Posts Tagged ‘finding the right college fit’

Uncovered: Surprising Ways to Build a Stronger Bond with Prospective Students

May 20th, 2015

In our most recent nationally co-sponsored study, The Excitement Factor!, 12,000 college-bound students shared insights with us about the ways colleges made them feel welcomed and wanted. We uncovered a number of surprises that underscore opportunities for colleges to differentiate themselves and build a stronger bond with the students you are recruiting.
The most shocking discovery came when we asked students if the colleges they were considering had taken a personal interest in them at any point in the recruiting process. Two-thirds said “No” or “Don’t Remember” and in our view “Don’t remember” is the same as “No.” (You can DOWNLOAD the full report now.) Those who did experience personal interest from colleges were very specific in recalling who, what and how that interest was conveyed and how it laid the foundation for a relationship with the college that would lead to their enrollment.

Handwritten notes impress.

Pen and paper seems so “1980’s,” so who would ever guess that Millennials and Gen-Z’s would respond favorably to handwritten notes? But they do! Numerous students shared stories about the “handwritten” notes they had received from admissions counselors, professors, alumni, other students, tour guides and coaches. These notes left a lasting impression and made them feel special (exactly how someone SHOULD feel about the college of their choice). One student summed it up, “Getting a personal letter from a professor I met on campus made me feel like they really wanted me. It was handwritten and he referred back to the conversation we had. That’s when I felt [the college] was the right fit for me.”

The right email CAN have big impact

Perhaps you have heard or taken part in the ongoing debate of the effectiveness of email communications from colleges to prospective students. The study definitely uncovered many nuances in students’ feelings about the subject. And, yes, just as you have suspected, a barrage of impersonal emails cluttering one’s inbox is NOT an effective recruitment tactic. However, well-crafted, personalized emails can be very meaningful and can contribute to building a bond between the student and college. Students cited examples of emails they received that impacted their college decision:

“My admissions counselor emailed me a birthday card. None of my friends got that kind of attention from the colleges they were looking at.”
“After we talked to a professor during a campus visit, my mom and I both got emails from her telling us how much she enjoyed meeting us. That was a deciding factor for me.”
“It seemed like they really knew me. I got emails and invites for campus events and activities that interested me.”

Cultivate the influencers – they may be in unexpected places

You already know that many students are persuaded to attend a particular college because of friends or family members. As a matter of fact, nearly 40% of students participating in The Excitement Factor! study told us that their college choice was influenced by where a parent or sibling attended. But, we also discovered other outside influencers you need to know. Students described interactions with student teachers at their junior and senior high schools, faculty and staff members they met at various summer camps and academic competitions, and even shopkeepers at local stores as individuals who played a significant role in their college selection.

Get and use actionable data

Successful admission professionals know that creating a connection with a student can greatly increase his or her commitment to the college and improve the likelihood of enrollment. They know that building a relationship and continually strengthening a bond is crucial. We will be exploring this subject in great detail in our next national co-sponsored study, “The Relationship Dynamic: How prospective students form a relationship with your college, and why it matters in your ability to grow and control enrollment.” Join a consortium of some of the most highly-respected colleges and universities in the country to find out how YOUR OWN pool of prospective students have or have not formed a relationship with you. Co-sponsors find our studies valuable because of the wealth of information they gain– information they can use to drive action and change. For detailed information, colleges can download detailed information about the study by CLICKING HERE.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

Karen Full is a highly-respected higher education professional who has held positions in admissions and enrollment management at several institutions in the Midwest and Florida. With her vast experience working with large and small, public and private colleges, Karen brings a valuable perspective to her role as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company.Call Karen at 913/492.1265 x.711 or email her at kfull@longmire-co.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KarenAFull.

