Bob Johnson's Blog on Higher Education Marketing

Student Recruitment: how green is the grass in your yard?

Sometimes you can't escape reading higher education RFPs for marketing services. And those RFPs provide interesting insight into the marketing challenges faced in both the public and private sectors and what people would like to do to meet them.

In the last 30 days I've read RFPs from a selective (but not Ivy League) private university and a large public university that were both planning to hire a marketing firm for assistance in meeting enrollment goals for traditional, residential students. Their problem: historically strong market areas were not producing as many students now as in the past. Their quest: where is the grass greener?

The goal: new students with more money

These schools did not want just any academically qualified students. The private university emphasized students who could afford to pay all or most of the sticker price costs. The public university wanted out-of-state students who would pay higher tuition levels.

And so with their traditional cultivation areas no longer producing the required crop, each place was about to embark on a search for greener pastures. Expand brand recognition and strength. Generate new inquiries. Enroll students from far away. Make more money.

5 Serious "Greener Grass" Problems

How many problems can we list with this "greener grass" strategy? Here are five that immediately come to mind:

• Many schools have the same idea. Will California export enough students to meet enrollment goals everywhere else, and especially in the Northeast?
• Is the budget large enough to support the imaginations at work here? More than one masterfully crafted brand campaign has floundered because the budget would not sustain the long-term effort needed to successfully cultivate brand strength in new markets.
• Is a focus on "full pay" students realistic? Whatever the proverbial "ability to pay," fewer families are willing to spend on high tuition for anything less than schools with top-tier reputations.
• Most students go less than 100 miles from home for higher education.
• Searching for greener grass might mean neglecting the home territory and leaving that open to traditional, near-by competitors.

5 steps for a "greener grass" student recruitment strategy

What elments of a "new" student recruitment enrollment strategy might work? Consider these:

• First, make sure that the yield from your primary enrollment territory is as high as possible. Strengthen what you can to increase yield without additional tuition discounting.
• Do a "pull power" analysis for your current academic majors. Calculate the percent of inquiries that apply and enroll for each major. With some exceptions (some majors are less likely to draw students from far away), programs with the highest "pull power" percents are the best bets for enrollment from new market areas.
• Make sure the high "pull power" programs have really strong website information easily available for students who visit to learn more about them.
• Starting in the high school sophomore year, conduct very focused searches for "greener grass" students around these strong majors, assuming that these are indeed the ones with open space for new students. The purpose of the search? Get students to visit the website pages for these programs. Make it easy to inquire from the academic pages. You're more likely to get students to visit your website than to become an inquiry directly from your search contact. (Keep the inquiry form simple like this one at Creighton.)
• Forget "full pay" and go for "lower than our usual tuition discount" scholarship students. Aim to improve the bottom line without creating an unrealistic financial barrier.

One absolutely essential point

Get those academic website pages in top-order for future students before you do anything else. That's likely to help right in your own backyard before you even start on your Lewis and Clark expedition for new territories.

That's all for now 

·  Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing

· Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html 

 

A September greeting to old and new subscribers as the new academic year begins. Many of you have already welcomed your new residential students. Best wishes for a final relaxing Labor Day weekend before the trek to Thanksgiving.

I am looking forward to visiting Dublin soon for our annual Customer Carewords partners meeting. We have a special focus on website task management this year. Already recorded is a webinar on mobile marketing strategy in higher education that will broadcast on September 22 as I fly back. Register (and send questions for response after I land) at bit.ly/bioy2P

The fall conference season begins right after Dublin with a visit to St. Louis for the TargetX iThink panel on September 30, as the NACAC conference gets underway.

After iThink comes the Carol Aslanian conference on marketing online program, a mobile marketing workshop at the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education and new Writing Right for the Web webinars with Academic Impressions. Dates and details are at the end of this newsletter.

Special for people in the Albany, N.Y. area: join me September 9 for the AMA Capital Region chapter lunch. Advance registration at www.nymarketing.org/

And now here are your marketing news and notes for September.
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Explore the Megalog: Viewbooks in the Electronic World

What will happen to the viewbook in student recruitment? The old viewbook designed for a first-time introduction to a college or university is dead. Your website is doing that for you now. But that does not mean that print has no place in a student recruitment communication plan.

What is a megalog? That is marketing-speak for an adaptation of the product catalog long mailed to home addresses, but no longer relevant in the same format in the online era. Today, the megalog includes basic product information but adds a heavy-dose of magazine-format story telling and aims for an emotional connection with the reader.

Create an updated plan for print after you read "Six Reasons Print Belongs in Your Media Mix" at bit.ly/b5tKA7

The "new" viewbook: photo album plus personal stories and minimal "product" content.
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Great Infographic: College in America

If you love important stats in an easy-to-read format, get right along to bit.ly/cfYOzu

The infographic includes data on retention rates by selectivity categories, most popular bachelor's and doctor's degrees, loan default rates, top universities in the world, and more.
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Boston Globe: Higher Ed Tuition Increase Rates are Not Patriotic

The Globe continues long-standing media attacks against tuition increases that far outstrip the inflation rate by "unpatriotic" schools that have "no conscience."

