Recruitment & Marketing

The Content Marketing Playbook 5 Proven Strategies for Successful Student Recruitment

Presented by Tony Fraga and Jamie Gleason, DD Agency Recorded by Amy Carver, Iowa State University

Tony and Jamie discussed the importance of utilizing a carefully developed plan to attract and recruit more right-fit students by leveraging and optimizing content. With limited resources, it is important to focus on a methodology that is sustainable, and not put all resources into one or two tactics. DD Agency uses a flywheel approach, a self-sustaining marketing model for content strategy to attract, engage, and delight prospective students. DD Agency reviewed successful content strategies to grow programs, their focus was on implementing the right content, in the right place, at the right time. Here are some of the strategies: • Explore ways to launch new programs with an unattractive/unpopular name. When faced with such a challenge, one school chose to build awareness but use an attractive or popular search term rather than the program’s name. It is possible to build awareness without talking about the program through pieces that drive to secondary content on the program itself.

When utilizing paid search there may be an initial spike in results but organically there will be long-term results that still produce leads for the program. • Build a lead pipeline that is organically sustained and ties into a unique value proposition (UVP) by researching broad content topics. One school identified broad topics, brainstormed a variety of subtopics, and published content on short-form media, e.g., blogs. Once the blogs getting the most clicks were identified, the content was cross-promoted and cross-linked. These were not stagnate pieces but content that was modified to be the most relevant and republished. • Utilize technology as a strategy. A graduate school with multiple programs needed to reduce friction at the consideration-stage–they chose to implement a chatbot. The chatbot redirects prospects to existing, hard to find content that already exists. In the example presented, the graduate school was able to increase engagement with content, generate first-time leads, and engage in secondary conversions with existing prospects.

• Utilize unique value propositions (UVP) to improve yield and reduce melt. To promote decision-stage value, one school developed a pillar page filled with data about the institution to overcome objections.

This content strategy focuses not only on the program, but fosters thought leadership.

• Create a sense of urgency to re-engage stalled inquiries to drive application submission. One school achieved this through email communications which drove prospects to a landing page to request fee waivers, view follow-up reminders, or other relevant information to encourage application submission.

The DD Agency dug into strategies used for different purposes–demonstrating why and how they worked and the overall short and long-term impact realized by each strategy. n

Bringing Graduate Recruitment to the Forefront in an Undergraduate World

Presented by Jaime Oleksik, Carnegie; Erika Davis, Cedar College; Debroah Accurso, Cedar Crest College Reported by Karen Eden, MOL-MBA, St. Ambrose University

With changes in the adult, online, and graduate space, it is time to reevaluate. There are triumphs to be had with these audiences, but how?

Find your future story

You need to align with your strategic plan. When it comes to finding your story, timing is everything. The environment needs to be read and evaluated. The National Student Clearinghouse data indicated that there is potential growth in adult, online, and graduate student population through 2025.

Shift Internal Focus

Shifting internal structure to one college and one admissions office was a key component in bringing graduate recruitment to the forefront. There needs to be a sharing of resources, cross training of staff, and support from administration, directors, and faculty. There also needs to be advocacy for recruitment and marketing funds.

Shift External Focus

Shifting externally means to increase awareness by leaning into the school’s brand and personality. It was important to develop a thoughtful graduate-centric channel strategy. Another shift was to create a new asset by incorporating undergrad and graduate together in branding. Increasing awareness and reputation in graduate marketing was key. Graduate marketing starts with the prospective student journey. This enrollment journey has changed and is now a diverse ecosystem. There are dozens of potentials ports of entry, through which students can interact with and engage with universities: this is student search. There needs to be an effective student search. Comprehensive communication plans that account for each of these channels and deliver responsive and customized messaging at each interaction is the future.

Why do we need this customized messaging? It is a student’s market. They choose how, when, and where to engage. This is where the human connection comes into play. In higher education and enrollment growth, at the end of the day, we are trying to connect with students. Human connection is in everything we do. Human connection is measurable by psychometrics. How does the student feel about your school? Without psychometrics you will not create a connection with knowing this important information on how people think and the way they feel. The human connection’s psychometrics is measured with archetypes and the personality spectrum. Utilizing this human connection strategy with Carnegie, Cedar Crest positioned their graduate efforts internally and deployed a comprehensive campaign. They now have 27 graduate programs and increased their graduate student headcount by 48% over the last six years. n

Effective Communication Strategies for Graduate Admissions Professionals

Presented by: Casey Herman and Stacy Melton, Seton Hall Law School Recorded by: Meili Jin, Bentley University