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Posted in Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Customer service, Research

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success brand management college college admissions college branding college enrollment college presidents college recruiting college recruitment customer service training enrollment management finding the right college fit higher ed higher education marketing higher education strategies higher education value longmire and company Longmire and Company study recruiting value proposition yield enhancement

Longmire Launches Higher Ed Study To Explore Relationship-Building with Prospective Students

May 18th, 2015

[What follows is a guest post by Mark Thompson based on his interview with Bob Longmire, President of Longmire and Company. The topic of the interview centers on Longmire and Company’s national higher education co-sponsored study now in preparation for launch.]

I have a confession to make: As a former enrollment management guy, I love the college admissions game. Even after more than 20 years of an often grueling schedule, sleepless nights and, sometimes, unreasonable demands, I still believe that it is one of the most fulfilling and exhilarating professions you can choose. Today, I am a teacher and that is also a very gratifying profession. I still follow higher ed closely, periodically advise colleges, and write about this ever-changing industry.

I recently sat down with Bob Longmire, President of Longmire and Company, to talk about the company’s latest co-sponsored study it is launching. It’s called, “The Relationship Dynamic: How prospective students form a relationship with your college, and why it matters in your ability to grow and control enrollment.”

Mark Thompson: Longmire and Company has been serving higher-education for over 25 years and, since 2009, conducting these co-sponsored studies that always seem to discover something new about the industry and prospective students. I know that many colleges participate in these studies year after year and the findings get widely reported. What makes them so popular?

Bob Longmire: We actually started doing the co-sponsored studies to meet a need in the industry that just wasn’t being addressed. There are issues and hot topics that constantly emerge in higher education recruitment and marketing, and professionals in the industry need to stay on top of them. They want to know how these issues will impact the industry as well as their own college. They want information that will help them identify opportunities to differentiate themselves in the higher ed marketplace.

It can be very expensive for an individual college or university to do the scope of research needed to get the answers and insight we get. But by co-sponsoring with other institutions they get the best of both worlds: data and insight about their pool of prospective students coupled with a national picture, getting a very comprehensive study for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to do it on their own.

As I recall, the concept for your just-concluded study, “The Excitement Factor!” was sparked by a discovery you made in a prior study. What was the genesis of this new study, “The Relationship Dynamic”?

The launch of the “Relationship” study was sparked by a key finding in the “Excitement Factor” study. We found that a student’s excitement about attending a college – and their ultimate enrollment – is driven, in large part, on the connections they make with current students, professors, admission counselors, tour guides, coaches and others on and off campus. We were able to measure how complex and powerful relationship-building is in student recruitment. Now, we want to put on our sales and marketing hats and drill down into how relationships get cultivated through personal interaction, mass communication, social networking and so on.

College admissions professionals already know how important it is to build a relationship with prospective students, what will they learn from this study that is new to them?

We all know that a student’s college selection is tied closely to the strength of the relationship they build with a college over time. And we know that creating relationships is a multifaceted, nuanced and crucial part of student recruitment. But the real question college admissions teams want answered is, “What can we do to create powerful relationships with our prospective students in all aspects of our recruitment efforts? What methods create the strongest bonds? Is it social media, personal contact with admissions counselors, professors, other students, high school counselors, or something else entirely? And, how can we involve all influencers, on or off campus, in the development of rich relationships with our prospective students?” We intend to answer those questions and more in this study.

There is so much research already out there in the world of higher ed. How is this different?

There is no doubt that as an industry we capture a lot of data about students and how they select colleges and what influences them. What differentiates our studies is their focus on the emotional factors that drive college selection. Facts tell but emotions sell. The other factor that distinguishes all of our co-sponsored studies is our focus on providing highly actionable-data that colleges can use immediately. There is “nice-to-know” data that provides context and there is “need-to-know” data that drives action. We get need-to-know data that’s going to change a college’s approach, process, and bottom-line.

What types of institutions are involved in the study?

Four-year, not-for-profit public and private universities and two-year community colleges from across the country. All shapes and sizes.

What’s the timeline?