The paper has no sympathy for either private or public sector institutions.

Read another negative influence on the public standing of higher education at bit.ly/asFQS2
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New "College Only" Social Media Site Debuts

Remember the ancient days when Facebook was only for college students?

"College Only" founders hope to recreate that magic with a new site dedicated to "Connecting Student Bodies." Visit the home page from a link in the Mashable report at bit.ly/dAjejz
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Oxford English Dictionary: No Longer in Print?

The folks who publish this venerable pillar of civilization are preparing us now: after comparing online visits to the dictionary website with sales of the current print edition, it is unlikely that there will be a print version of the next edition.

Details are at bit.ly/dz4BV6
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College 2.0 in Asia

Plan now to follow a series of ongoing Chronicle reports on the state of high tech higher education in selected Asian countries, starting in Singapore and including India, China, and South Korea.

Start following increased global competition in the higher education marketplace when you read the introductory article at bit.ly/d9rtre
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Best Practices in Mobile Website Design

Whether you build mobile websites or just need to understand the challenges of those who do, be sure to read about 6 "notable differences" between mobile design and design for traditional websites.

My favorite: the emphasis on simplicity, or single-column design so that you do not force people into the ugly situation of having to scroll sideways to read your content.

To better communicate with web developers in the mobile world, visit bit.ly/cm6Y2g
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Writing Right for the Web: The Perils of Dense Copy and Small Fonts

Web visitors who complete our higher education CCI surveys are eager to answer this question: "If you could change one thing about our website, what would you change and why?"

Do you let people on your website change the font size on your pages?

Read quotes from survey takers about dense text and tiny font sizes when you visit bit.ly/cEJXQH
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Quiz to Create Stronger Landing Pages

If you do not yet subscribe to "Which Page Won" do that soon and start creating landing pages with stronger conversion strength.

You get to vote on which of two landing pages had the highest conversion rates, followed by comments from marketers about why they cast the vote they did. And, of course, the results from real tests are provided after you vote.

A recent result: do not worry about scrolling below the fold or putting the call to action low on the page. The more important point is initial engagement. Sign up at bit.ly/aTuYfv
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Change in the For-Profit Sector?

For-profit sector schools have been under intense scrutiny in Congress, fueled by concerns about the debt load of graduates. Recent "secret shopping" by the Department of Education also found recruitment practices that were not as truthful as expected.

One response from the University of Phoenix: people who were once called "recruiters" are now "admissions counselors" and their evaluation for compensation increases will change as well.

The Inside Higher Ed report details changes at other for-profit schools, including in some cases ending "ability to benefit" as a criterion for admission without a GED or high school diploma. The details are at bit.ly/cOa9mE
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Jakob Nielsen on Mobile Marketing

What web content is best suited for mobile and what is best left for regular websites?

That key question is answered by usability expert Jakob Nielsen in a video interview at bit.ly/cmIV0o

A major point here is that mobile sites are not good environments for in-depth web work. You really do need to keep "mobile" as simple as possible and assume that over the course of a recruitment cycle people will move back and forth between mobile and regular access, depending on the task at hand.
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Web Strategy Manager Position in Denver

My friends at Academic Impressions who bring us on-site and on-line conferences and webinars for higher education have an opening now for a Web Strategy Manager.

Check the details when you visit bit.ly/9tBa8S
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My Upcoming Conferences and Webinars in 2010

Attend an upcoming conference to share questions and answers with people like you who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me at these events.

September 22, webinar: American Marketing Association: "Mobile Marketing: Strategy Challenges for Advancement and Enrollment." Register for this no-cost event at bit.ly/bioy2P

September 30, TargetX: iThink student recruitment panel discussion. More info at bit.ly/aYAIzM

October 28-29, Education Dynamics - Carol Aslanian Marketing Online Programs Conference: "Integrating Social Media and Online Marketing" and "Best Practice Websites for Online Programs." Conference program and registration at bit.ly/If84W

November 7-10, American Marketing Association, Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education: Pre-conference tutorial, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Recruitment Communication Strategy." Follow the program at bit.ly/8YAhDV

November 18, webinar: Academic Impressions, "Writing Right for the Web." Details are coming soon.

December 9, webinar: Academic Impressions, Advanced "Writing Right for the Web" with special focus on creating and editing content for social media and mobile sites.

Increase ROI from your online marketing. Expand the writing, editing, and search marketing skills of people on your campus. Host a campus workshop on online marketing.

Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
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That's All for Now

Be a marketing champion on your campus.

Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
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Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC

Increase your online marketing success with these 6 services.
• Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
• Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops
• Marketing Communications Website Review
• Competitive Website Reviews
• Content Copywriting Services
• Usability Analysis

Start now at www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/whatwedo.html

Writing Right for the Web: Carewords Quotes on Font Size and Content Density

We added an option for an open-ended question to Customer Centric Index (CCI) surveys about 9 months ago. That feature has been far more popular than anticipated. At least 50 percent and sometimes over 70 percent of the survey respondents answer this question:

• "If you could change one thing about our website, what would you change and why would you change it?"

And so hundreds of visitors to higher education websites are adding comments that expand on the regular survey statisitics. These web visitors come from a variety of audiences: alumni, future students, current students, faculty and staff, and parents. Whatever the background, their recommendations are remarkably similar.

Dense Blocks of Text Drive People Away

When people first come to a web page, they scan quickly in search of content that interests them. Dense blocks of text make that difficult, often impossible, to do.

You can't force people to read.

Every page on your website... every page... should include subheads and bullet points that quickly communicate the key points of the page in 5-seconds or less. Keep paragraphs to no more than 5 or 6 lines of text. Keep most sentences as simple as possible. Hint: If you have to use semi-colons, your sentence is getting too long.

The first paragraph on a page is an especially bad place to "go long" on content presentation.

In their own words, here are responses from some of our CCI survey takers:

• "Simplify the page content, because I'm coming to learn something in particular, rather than to read a book, per se. I like books, just not on web sites."
• "Easier to read with less paragraphs and more bullets."
• "Some of the pages have too many words on them."
• "There is too much plain text on the home page. It would be better to give brief explanations and have links for further information."

Font Size: Don't Make Them Squint... Give Visitors Control

This might seem really basic but many websites need to pay more attention to the size of the font  used to present content in the center of the page. Of course, different people can reasonably prefer different font sizes. One solution: an easy-to-see tool that lets visitors increase or decrease the font size on whatever page they are reading.

• "Have bigger print, because the print is a little too small right now. It is harder to read with small print."
• "I would make the font size a little bigger because my friends and I have to look close on the screen."
• "Some of the font is too small and should be enlarged."

Especially for Mobile Websites

Everything here about content density and font size is even more important on mobile-friendly websites that people will access from small screens on their smartphones.

That's all for now.

• Ask me about a CCI survey for your school at bob@bobjohnsonsulting.com or call me at 248.766.6425
• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

 

 

 

 

Mobile websites: marketing for student recruitment not yet a strong feature

Since the 2010 Noel-Levitz E-Expectations survey came out not long ago, more than a few people seem surprised by two points: the high level of interest on the part of potential students in learning what academic programs are offered and the high number (about 23%) who said they were visiting higher education websites from mobile phones.

That's the new and growing reality: more people are using mobile devices to access websites. And the rate of use will increase as more "mobile friendly" sites are built. 

Interest in academic programs shouldn't be a surprise either. You can't expect possible new students of any age to be interested in your school if you don't offer the academic program(s) that interest them. For many new visitors, their most important first task at your site is to find that program list.

"Academics" on the Mobile Home Page

Getting quickly to a list of academic programs isn't always easy from the home page on traditional websites. This week I decided to see how easy it was from the home (or entry) page on mobile sites. Nothing "scientific" about this. I looked at 7 universities available on the MobileAwesomeness site for an initial sample and then added more that were on the first page of a Google search for "university mobile websites."

The result: you can't get direct from the home page to something like "academic programs" from most of these sites. Navigation itself is simple: you scan a group of icons (sometimes) or a list of words (most often) and start to navigate the site. See for yourself when you visit the sites listed here.

Academics from the Mobile Home Page (or an immediately available "menu" from the home page)

· College of Charleston at http://m.cofc.edu: "Academic" is 2nd of 8 primary links.

· University of Evansville at www.evansville.edu/mobile/: "Areas of Study" is 4th of 9 links.

· University of Chicago at www.uchicago.edu/m: "Academics" is 3rd of 13 menu links. 

No "Academics" or "Academic Programs" Link for the Mobile Home Page

· Colgate University at http://mobile.colgate.edu: missing from 12 topics.

· Duke University at http://m.tamu.edu/: not with 11 links.

· Pittsburgh State University at http://m.pittstate.edu: not among 8 links.

· Texas A&M University at http://m.tamu.edu/: not with 7 topics.

· University of Alabama at http://m.ua.edu/i: not one of 11 topics.

· University of Southern California at http://mobile.usc.edu: not one of 9 topics.

· University of Texas Austin at http://mobile.utexas.edu/: not with 11 links.

· University of Texas Dallas at www.utdallas.edu/mobile: not among 5 topics.

Notes: Mobile for Student Recruitment

 

When you read the topics that are included on these home pages, one natural conclusion is that the highlighted content areas are done primarily for internal use or for other people who are already "friends" of the university. The "marketing" element, especially as it applies to student recruitment, isn't yet strong.

