You know, there are so many different tactics and initiatives I see institutions employing to help in this relatively tight market. When targets get further out of reach, the strategies and tactics sometimes get equally as far out of control.
I've seen some far-reaching ideas and tactics used to help an institution's higher education recruitment strategy. Some of them were wildly successful, but a few had the opposite effect, and caused some leaders their jobs.
Today I will cover a few strategies and tactics - both big and small, and both of which have been successful for some and failures for others. For the purposes of this post, though, I will focus on the potential long-term impact each can have if not executed properly.
OUTSOURCED RECRUITMENT
Twenty years ago, I would have considered it unfathomable that a college or university would ever consider outsourcing their recruitment, effectively handing over their brand to an outside company.
I guess I was naive.
Today, I understand the rationale behind it, and I understand the successes it provides some institutions. That said, I've also been there when an institution is picking up the pieces of one of those relationships gone-wrong.
In the short-term, the institution picked up some students it otherwise wouldn't have enrolled, but paid dearly for those students. When their share of the revenue payments finally reached the point they could be reduced by their recruitment partners, their new student enrollment, unfortunately also fell flat.
When the relationship ended, all that was left were a few unattended applications, no communications plan, no inquiries and no budget for marketing.
A year later, there was continued turnover in the department, from Dean down to recruiter, even fewer students, a flat number of applications and a few more inquiries.
It was a sad state of affairs that had to be re-built for the long-term.
Now, that certainly isn't the scenario for all institutions. If things were really that rough for everyone, then no one would be doing it. Truth be told, I'd say about 25% of the enrollment leaders with whom I've spoken were happy with their partnership, 50% were neither happy nor frustrated enough to make a change, and 25% were ready to bail as soon as their contract ended.
It's a relationship dynamic very similar to that of a CRM vendor.
The difference, though, is when I help an institution with a CRM project, I spend a lot of time preparing them for an implementation prior to them getting started.
Institutions aren't preparing themselves for what life will be like when their new partner takes over recruitment. Their partners aren't very transparent with the nitty gritty details of how they get their prospects, and rightly so, because those partners have business practices they need to keep sacred.
If the partnership ends, though, you may find you're left with no one in your own funnel, and a multi-year re-building process that is much more painful than when you initially hired the partner.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Two weeks ago I was asked if I would recommend creating some social pages/accounts for an advising department. My answer: "Absolutely, yes, but..."
You need to have a social presence. Why? You need to be where your students are. Stop trying to bring them to you; you need to go to them.
The 'but' part of my answer is because following through with the needed commitment to making social last, isn't always successful. Making social work for you requires a long-term commitment, and not maintaining the veracity to keep a strong social presence can be worse than not having the presence at all.
No one wants to search and find a dormant (aka, dead) social account. That's certainly not the impression you want to make with your prospects.
EMAIL SUBJECT LINES
I know, this is very tactical, but it this is an important topic for those who communicate directly with prospects. It's a topic I spend much of my time teaching others about - Email.
One of the easiest, but most detrimental tactics that can give you a worthwhile short-term gain are your subject lines. There are an array of subject lines that can help you improve your open rates.
Here are a few sample subject lines I caution using:
Re:
{EMPTY}
Alert
Deadline
The first two are more dangerous. Emailing with your prospects is part of the relationship-building that must take place to develop trust and rapport with them. Using either of these two subject lines just to get a prospect to open a messages may damage your relationship, and make them very weary of your communications.
The third and fourth examples also work, but you should be weary of these too. Not every email needs to require an alert, and not every action needs to include a deadline. You don't want to desensitize your prospects to the most important and time-sensitive messages.
CONCLUSION
Short-term tactics that aren't a part of a long-term strategy rarely provide long-term results. So, before you jump off to any of these large or small scale efforts, ensure you have a plan in place and that they will help you achieve the goals of your plan.