Guest Blog with Sean-Michael Green, Dean of Graduate and Adult Enrollment, Marist College
Why did you choose to be in graduate admissions?
I have a passion for higher education. My prior life includes significant work as an entrepreneur, starting and managing companies with limited resources to achieve measureable goals. When I decided to pursue my dream of working in higher ed, a logical place for me was in admissions. The skills used to accomplish the successful launch of a new organization, my legal training, and my military background all come together in my admissions work.
What is your biggest challenge this year?
In today’s world of speedy and almost instantaneous communication, along with the drive to and expectation of personal communication, the lack of a CRM is challenging. Without this tool, we are not able to implement and track communications with prospects as efficiently and effectively as I’d like. Having a portion of our communications automated with such a system would provide us the time to provide better personal service. Happily, we are in the process of putting a CRM in place to optimize our communications.
What is working well for you and your team?
Actually the answer is my team. The staff in the department work well together. Their attitudes and expertise create an active, lively, and fun place to work. This atmosphere increases our creativity, productivity, and success. A great example was during a snow event, when travel was uncertain and many folks at the College did not make it to the campus, my team all made it to the office and was able to get a great deal accomplished during that day.
What is the next trend you see coming or are tracking?
Online marketing, and more specifically, being savvy in online marketing is becoming even more critical. Though we have been doing some search engine marketing (SEM), I believe it is going to become an even larger part of how students come to us. With so many stealth applications today, being found in ways that prospects are searching for us is critical. I am working to make sure we are becoming more sophisticated in our use of this channel. Though we are currently using landing pages and retargeting, I am aware that we do need to tighten up our messaging in all online channels and look even more critically at our data to adjust on a regular basis to best utilize each channel.
How does the word “segmentation” apply to your department or strategy?
It applies to us in two key ways. First, our recruiters are focused on segments. Two of the recruiters are focused on the adult market and two are focused on specific graduate programs. While they focus on particular segments, they are cross-trained to work in all segments to help as needs may be uneven from time to time. Second, we segment in our messaging. We have found that the granularity that is important to consider includes gender, program interest, delivery method, geography, and career discipline. This segmentation strategy will be much more easily and effectively implemented as we implement our new CRM.
Can you give us a preview of a few key points you’ll be sharing in your session at the Stamats Integrated Marketing Graduate School Marketing Conference in July?
The session will be about ways for graduate programs to recruit and serve members and veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. This is a niche audience that brings money, diversity, and perspective to campuses, but reaching this population requires some specialized knowledge. For example, many people have heard of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, but it is confusing for administrators, recruiters, and veterans. The session will help to demystify some of the areas of confusion in dealing with people with military backgrounds. The information will be accessible and engaging for enrollment managers at any level.
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TJ Panfil
