completely overhauled with the introduction of new merit-based scholarships and grants and a different philosophy for awarding need-based financial aid.
• Academic offerings were enhanced with the start of four new baccalaureate programs and three new graduate programs including the newest concentration, Emergency Services, which sat its first class in September.
• A more targeted recruitment plan was implemented that utilized personalized communication, systematic follow-up, high quality campus visits and an emphasis on employment outcomes.

Since the implementation of the new model under the direction of Dr. Seavor, the numbers are staggering:

• Applications for admission are up by more than 173% and the College set another record for new student enrollments this Fall.
• The number of new students has soared 290% since 2003.
• The total number of full-time undergraduate students has jumped more than 65%!
• Average SAT scores and grade point averages have improved.

Even during the current economic downturn, JCHS has thrived. In this year alone, admission applications are up 6% and the number of newly enrolled students has jumped by 21%. The growth in residential students continued as the new students living in campus housing increased 27%.

Growth continues to fuel positive changes across campus. Meal plans for residential students offer more options, the  number of clubs and organizations has exploded and the College even introduced its first mascot! More revenue has also made possible significant investments in academic advising, electronic pre-registration and course selection and academic support services.

Other schools may be considering budget cuts and retrenchment, but Jefferson College of Health Sciences is moving forward in an aggressive manner to meet the growing health profession needs of the community after completing its sixth consecutive year of enrollment growth.

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

Dr. Gary Streit sought to make a difference when he recently began his Presidency at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. He took on an institution with a distinct mission, an excellent location, broad and high quality academic programs and a long history of educating students in a Christian tradition. He tapped an experienced administrator from his previous institution, Brock Schroeder, to oversee a change in recruitment and financial aid and secured the counsel of The Dysart Group, Inc. to assist with the research and analysis necessary to propose and implement a new approach to enrollment management. Historic economic challenges did not dissuade his determination to grow the enrollment while improving academic quality and support from the Board provided the backing and resources to significantly change the market position of the University.

Change is never easy, and the implementation of a new model at Malone was no exception. Institutional administrators were asked to re-thing virtually every aspect of the previous plan. New investments were necessary to shore up communication and delivery of services. Immediate changes included:

• Brand new parameters for the awarding of scholarships and grants based upon entering academic credentials.
• Streamlining of the admission and financial aid processes to eliminate unnecessary steps and duplication in order to facilitate ease of application.
• Enhanced communication mechanisms to take advantage of new technologies.
• Data-driven reporting to specifically measure weekly productivity and outcomes.
• Earlier notification of financial aid eligibility to address cost concerns during unpredictable economic times.
• New emphasis on a distinctly Christian mission along with a clear explanation of service opportunities on campus and within the local community.

While the actual implementation of the new model did not begin until January of 2009, the results are outstanding:

• Malone University experienced a 34% increase in admission applications.
• New student enrollments grew by 27% despite economic barriers and financial uncertainty.
• Academic quality improved as new students eligible for the Honors Program grew by 38%.
• Malone enrolled the largest number of new, full-time undergraduates in history.
• Total full-time enrollment reached the highest level ever in Fall 2009.
• The University enrolled the largest number of residential students in history.

Dr. Streit will not be satisfied with this year’s success. Plans have been finalized to continue the enrollment growth while improving academic quality and meeting the needs of students and families seeking an excellent educational experience in a Christian environment.

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

Dr. Jack Calareso has never been afraid of a challenge. He has a record of literally transforming colleges and universities by growing enrollment, expanding academic and co-curricular offerings, growing physical plants and improving academic quality.

I had provided enrollment management consultation services to Dr. Calareso at his two previous schools were he was able to reposition and succesfully market them for new economic realities and changing demographics. I looked forward to a collaboration to take another college to the next level.

As the new President at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts, Jack was tasked with making significant changes at yet another institution.

Anna Maria College has always been a successful institution located in a somewhat rural area just twenty miles outside of Worcestor and about an hour’s drive from Boston.

We began by conducting an enrollment audit to reconsider every aspect of the recruitment and financial aid opreations. This audit considered the new long-term strategic plan drafted by the leadership team of the College in consultation with the Board of Trustees. Many changers were implemented and enhancements to curricular and co-curricular offerings were made.

The recruitment and financial aid plans were altered and athletic programs were introduced. Staff development and training resulted in greater accountability and production. Paula Green was tapped to provide leadership for the model. Several expensive publications in the recruitment process were replaced with communication mechanisms relying on the latest technologies. While wholesale change is never easy, administrators and staff readily accepted the new tactics and the results were impressive.

• The number of freshman applications for admission more than doubled compared to the previous year. Quite an accomplishment during a period of near historic economic downturns. Freshman applications increased 102%.
• Transfer applications increased 178%. While the “experts” predicted a return to low-priced public colleges and universities, AMC experienced historic increases in demand.
• New transfer student deposits increased by 68% compared to last year.
• Freshman deposits grew 61% compared to the same time last year.
• Residence Halls were filled to capacity and the College was forced to initiate a waitlist for the first time in its history.
• The growth in applications enabled the institution to be more selective. Anna Maria College increased the number of students denied admission by 141%.

While growth in this cycle has been encouraging, Dr. Calareso is already discussing goals for next year to increase full-time, undergraduate enrollment even more.

John W. Dysart
President
The Dysart Group, Inc.

Dr. William Johnston came to Wesley College in Dover, Deleware, after a successful term as President at Iowa Wesleyan College, where he posted the largest number of freshmen enrollments in at least thirty years, despite demographic and economic impediments.

I had consulted with Dr. Johnston at Iowa Wesleyan College and he contacted me to assist in growing the enrollment at Wesley while taking steps to improve academic quality.

Dr. Johnston began his tenure during a time of exceptional economic barriers. The recession, credit crunch, drop in the stock market, corporate bankruptcies and business closings, layoffs, increased unemployment and general uncertainty made the new President’s plans for improved quality particularly difficult.

I was fortunate to work again with a seasoned colleague well versed in enrollment management and financial aid. Bill Firman had a long track record of recruitment success at Philadelphia area schools. We set about making plans to improve on the historic success of the College (I had worked with the previous President at Wesley College during a period of growth that nearly tripled undergraduate enrollment).

• We evaluated every aspect of the recruitment plan. Adjustments were made where warranted.
• The admission counselors were trained in light of the requirements of the new model. Some changes were made, but we were prepared with a dedicated, well-trained, hard-working, knowledgeable staff.
• Obviously, we made some adjustments to the financial aid model to aggressively address the needs of the students and families due to the harsh economic times.

Well, while most private colleges and universities struggled this year, Wesley College excelled!

• Admission application increased 63% over the previous year.
• The College accepted the largest number of students in history.
• New student enrollments shattered every historical record while more students will reside on campus this year than ever before. New student enrollments increased 26% compared to the same time last year and capacity limits forced a shutdown of recruitment earlier than ever before.
• The College realized the most significant improvement in academic quality in decades while maintaining a diverse student population. Application growth enabled greater selectivity as the College tripped the number of applicants denied admission.
• Total undergraduate enrollment is at the highest in College history.

Dr. Johnston completes his first cycle as President at Wesley College by breaking records and positioning the College for even more success in the future.