Ten Tactic Ideas to Boost Your Enrollment

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Day Kibilds: This is Talking Tactics, the podcast that celebrates enrollment success one tactic at a time. The catch? The tactic had to be done with limited resources. Either by a single person, a small but mighty team, limited time, or with a low budget. I'm your host. I'm your host, Diana Kibbiltz, Strategy Director at Ology, and I'll be interviewing the most creative and resourceful folks across higher ed to break down a single tactic, from idea to results, so you can try them too.

[00:00:37] Are you ready? Let's talk tactics. Hello tactic talkers. Day here, your host. And welcome to episode 10 of talking tactics. Our first season's finale. Throughout the season, you've learned from higher ed pros, just like you about the tactics they've tried with limited resources [00:01:00] and incredible results. Jackie Vitrano talked to us about a multi step RFI process to get a ton more information about prospects without the form drop off.

[00:01:09] Jacqueline Rowe shared her approach to working with central social media accounts for admissions instead of having a dedicated account. Something, by the way, I completely recommend. Shane Baglini shared how he saved a master's program with a simple paid keyword change. Darcy Porter drastically reduced mounts at her school with better post deposit emails.

[00:01:33] Gustavo Segui expanded his school's social reach by tapping into his own students networks during their proudest moments. Carrie Chambers figured out a way to get incredible ROI from webinars by adding prizes. Allie Abel recruited students to her law school by answering questions on Reddit. Simon Fairbanks and Nicola Anderton revolutionized the view book in the UK, they call it Prospectus, [00:02:00] with a tiny little book with huge savings and huge impact.

[00:02:04] And Lucy Guest is boosting her institution's research reputation by posting journal articles on Reddit. As if all those amazing tactics were not enough, for this season finale, I've got a treat for you. A compilation of yet to be tried or yet to be popular recruitment tactics that might promise great results.

[00:02:28] I've invited smart folks across the industry to share their ideas for you to try. Who knows? If you try one and it goes well, maybe you can be the next guest on this show. Let's jump right in. Friends, let's talk tactics. Our very first one is, uh, the very best, Lauren and, uh, Lauren, will you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[00:02:56] Loren Bass: Hello, my name is Lauren Bass. I'm currently a strategist. [00:03:00] At campus sonar and we do social listening. Um, but previously as a practitioner, I've been a dean of admissions, a director of graduate admissions, an assistant director of undergraduate admissions, just a vast range of, uh, enrollment management positions.

[00:03:17] Day Kibilds: All right. So you've seen a ton of tactics that work and a ton of tactics that don't. Um, will you tell us, will you please tell us your tactic idea? 

[00:03:30] Loren Bass: Yes. So a very affordable tactic that we did, um, at Warner is using a QR code that directed people directly to the application, as well as our inquiry card.

[00:03:41] That way, when we were doing like tabling at events. Or just meeting people out in public. If we couldn't get enough people to do the form on our tablet, like maybe we had a line or five or seven people were trying to talk to us and get the information at the same time, we could always give them our business card that had the inquiry [00:04:00] card.

[00:04:00] And then they could just scan that and fill out the form so we could still collect their information. And it was a great way for them to collect the information that they needed, but we didn't miss anybody by having that QR code on the business cards. 

[00:04:14] Day Kibilds: Oh, that's a really clever tactic and it doesn't really cost very much, right?

[00:04:18] Like, why don't we all have QR codes on our business cards? You're already 

[00:04:23] Loren Bass: going to have a business card. You may as well. So it, and it really just helps to direct either directly to your interest card, your application, um, whichever one you feel like, you know, you really need to increase that funnel. It was a very affordable way to do it.

[00:04:38] Day Kibilds: Well, and the good thing is that I think we have Officially closed the era of hating on QR codes. I feel like we're embracing QR codes again, right? We are. Yes, we are. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. Um, all right. Well, as a, as a person who has a ton of experience in admissions, um, I have an idea. I want you to tell me if you think it would [00:05:00] work.

