Tracking Enrollments from Advertising

I recently presented at the UCEA West Regional Conference in Salt Lake City on tracking advertising dollars from advertising to advising to enrollment. The basic presentation was on the illustrious goweberstate.com and how we use that particular website, along with our own custom step-by-step tracking system and custom ad-click system to see 1)Where people are coming from, 2)Once they get there, what are they clicking on, and 3)Demographic information. This is the point where most marketing departments will say "good 'nuff" and be done with their piece. But after all that work, who's to say whether this student will get follow-up advising? So from there, we combined 2 other processes: Advising and Enrollment. I set up another administration system where, once a potential student fills out the form online, a reminder email is sent to our advising staff. Advising then logs in, checks the information, calls (or emails) the student, and holds their hand through the back-to-school process. She can make notes in the system, has a triage script to help her out with the call, and can check them off as being "advised". After that, she checks them off in the system if they have enrolled. If a student is not checked off as "enrolled" in the system, we send out periodic emails with snippets of back-to-school advice and events, just to remind them. This way we know EXACTLY who has enrolled because of our advertising dollars. What are the nubmers so far? In one year 14% of our students that filled out the "quesionnaire" online actually enrolled (this counts students who filled it out two weeks ago). I suspect when we crunch the numbers again in a year from now that percentage will have doubled.

After the presentation I got two serious job offers. I was flattered, but the fact is that this idea really isn't anything novel or even difficult to do. It was just a matter of doing it. We all know that capturing clickstreams is important, but do we put that information to good use? I've learned from several conferences, and from common sense, that it's all about the experience. Take VW, for example. They don't just sell a car. They sell a car with an electric guitar that hooks up to the stereo. They sell cars (assumingly to women) in pastel colors with a holder by the wheel that contains a daisy. They sell an EXPERIENCE. The same goes with your university marketing dollars. Don't sell aspects of the university and leave it at that. Make sure their experience is a good one. Be involved in all aspects from advertising to enrollment. You will soon find what holes need to be patched and how to better reach your students.