That's easy to change. Adding a prominent link to "Academics" or "Academic Programs" would fit easily enough on most of these sites. Right now there isn't much pressure to do that. If mobile devices continue to grow in importance as access tools to higher education websites, that's likely to change.

Get ahead of your competition. Plan to add a link to a list of "Academic Programs" on your mobile home page soon. 

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb2010 version of my mobile marketing workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Mobile Marketing with the American Marketing Association: September 22

Register for "Getting to the Core of of Social Media and Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions" virtual event.

That's all for now 

·  Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing

· Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html 

 

 

Mobile Marketing: Register for the No-Cost Sept 22 AMA Virtual Event for Higher Ed

Yesterday was the "finish day" for my September mobile marketing presentation at the American Marketing Association's virtual spectacular: "Getting to the Core of Social Media & Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions." We are recording this in advance next week as I'll be flying back from Dublin and our annual Customer Carewords partners meeting on the AMA date.

My time share is 45 minutes... so it was quite fun revisiting the mobile marketing workshop for eduWeb2010 and reducing that 3-hour session to fit the reduced time. 'Tis done and time to share thoughts from the shrinking and updating process.

Here are some things that stand out:

• The question of mobile apps vs. mobile sites is misleading. Fact is, a complete mobile marketing plan will likely have both elements. But if you can only do one, better to create a mobile-friendly site similar to what the College of Charleston has done. Search for C of C from your favorite mobile device (I used an iPhone) and enjoy the mobile friendly results. Or just enter the regular URL (http://www.cofc.edu/) and the website will sniff out that you are using a mobile device and switch you into the mobile site.
• I came across a video interiew with Jakob Nielsen that is well worth watching. Nielsen makes a point that's especially worth remembering: some tasks just are not suited to the mobile environment. He believes in-depth product searches and complicated financial transactions are best done on regular websites accessed from regular computers.
• The Nielsen note is important for higher education. You can, for instance, build an easy-to-find list of your academic programs for mobile access (right from the C of C mobile home page) but at some point you'll be tempted to link back to your regular website for complete information. At that point, mobile usability will plunge.
• Simplicity is key to mobile-friendly form completion. I use a webinar example from Kettering University for an inquiry from a potential student: all that's needed is an email address.
• Finding higher education examples of "mobile for advancement" tasks isn't easy, although I haven't yet checked to see if College of Charleston has included any on its new site. I did find one example: an offer to alumni to sign for text message updates for athletic events at MidAmerica Nazrene University.

That's enough on mobile marketing for today.

When you visit the AMA site to register, you'll see another mobile presentation from Kim Dushinski, author of the Mobile Marketing Handbook. I recommend visiting her website and signing up for Kim's regular mobile marketing updates.

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb2010 version of my mobile marketing workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Mobile Marketing with the American Marketing Association: September 22

Register for "Getting to the Core of of Social Media and Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions" virtual event.

That's all for now 

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html 

 

Mobile Mrketing: Invest in Mobile Apps or a Mobile Website?

At both the ACT and eduWeb mobile marketing workshop sessions in July, a popular question was this: Should we first invest in mobile apps or should we be creating a "mobile-friendly" website?

Wise people differ on the answer. 

The Urge for an App

Apps are best done for special events that can range from virtual tours to campus transit instructions and time tables to specific marketing campaigns. An individual app done for mobile is easier to do than reconstructing an entire website. And after all, there's an app for just about everything anyone wants to do online, isn't there?

Advertising can make it seem as if apps are the "must have" element in mobile marketing. Yes and no. Research says that few people regularly use more than a few apps, no matter how many they download.

The Need for a Mobile-Friendly Site by 2011

If limited resources force you to make a choice, I'm in the camp that says work on creating a mobile-friendly version of your regular website and have that ready by mid-point 2011.

Don't do apps if doing them means postponing work on a website that will please people who access it from a mobile phone. We are not talking about iPads here. The mobile device that people are most likely to use to get to your site are iPhones and Androids. Maybe Blackberry. Check your analytics report to see what people are using now and track that growth every month from now until December.

Consider this from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in July:

• 65 percent of people 18 to 29 years old use their smartphone to access the Internet. Just under 50 percent of people 30 to 39 do the same. Expect those numbers to grow.

Top Tasks for Mobile: Student Recruitment

For the best marketing impact, you won't be able to get away with "mangling down" (thanks to Drew Stevenson, University of Minnesota for that great phrase) your regular website. Instead, you'll have to make difficult choices about the content that's most needed by people visiting your site and make that the main focus of your mobile efforts. That will force more attention in navigation to the top tasks people want to complete on your site. Consider these for student recruitment:

• Read a list of academic programs available
• Calculate the net cost to attend your school
• Register for a campus visit
• Make an inquiry
• Check application status
• Pay an enrollment deposit

Example of a Mobile-Ready Site: College of Charleston

The task is daunting but far from impossible. College of Charleston says it has adapted 95 percent of its regular website for mobile access. Frankly, that almost seems more than necessary. Adaptation to mobile just might be a great time to identify those seldom-visited pages on your regular website that people can't bear to remove. Mark them as "not needed for mobile" and focus instead on your most used pages.