Key Takeaways: • Use new software to communicate with prospective applicants and admitted students, such as Zoom,

WhatsApp. Using multi-channels of communication is important, such as by email, text, phone, Zoom, and/ or WhatsApp • Refresh marketing messages such as personalized, caring, attuned information to students so that they feel communication information is directly to them • Using survey to collect data from alumni, for example: job status, promotion status, salary updates (increased?), job title, company

• After gathering the survey data, use the information to promote programs during recruitment events

• During a graduate open house, offer different options for students to choose from, such as international applicants room, domestic applicants room, breakout rooms with program directors • Changing ways to offer/host events, such as hybrid event options

• To better communicate with students and support them in a timely manner, consider purchasing a cell phone for the department

• Offer fast application option during pandemic to better support prospective applicants. This led to an increased yield rate; there was a 75% increase in convert rate of those filling out the fast application when compared with the full application. To sum up, the session presented different ways on how to better communicate with students by using different platforms, for example WhatsApp was very successful in the Indian market. Use personalized messages when sending out marketing emails directed to students, so that they feel the message was directly to them individually. During the session attendees asked great questions, and were very engaged throughout the whole time. n

Smart Recruitment Strategies in Our Evolving World

Presented by John Agusto, Georgia State University, and Ayo Strange, Educational Testing Service (ETS) Reported by Krystal Johnson, Northwestern University

As enrollment is declining at most private and state institutions, it is essential to have a strategic plan to expand your applicant pool and increase Engagement when connecting with graduate prospects and applicants. John Agusto, Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, discussed the importance of smart recruitment strategies, and Ayo Strange, Director of Higher Education Institutional Sales at Educational Testing Service (ETS).

Current State of US Enrollment:

• Bachelor’s degree enrollment has seen a drop within

the past couple of years, specifically from 2019 - 2021.

However, there has been an increase in applicants enrolling in master’s and doctoral programs. • In 2021, enrollment growth in graduate and doctoral programs was above 3%, and the previous year was within the 2% range. • 2.1% increase in graduate enrollment, specifically in public institutions. In 2019 – 2021 enrollment increased in public institutions by over 8%.

International Student Mobility

• The Institute of International Education 2021 fall international student enrollment snapshot included data from 860 US higher education institutions and found that the number of international students has increased. There was a 68% increase of new international students enrolling in US institutions for the first time. This was indeed a significant change from the 46% decline reported in the fall of 2020. • Universities are increasing their support for international students. Many institutions have changed their application and admission processes.

For example, 57% of institutions allow online instead of in-person testing. In addition, institutions are increasing services such as crisis management, housing, and financial aid to help with pandemicrelated emergencies. • Although graduate programs will continue to grow, recent reports from Moody Investor services indicate that colleges and universities with the resources to adapt to the demand and the potential to expand their online and short-term offerings will withstand future recruitment and enrollment challenges.

Recruitment Challenges Institutions are Facing:

• Health crisis

• Increased competition from other countries • Travel restrictions

• Not enough prospects, let alone qualified prospects • Tough competition • Diversity • Declining interest in the discipline • Uncertainty around international student • Funding

Suggestions to Overcome Recruitment Challenges:

Institutions can overcome some of their challenges by revamping their recruitment plan and ensuring that it is data-driven and data-informed, maximizing campus faculty and staff, and knowing where to find and how to engage with prospects. By having a data drive and data-informed recruitment plan, institutions can answer the following questions: 1. Are program goals different this year compared to last year? 2. Does the institution need the applicant pool to change, and how can the enrollment and recruitment department find applicants to fulfill the requirement? 3. Should the institution broaden its reach by targeting working adults, GRE list, generate awareness, and diversify internationally (besides China and India)? 4. Is diversity a priority? 5. What has worked in the past, and what was the ROI? 6. What sources and channels are resulting in the best yield—Know which sources derive the highest yield for your program: website, digital social media, undergrad programs at your institutions, alumni 7. Increase engagement by thinking like a prospective student when preparing for grad workshops, social events, interactive webinars, etc.

For institutions to face some of the challenges with recruitment and enrollment, it is essential for colleges and universities to invest in a CRM software that will customize communications. It is also essential to ensure that recruitment materials are updated and connect with graduates/alumni to review and edit webpages. The goal is to communicate the institution’s unique selling points using infographics, fact sheets, engaging photos, and valuable and actionable information. This will allow the story of the university to be heard. n

The goal is to communicate the institution’s unique selling points using infographics, fact sheets, engaging photos, and valuable and actionable information.