We are bringing colleges on board with this study now!

How does a college participate as a co-sponsor?

Just call us. It’s really easy. The co-sponsoring college doesn’t have to do much other than provide us with data on the students they want to include. We take it from there.

For detailed information, colleges can download detailed information about the study by CLICKING HERE.

Trouble playing video? Click here.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information. You can reach Bob Longmire at (913) 492-1265, ext 709 or at blongmire@longmire-co.com. Connect with Bob at Linkedin/in/boblongmire.

Mark Thompson is a seasoned and highly-successful higher education professional who has held positions in enrollment management at large and small, public and private institutions including The Ohio State University, Thiel College, Defiance College and other institutions. He follows and writes about developments in the field of higher education enrollment management. He can be reached at (419) 789-1637 or markthompson412@gmail.

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Posted in Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Organizational development, Research

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions success college admissions college branding college enrollment college presidents college recruiting enrollment management finding the right college fit higher ed higher education marketing higher education strategies longmire longmire and company Longmire and Company study yield enhancement

Celebrate Decision Day! Then, Use These Insights to Move Forward

April 28th, 2015

What are your plans for May 1, aka College Decision Day? Here is our suggestion: First, give yourself and your team kudos for the months of hard work and the outstanding efforts you put forth to serve the students you recruited while building the best possible incoming class. Next, celebrate those great new students that will be joining your campus family this fall. And then, if you are like the majority of college admissions teams across the country, you’ll go right back to work to secure more admitted students because there is still much work to do.

The truth is that most colleges don’t meet their enrollment goals by May 1. According to the “2014 Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Admissions Directors,” only 39% of colleges met their target enrollment by Decision Day in 2014 and industry insiders are projecting that even fewer will do so this year.

decision_day For college admissions counselors and enrollment managers facing this challenge, we have some good news and important insights gleaned from our latest co-sponsored study, The Excitement Factor! Of the 12,000 students participating in the study, 20% committed to the college of their choice after the first of May.

The late enrollers shared many of the same attributes as their peers, of course. But there were some areas where we found distinct differences that may help you in your outreach efforts.

Excitement about Attending: Late enrollers don’t have as high of level of excitement about the college they select and are far less likely to experience a feeling of connection with the college than early enrollers.
College Visits and Applications: Students who enrolled later were far less likely to have visited or toured the college they selected than their peers. Actually, they generally applied to and toured far fewer campuses than the students who made their decision sooner.
Family Ties: Late enrolling students are more likely to choose a college that a family member has attended than other students.
The Cost Factor: The students who enrolled later indicated that cost was slightly more important to them than the students that made their decision earlier.

The late enrollers tended to have lower SAT scores than other students, but otherwise there were no large variances found in the demographics or psychographics of the two groups.

As you review the pool of students still available to you, keep these things in mind. We know that excitement that about attending is a more powerful driver of college selection than cost or perceived quality of the institution and that a tour of your campus can create excitement. Are there students in your pool who haven’t visited your campus yet?

Have you identified potential students with a family connection to your college? In The Excitement Factor!, four in ten students told us that their college choice was influenced by where a parent or sibling attended and late enrollers are even more likely to gravitate to the college that has a family tie for them.

And lastly, if you are looking for a way to really connect with these potential students, we suggest that you make them feel wanted. Two-thirds of college-bound students told us that the colleges they were considering had not taken a personal interest in them at any point in the recruiting process. You may have heard the saying that “someone may forget what you said and forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Showing a personal interest in a student makes them feel good about the college and it has a strong positive correlation to yield.

We help colleges and universities with their recruiting efforts every day, especially now during yield season. If we can help you, please let me know.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. For more information about Longmire and Company’s Interactive Counselor Training Program, click here. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

Karen Full is a highly-respected higher education professional who has held positions in admissions and enrollment management at several institutions in the Midwest and Florida. With her vast experience working with large and small, public and private colleges, Karen brings a valuable perspective to her role as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. Call Karen at 913/492.1265 x.711 or email her at kfull@longmire-co.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KarenAFull.