Visit the College of Charleston mobile site. Start by reading the description of the change and then use your smartphone to see just how well it works. One of the first things you'll note: you don't have to "finger flick" to make the type large enough to read when you arrive at a page.

The Charleston site makes a strong first impression. That first "curb appeal" of your site, mobile or not, will help or hinder the success of your marketing efforts.

Expect more "notes on mobile" soon.

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb version of my mobile marketing workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Mobile Marketing with the American Marketing Association

Register for "Getting to the Core of of Social Media and Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions" webinar after you check the September 22 topic list. I'll be speaking on strategy for an effective mobile marketing effort.

That's all for now 

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html 

August brings a welcome hiatus to a busy July conference season.

Review several of the July presentations (Mobile in the Marketing Mix, International Student Recruitment, Websites for Graduate Student Recruitment and more) from the ACT Enrollment Planners Conference, eduWeb2010 and Carol Aslanian's Graduate Marketing Seminar online. Visit www.slideshare.net/bestbob

Look for more on mobile marketing in an AMA webinar in September and a 3-hour tutorial at the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education in November. Registration details are coming soon.

A new book by my Carewords partner Gerry McGovern was published in July. Read the first chapter in The Stranger's Long Neck and order a copy at www.gerrymcgovern.com/sln-buy.htm

And now here are your marketing news and notes for August.
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11 Schools on Financial Aid Honor Roll

Princeton Review is out with another college ratings list, with financial aid scores of 60 to 99 for 606 schools based in part these criteria: percent of students with need who received aid, percent of need met, and percent of students whose need was met in full.

Ratings in include an honor roll of 11 schools with a score of 99 points. The alpha listing starts with Bowdoin College and ends with Williams College.

Find more on the awards and the other 9 honor roll schools at bit.ly/cnNBxZ
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E-Expectations 2010 Survey Results

E-Expectations results for 2010 went online in July and are already making the conference rounds. As always, different people will find different things of special interest.

One item this year is getting special notice: about 23 percent of college-bound seniors visited a college or university site from a smartphone. Have you tried that lately with your site? Couple that number with the finding that over 20 percent of these students who have an unpleasant web experience when first visiting a higher ed website will drop that school from consideration.

Results like these may help answer the question: do we do mobile apps or create a mobile-friendly website?

Explore the results when you link to the PDF report at bit.ly/spJxC
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Rate My Professors Expands to Facebook

The site many love to hate is expanding into social media with a new Facebook site at bit.ly/aw0LFG

Before you dismiss the role of the rankings here, consider this. Overall evaluations for faculty at most schools I have visited are far more positive than negative. Be sure to check yours to find faculty held in high esteem that you might want to highlight at your website and in other promotional efforts.
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CUNY: Still the Best Advertising Landing Pages

Another issue of the NY Times Education Life supplement came out July 25. And for at least the third time in a row, City University of New York continued to set a premier example of how to create a landing page that repeats and reinforces the ad that brings people to the website.

Visit Breaking Boundaries in Science Research at www.cuny.edu/site/science.html and compare with landing pages for your advertising.

To review articles in the supplement online, visit www.nytimes.com/pages/education/edlife/
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Mobile Use: Changes from 2009 to 2010

Our friends at the Pew Internet and American Life Project have another useful report to review: changes in the way people use mobile communications from 2009 to 2010.

Higher education marketers will be most interested in the results for people 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 years old. While the younger group is most active, people in their 30s do not lag far behind. Both are heavy users of text messaging and 65 percent of the younger group uses a mobile device to access the Internet. Mobile use for email is strong as well.

Check the full details at bit.ly/cqxi6D
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9 College Visit Alternatives

If you can't visit a campus, what are the next 9 best things to do? That's the focus of a July US News column by Lynn O'Shaughnessy.

Admissions people not yet adjusted to stealth applicants will applaud the first item: get on the college mailing list.

Not everyone will be as happy with Number 4: visit the academic website pages and look for academic credentials of the faculty and course descriptions.

The full list for those who cannot visit is at bit.ly/awfPrX
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Higher Education PR: Another Blow

The WSJ reviews "Higher Education?" by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Driefus and makes special mention of many failings cited by the authors: faculty and administrative salary levels, light teaching loads, research that is less than essential.

A key message may find more traction in this time of economic scarcity: students should seek out lower cost institutions and graduate with less debt. The authors make recommendations that range from Berea College to Western Oregon University.

The review is at bit.ly/bztiSX
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Online Newsletter Done "Right for the Web"

If you need more ammunition to convince people to move away from PDFs and stay away from various forms of "flip" technology to put publications online, refer them to the Sellinger Business Update at Loyola University Maryland.

