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� �
By Mickey Baines
� What is the Secret Shopper Study?
� The study’s evolution
� So, how do schools currently engage adult students? � What should we be adding in 2015?
� Questions & Closing
� If there was one thing that converted more students than anything else in your recruitment tactics this past year, what was it?
� If there was one thing that converted less than any other recruitment tactic this past year, what was it?
� Are your communication plans and recruitment tactics better than, equal to or worse than your competitors?
� The 2014 secret shopper study consisted of 60 programs o 30 grad and 30 undergrad o Context – Why do I study this? o Brief background about Fourth Dimension Partners
� What do we study? o Inquiry Forms o Emails o Phone Calls o Direct Mail
� The study’s evolution o The first study – 2012 o Changes for 2014 o Changes for 2015
� This form has 16 fields
� Average fields in study: 16.3
� Note: 2 schools removed from study
� Why are forms important for the study?
� Business Industry: 5.7 fields
� Form length impacts response rate (We recommended ways to shorten form length)
� Monitored all contact points for 6 weeks. o 34% Responded 1st day o Majority of initial responses came through email o Automated messaging (for the initial response) is very prevalent
� 12 Schools failed to respond at all. o How did we handle no response? o Majority of non-response institutions were for graduate programs o 8 of 12 use faculty for primary recruitment staff
� Only 35% of schools phoned.
� A new record was set during the study:
o The highest number of calls by a single school:
� Almost all voicemails could have been left by the same person – just insert school name. (We listen to and dissect voicemails)
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� Increase in the use of CRM was significant. o 25% more institutions were using a CRM than in 2013. o Only basic customization and personalization built into messages.
� 89% of schools sent at least 1 email (most sent more) � Overall, messages were bland and dry.
o Much like voice mails, content could be cut and pasted between schools. (We categorize email by topic; and create a top-10 list of overused words)
o Subject lines need significant improvement to improve open and click rates.
o Content too long. (We measure length of subject line and content inside of messages)
What’s wrong with this image?
� 12% of emails landed outside of the Inbox o Spam vs. Graymail (We provided some participants with
recommendations to improve deliverability)
� 39% of emails had 2 or more graphics
What’s wrong with this image?
� 48% of programs sent at least one piece of mail.
� More graduate than undergraduate programs used direct mail.
� 13% sent more than one piece.
� Significant difference between the two in total contact points. The few for-profits in the study had nearly 4 times as many contact points as non-profits.
� All for-profits phoned, emailed and mailed. o Less than 10% of non-profits used all three
channels.
� Standardized regional comparisons
� Online vs face-to-face (and hybrid) comparison
� Pre-study survey to include enrollment trends (opt-in only)
� Identification and Comparison of Institutional Best Practices for top 20% of programs
� Additional customization options multiple locations
� Questions?
� How to participate? o Reply to my follow-up email which will come to you later today. o We will schedule a short call to review your program and ensure a
good fit.