Facts from the National Bureau of Economic Research show that in times of economic downturns, there’s traditionally been a marked increase in enrollment at institutions of higher education.[1] But it’s not new high school grads who make up the bulk of new enrollees in downturns, it’s adult learners.[2]
Unfortunately, many economists are now predicting that an economic downturn could indeed be on the horizon. And because if it, many adults will be turning to higher education to learn new marketable skills. Thankfully, your institution could be the solution they turn to.
But to increase your odds of enrolling these potential new students, you’ll need to outcompete other schools and programs for their attention and be among the first to contact them directly.
Today, Conversion Media Group, a leader in higher-education lead generation and enrollment initiatives, offers you five things your school’s marketing team can do, right now, to help boost enrollment. Keep in mind, these five tips can, and should be, employed under any economic circumstances.
Here’s what your team should do:
First, and this is an absolute must, you have to create compelling weekly content that your prospective students want to read. This includes blogs, emails, and video, to start. Your content should put the prospect in an emotional place where they can see themselves not only at your school, but the future your school can potentially afford them.
Second, you should capture your website visitor data, see which programs individual visitors were looking at, how much time they are spending on specific pages and remarket to them with ads for that same program. Additionally, you should present your visitors with a really good reason for them to give you their mobile phone number and/or email address… then go back to step 1 with your email content or mobile content if that is their preferred method of communication.
Third, each and every program you offer will have a different kind of student. So, all of your materials should be targeted towards the prospective student that fits the “avatar”, or generalized prospect profile, for each particular program. If you offer certifications in HVAC, for example, don’t use the type of language that a student looking for a Masters in English would want to read. Speak to your prospects as if you’re one of them yourself.
Fourth, use not only your own data and ad platform provided data for targeting, but localized, geotargeted search and trend data as well. If you’re a brick-and-mortar only facility that offers hands on training, this is very important. Now, you may need a data expert to help with this – Conversion Media Group can assist you – but you should use search trends in your area to discover which programs you should be advertising for. If you’re an online based school, you should target localized areas with localized data.
Fifth, and most importantly, utilize live call transfers.
This is where Conversion Media Group really shines. We’re higher-ed lead-gen experts who can deliver live, hot transfers directly to you… Right from our US based contact centers.
Live call transfers are individuals we have on the phone, live, who are ready to speak directly with you, and want to learn more about your programs.
How do we do it?
Well, besides incorporating all four tips above (and many more), we start with individuals that have opted in with us, to hear about furthering their education…
And are continually learning even more about your program(s) from our representatives.
Those prospective students are delivered directly into our dialer, in real time. We separate those that want to hear from your school at a later time from those that want to talk to your enrollment team immediately.
For those who want to talk to you immediately, we do a live handoff directly to one of your enrollment agents; where in many cases, these prospects are ready to become your students at that very moment.
You see, our job is to find prospective students for you. And find them we do. We have the ability to deliver thousands of hot, live transfer leads every month straight into the phones at your enrollment department.
In fact, we’re known industrywide for having overdelivered at times with too many calls. But don’t worry, if we are pacing hot we can always scale back (or you can scale up).
If you’re looking to increase enrollment at your institution, in any economy, live transfer leads are the number one way to do it. And Conversion Media Group is your number one partner to do it with!
See exactly what Conversion Media Group can do for you by calling us today at 1-800-419-3201 or email us at [email protected].
Or you can contact us HERE and one of our expert, live transfer lead generation experts will get back with you asap.
[1] The Financial Crisis and College Enrollment: How Have Students and Their Families Responded? | NBER
[2] How the great recession affected higher education (hechingerreport.org)