Okay, so we all know I tend to lean toward the overly dramatic, but really, I’ve been there. I know how hard some of the conversations can be on college campuses surrounding issues on the needs of adult students. What are schools REALLY doing to make sure that adult students do more than register for classes, but actually graduate—or as Dr. Mark Milliron, chancellor of Western Governors University Texas says—“walk across the stage”? 

This will be the focus of Dr. Milliron’s presentation at the Stamats 2012 Adult Student Marketing Conference in February and, personally, I’m really anxious to hear his thoughts. In talking with Dr. Milliron, one of the things that strikes me about his approach to services, and approaches to learning and changes that need to be made to higher education as an industry, are that they are all extraordinarily focused on learner needs. His thinking isn’t about what is comfortable for higher education. It isn’t about our historical approach. It is about the future and “recrafting” higher education in a way that makes sense for the needs of a nation. 

Now I would be the first to say many institutions are still stuck firmly in the small box of “what we have always done.” While that may be the case, we are also seeing many institutions that are not just pushing the limits of the box but jumping entirely out of it in relation to how they think about higher education for today’s adult learners. Those changes do not happen easily, and they require individuals willing to have the difficult conversations on college campuses. Those conversations are often led by the people who are closest to the adult students we serve. Yes, that means you.

Think this can’t be your institution? Think you don’t have what it takes to make dramatic change in the thinking of your senior leadership? I challenge you! We owe it to the students we serve. Join us at our 2012 Adult Student Marketing Conference in Austin, Texas, to hear directly from a person whose academic journey has been about moving higher education outside of the box. I’m certain you will benefit from his thoughts.

I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions; they always feel more like wishful thinking than true commitments.  But I know for some of you these resolutions are serious and cause you to alter your behavior (often for the better) as you look to a new calendar year as a bit of a clean slate. 

I want to suggest to you a few professional resolutions that you may want to consider as we move into 2012.  I know January is the middle of the academic year but it feels like as good a time as any to hit the reset button and evaluate yourself as a professional.  Highly seasoned adult student professionals can occasionally find themselves stuck in the way things have always been.  Use the opportunity of a new year to resolve to do something new, different, and perhaps even a bit uncomfortable in an effort to influence positive change! 

 #1           Expand your knowledge.  Register for a webinar, attend a new conference, network with professionals in a new way this year.   It is wise to realize that our market is changing at a very rapid pace and continuously exploring new information as it relates to adult students is a critical part of staying up-to-date. 

#2           Talk to your adult students.  I recently did a focus group with a small number of students who were registered to start a program in January.  The goal was to better understand why they selected XYZ University.  The conversation from the group was very enlightening and really provided some wonderful feedback that the school can use in their program development, marketing, and recruitment efforts. 

#3           Get some help.  One of the greatest comments I ever heard made at a conference was from an attendee who indicated that the biggest hurdle he had to get over was admitting that he needed professional help!  He was referring to marketing help but the comment has stuck with me.  We live in a society that still hesitates to ask for help.  We believe our supervisor will view us as weak if we do not have all the answers—and it is truly a shame.   Be brave enough to get some outside thoughts on issues. 

#4           Appreciate your people.  The longer I work in this profession, the more I am convinced that 95% of our success comes back to the people who work directly with our students.  Be intentional this year about showing your appreciation for their expertise and dedication to the student population we serve.

#5           Measure and evaluate.  It is easy to become overwhelmed by the 1,000 things you could be tracking and evaluating in relation to marketing and recruitment, and as a result most professionals do very little of this.  Identify five things that you are going to measure and evaluate well this year (make it three if five seems like too much) and stick to it.  What you learn will make it worthwhile. 

#6           Retreat with your team.  In the constant crunch time that is the world of serving adult students, we rarely take time to recharge our batteries.  If you are not doing this for your team I can tell you that their burnout meter is more than likely running on high.  Step back for a day.  Get away (yes, off sight!) and spend the day evaluating your success, reviewing your opportunities to do better, and plan for next year. 

#7           Celebrate your success.  In a year when higher education has taken some hits, I think it is important to take a few minutes and celebrate the things that HAVE gone right in relation to your adult student program.  It may be enrollment, it may be the successful implementation of a CRM, it may be a great new marketing campaign, or the addition of a great new staff member.  Whatever it is, take a moment to applaud your efforts. 

#8           Take advantage of resources.  There are difficult conversations that are happening on campuses that are emotionally charged or are being discussed based on hunch.  In the political world of competing priorities on college campuses it is becoming more and more important to support your positions with data.  Stamats’ way of assisting you with these challenges as they relate to serving adult students is by providing proprietary research to the marketplace.  Our 2012 prospective adult student research will be unveiled for the first time at our 2012 Adult Student Marketing Conference in Austin, Texas, February 27–29.  If you can’t join us for that event, I invite you to participate in our webinar that will be offered this summer that will also review that data. 