[00:05:01] Can I, can I share? Okay. Of course. So, yeah. I'm sure some, some schools do this, but I, I haven't seen it enough. I have this idea of like completely decking out a van and taking that van like totally decorated like your brand, like your school to your local high school visits and essentially setting up like a pop up shop of your swag.

[00:05:29] Wouldn't that be awesome? During, during a school visit, of course. That would. 

[00:05:34] Loren Bass: Yeah. That would, especially like during lunch, uh, lunch breaks. 

[00:05:38] Day Kibilds: Yeah. Yeah. Who doesn't want to go? It's way more engaging. 

[00:05:43] Loren Bass: Yeah. It's more engaging than tabling in a cafeteria. 

[00:05:47] Day Kibilds: Right? Like it will be a whole thing. You know, I, I actually think I would actually necessarily, you could give some stuff away like the cheap stuff, but like people would buy a sweatshirt or a water [00:06:00] bottle or something.

[00:06:00] And then like everybody's walking around with your brand. I think it could work. What do you think? That's an awesome idea. Well, awesome, Lauren, thank you for sharing your idea.

[00:06:12] Okay, for our next tactic idea is a former guest of the Talking Tactics podcast, Simon Fairbanks. And Simon, would you remind our listeners where you work, what your role is, and then give us your tactic idea. Yes, so 

[00:06:28] Simon Fairbanks: I'm the Head of Student Recruitment Events at the University of Nottingham here in the UK.

[00:06:34] Day Kibilds: Perfect. So what's your tactic idea? 

[00:06:37] Simon Fairbanks: So in a nutshell, my idea is kind of show stopping open day talks, which sounds quite simple. But a lot of the time what we do at open days is we do course talks where, you know, we have 30 minutes, there's a PowerPoint presentation, we go through entry grades, you know, modules, all of this sort of stuff.

[00:06:54] It's information that feels quite. Quite essential. But my theory is we could put that online, [00:07:00] you know, during the pandemic years, those kinds of talks were recorded and available online. So I, I would love to see open days a bit more like, I don't know, Glastonbury, the Edinburgh fringe festival, where people are looking through a program.

[00:07:14] They're like, Oh, wow, I've got to get to this talk at this time. Cause I want to hear about this like world changing research. I got to hear this student panel on like kind of how to make the most of your first year. So almost like all killer, no filler. Every talk is going to be incredible and inspiring and maybe packed with demonstrations.

[00:07:32] So almost like bringing, um, a bit more of the flair of like, uh, fringe to, to an open day. So it really does feel like a 

[00:07:40] Day Kibilds: festival. Honestly, I love this, right? Because when you think about families, In this process, they go to how many open days? How many open houses? Like a lot, right? Absolutely. And so if every single time, they're just sitting through these PowerPoint presentations that are [00:08:00] describing course modules, that's Boring.

[00:08:04] This could be fun. 

[00:08:07] Simon Fairbanks: Many of our colleagues do it really well and do it as well as can be, but it's not the delivery, it's more like the content. So yeah, let's, let's get off topic. Course information is online. Let's do like a deep dive on, I don't know, student experience changing the world. Or even just, you know, taste of lectures, you know, like what might a first year student be studying and deliver that instead.

[00:08:28] Day Kibilds: I love that. I really, I like that so much. It feels like a, like a conference, like we would be planning a conference and carefully curating the speakers. Of 

[00:08:39] Simon Fairbanks: course, of course. Yeah. Yeah. You might, if you have a really like kind of inspiring topic based on current events. You know, you could pack an enormous lecture theater, and it would leave our visitors inspired and even more like enamored by our institutions than, you know, delivering information they could get on the website.

[00:08:58] Yeah, 

[00:08:58] Day Kibilds: this is something [00:09:00] actually it's making me think of, um. I learned this a long time ago during an interview. I was interviewing someone and they launched into this whole thing teaching us. They taught us something during this interview and when obviously this person was hired and then after the fact, he, he shared that when you teach someone something, they remember you.

