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Market-Maker™ — Front-end Analysis
This is a service that iteratively shops, examines, and analyzes all facets of your front-end (the part that defines how your institution and programs appear to prospective students). Following two to three weeks of stealth shopping, follow up conversations with your personnel, downloading forms, examining your website and other collateral, and stressing your enrollment system with various questions, we will present you with a clear understanding of how you present yourself to prospective students with respect to the important drivers of enrollment. We will even have some hints about your drivers of retention.
At the conclusion of our research, we'll give you a score card, as it were, that contrasts each facet of your profile with best practice. We'll make suggestions as to which changes, if any, will lead to the greatest improvement in enrollment on an effort or cost basis. If you are like most institutions new to a Front-end Analysis, you will find that you anticipated some of our findings while others will surprise you. You may even be a bit chagrined to learn how effectively some of your practices and people can drive prospective students away (we hope not, but be prepared just in case).
If you think this kind of precision shopping is unnecessary, consider the following.
The First 30 Minutes
The competitive arena for market share in adult-centered higher education has shifted three times in the past decade. Today’s competition centers on the “front-end” or pre-matriculation services, including all facets of lead generation, enrollment counseling and management, collateral pre-matriculation services (e.g., financial aid, credit recognition), including the right level of web support of these processes (more is not always better). Some schools have become so efficient in building relationships with prospective learners and responding to their needs that they earn a tentative commitment to enroll during the first 30 minutes of their interaction. This efficiency comes from focusing on the true drivers of enrollment, retention, and learner satisfaction.
But what happens if you lose to the competition at this early juncture? Once lost to the competition, these learners, representing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue to the average adult-centered program, seldom look back---even if their choice turns out to be unsatisfactory. Your faculty are no doubt aware of Mr. Jones who transferred to you from Sneaky Falls University because their "quality" was so low (if they did transfer, it was more likely because their service quality was unacceptably low). Unfortunately, when these cases actually occur, they are too low to be material at a strategic level.
If you want to compete in the adult-centered and professional markets, your front-end must convey a strong value proposition to prospective students. By strategically “shopping” and “stressing” your front-end over a period of weeks, we can accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses in your market position and make staged recommendations for improvement that accommodate your resource constraints in relation to best possible practice.
Lead Generation
"Strategy and tactics for efficient lead-generation have changed substantially in the past few years. For leading schools, the media budgets are entirely different. Media that were once central to marketing and advertising budgets are now marginal or have been eliminated altogether. In their place are new methods for generating highly qualified leads. The effects of these changes have been positive. Lead generation costs have declined in many cases. Lead quality has improved. Conversion rates, while not nearly as high as walk-ins or other self-presenters, have increased."
The above language was copied from our 2004 materials. We present it to illustrate the pace of change. In 2006, leading adult-centered and professional programs are producing the majority of their enrollments from digital leads converting at an average rate of three to six percent. To convert these leads at their potential rate requires a precision enrollment services system, including well-trained enrollment counselors, and appropriate business rules, metrics, and supporting infrastructure. When properly executed, student acquisition costs (cost of sales — all in) can still be lower than alternative approaches. But the picture is changing again as we write this. Digital leads that sold for $18 per in 2004 might be $60 or more in 2006. Properly converted, digital leads are still the only way for some schools to grow at a rate they have set for themselves. However, the triple-digit increase in the cost of leads (a trend that has not yet leveled off) makes it even more imperative that all elements of your front-end are operating in a way and with efficiency that is optimal for your institution.
Integrated Management Systems
Leading schools have integrated the functions of telecommunications, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, web support, enrollment counseling, and enrollment into a seamless system that creates a safety net under all processes and permits counsellors and other professionals to focus on what they do best. These systems can be developed incrementally, but they are most useful when they are strategically guided by those who have implemented many such systems.
Methods
Using a detailed and heuristically-driven strategy (we often call it "noodling around"), senior InterEd researchers shop and examine all facets of your pre-matriculation system and services. We look for strengths, weaknesses, and competitive opportunities and liabilities. We examine the nature and scope of your presence in your potential market. We have in-depth conversations with key individuals in your system. We conduct anonymous shopping of you and your competition. We compare what you are doing with only the most relevant best practices. All of this work is focused on the drivers of enrollment, retention and learner satisfaction.
Deliverables
Our research and consultation consists of what you should expect in any research endeavor of this kind, including: (a) a goal-setting and planning teleconference, (b) a project task and time-table, (c) a written pre-conference briefing and presentation of findings (delivered via e-mail), and (d) an in-depth briefing teleconference joining your team with ours to elaborate on findings and explore the advantages and disadvantages of various action plans. Together, we create a solution to your immediate challenges. In addition to the formal deliverables, a relationship with InterEd provides informal and collegial consultative access. While clients have specific agendas when they utilize a Market-Maker™ service, they place high value on the relationship they establish with InterEd's staff and managers.
Benefits
How many correctable barriers to enrollment will we find? In a typical study cycle, we identify five to ten issues that are significantly limiting enrollments. For each limiting factor, we provide concrete guidance as to the most appropriate next steps congruent with your institution's mission and resources.
Start Now
If you talk with us now, you will have a detailed report in time to make changes before your next enrollment peak. This report includes a table with feature-by-feature analyses and recommendations for action. Because you chose InterEd, you can be assured that the findings are correctly focused, appropriately contextualized, and interpreted by those who understand how to develop and deliver adult-centered programs.
There is no other service that can produce such near-term and cost-effective, non strategic, increases in enrollment and revenue.
Try This Service Once and You'll Be a Regular