The current issue is at loyola.edu/newsletter/Sellinger/August2010/
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Email Marketing is Alive and Well

In this era of social media and mobile communications, we just might forget that millions of people rely on email as a valuable form of communication. Indeed, in the emerging mobile era sending email that make a strong first impression when opened on a smartphone is more important than ever.

Take a few minutes to review Michael Brownlow's column on getting "inbox attention" for your email. No matter how much we think we already know it is always a good idea to review and remind ourselves of the importance of from lines, preview panes and more.

Check the advice for better engagement at bit.ly/dbiMlg
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Feedback on Your Website

Do you get regular feedback on how people are using your website?

Gerry McGovern writes about the perils of ignoring the customer experience in "Web teams need constant feedback," with special attention to the perils of forcing people to register to do something online.

Do not make people register to do things at your website unless absolutely essential. Read about the consequences at bit.ly/aoURzH
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Gainful Employment Criteria

The for-profit sector of higher education is not happy with possible plans by the Department of Education to impose "gainful employment" criteria as a condition before their students can receive financial aid. Nobody is quite sure of the possible application of the principle, but many are nervous.

The actual impact will vary. At a recent conference, the DOE's James Kvaal estimated that 40 percent of for-profit schools would not be impacted, 48 percent would have to increase loan debt disclosure to potential students, 7 percent would face enrollment restrictions, and 5 percent would no longer have eligibility to receive financial aid funds.

More about what might be coming is at www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/02/kvaal
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My Upcoming Conferences and Webinars in 2010

Attend an upcoming conference to share questions and answers with people like you who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me at these events.

September 22, American Marketing Association: Webinar on mobile marketing in higher education. Date and registration details available soon.

October 28-29: Education Dynamics Aslanian Conference: How to Market Online Programs, Washington, D.C. Program topics are at www.educationdynamics.com/services/market-research/conferences/

November 3, Academic Impressions: Webinar, "Writing Right for the Web." Details are coming later in August.

November 7, Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, San Diego, CA: Mobile Marketing Tutorial Workshop. Online link is coming soon.

Increase ROI from your online marketing. Expand the writing, editing, and search marketing skills of people on your campus. Host a campus workshop on online marketing.

Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
____________________________________________
That's All for Now

Be a marketing champion on your campus.

Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
__________________________________________
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC

Increase your online marketing success with these 6 services.
• Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
• Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops
• Marketing Communications Website Review
• Competitive Website Reviews
• Content Copywriting Services
• Usability Analysis

Start now at www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/whatwedo.html

My mobile marketing workshops at the ACT Enrollment Planners Conference last week and eduWeb2010 on Monday attracted some great people, ready to share questions and experiences with everyone attending. Before leaving for Carol Aslanian's graduate marketing seminar in NYC tomorrow, time for some quick notes on mobile marketing and higher education.

First, a special thinks to Suzanne Petrusch and her team at St. Mary's University and Dave Marshall at Mongoose Research for assembling recruitment cycle conversion data that was of special interest to people at the workshops. Here's my summary of the St. Mary's experience using text messaging as part of the communications mix with potential new students since last November:

• Relatively few inquiries (about 4 percent) opted in for text messaging at or near the start of the recruitment cycle. That confirms findings in the 2010 E-Expectations research that college-bound high school students are wary of receiving text messages for student recruitment.
• But, and this is a very major "but": almost everyone (about 80 percent) who did opt-in early for text contacts continued along and applied for admission.
• Almost 50 percent of the people sending enrollment deposits by the end of June were people who had signed to receive text contacts.

Texting Offer Identifies Best Prospects Early

The learning here: offering the texting option was a great way to identify early in the recruitment cycle the people who were already very interested in St. Mary's and were willing to commit to a "text relationship" from the start. While this was destined to be a higher-than-normal yield group, identifying the most likely future students as easly as possible so they are not lost among (in this case) 35,000 total inquiries is an important role for mobile marketing to play.

Experience Your Site from a Smartphone

One item from the E-Expectations survey seemed a major surprise to many people: more than 20 percent of college-bound high school seniors have used a smartphone to access a higher education website. Why such a surprise? After all, somebody has been buying all those iPhones and Androids over the last 12 months.

• The real question should be this: how many people will not return after the experience they had on that first visit? Be sure to check your web analytics to see (1) how many new visitors are arriving at your site from a mobile device and (2) how the bounce rate for those people compares to the bounce rate for people arriving from a regular computer.

More next week on mobile apps vs. mobile websites, but there is a bottom line here: you will need a mobile-friendly website in the not distant future.

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb version of the workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Look for more "notes on mobile" next week. More then about the frequency of the texting and other items that people brought up at the workshops.