[00:09:23] And so he very strategically taught us something during that interview, and this is making me think, okay, imagine if folks actually leave the open day, having learned something that they just didn't know, right? Like they leave inspired, they learn something completely new, they're going to remember you.

[00:09:41] Simon Fairbanks: Absolutely, and you know, let's blow the parents minds as well, you know, because you've got to influence the influencers, um, and also it's the show don't tell, you know, we can tell people that we're good at teaching and we can show out teaching statistics and rankings, but, you know, if we deliver a 30 minute So, jaw dropping, uh, taste of lecture, [00:10:00] you know, we're, we're kind of, we're kind of, uh, we're not just telling, we're showing that we're really good at 

[00:10:04] Day Kibilds: this sort of stuff.

[00:10:04] Like a TED talk. I love it. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Thank you for this idea, Simon. I hope somebody tries it. Excellent. 

[00:10:12] Simon Fairbanks: Yeah. And I love your podcast day. I can't wait for, uh, for more. I can't wait for season two. 

[00:10:18] Day Kibilds: Thank you so much.

[00:10:22] Our next tactic idea is a fellow Enrollify podcast host, would you introduce yourself please? 

[00:10:30] Mickey Baines: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I'm Mickey Baines. Um, as you mentioned, I have a couple of podcasts on the Enrollify network. I'm a partner at Kennedy and Company, so I work on the dark side in higher education as a consultant.

[00:10:40] Um, I oversee our technology services team, which for the purposes here, um, know that really means CRM related work. Uh, and my background is in enrollment management and student success. Worked in higher ed for a bit before I moved over into consulting, uh, and now I have schools use technology to better recruit and connect with students.

[00:10:58] Day Kibilds: You basically create the [00:11:00] magic. That's 

[00:11:01] Mickey Baines: what I would like to say. I create the magic. I have a, I have a team that creates more magic than I do these days. I don't get to get my hand. I don't get to really put my hands in the Sierra much anymore. Um, like I used to, but, um, that that's where I started by trying to create that magic.

[00:11:14] That's right. 

[00:11:15] Day Kibilds: Yeah. So, okay. I'm, I'm excited for your ideas. I, I know you have more than one. Let us have them. 

[00:11:22] Mickey Baines: So, um, the first couple of ideas are a little bit more behind the scenes. Given my work with technology, I'll throw some tech, um, based ideas out there. Um, if you have the ability to be a little more.

[00:11:30] Advanced in your marketing and recruitment, I would say start with, um, the concept of personas. Um, thinking about who your students are, their backgrounds, their motivations, and using that information, not just for the marketing side, but for recruitment side. Um, so good way to start capturing information, do it better if you don't have personas.

[00:11:48] If you don't have personas, a good way to start capturing information to understand what your personas may be. You could start by asking your alumni. Um, you can use polls on your social pages. Ask them very specific questions that will help you understand who they [00:12:00] are. That also may give you content to think about from a marketing recruitment.

[00:12:04] The easiest example, and this could be applied maybe to undergrad or grad. Um, but what was the course you most apply five years after earning your X degree MBA? And so now that you know that, and you can see that now you can start thinking about the. Taking that course and applying, you know, here's, you know, how we use this course for this degree.

[00:12:22] That's a lot of content that you can use to be created. Um, you could ask about other just general selection questions as students narrow down their search. How important was the location of the campus when you're searching? Sometimes we ask that of students, but I always feel that students Get, um, polled with surveys too often, uh, and alumni may get surveys too often, but something like that as a poll on LinkedIn for an alumni group or, or Instagram, Facebook, those types of things.

[00:12:45] I think you can get some good information from it. Oh, 

[00:12:47] Day Kibilds: clever. Yeah. 

[00:12:48] Mickey Baines: Point two, as you think about how you collect your data, um, be sure that you think about asking questions about motivation in your inquiry form. So, you know, when people want to fill out a form to get more information, first [00:13:00] name, last name, email address, program of interest.

