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Ruffalo Noel Levitz Blog: Higher Education Enrollment, Student Retention, and Student Success

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You are here: Home / Archives for higher ed marketing

Flipping college marketing communications with prospective students

August 20, 2015 by Dr. Raquel Bermejo, Associate Vice President for Market Research, RNL Leave a Comment

To engage prospective college students, you have to promote true interaction, not just an invitation to learn more about your institution.

Colleges spend enormous amounts of money, time, and resources communicating with students through campus marketing. But are all those communications presented in a way that resonates with how today’s students learn and process information?

From the research we have conducted, the answer appears to be no. We have conducted many focus groups with prospective college students, sharing with them examples of college communication. In one instance, we showed them a brochure that had a question on the front—a question that they found thought-provoking and interesting. They looked inside, where the brochure proceeded to describe the experience of being a student at the college and the benefits of attending.

Here’s where we lost them: they wanted to know how they could answer the question that was asked on the front.

This example illustrates the change in how students learn today, and how they want to interact with campuses. After doing extensive research on current pedagogical and instructional strategies, we have discovered that adopting a flipped learning paradigm is the right step—or rather the right “flip”—for your communication strategy.

What is flipped learning and how has it changed how students process information?

There has been a revolution in student learning. Long gone are the days of the lecturing teacher and the passively listening students who were expected to absorb the lessons. Students need to be—and desire to be—engaged in debate and interaction for the content to stick. Enter flipped learning, a teaching concept that prioritizes student engagement.

When adopting flipped learning, teachers create lessons, lectures, and other traditional instructional content for consumption outside of class at the student’s preferred pace. Since direct instruction is delivered outside the traditional classroom, “teachers can then use in-class time to actively engage students in the learning process and provide them with individualized support.” (See this white paper on flipped learning, p.4.)

Research supports the key elements of the flipped model with respect to instructional strategies for engaging students in their learning. It has proven to improve students’ academic performance. (See Prince, 2004; Hake, 1998; Knight & Wood, 2005). Active learning has increased student engagement and critical thinking while improving student attitudes in general (O’Dowd & Aguilar-Roca, 2009). There is also evidence of flipped learning helping to develop students’ higher order thinking skills (Kharat et al, 2015).

How can the flipped learning paradigm apply to college marketing strategy?

As we continue to develop communication to engage a high school audience, we need to embrace the fact that this group needs to discuss, needs to debate, and needs to express its opinion in order to retain and remember information.

At its core, flipped learning provides the opportunity to employ key active learning principles like analysis and evaluation more often. In the classroom, students ask questions, answer questions, and receive valuable feedback in real time. We want to mimic this engagement process and their desire for interaction as much as we can.

Instead of engaging students in this fashion, colleges tend to tell students why they might be the right fit and what their institution has to offer the student. Rarely do students have an opportunity early in the process to say what they are looking for or why they think they might be a good fit for the school. This is the flip in the communication strategy—providing an opening for the student to share back to the college and engage in a truly two-way conversation. We believe that this flip will lead to better engagement and ultimately more of the right students finding the right college.

How can campuses flip communication with prospective college students?

  • Engage higher order thinking skills. Simply asking a prospective student to remember something about a campus will yield less than 7 percent content retention. Asking a student to analyze a message and create a response will yield upwards of 80 percent content retention. (See here and here for discussions of content retention.) That has considerable potential for students retaining key messages about your institution.
  • Give students the opportunity to start a conversation. Campus response forms currently gather basic information about a student. With a flipped communication approach, those forms allow the student to ask questions, say what they want from a college, and start a unique and personalized conversation with the institution.
  • Create digestible, meaningful, and transparent messages that meet expectations. Understanding what someone expects to see when they open an email or letter is the first step to increasing engagement. Once we have their attention, we must deliver information in small doses that is relevant to interests and the process at hand.

So why flip communication with prospective college students?

First, existing communication strategies could be more effective. As the increase in stealth applications shows, students are less and less compelled to respond to college communications. Is it because they are not learning in the way they prefer or allowed to really engage a campus? Are they asking, “What’s in it for me?” and not seeing much reason to respond instead of simply opening a browser and researching an institution on their own terms?

