Nicole O'Connell | Enrollment Marketing

Recently, as a participant on a panel discussion at the CASE Social Community Conference, I was asked to come prepared to address the question of ongoing trends in social and mobile and where there is opportunity for enrollment marketing and Higher Ed institutions to engage with these new medias and technology.  

Let’s Get Personal

One of the interesting dynamics going on in social media is the ability of a user to share personal information about themselves – favorite restaurants, places of travel, pictures of family and friends, many times unknowingly to a ‘friend’ of a ‘friend’.  Social media is becoming more and more personal and the boundaries of our professional/personal lives are becoming blurred. (more…)

Why the Bad Rap?

Recently many industry articles and even informal conversations among colleagues regarding QR code use are giving it a bad rap.  At Loyola, we have the data to support that QR codes are being scanned and according to marketingcharts.com, 1 in 5 mobile users recently scanned a QR code and 18% of mobile users in Q4 reported having scanned a code in the past 90 days.  So let’s dispel some of the reasons why QR codes are getting the thumbs down and strategies on how Higher Ed institutions can find value using this medium. (more…)

Have you ever considered how SEO affects your brand or revenue stream? Or, that you can increase your prospect pool by boosting your position in the search engines?  Search engine optimization is not something that should be overlooked by enrollment marketers.  Search rankings can either aid or hinder the amount of traffic, and ultimately revenue to your institution.  According to pmbmediaWorks, 60% of all searchers do not look beyond the first page of results and 42% of users click on the first result that is displayed.   Beyond that, a brand has diminishing returns exponentially from the #2 position on down. (more…)

After a 9 month ramp-up to optimize Loyola’s Facebook pages we are, without much of a forewarning, thrust into a frenzy to convert all 13 platforms to a timeline format by March 30^th!! This announcement was made on February 29^th which gives us only 4 weeks to make some pretty hefty changes that require 1) staff resources and 2) budget.   Like most enrollment marketer’s, this isn’t perfect timing in that we are crunched with yield promotions trying to recruit a freshmen class and budget dollars are capped.  So, what are the options?

Enrollment Marketing’s Response: Let’s be positive

While this change does represent a significant shift from the current layout and user experience, enrollment marketing is building on the positives with that there will be opportunities for Loyola’s brand moving forward.   Strategically, the new timeline layout re-enforces a need Enrollment Marketing identified a long time ago.  That is – a strategic content calendar to drive Facebook content that is aligned with the Enrollment cycle.  For example: (more…)

In a recent white paper released by Noel Levitz it states that in a survey of 2,300 college bound students 94% said they use a mobile device at least 1x per week (not to be confused with a tablet, this is strictly mobile phone usage).  Half of these survey respondents looked at a college website using a mobile device – this has huge implications for higher ed institutions from both brand and enrollment marketing perspectives.

Let’s Face the Facts

50% of American’s own a smartphone

There are 1.2 billion mobile web users worldwide

Mobile web traffic will surpass PC traffic by 2013

87% of the the world’s population have mobile subscriptions

84% of SMS messages are opened within 1 hour

44% of Facebook’s 350m active users access their account from a mobile device

App stores will slowly decline as subscriber shift away from downloading apps to mobile websites. (more…)

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article relevant to most enrollment marketers on viewbooks. Loyola is quoted in this piece as an example of an institution that had the courage to break the mold by giving up the viewbook and taking a new approach in our communications strategy –we’ve coined it as ‘The Apply Series’.

Where is the ROI?

At Loyola, we had been questioning the value of the viewbook for the past couple of years for several reasons: cost, resources and time, and up until that point, no data to prove ROI.  After some research at the conclusion of the recruitment cycle last spring, we found that the relationship between students’ receiving a viewbook and applying was not nearly as strong as we had thought.  Though, enrollment marketing still believed in the overall value of print in our communications strategy especially when combined with an integrated marketing campaign.  (more…)

No resources? You can still create a social media plan.

It was just 2 short years ago that Loyola rolled out the first Facebook page in Enrollment Marketing. Boy—what a nerve-wracking time that was, amid all the fear and anxiety surrounding use of new media. I remember leading 3 full days of intake meetings with institutional stakeholders to discuss and determine the goal of implementing new media, only to be informed afterward that social media should not be a priority for Enrollment Marketing.

A risk taker by nature, I forged on without total support from institutional leadership. But, I did have buy-in from my peers and colleagues in admissions. So we started grass roots—our goals were simple and we planned strategy around existing resources and the hope that we could recruit natural content creators.

Our social media initiatives have grown significantly since then, but let’s focus on how our enrollment marketing department made them happen back at the grass-roots level. (more…)

Staying on top of the latest social media strategies—let alone incorporating them into your university marketing plan—is crazy busy work. Here’s how to stay on top of the trends, technology and execution of this frenzied hyper-connected communications platform.

Find Strategic Partners
Who do you rely on at your institution to keep you abreast of the latest marketing innovations? Do you meet regularly with a marketing mentor either inside or outside your organization? Do you bring in outside consultants to keep you abreast of tactics or even set up brainstorm sessions with your team to lay out new ideas to test?

If you’re like me, maybe you commit and set a goal to address one of the three above. Personally, it has been difficult to find a mentor who willingly volunteers their time and talents to further the career of another. They are out there and if you have an awesome marketing guru to recommend—please share! (more…)

We’re all onboard, but are we missing the lifecycle boat?

In UMASS Dartmouth’s latest social media adoption study, 100% of colleges and universities studied are using some form of social media and usage continues to rise for the most popular tools. Facebook is by far the most popular platform; blogging continues to be embraced by colleges and universities; Twitter allows schools to send reminders and event information; and LinkedIn is even seeing some use from admission counselors.

Universities are using social media in a variety of ways. It’s used in the classroom for announcements and shared discussion groups, and as a professional development tool that helps faculty and administrators network. Enrollment marketing departments have integrated social platforms into recruitment marketing. Athletic departments use it for sporting events, school pride and swag materials, and alumni groups use it to connect with graduates and grow. (more…)

There are so many ways to use Google Analytics (GA) to gather marketing data and look for trends that it is both overwhelming and exciting at the same time (remember I am a direct marketer, I like numbers and data J).  In my first post about GA, I spoke to how Enrollment Marketing initially dived-in to the world of analytics and the immediate impact it had in identifying a problem that was negatively impacting our funnel numbers.  This result made me think, I want more analytic data!

If you use the enrollment funnel as a backdrop to identify where enrollment marketing tactically supports, it lends itself naturally to GA insights.  After prospect acquisition the next step is conversion – let’s move them through the funnel.  What can GA tell us about the marketing initiatives that drive enrollment applications?  A lot.

At Loyola, Enrollment Marketing created a quarterly application conversion report where overall, you can see the total number of visits to the application start page and of those, the percentage that are new visitors.  You are also able to view the trend line of what dates visitors are coming to your site which I find interesting.  Sundays tend to be a high volume day which correlates with our email data as well,  Sunday’s have the highest open rates. (more…)