Bring Your Own Enrollment Management Marketing Challenge

Presented by: Tony Fraga, DD Agency; Marcus Hanscom, Roger Williams University; Francesca Reed, Neumann University; Zach Busekrus, DD Agency; and Natalie Gleason, DD Agency Reported by: Jennifer Jones, MaED, Virginia Tech

In this question-and-answer session with GEM Marketing professionals, conference participants were encouraged to share their current marketing challenges and receive feedback from the panel.

Questions posed by conference participants

• How do you bring together internal and external stakeholders while working together (example: external consultants, internal marketing departments, and programmatic or university leadership)? b gain a collective or shared goal; b make sure that there is buy in from all levels and if not, begin with one set of stakeholders to create buy in; b create a position (person) that is the “glue” between the groups of stakeholders and can create a common vision.

• How does a university market collectively while still successfully selling individual campuses and/ or programs? b with common branding throughout the university and members from all campuses and programs guiding the discussions.

• What are some unique and creative ways to grow inquiries? b find organic leads (use SEO and social media); b make sure the content is specific to the prospective students (program specific, not just university branding); b nurture the prospects once you find them.

• How can we do more with our small budget? b SEO and retargeting are key with a small budget; focus on getting and keeping the visitors to your website.

• How do we work together with a group (marketing and communications) that is overstretched and set in their ways? b use data to drive the conversation and the goals; b utilize them to create modules or templates that the program can then use to implement across the website; b find the “nuggets” of information that you can add to improve content (small changes that make a large difference).

• How do you communicate that a program is affordable without making it sound “cheap”? b focus on the outcomes of the program and what the student can receive as a benefit of completing the program; b not just about affordability, but value.

Themes that appeared throughout all questions:

• start small: choose one goal, one email, one content item; • get ownership from stakeholders and empower the team to do the work; • high-quality content is key! It must be specific to the prospective students; • utilize SEO; • understand the changes you make and be able to track their success or failure; data drives the discussions.

Secret tips of the trade:

• if you are attempting to gain additional funding, use a program that is already successful to show growth then replicate what works for additional programs; • use funding for strategies that can be used long term by your units versus one and done or ongoing services; • website changes can be an easy and affordable way to gain more organic traffic: work to make your site more user friendly b high school students respond that they “don’t like things that look gross” and will just leave if your website is; • always remember that we compete on user experience! n

Surveying the Landscape of Test-Optional Admissions: What’s Now and What’s Next in Graduate Admissions Policies

Presented by Sara Haviland, Educational Testing Service, and Keith Ramsdell, Ashland University Zach Busekrus, DD Agency; and Natalie Gleason, DD Agency Reported by Jennifer Sayre, PhD, Bowling Green State University

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) and NAGAP recently partnered to understand the anticipated longterm effect and nature of the shift into test-optional policies for graduate student admissions due to the COVID-19 crisis. ETS and NAGAP sent out a pulse survey to take a quick snapshot of test-optional admission’s policies of the NAGAP membership in August 2021. Overall, the survey indicated only 10.6% (13 schools) of the respondents (123 schools) fully required test scores for admissions. The data showed roughly one-third of the respondents who indicated their institutions went test-optional due to the COVID-19 crisis were unsure whether the policy would continue. Those respondents who indicated that their test-optional policies were not developed in response to the pandemic were perceived to be more permanent. From that survey and the individual discussions of those respondents who were willing to be interviewed by the research team, ETS was able to examine 2 questions: (1) What motivates schools to make the submission of test scores optional? and (2) How do admissions professionals view holistic admissions? According to the study, the

The data showed roughly one-third of the respondents who indicated their institutions went test-optional due to the COVID-19 crisis were unsure whether the policy would continue.

They suggest that you examine your holistic admissions policies to see if they are intentional, reflexive, and multifaceted.

following are the perceived advantages of going testoptional: • a more holistic/human approach, • may be more equitable/fair, • removes barriers, • may increase diversity, bigger applicant pool, and • keeping up with the competition.

Additionally, the following are perceived disadvantages of the same: • less information on the applicant, • leaves room for potential biases, • unserious applicants (yield concerns), • may admit some unprepared students, and • may harm its image as a competitive program.

In answer to the second question, five common themes emerged from the interviews in relation to what is perceived as holistic admissions: a “whole person” approach, evaluation of multiple components of an application, ability to balance all components of application, considered as an approach to use cut-points (test, GPA, grades), and an emphasis on fit.