By flipping communication, you can spark engagement and create a deep and meaningful conversation with the student. You can ask students the right questions and give them a chance to develop answers, share other questions, and tell your campus from the beginning what interests them and what they want to know.

Real-time feedback is not just valuable for students, but also for institutions of higher education as well. Imagine if you had a clearer understanding of what a prospective student liked about your institution and what they were unsure of or had questions about. By flipping communication and seeking that engagement, you can start a conversation that pulls the student in and has the potential to be truly customized.

Do you have any questions and ideas about flipping communication or how you can make stronger connections with students through your communication with prospective students? Email me and let me know, or leave a comment below.

Filed Under: Enrollment Management, Marketing, Student Recruitment Tagged With: college marketing, college marketing communications, college marketing strategies, college marketing strategy, higher ed marketing, higher ed marketing strategies, higher education marketing, higher education marketing strategies

Six ways to prepare for a successful college student search program

May 27, 2014 by Ruth Sims Leave a Comment

Co-written with Pegi Anton

When enrollment managers and admissions directors ask us what makes a college student search program successful, they are usually wondering about things such as creative, offers, and mailing strategies. But while those elements are important, a student search program also requires a variety of institutional efforts to enhance its productivity and efficiency.

In our work with campuses using Noel-Levitz Direct for student search programs, we always advise campuses to have the following six strategies in place before they launch a student search program. These elements form a critical foundation that will support and strengthen the search itself.

1. Be prepared to follow up immediately with new inquiries.

When a student inquires, your institution or your student search firm should send an email fulfillment instantly and any paper fulfillment should be mailed within 24 hours of the inquiry. You also should have a specific plan for continuing communications with these prospective students.

You may already have a standard inquiry communications flow, but at the minimum we suggest that new search inquiries receive the following within the first 90 days:

  • An introductory brochure about your institution.
  • A series of emails (every other week is appropriate) that highlight your key marketing messages.
  • An introductory letter to parents of the inquiry.
  • A TUMAY (Tell Us More About You) card or electronic response mechanism that allows students to provide additional information about themselves for your CRM. A more sophisticated version of this strategy is to ask one or two self-disclosure questions at a time, providing multiple opportunities to engage with the inquiry.
  • An invitation for a campus visit or to a campus event.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Enrollment Management, Marketing, Student Recruitment Tagged With: college marketing ideas, college marketing strategy, college student search program, effective student marketing, Full-service direct marketing for higher education, higher ed marketing, how to recruit college students, how to recruit students for college, Noel-Levitz direct, student search, successful college student search program, university marketing strategy

Using senior search to generate more college applications

May 1, 2014 by Pegi Anton Leave a Comment

Co-written with Andrea Gilbert.

When talking about student search, campuses usually think about search campaigns for high school sophomores and juniors. However, colleges and universities can also have success generating applications and enrollment with a focused senior search.

In many respects, a senior search is very similar to a traditional search for sophomores and juniors. You buy fresh names of seniors, develop a search campaign for them, and engage as many inquiries as possible. At the same time, the compressed period for a senior search does require campuses to adjust their traditional search strategies as there is much less time for relationship building. The list purchase in particular needs to be comprised of qualified leads who can quickly turn into inquiries, applicants, and enrolled students.

I can illustrate an effective senior search campaign by discussing how one of our Noel-Levitz Direct marketing campus partners, Midwestern State University, conducted one.

Building a qualified senior list through predictive modeling

Midwestern State University is a regional four-year institution that, prior to working with us, had declining local enrollment. It suffered from limited brand awareness and was squeezed between two large metropolitan markets that were within a two-hour drive. The campus had an immediate need to boost enrollment, which meant increasing the application pool as quickly as possible.  A senior search would be an ideal strategy.

However, given budgets and the shortened time frame of a senior search, campuses have to be very strategic about the names that they buy. Frankly, we do not recommend conducting a senior search without some kind of predictive modeling qualification. Predictive modeling allows an institution to use advanced statistical analytics to assess the likelihood of a prospective student enrolling. For a senior search, this means a campus can zero in on prospects who have a good chance of not only applying, but enrolling if accepted, which makes for a much stronger list purchase.