Here’s looking forward to a great year ahead!

As many of you will remember from previous Stamats Adult StudentsTALK™ Research, the web is the place where adult students are most likely to go to find out more about your institution. Even before they call you, they check you out online. I know this may strike panic in your heart as many of you have shared with me over the years that you are not at all confident in what your institutional site has to offer to your adult students. For some it is the visual images that represent your traditional student audience; for others it is the confusing navigation, or the fact that the portion of the site for adult students is buried under layers and layers of internal language that many of your prospective adult students may not know. Regardless of your worries, please know you are not alone. 

For the last two years I have asked the audience of nearly every group I have spoken with if they are happy with their institution’s website. In two years, the number of people who have answered yes to that question I can count on one hand—with fingers to spare. And what I get most often in response to that question is a question from the audience: What do adults WANT to find on the website? 

Stamats had this question in mind when we crafted this year’s Adult StudentsTALK™ survey instrument. Knowing the web is a critical marketing tool (perhaps the most critical marketing tool), we wanted to find out from this prospective student audience just what would be helpful to locate on an institutional website. We had some suspicions, but we really wanted the data in order to pass it along to those of you who are trying to get your institutional site in better shape for your adult student audience. The research has been conducted, and I am looking forward to sharing the results from this question, as well as many others, at the 2012 Adult Student Marketing Conference in Austin, Texas, Feb. 27–29.

As a participant in this conference you will walk away with a clear idea of the top 5 things you MUST address on your website in order to answer even the most basic questions on the minds of your prospective adult students.  With quantitative data to support these “must haves,”  I am hopeful that you will be able to take what you have learned from this research and use it to leverage change to your own sites. Between the research that will drill down into website needs for prospective adult students, and a great pre-conference session on getting the most out of your website analytics, participants should return to their campuses ready to take on serious change and get their websites into great shape for prospective adult students!

For those of us around Stamats involved with the Adult Student Marketing Conference, we had a pretty exciting week that I would like to share with you.  As some of you may be aware, our fourth annual  Adult Student Marketing Conference will be held in Austin, Texas, February 27 –29.  The early-bird registration deadline for this conference was last week and, as any former enrollment professional would, I have been watching the numbers closely.   I was pleased to see early-bird registration numbers that are significantly higher than last year at this time and am optimistic that this will result in our largest attendance ever for this conference.  Hooray for us!  But why?

As I frequently share with the schools that I work with, an increase in numbers is nice…but if we don’t evaluate and determine why this happened we will have no understanding of why and be unable to replicate our results in the future.  All too often I hear an anecdotal account of why a number is high and it is often attributed to a good year, a high number of leads, or some other guess—but no true data or analysis that answers the real question of why.  The truth is that people don’t take time to evaluate and that results in missed opportunities. 

On Sunday I took some time to begin an evaluation of what we had done this year that we may be able to attribute this increase in registration to, and it was really multiple things from what I can tell at this early stage.  We had very intentionally altered our marketing, engaged earlier in some of our efforts, and altered delivery methods to include several new things.  We have also attached a number of source codes to varying promotional efforts we have put into play and are tracking carefully to see which of these are paying returns.

My evaluation of our efforts is premature, we are nowhere near the conference date yet and registrations continue to come in.   With nine weeks until our event I have at least begun our analysis and have some sense of where our efforts should be focused as we come into the home stretch of our “recruitment efforts” for this event.   Do I have a perfect understanding of “why” at this point?  No, absolutely not.  Will I ever have a perfect understanding?  No, but I will have a clear road map of the efforts that I want to replicate again for future events.  I will have a strong sense of where I want to focus our marketing efforts next year.  I am the first one to say it isn’t a perfect science, but there is certainly a strong element of science that can and should be applied to all recruitment efforts.  If you aren’t taking the time to understand “why” in relation to your enrollment numbers, you are missing an opportunity, and perhaps setting yourself up to misstep next time around. 

By the way—it isn’t too late!  I would love for you to join the crowd that has already signed up for the conference!  It looks like it will be our biggest and best ever!  Hope you will be a part of it.

It’s that time of year again and, no, I don’t mean the winter break.  I mean what I refer to as the holiday rush for adults to jump back into higher education.  Certificate programs, degree completion programs, and graduate programs alike tend to have a flurry of activity as time moves forward toward the January start, more commonly known in higher education as second semester.  When do adults start back to school?  Really any time, but the two biggest times of year (at least at the majority of schools) is August/September (first semester) and then January.  

