Ideas, insights and inspirations.

As a leading enrollment marketing services agency in the country, clients have often asked us to share our best practices. Here they are: 1. Start with Strategy: We prioritize and always lead with strengths. We don’t try to be democratic. We bet on champion and star programs. We let the star programs create prosperity to sustain others. 2. Surround and Engage Prospects: Depending on client’s target audiences and budget, we smartly allocate budget between traditional and digital channels so prospects see our clients at every turn. 3. Game Plan for Every Stage of Admissions Funnel: We know what prospects need at every stage of the admissions funnel, and cater to their needs. 4. Create a SEO Keyword Guide: We rely on the SEO Keyword Guide to inform all our content creation. The Keyword Guide consists of keyword clusters in various buckets. 5. Fix Your Website: We know that a website is a conversion machine or your #1 lead and application … Continue reading

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For tuition-dependent colleges, enrolled students hold the key to their survival and prosperity. Student deposits are moments of truth for presidents and vice presidents of enrollment. Cash coffers are either replenished or not. Last minute surprises arising from unexpectedly low yields can cause a ton of angst. This is why successful colleges employ intentional strategies to woo students and increase their admissions yield. “Admissions yield” is the percentage of admitted students who enroll at a university. Prestigious colleges have yield rates ranging from 55%-85%, while the national average for college yield hovers around 30%. However, yield rates have been declining across the board with the implementation of platforms like the Common App, which allow high school seniors to apply to dozens of colleges by simply checking off boxes. With skyrocketing tuition, parents are increasingly comparison shopping for the best financial aid package for their children. Here are 12 strategies that can help colleges improve their admissions yield: 1. Creating Conditions … Continue reading

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To higher education marketing pros, April & May is “yield season.” It’s the culmination of all their marketing and relationship-building efforts to convert a suspect to a prospect to an applicant to an admitted student. Yield is the percentage of admitted students who actually decide to enroll. This is a big deal in enrollment marketing – having knowledge of where the yield percentage might fall provides a target of how many students the admissions office needs to, or is willing to, accept. Tracking the tuition deposits as they begin to trickle in is a daily process for admissions, and is why the final piece of marketing communications – the admissions yield piece – is so important. Over the years I have seen all kinds of yield tactics from fact sheets to multi-page brochures. They all seem compelled to give the prospect ‘one more reason’ to consider their school. (As if two years of curated courtship through the admission process has … Continue reading

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