That’s what Midwestern State did. They used the Noel-Levitz SMART Approach system, which applies a predictive model to the data-rich NRCCUA database of high school students. This allowed them to cultivate names that had a higher propensity to enroll and that had other desired characteristics as well. Not only did Midwestern State use this method to uncover senior prospects in their traditional markets, they also found students in new markets they would have otherwise overlooked.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Campus Case Study, Enrollment Management, Marketing, Student Recruitment, Technology Tagged With: college direct marketing, college enrollment marketing, college marketing strategy, direct marketing, effective student marketing, higher ed marketing, higher education marketing strategies, higher education marketing strategy, marketing ideas to increase college enrollment, marketing plan for a college, marketing plan for a university, nl direct, Noel-Levitz direct, senior search strategies, student search, using senior search to generate college applications

Enhancing an effective college communication flow with value proposition-centered messaging

April 10, 2014 by Charles Ramos Leave a Comment

Understanding what makes students and parents tick is one of the major requirements for an effective recruitment strategy. Even a “perfect” communications plan will yield minimal results if it lacks research about which items and issues influence your market. Such knowledge can guide how your campus should communicate with families and dictate a messaging strategy that helps to enforce your institution’s perceived value and worth.

For instance, colleges and universities have long pushed institutional fit as much as academic quality and outcomes, but this higher education market—along with all the other challenges it presents us—is not like those of the past. Today the market is far more consumer-minded. Although fit is still an important factor, it comes into play only after an institution is able to prove its ability to provide a strong return on investment. Even having struggled through the most recent recession, the market—based on the following National Student Clearinghouse research—did not waiver as experts had anticipated in the years immediately after the downturn.

Enrollment_by_Control

Click to enlarge.

Enrollment_by_Sector

Click to enlarge.

The trends have continued in recent years, too. The latest data from the National Clearinghouse show that, between 2011-13, enrollments have increased slightly at four-year private colleges and universities, remained relatively flat at four-year public campuses, and declined at two-year public institutions.

The pundits had predicted that students/families would turn away from the more expensive option of private education for public post-secondary institutions, and for some students to enroll at two-year institutions at a higher rate. Interestingly, no real shift occurred, as the above graphs indicate. What does this begin to tell us? For one, families are willing to sacrifice for their child’s college education, even if it means choosing private over public, or public four-year over two-year. In no way is this meant to state that one institution type is better than another, but it does show that the impact of perceived value that families place on postsecondary institutions stays true even through a period of extreme economic distress.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Enrollment Management, Marketing, Student Recruitment Tagged With: college marketing ideas, effective college communication flow, effective student marketing, enhancing effective college communication, higher ed marketing, higher education marketing, higher education marketing strategies, higher education marketing strategy, student recruitment strategies, student recruitment strategy

Incorporating new strategies to increase response for college direct marketing

November 7, 2013 by Pegi Anton 5 Comments

Co-written with Michael Lofstead, Senior Consultant, Noel-Levitz

How can you maximize the responsiveness of your direct marketing campaigns? You can start by giving students more opportunities to respond.

Strategies such as retargeting can give your traditional direct marketing efforts a boost by increasing your brand awareness and giving students another avenue to connect with your campus.

Strategies such as retargeting can give your traditional direct marketing efforts a boost by increasing your brand awareness and giving students another avenue to connect with your campus.

That’s a simple answer for an admittedly complex subject, but it’s also a strong philosophy to follow when it comes to campus direct marketing. The more opportunities you give students to connect with you, the greater the chance they will reach out.

As I have written before, direct marketing should be a process and not an event. When we work with college campuses through Noel-Levitz Direct, we conduct coordinated, creative mail and email campaigns throughout the year. We also devise strategies for connecting with fresh prospects as much as possible. The key is to develop marketing campaigns that build awareness of your campus, engage prospective students, and maintain a steady flow of students who apply and enroll.

It’s also important to branch out and augment traditional direct marketing methods with new initiatives that support and work with a college marketing campaign. For example, Noel-Levitz Direct conducted a campaign for a four-year private university that added another option for increasing campus brand awareness and lead generation: retargeting through paid interactive ads.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Marketing, Student Recruitment, Technology Tagged With: e-recruitment, higher ed direct marketing, higher ed direct marketing strategies, higher ed marketing, higher education direct marketing, higher education direct marketing strategies, higher education marketing, how retargeted ads work, new higher education marketing strategies, what is retargeting?

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