[00:13:02] term you're interested in enrolling, something along those lines you may be asking. But ask other motivation questions. You know, why are you looking to, if this is for maybe a non traditional student or a graduate student, why are you looking to return? Or what's the biggest factor or question you have thinking about?

[00:13:18] Um, your choice and where you'll attend those types of questions start to really give you information that then Drive all the follow up content all the events. You might invite them to you can really use that information um tip three, um, this is my in the weeds Tactical tactical thing. So if you have, um any events where you send follow up information It could be a virtual open house.

[00:13:40] It could be a physical open house an interview with someone If you have follow up content that you share with them, here are the notes from our conversation, here's the deck that we shared, um, in this information session, take that first page that you presented, add another page in front of it, use that initial first page to drive [00:14:00] content or other action.

[00:14:01] So let's just say it's a virtual information session. Here's the information we shared with you at the virtual, uh, open house. And that first page is now a new first page that says, um. Don't forget to apply. Here's your app application fee waiver and it's on the thing. Or, um, don't forget we're having a meet the Dean with coffee open house next month.

[00:14:22] Um, click here to register something like that to drive action, put that on the first page. So that's the first thing you see. And then it says now to the content, something like that. Pretty simple. Love 

[00:14:31] Day Kibilds: that. 

[00:14:32] Mickey Baines: Number four, if you work with special populations, transfer students, Dual enrollment students, meaning the high school students taking college courses.

[00:14:39] If you work with those, start to rethink the relationship development approach you have with the college counselors, academic advisors, um, especially if it's like transfer from two year institutions. Think about how those relationships work. You want your institution to be the first one they think of, um, when their students are looking for dual enrollment or looking to transfer.

[00:14:58] What can you do to enhance [00:15:00] that relationship so that you are the first? Um, it's not just, I want to go sit at a table on side of the campus. Anytime you're going to do that, there should be something else on your agenda as the person representing your college or university. On at that high school or at that other institution, something else on your agenda that you should be doing to build the relationship.

[00:15:20] It could be meeting with someone over, over the academic advising center, or maybe the, the lead college counselor. Here's changes in our programs. Yeah, that's the basic and boring stuff, but it could also be, I want to stop and talk to the department chair for math because we just enrolled four students.

[00:15:36] Um, that transferred for our math program who want to, you know, in our mathematics program last year, and I want to let them know how well those students are doing. Something along those lines so that you're making connections with other people. Yes, counselors influence, advisors influence, but so do faculty.

[00:15:50] So do other administrators. Other administrators meaning an assistant principal or an associate provost that then might be pushing down, Hey, have, have you been talking with your [00:16:00] transfer students about X university? I just met with them. They're doing some really cool stuff. You need those relationships and it can't just be with the counselor.

[00:16:08] And you should also be thinking about how to build them. Anytime you're connecting with them more than just what you need to meet those students. It's got to go beyond that. 

[00:16:17] Day Kibilds: Uh, wow. Mickey, I feel like you could fill an entire episode of these ideas. 

[00:16:24] Mickey Baines: We can keep going if you want. I, but you know, when we made this appointment to record this and give an idea.

[00:16:30] It's hard for me to stop with one. I am an idea person. Um, and so I liked it. Well, what should we do? And a lot of that comes from, I get the value of having lots of conversations with a lots of college universities where we are forced to help generate a lot of ideas. So, um, 

[00:16:45] Day Kibilds: yeah, thank you. Thanks for sharing those.

[00:16:48] Yeah. All right. Thanks so much. Okay. For our next tactic idea is my close friend and co author, Ashley Budd. [00:17:00] Ashley, will you tell us where you work and what you do? Yes. 

[00:17:04] Ashley Budd: I work at Cornell University as... Uh, marketing director in the advancement division serving alumni affairs and development. 

[00:17:15] Day Kibilds: That's awesome.

[00:17:16] And I know that you had a start in admissions, so I'm sure you're full of ideas that bring admissions and advancement together. Tell us your tactical idea. 