Despite that information, that commonly accepted behavior among adults, I’m always surprised to see classes for adults start close to the beginning of January.  Why do schools do this?  By starting class close to the beginning of January you absolutely disadvantage yourself in your opportunity to take advantage of the second best time of year to recruit adults.  You also miss the opportunity to leverage those New Year’s resolutions that so many of us make to reshape our lives by getting back into school.

What I find most perplexing is this – at many schools I spend time with nobody seems to know where these start dates come from!  I recently talked with the key group in charge of both the academic program and the recruitment for a specific adult student program and they were all equally perplexed as to why they had a start date that was in the first week in January.  I don’t think someone was dodging responsibility. I think they honestly had no idea how this date was determined – and I don’t think this is that uncommon. 

The moral of this blog? Colleges and universities have a real opportunity to leverage what happens in the heads and hearts of prospective adult students at this important time of year.  Critically evaluate your timing.  If you aren’t involved in the decisions regarding the structuring of when classes start, ask to be.  Align your marketing appropriately so that you are “in front” of adult students during this critical time.  Will good positioning of your January start cause your enrollment to double? More than likely not. But it will provide you, and your marketing and recruitment staff, the best opportunity to maximize the conversion of prospective students to enrolled students at this critical time of year!

It’s true! The digital world really does bring us together. I am always delighted to see constituents reaching out to colleagues from across campus to leverage their knowledge in a way that will positively impact their institution. Stamats Catchfire is partnering with  the Northeast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP), an organization historically serving the educational needs of IT professionals, to  deliver a series of best practices workshops to advance to the digital marketing success of higher education marketing, admissions, and advancement professionals.

In a series of four workshops being offered by NERCOMP and Stamats Catchfire,  participants from across campus will come together to gain information on analytics, mobile, and social media—which are quickly becoming important tools in our efforts to communicate with key audiences.  Clearly, it’s no longer an issue of “if” your institution should be engaging in these efforts, but “when” and “how.” The workshops are positioned to share digital marketing best practices and answer your toughest questions on these sometimes overwhelming topics. 

Workshop No. 1: Web Analytics, January 13 in Southbridge, MA

 Takeaways:

• Participants will set up and leverage Google Analytics for their institutional websites and various other sets of data, including accounts, profiles, filters and goals, performance measurement of campaigns, and customized dashboards.
• Participants will understand the power of analytics and results-based decision making as they move forward in evolving their digital presence.

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 Workshop No. 2: Social Media Basics, February 6 at UMASS Amherst

Takeaways:

• Participants will learn how to approach social media strategically and how it can support a variety of marketing initiatives.
• Participants will have a strong grasp of the benefits and best uses of each platform.

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 Workshop No. 3: Social Media Advanced Topics. March 5 at Holy Cross in Worcester, MA

Takeaways:

• Participants will learn how to implement complex social media strategies by leveraging advanced applications and functions.
• Participants will understand how social media impacts their bottom line through established ROI metrics.

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 Workshop No. 4: Mobile Basics, April 12 in Norwood, MA

Takeaways:

• Participants will learn how to approach the mobile landscape strategically and how it can support marketing initiatives.
• Participants will have a strong grasp of the mobile spectrum, the alternatives available to them, what it takes to implement a mobile solution, and how to approach implementation strategically.

 Regardless whether your institution is a member of NERCOMP, please make plans to join us in the Northeast for these exciting opportunities to expand your knowledge, bring your campus departments together, and truly embrace digital marketing. To learn more, please go to www.nercomp.org  and register for one or all of these workshops! We look forward to seeing you.

Change creates discomfort, and as simple as that may sound it is often our fear of being uncomfortable that keeps us where we are.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for those of us who work with adult students in higher education, we do not have the luxury of being comfortable or digging in our heals and holding our ground.  For those colleges and universities that have tried, they have watched their market share, their cutting-edge delivery formats, and their highly differentiated programs become absorbed by their competitors who now surround them.  Institutions who want to “hold tight” find themselves holding on to less and less.

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 2011 CAEL Conference in Chicago.  As I think about the professionals and friends that I had the chance to speak with there, I think about people who do not settle for holding tight, but instead push forward.  It is a group with whom I am not afraid to bring up bold new ideas, brainstorm unusual solutions to problems, and speak candidly with about my fears for so many colleges and universities that are trying to wait out the wave of change that is forcing higher education to rethink itself.  It is a group that appears to embrace discomfort at a high rate—a group that is willing to question the historically unquestionable in higher education.

