The Pressure to Do Better
While presenting the last few weeks at CAEL and Stamats Graduate Student Marketing Conference, I found an overwhelming concern about the tremendous pressure to do better. It really goes without saying that marketing and recruitment professionals are being pressured now more than ever before to do a better job and have the proof be in the numbers—the enrollment numbers .
While I understand the stress this can put on individuals and entire departments the good news is that “doing better” is possible, but it often doesn’t start with a tactic. I think the knee-jerk reaction in the culture of “do better” is to jump to doing “something” rather than clearly evaluating what you are doing and thinking strategically about the changes you need to make. Let me encourage you to consider a few things before you run off and buy another billboard, run another radio spot, or do another direct mailing. While I recognize that these few steps will take a bit of time, I also know that in the end, they will increase your odds of actually doing better.
- Assemble a complete list of your marketing tactics and write them out. It is remarkable to me the number of schools I have talked with who simply have their year’s marketing tactics outlined in their head. Account for every penny you spend, on paper.
- In column two rank each item on a 1–4 basis, 4 being something you know is absolutely working for you and 1 being the thing to which you just can’t quite attribute any success. I know 1–4 is hard and a little weird to work with, but I like it because it makes you think more carefully—there is no middle “maybe” ground (like the 3 on the 1–5 scale)—and no, you can’t use 2.5 as one of your scores. Do this part of the exercise quickly—just your honest, fast response.
- List your 1s and 2s and really comb over them. Work to convince yourself why you should actually keep something that you scored this low. Now get serious with yourself, and rule it out. I understand political reasons; I understand relationship building—keep one of the 1s and one of the 2s based on these reasons but pull out the rest and determine what type of budget savings you have realized.
- List your 3s and 4s. Evaluate how many of the 3s you could make 4s if you had additional resources. Do you believe your radio spot could have better impact if you could run it for an additional month during critical time? If the answer is yes, utilize some of the freed up dollars from the 1s and 2s to make this happen.
- Last—use a small portion of your savings from your 1s and 2s to do an oversized postcard to your entire inquiry pool from the last 2 years. The whole world has changed in the last year. Many adults who were considering school, but eventually decided against it, will once again be open to school as a result of the unstable economy and uncertain job market. Now is the time to reach out and remind them of your interest in them. Hesitant to try this? Consider this: If you have one student who actually gets back in touch with you and registers for classes, how many times will this initiative have just paid for itself?
The most common response I get from individuals when I ask them their plan to enroll more adult students is to work harder. Working harder is only a good idea if you have literally been sitting around your office doing nothing for the last five years, and I highly doubt that is the case. Today “doing better” needs to be about honest evaluation of your marketing. “Doing better” means making clear decisions based evaluation. “Doing better” sometimes means, doing things differently, and to occasionally try something new.
If you are interested in exploring some new ideas for marketing to adult students I want to invite you to join me at the 2nd annual Stamats Integrated Marketing: Adult Student Marketing Conference, in San Antonio, TX February 23–25. This event is a great place to brainstorm new ideas, learn of others successes, and network with colleagues who also spend their days marketing and recruiting to adult students. I hope you will consider joining us. It is going to be a wonderful event.
Photo by wwarby