[00:17:25] Ashley Budd: My tactical idea is to send your active alumni hats. And pins and swag and just do it on an annual basis. But the alumni that you're sending to need to be people who are active in your community.

[00:17:40] And the fun thing that I learned switching over to advancement is what these alumni engagement officers are doing and what they want is to have active alumni. And they want to know who the people are who are doing things in their own community. And admissions teams want to [00:18:00] know who these People are too, because we want walking billboards.

[00:18:04] We especially want walking billboards of people who are admired in the community for doing service. And I have to think that our alumni, especially at traditional four year residential colleges are instilling this value of service into activities that are happening onto campus. So it's not a stretch to think that we're producing humans who are doing things back in their communities.

[00:18:30] We want to ask them what they're doing and then we want to send them 

[00:18:34] Day Kibilds: that swag. I can totally imagine, like, if you show up in a, like a newspaper article or like you are on TV, local TV for your community or something, you're wearing your school sweatshirt and then like you hand out a few pens, like. I want it to be 

[00:18:48] Ashley Budd: the knee jerk reaction that when I'm going to go like help in a community garden or show up.

[00:18:55] At a PTA meeting that I'm going to grab my Cornell hat and put it on because [00:19:00] I'm doing my service thing. And that's the thing that Cornellians do. 

[00:19:04] Day Kibilds: I love that. And you just have to send them the swag. They'll love you for it. Admissions will love you for it. 

[00:19:10] Ashley Budd: Uh, it's, you know, celebrating them for being people who are doing acts of service.

[00:19:15] I think that is exactly where we want to put our stewardship dollars. 

[00:19:19] Day Kibilds: That's a great tactic idea, Ash. Thank you. Easy. Just do it, folks. Send them hats. Send them hats. I love it. Well, thanks so much for sharing, Ashley.

[00:19:33] And for our next tactic idea is my super funny and super smart colleague, Jen Johnson. Jen, will you tell us where you work, what you do, and your history in admissions? I 

[00:19:45] Jen Johnson: will. You are too kind, Day. So I work at Ology. I've been here for two years leading the account management team, and I worked in higher ed before that in admissions and marketing for about a decade.

[00:19:57] Day Kibilds: Oh, wow. So you must have a million [00:20:00] ideas. We're just going to ask you for one today. All right. 

[00:20:03] Jen Johnson: I am happy to talk about the campus visit. I'm very passionate about it. Oh, yes. 

[00:20:07] Day Kibilds: Please tell us your idea for a campus visit. Okay. 

[00:20:10] Jen Johnson: So before I get to the core of my idea, the first thing that I want to say to my admissions friends out there, if you are not prioritizing the prospective students who are in your building on a daily basis to visit your school, I want you to change something and prioritize them.

[00:20:28] I know things can get busy during reading season, et cetera, but. The marketplace is shifting, things are less predictable, and you have interested students in your building. Prioritize them. Yeah. 

[00:20:39] Day Kibilds: Wake up! Wake up! I've 

[00:20:41] Jen Johnson: been at, I've been to visits, I don't know if you have, Day, where a student greeted me, took me on a tour, gave me a presentation with no visual aids, and I never met an admissions professional.

[00:20:52] So don't 

[00:20:52] Day Kibilds: let that be you. The students and their parents really want to meet an admissions professional. They do. They really do. Yeah. Alright. So [00:21:00] once, once our listeners get that fixed, what's your tactic 

[00:21:05] Jen Johnson: idea? Okay. So once you get that fixed, okay, what's the content of the visit, right? What are, what are they hearing?

[00:21:11] So remember this, people don't remember all your facts and figures. People remember people and stories. So I want to talk to you about how you make your student ambassadors. Excellent storytellers. Mm-hmm. . Okay. So train them on your brand. Like presumably you've got a core, a core message, right? Something that makes you unique and special and and compelling.

