Implementing an Enrollment Management Model for OnLine Degree Programs

David Ruderman
Vice President of Education Marketing
Greenwood & Hall

You are thinking about expanding your degree programs online? Or,? you are thinking of starting online degree programs. The research has been completed showing an opportunity in the marketplace due to economic times or to meet unmet demand. Back-end systems are in place for delivery of instruction. The enrollment management and marketing teams have been tasked to develop marketing plans and related back-end systems to generate and follow-up on leads. Basically the same process that would be employed for the introduction of any new program at your institution, right? Possibly not.

Competition for a share of prospective students’ attention is at an all-time high and is growing exponentially. It’s imperative that you have a systematic process in place to generate, qualify and move leads for on-line offerings through the enrollment pipeline – and systems in place to regularly evaluate and optimize the program.

Below is a checklist of best practices to grow your online programs. Work with your enrollment management team to ensure these are in place, or bring in experts to help you move forward.

• Work with an interactive firm that specializes in online lead generation, preferably with experience in education. Agencies with experience in traditional media are a plus, especially if you are marketing your online programs in your existing market area.
• Test keywords and creative to determine what’s working and what’s not on a regular basis. Randomize messaging and creative to test campaigns against each other.
• Define cost per lead and cost per start targets.
• Create and optimize landing pages to drive prospective students to inquiry status.
• Make sure your website provides the information prospective students need – and that it drives visitors to inquire.
• Create customer relationship management (CRM) systems to follow up on leads within 5 minutes of inquiry and to regularly communicate with prospective students.
• Implement systems to offer financial aid advising and student services 24/7.
• And, once they become students implement processes to regularly communicate with students to increase retention.

Food for thought in selecting an interactive marketing firm: Many interactive firms have experience with corporate clients, but do not have expertise working with the myriad lead aggregators and lead generation vendors. Many traditional advertising agencies promote their interactive expertise – but many traditional advertising agencies outsource interactive marketing to outside firms. you can do paid search, pay-per-lead and search engine optimization on your own, but it’s a complicated ever-changing evolving space.

Opportunities for growth of online programs are tremendous, but effectively generating leads requires specific marketing expertise that your current enrollment managers may not have. And, quick follow-up is essential – or prospective students move on to the next institution. Assess your capabilities and do not assume that because you have effective systems in place to recruit students on-ground that these can be directly transferred to online programs.

David Ruderman is Senior Vice President for Education Marketing at Greenwood & Hall, a leading provider of relationship management solutions to educational institutions and major non-profit organizations. For more information, visit www.greenwoodhall.com.