As we think about the evolution that is happening in higher education, I think it is important to pause and recognize some of the big steps that have been taken in the last few decades.  I smile now to think about how “out of the box” online learning was just a short 15 years ago.  How crazy it was to think that anyone would actually WANT to be taught by an adjunct faculty member who was still working in their chosen profession and sharing their expertise with students in the evenings.  And what about the hot debate of what courses could and simply would NEVER be taught in anything less than a 16-week semester!  We are making progress and, despite the fact that it feels slow for some of us who are super excited about the rush that comes from embracing discomfort, it is coming.  I, for one, am anxious to see where higher education has elbowed its way to 10, 20, and 30 years from now.  My guess is that those professionals leading adult student programs will have a very important seat at the table of those discussions and, actually, will be leading the way.

Please plan on joining me at the 2012 Stamats Adult Student Marketing Conference in vibrant, downtown Austin, Texas! Mark your calendar and then jump on the Stamats website to look at the program and take advantage of the early-bird discount for this great event to be held February 27–29.

In response to attendee feedback last year, we have placed an extra emphasis on the importance of the digital arena for those of us who market to today’s adult student. In addition to a great pre-conference session that will show you all you can learn from your institution’s website analytics, we are also offering two great sessions during the conference that look specifically at digital marketing and the use of social media in your marketing, recruitment, and retention efforts. Headlining day two of this great event is Dr. Mark Milliron from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If you have never had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Milliron’s perspective on adult students, you are really missing out. I promise—you will be entertained as well as educated by his presentation. 

In addition to this year’s great lineup, I am very pleased to invite you to be a part of our first-ever adult student panel. We are fortunate to have a group of current adult students who will be joining us to answer questions from the audience. If you have ever wondered if all adult students are like yours, or if your own adult students are as forthcoming with you about their preferences, reaction to marketing, and your recruitment strategies compared to another institution, this is your chance. I’m really excited to hear the candid remarks from these individuals, as I believe they will add great depth and new perspective to our conversations at the conference. 

While the sessions are great, and the learning is rich, for those of us who have attended this conference in the past we will all admit that one of the main benefits comes from the networking. It is uncommon at a higher education conference to stand in a room full of people who only think of adults when they think of college students. The shared wisdom and experience among this group is unparalleled and adds a huge benefit to the attendees of this event. 

Please plan on adding your knowledge and experience to the conversation in Austin, February 27–29,2012. I can’t wait to see you there!

I attended the 2011 ACHE Conference last week in Orlando and was delighted to hear that the opening keynote focused on managing experience in higher education.  This has long been an interest of mine and I am forever shocked at how little effort most colleges and universities put into even understanding what their students’ experience with their institution is.  Institutions spend so much money marketing and recruiting students, and increasing graduation rates at colleges and universities has become a national obsession. But what happens between the first moment they make contact with you and the moment they walk across the stage?  

For many institutions they place their entire focus on the academic experience, which is certainly important. We know that students who are engaged in the classroom, and successfully completing classes, are more likely to graduate.  But what about the rest of their experience?  If you owned a restaurant, it would be important to serve fabulous food—but would that be enough?  Would a clean and comfortable dining experience be important, an atmosphere that people enjoyed, good service?  Of course it would be.  How many of you have not returned to an eating establishment because of something other than the food?

As higher education continues to evolve I can see more and more institutions becoming aware of the entire experience students have with their institution.  Class registration, financial aid, student accounts, security…the list goes on and on.  As you think of your adult students, think about the touch points they have at the institution, and how you can work to ensure each and every one of those points is a good experience for your students.  Does every student leave an institution because they have had a negative academic experience?  I doubt it.

You will have to forgive me this week as I have the distinct sense that I am about to start preaching to the choir, but I just don’t think I can stop myself.  I have just had a most disturbing conversation with a group of higher education professionals about the need to “keep quiet” about the work their school is doing in relation to serving adult students.  In this discussion, which was really a great celebration of some early success they are having with a recently launched adult student program, I was stunned when a key team member reminded everyone that while the entire campus community is benefiting from the additional revenue their adult program is bringing in, it will be important to not make too much of it.  For any of you who know me you can only imagine the, “I’m sorry WHAT?” that slipped out of my mouth.

I do need to acknowledge that this individual, and his colleagues, all recognized the lunacy of the statement but all supported the idea of keeping the success of this program quiet as not to upset the political climate of the campus.  When I questioned further, I heard what I was afraid I would hear.  That while the campus needed the additional revenue this program was bringing in, there were many negative feelings across campus about the institution serving the adult student population.  This team’s approach to this was to operate quietly, serve their adult student population well, and celebrate their success behind closed doors.  I was saddened for them and yet it brought home for me the continued reality that many (if not most) of the adult student programs in the country face – still underdogs, still serving a population that is somehow seen as illegitimate participants in higher education, still fighting to have their voice heard on campuses that have tunnel vision toward a traditional audience.

For whatever it is worth, I salute you.  I congratulate you for doing your best in spite of difficult circumstances, and even if you have to close your office door to do it – I urge you to celebrate LOUDLY with your team!