[00:21:34] And then you've got some supporting points of your experience that ladder up to that. And if you don't have that, let me back up and say, go do that. Do a brand refresh and articulate your 

[00:21:44] Day Kibilds: story, right? We won't. I mean, we won't do any plugs here, but we do both marketology. So, hint, hint. Right. That is 

[00:21:55] Jen Johnson: table stakes.

[00:21:56] You know, make sure you're clear on that. And now you take your student [00:22:00] ambassadors. You want them to train them on that brand. So instead of a training where you're getting them to memorize. Memorize facts and figures about buildings and tour routes, engage them in their story, engage them in through the lens of your brand.

[00:22:15] So put a questionnaire together, asking them things like if the location is important to your brand, say, how has the location influenced your experience here? You know, if professor relationships are important to your brand, ask them, you know, who was a faculty member? Who's had the most influence on you and get, get names and course description, you know, course titles and like be specific in this and then work with them, like engage someone, maybe from your marketing department or someone else who can do great storytelling and help those students articulate their story through the lens of your brand.

[00:22:51] Talk to them about where on the tour would be the right moments to share these personal things about them and these specific details and just really [00:23:00] Let go of the precious things that yeah that you've been saying for years that nobody 

[00:23:04] Day Kibilds: remembers Well, and I love this Jen because when people show up for a visit like they've done their research They're not just willingly showing up like they you are on the list Right.

[00:23:15] And for you to have gotten on the list, they went to your website, they looked you up, they know the facts, they know how many residence buildings you have, they know how many majors you offer. They know that stuff. Right. But I can imagine if you train your tour guides or ambassadors this way, right? Like if you're walking through campus and you're in front of a building that the student tells you, I remember.

[00:23:36] You know, in the winter of my second year in this very building, I was struggling with X thing, and Professor So and so, like, right here in this chair, like, really helped me through this, right? Like, I will never forget that, like, just because it's so, it's so in the moment, it's so real, right? I don't know.

[00:23:55] Exactly. 

[00:23:56] Jen Johnson: And it's just, you know, they want to hear the real stuff from [00:24:00] the students. So don't force the students to like memorize the things that people can look up on your website or look in a brochure. 

[00:24:08] Day Kibilds: I love that. I love it. Oh my gosh, there's so many, like, I'm just thinking of so many things, like, if you're going to the athletic stuff, like, tell me about the time that you broke your own PR doing something, right?

[00:24:18] Like, when I was here, you know, I remember on this very treadmill, I ran the fastest I've ever run, right? Like, that's something you'll remember instead of We have 50 cardio equipment machines. You're exactly right. 

[00:24:34] Jen Johnson: As a track mom, it pains me to think of somebody running a PR on a treadmill day. 

[00:24:39] Day Kibilds: Well, okay.

[00:24:40] All right. I take your point. 

[00:24:44] Jen Johnson: What you're driving home, though, is that the specifics matter, right? Like, name the professor, name the class, name, you know, the, the the time of year, like whatever it is, bring them into that moment of your 

[00:24:56] Day Kibilds: story. Absolutely. I love this Jen. Thank you so much for sharing [00:25:00] this idea.

[00:25:00] Thanks for having me. There you have it. By my count, over 10 tactic ideas, plus the nine full episodes we've shared so far. Plenty for you to try and get real results. Season two of Talking Tactics will be in your ears in January. Subscribe and stay tuned to this very platform. Because I also have a special release of episodes planned for you before then.

[00:25:27] Until then, keep walking the walk and talking the tactics. See you next year.

[00:25:41] Thank you all for listening to Talking Tactics. If you try what you heard today, or if you've got a tactic of your own to share, I definitely want to hear it. So find me on LinkedIn by searching for my name, Diana Kibbildz. That's D A Y A N A. K I B I L D S. And if you're enjoying [00:26:00] Talking Tactics, please rate and review the show because there's nothing I love more than a good grade and positive reinforcement.

[00:26:08] Finally, if you just can't get enough of good podcasts, the Enrollified Podcast Network delivers with an amazing selection of other marketing and admissions focused podcasts just for you. Go show them some love. See you next time.