That's all for now 

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html 

 

Best wishes for a fine July 4 holiday weekend to everyone here in the U.S. We expect fine weather in Michigan and I hope you all enjoy the same.

Topics that impact higher education marketing are in the news everywhere, from Senate hearings on for-profit schools to private and public sector tuition increase levels to strategies for using new communication tools. Those areas and more are included here in the July newsletter.

These past weeks I've been crafting new mobile marketing sessions. Join me at pre-conference workshops to explore a future that is already here for some schools at the ACT EPC conference July 21 at www.act.org/epc/ or eduWeb2010 on July 26 at www.eduwebconference.com/

My partner Gerry McGovern is presenting a free July 7 webinar on Web Marketing in the 21st Century. Register in advance at bit.ly/cRvGH8

If you recruit graduate students and you always wanted to visit the Harvard Club in NYC, your stars have aligned. Plan to attend Carol Aslanian's July 29 one-day seminar on marketing to graduate students. Register at bit.ly/cD34VS

And now here are your July marketing news and notes.
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Controversial New Research: ROI for Degrees from 852 Schools

As higher education marketers we are used to the usual stats showing that people with more education earn more money in their lifetime. The facts seem so strong that they have become a fixture in the "value proposition" about the benefits of borrowing for a degree.

Business Week is attacking that marketing element as "vastly overblown" in reporting new research (that includes people who start but never graduate from a 4-year school) to show that life time earnings vary greatly from school to school. Elite schools produce the highest overall earners while public universities are the best values. PR people will want to see the public presentation at yhoo.it/apTQPq

Find the ROI from 852 schools among 18 pages of interactive tables at bit.ly/bYS3IC
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University Website Gets 90% Positive Rating

Amazing. That was how Gerry McGovern reacted after we looked at ratings from 301 parents and potential future students in our most recent CCI (Customer Centric Index) survey client.

We've had other good results but never anything quite this strong. People were even positive about how "search" worked. That has never happened before.

As far as I know, there is no contest that gives website awards based on evaluations by people who actually use the website. Learn more about why Susquehanna University did as well as it did in my blog post at bit.ly/aGHyOw

Note the last item below: Susquehanna has just opened a new Web Content Manager position and is accepting applications.
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Private Sector Tuition Increase in 2010

NAICU is reporting an average increase level for next year of 4.5 percent as showing a strong effort by private colleges and universities to control tuition costs. That amount is still higher than the CPI increase and not everyone agrees that enough cost control is underway.

Read the opinions at bit.ly/bietQD
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Tagline Award Contest for Non-Profits

Do you have a tagline that you are especially proud of?

Enter your institutional tagline or a tagline done for a special campaign in Getting Attention's 2020 tagline contest for non-profit organizations. Read about past contests and enter this year when you visit bit.ly/9vhr8B
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2010 Noel-Levitz E-Recruiting Practices Survey

The 2010 version is online as a 14-page PDF to download at bit.ly/cnjtsz

One finding increases even more the importance of making a strong first impression when potential students visit your website: "secret shopping" continues to grow in popularity. That means carefully crafted communication plans designed to convert an inquiry to an applicant have less and less role to play. Your website had best make a strong first impression.

If you are waiting for the 2010 E-Expectations of college-bound students, that is promised for July.
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Groundswell Survey on Social Media

The folks at Groundswell bring us great books and reports on how people use social media.

Now they are conducting an online survey on how organizations use social media. Complete the survey and get a copy of the results. If you agree that is a fair return for your time, answer the survey that starts when you link to bit.ly/bQ96Td
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Alumni Engagement Online

Academic Impressions interviewed me last week about techniques to engage young alumni in the online world.

Read about 5 website and social media steps covered in the interview (starting point: make it easy for them to complete popular tasks on your website) at bit.ly/bR2CVq
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Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Websites

If you do not have time and resources to do both, how should you best spend your time? A panel discussion group at a recent Mobile Marketing Forum engaged in a "great debate" on that point.

My favorite opinion: mobile access to websites will increase dramatically over the next 12 months so best to make sure your website offers mobile visitors a pleasant experience. More at bit.ly/c1yeWW

Do not be that proverbial frog in the pot on the stove. Check your analytics report each month to track how many people start a visit to your site from a mobile device. Be sure to compare the bounce rate (percent leaving your site without going anywhere else) for mobile visitors with the rate for people arriving from a regular computer.
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Do Millennials Read?

Yes, the do. But not quite like those of us who are not of that generation.

Interesting note: people 15 to 24 years old spend much more time reading than people 25-64 years of age. That rather splits Millennials in half but the main point is clear.

Marketers take note: Millennials are scan readers everywhere, not just online. More at bit.ly/9Q6VvT
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For-Profit Sector faces New Pressure

Senate hearings are underway now that question the extent to which for-profit colleges and universities provide employment results consistent with the fees charged and student debt incurred. Interest is fueled by the fact that Pell Grants worth $26.5 billion go to for-profit schools.

