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Technology trumping marketing fundamentals
Earlier this week I attended a conference sponsored by a great local enrollment management consulting firm called Scannell and Kurz. In attendance were executive enrollment leaders at mostly smaller, private, institutions with full time enrollments between 2k and 5k. Because one of the presenters was unable to make it, we had a technology round table to discuss how members are using technology in their enrollment management and marketing practices. One thing that was very evident, during the discussions, was a high level of anxiety amongst enrollment leaders on the gap between Millennial students communications preferences and the understanding of those preferences by enrollment leaders. Moreover, a lot of enrollment executives have learned their trade through a somewhat predictable model of how students learn, apply and enter institutions; this enrollment funnel model is losing relevancy given the amount of information that is in the public domain and not filtered by the college or university.
It was a very good conversation, but one thing kind of scared me: the solution to a lot of the perceived problems was not a more focused analysis on their marketing processes and strategies, but to get more technology and layer it on. Individuals stated that they are investing in web site redesigns, incorporating more blogs, etc. These tactics may yield dividends, but there seemed to be some uncertainty on aligning messaging to segments, and aligning messaging to the hierarchy of effects or decision making process; seemed to be more mass messaging using more technology.
There is no doubt that prospective students are learning and becoming aware of colleges and universities through many more channels. However, fundamental messaging alignment to personal value drivers cannot be ignored. One question that enrollment marketing professionals may want to ask, whenever a new mar com initiative is deployed, is: does this convey the right message, to the right person, at the right time, using the right medium.
An enrollment marketing model that may be helpful is: http://www.datatel.com/datatel/Uploads/95AA0CE9-E429-06DF-099825AE3B1E72A7/Marketing_Strategies.PDF
Tags: enrollment marketing, higher education technology, internet marketing
Ian, you’re quite right. Technology should only the enabler of doing the right thing.
Without a clear vision of the goal you hope to achieve, any implementation of technology is pretty much certain to fail. Technology by itself does nothing and sadly there are far too many folks out there peddling just that; technology.
Administrators need to take a step backwards, define an overall vision of what they want to achieve, and consult with vendors who speak about how they can help make that happen, not impressive technology for technology sake.
Comparitively, if you walk into a car dealer and say “I’m looking for a car” that’s kind of obvious. If the sales person doesn’t take careful time asking what you want in a car, why you need it, and a myriad of other questions, how can that person suggest a vehicle that might be a good fit for you?
Seek ‘partner’ companies that ask more questions than they answer and you’ll likely find someone who is really trying to find out how they can help you – not sell you!
Very interesting article, i bookmarked your blog
Best regards