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Posted in Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Uncategorized

Tags: admission counselor training admissions admissions counselors admissions customer service admissions success college college admissions college decision day college enrollment college presidents college recruiting college recruitment customer service training enrollment enrollment management finding the right college fit higher ed higher education branding higher education strategies

Psychographic Segmentation: How Personality Traits Impact a Student’s College Selection (Part 2)

April 23rd, 2015

[This is the second in our two-part series on the use of psychographic segmentation to frame your communications with prospective students.]

Psychographic segmentation is an effective strategy that can be indispensable in higher education and can impact every stage of your funnel. Using this approach can be a very powerful tool in your mass marketing efforts and will make the conversations that your counselors have with students far more meaningful and persuasive.

In Part 1, we focused on segmenting students by their fact-based or excitement-based decision making. Now, let’s delve into psychographic segments based on students’ personality traits; how the relationship between specific personality types are associated with what they desire in a college and what communications strategies are most successful in moving the needle of their excitement.

What can you learn from psychographic segmentation?

The 12,000 students who participated in our newly-released study, The Excitement Factor!, identified their personality traits for us. Then, we asked them to specify what they want in a college.

Through statistical analysis, we uncovered four distinct personality types. We labeled them as follows:

Warm and trusting (23%): Easygoing, warm, caring and trusting
Assertive extrovert (19%): Spontaneous, risk-taker, assertive, social and extroverted
Skeptical introvert (40%): Private, introverted and skeptical
Analytical perfectionist (18%): Analytical, ordered and a perfectionist

We also explored the associations of those segments with the type of college students say they most desire.

Warm and trusting: Career-oriented, friendly, values, safe, personal and affordable.
Assertive extrovert: Social, career-oriented, fun, exciting, friendly, values, safe, personal, affordable and sports.
Skeptical introvert: Diverse and liberal.
Analytical perfectionist: Prestigious, challenging and well-known.

In addition to analyzing the association between personality type and desired college environment, we examined associations with personality types and the most effective communications methods. For example, we found that “warm and trusting” types are more responsive to Facebook than any other personality group. And, whereas both “warm and trusting” and “assertive extrovert” types will respond positively to text messages from a college, the “analytical perfectionist” will likely be turned off by that style of communication.

Imagine the power of knowing the personality traits of each student in your funnel. Admissions counselors can have a fuller understanding of each student they talk to so they can serve them best. They can know what they want and why. They can know how an individual student makes decisions and how to frame a value proposition that will most resonate with that person. A college that gathers this information early in the recruiting cycle (for instance, now for the Class of 2016) can tailor every communication with a prospective student in a highly-personalized way that will dramatically improve the quality and richness of your communication with them.

To do this, many of of the colleges we work with use our Yield Enhancement System (YES) to uncover buying decision and personality-type segmentation. The intelligence uncovered is highly-valuable at every phase of the recruiting cycle, including the final weeks of the yield season. Some admission offices successfully use this information for more effective one-on-one interactions. Others fully-integrate the information into all communications by attaching a segment code to each record in a CRM system, thereby providing the trigger to drive specific types of appeals delivered through conversation, email, on-campus interactions, and so on.

The release of The Excitement Factor! is creating a great deal of thought-provoking discussion among enrollment managers and higher education marketing professionals. The project uncovered a wealth of highly valuable information on how your ability to create student excitement about your college can drive your enrollment. You can DOWNLOAD the report now.

Bob Longmire is President of Longmire and Company, Inc. He is a recognized expert on the topic of how prospective students and parents form their college selection decisions – and how colleges can use that knowledge to grow and control their enrollment. He can be reached at (913) 492-1265, ext 709 or at blongmire@longmire-co.com. Connect with Bob at Linkedin/in/boblongmire.