Get the flavor of the issue (including 20 comments) when you read the InsideHigherEd report of the first day hearings at bit.ly/9YLTDo
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Strong Online Magazine: Professional School Example

It is always good to see examples of online magazines "done right for the web" rather than falling for the lure of flip technology to move a print publication online.

The McCombs School of Business does fine work using the blog format to bring "Texas" magazine online. Read the latest issue at blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/magazine/
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Links to 76 Higher Education Mobile Sites

If you are planning a mobile site soon (and you should be doing just that) or already have one and want to check on what others are doing, visit the list of 76 links at bit.ly/ifVmk
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Web Content Manager Position in Pennsylvania

Susquehanna University is hiring for a new Web Content Manager spot.

The scope includes social media as well as the regular website. Details are online now at www.susqu.edu/offices/33868.asp
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My Upcoming Conferences and Webinars in 2010

Attend an upcoming conference to share questions and answers with people like you who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me at these events.

July 21-23, ACT Enrollment Planners Conference, Chicago, IL Pre-conference workshop, "'Mobile in the Marketing Mix': Myth and Reality for 2010 and Beyond" and conference session: "International Student Recruitment: Best Practice Website Features." Program details and registration at www.act.org/epc/

July 26-28, eduWeb2010, Chicago, IL Review the program and register for my mobile marketing pre-conference workshop at www.eduwebconference.com/

July 29, Education Dynamics Aslanian Group Seminar, Marketing to Graduate Students, New York, NY. Register at bit.ly/cD34VS

November 3, webinar: Academic Impressions, "Writing Right for the Web." Details are coming this summer.

Increase ROI from your online marketing. Expand the writing, editing, and search marketing skills of people on your campus. Host a campus workshop on online marketing.

Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
____________________________________________
That's All for Now

Be a marketing champion on your campus.

Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
__________________________________________
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC

Increase your online marketing success with these 6 services.
• Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
• Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops
• Marketing Communications Website Review
• Competitive Website Reviews
• Content Copywriting Services
• Usability Analysis

Start now at www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/whatwedo.html

Susquehanna University: Visitors Report Very High 90% Satisfaction Level

Websites win awards for different reasons, but seldom for what the people who actually use a website think of their experience with it.

Over the past two years, Customer Carewords partners have completed CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys at 18 colleges and universities. We've asked future students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni, and parents to tell us the top 3 web characteristics (from a list of 13 positive and 13 negative possibilities) that best represent their experience at the website.

There's a pattern to the results. External users are almost always more satisfied than internal users. And "menus and links" and the "search" function are usually the areas of most dissatisfaction. Relatively few people select the "visual appeal" of a site, but when they do, most are positive about it.

90% Postive Rating from Parents and Future Students

Last week we completed a CCI survey of parents and possible future students at Susquehanna University. The results, compared to other CCI surveys, were indeed amazing. Parents (114 responses) and future students (182 responses) picked one of the 13 positive web elements 90 percent of the time. Susquehanna received the highest ratings we've seen in 8 of the 13 areas and was not far behind the leaders in the others.

The website was launced less than a year ago. Paul Novack, director of web communications, and the entire web team have much to smile about as they continue to plan future improvements.

"Search" and "Menus and Links" Stand Out

The results for "search" were especially impressive. The search function on higher education websites is almost always one of the top two topics selected by users and the selections are much more negative than positive. In this case, 6% of the positive ratings received were about search and only 1% of the few negative ratings.

Similarly, 12% of the positive ratings were for "menus and links" and only 2% were negative. 

Both of those results are equivalent to a "man bites dog" story as the exact opposite of what usually happens. The unusual success in these two areas is what set the Susquehanna website apart from most CCI results.

The "visual appeal" of the site was also quite strong, receiving 19% of the positive votes and only 1% of the negative votes. The difference here from other CCI surveys is that "visual appeal" received more total selections than any of the 13 areas. That's never happened before.

Comments from Real People

We give survey takers the chance to answer this question: "If you could change one thing about this website, what would it be and why" and 164 people did that for the Suspuehanna survey. These two reflect the overall tone:

• Parent: "Nothing--it is the best of all the colleges we have researched for our son this year, who will be coming as a freshman in the fall."
• Future Student: "Sorry, this isn't an improvement - This website is actually one of the best college websites I've come across. Good work!"

Of course, no website is perfect. Changes suggested included: an area for student ratings about their experience after enrolling, more photos and videos of student activities, average test scores and GPAs for entering students, and more information about faculty.

CCI Results at 10 Colleges and Universities

Overall CCI Results at 10 colleges and universities are reviewed in my presentation "Rating Higher Education Websites: The Student Experience" from  the J.Boye conference last November in Denmark that's available on SlideShare.

A CCI survey can help you fine tune your website. Results are usually available about 2 weeks after survey invitations are sent. Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com   

That's all for now 

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html