Sara and her research team from ETS shared key recommendations when making admissions test score policy changes. They suggest that you examine your holistic admissions policies to see if they are intentional, reflexive, and multifaceted. Also, you need to examine data from your own applicant pool to know if you are seeing the results you intended. See how you answer the following questions: • Has the applicant pool and admitted class increased?

Diversified?

• Did your diverse applicants matriculate? Were they retained?

• Were your student success measures maintained? n

Ambassadors and Moguls: Leveraging Your Graduate Student Workforce for Creative Marketing Solutions

Presented by Tanith Fowler Corsi, Hood College Reported by Amanda Selby, EdD, A.T. Still University

Fowler Corsi started her presentation by making the crucial point that “moguls” were not to be confused with “muggles” (we see you, Harry Potter fans!); instead, Fowler Corsi defined moguls as student volunteers who act as social media influencers. Next, Fowler Corsi covered some of the common dilemmas many in the audience face, including programs’ need for marketing under a limited budget and graduate students’ need for tuition assistance and work experience. Hood College has found a way to leverage its resources to provide solutions that meet both of these populations’ needs. Before moving forward with the solutions, Fowler Corsi needed to provide some background information: Hood College has a historical use of workships, which are not grant or college-funded but are tuition-receiving positions. However, these workships frequently lacked equity, focused on undergrad needs only, were not accountable, and overall did not fit the needs of graduate programs. The solution was the creation of graduate assistantships or GA-ships. These positions provided an equitable system for hiring grad students and helped underrepresented and international students to gain work experience on campus and earn tuition assistance. Two primary focuses of the GA-ships were social media and retention.

At this point, the conversation shifted to the focus of Hood College’s Social Media Ambassadors and Mogul Program. The objective: create a cost-effective method

for marketing the graduate school while providing a way for grad students to hone leadership and technology skills. The program has two components.

Graduate Ambassadors

• Represent the graduate school at events • Promote school programs/events on social media platforms • Highlight student and alumni achievements on web blogs • Work about 20 hours a week to receive tuition assistance and credit waivers

• Go through an extensive interview and training process • Create the content being shared on social media and post it directly from university accounts • Manage the moguls

Social Media Moguls

• Student volunteers who share ambassador posts • Do not create content but share posts to their pages • Earn rewards based on participation Social media metrics indicate significantly increased engagement across the three social media platforms targeted (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). Fowler Corsi shared lessons learned and practices that worked best for Hood College. Some of the highlights included: • Focusing on career outcomes and student/alumni success and achievements

• Highlighting student and faculty diversity and research/industry connections • Catering to your crowd—in the case of Hood

College, this is the military community, as there is a large active duty and veteran student population

Another outcome of this new approach was creating a graduate mentoring program. Prospective students are matched to current student volunteers for individual mentoring. Students are rewarded based on the number of mentees who apply to a Hood College grad program. The mentorship program is in the pilot stage, but there are currently 23 mentor/mentee pairs, and 21 have completed an application. Thus, by utilizing this new approach, colleges and universities can leverage their students to reach their target audiences in a way that is both cost-effective and community-building. n

Prospective students are matched to current student volunteers for individual mentoring. Students are rewarded based on the number of mentees who apply to a Hood College grad program.

NAGAP Mentor Program Sign up by August 22

Be a part of the NAGAP Mentor Program for 2022-2023

The Leader in Graduate Enrollment Management

In preparation for the 2022-2023 program, we invite NAGAP members interested in becoming participants in the program as mentors and mentees to complete the short participation form. As part of the program, mentors and mentees will engage in at least four (4) calls/virtual meetings (2 fall semester, 2 spring semester) during the year, an opening kick-off session and closing celebration, and an evaluation at the end of the program. Mentor-mentee matching will be completed by mid-September. An orientation will be scheduled late September.

Sign up to be a Mentor Sign up to be a Mentee

If you need additional information regarding the program, contact us at info@nagap.org.

Untapped Potential: 3 Ways to Capture Prospects Early in the Funnel and All Year Long

Presented by Kittie Pain, Kutztown University; Marcus Hanscom, Roger Williams University, Consultant, Dutcher LLC; Lance Hydrick, HALDA Reported by Amanda Selby, EdD, A.T. Still University

Three objectives were presented: • Learn how to assess current strategies for capturing/ enrolling students from early funnel stages • Learn how to design “Always On” recruitment strategies • Report on the impact implemented strategies have on an institution

HALDA CEO Lance Hydrick shared some fascinating information from his company’s recent survey of over 500 graduate prospects and 150 GEM community members. Key findings were: • 76% of respondents visited the institution’s website on the first day of research/awareness of a program • 91% of potential students use an institution’s website, yet only 1% filled out a request for information (RFI) form, and 44% said websites were not easy to navigate • Personal emails, general emails, and personal phone calls were prospective graduate students’ top three preferred modes of engagement • The most critical information prospective graduate students look for is whether the program is the right fit for them and their goals, are they competitive/ qualified for the program, how much the program costs, and how they will pay for it Next, speakers Kittie Pain and Marcus Hanscom shared some best practices and strategies that worked well for their institutions. Some general things to consider about your institution’s website and publicly available information are:

• Leverage your website—prospective students are using it, so take advantage of that • Create content that students see as valuable (such as personalized information, industry tips, on how to overcome challenges associated with graduate programs) in exchange for contact information— prospects are more likely to give you information if they feel they are getting something useful and valuable out of it

• Provide tools that allow students to engage with your brand other than direct 1:1 contact (think chatbots, articles, virtual information sessions, social media videos)

• Understand that your prospective international students might have more barriers to overcome

• Create deliberate opportunities for faculty and current students to connect with prospective applicants

• Make a plan to ensure responses are timely, personalized, and authentic

The good news is that HALDA survey results indicated that most of us already provide personalized treatment to prospective students. The discussion shifted to ways programs can add value and service to their prospects, which in turn helps with marketing and recruitment. The main ideas were that customer service, and personal connections are critical. Approaches should be tailored for the audience, focus on developing content that informs a decision rather than selling a program (such as how to find scholarships or make sure a career is a good fit), and use your amazing faculty and alumni stories. The user experience we provide to prospective students really can make the difference in whether they select our program or another. n

Aligning your MarTech with your CRM to discover true cost per enrollment

Presented by Jennifer Lonchar, and Jason Hamilton, Net Natives Reported by Donna Wang Su, Northwestern University

Overview

Facing the challenge that many university admissions marketing approaches use a mix of integrated tools and different tech platforms, Jennifer Lonchar and Jason Hamilton of Net Natives, focused on how you can align your technology to enable you to calculate your true cost per enrollment. University attendees shared how they use a mix of email marketing, market research, Google analytics, tableau, Power BI, and digital advertising on top of their CRM. Some schools are still operating out of static spreadsheets. They presented the following two questions, “Have your student enrollment targets changed since last year?” and “Are you expecting student enrollment targets to increase in the next three years?” How do we move forward in a meaningful and effective manner? Challenges can include: • increased enrollment targets but no increase in budget • lack of visibility of advertising performance to enrollment • increased need to generate more leads and/or brand awareness • poor conversion rates in the recruitment funnel • lack of technology integrations • high cost of enrollment By understanding how a student comes into your system and their journey from inquiry to applicant, you are able to address structural challenges, but also how to engage stakeholders through intentional communication. Are you looking at “butts in seats” or “number of clicks”? Addressing structural challenges between enrollment and admissions and marketing, schools want to know how much it cost to enroll each student. Spend X, get Y students.

1. Engage stakeholders early. Consulting with key stakeholders ensures buy-in across departments and sets expectations and targets. Understand who needs to be involved and what are the objectives, outcomes, and benefits. By connecting teams and bringing performance data together—from Cost per

Lead (CPL) in Marketing to Cost per Enrollment (CPE) in admissions will help you understand your ROI. 2. Set up prospect pipelines. For every funnel stage, create a pipeline so admissions knows exactly what stage each prospect is at and Marketing can see what’s happening at each funnel stage.

Looking at that cost per Application (CPA) allows you to be strategic about where you add budget or take different strategies. You want to know how students are doing, and know which ones came from where. How are marketing and admissions working together? You want to get to the applications in the pipeline regardless of what CRM system or process you are using which includes:

Inquiry → Application started → Application Submitted → Application denied → Offer made → Offer accepted → Offer declined

3. Look at platform performance. Surprisingly, a report run in October 2021, LinkedIn proved to be a lower cost and better ROI for a marketing campaign vs. Facebook and Google. Did you know that by increasing your landing page speed by one second, you can increase conversions by 9%? Or that utilizing secondary forms can increase completion rates by 60%?

Net Natives and Akero have created a system for complete visibility of the recruitment process alongside advertising performance, aligning with their mission to “use data, technology and creativity to transform the way students connect with opportunities to change the world.” n

Recruiting Online Graduate Students: Reaching Adult Learners

Presented by Kylie Smith, and Abigail Harris, Kelley Direct Online MBA & MS Program, Indiana University Recorded by Nykea Watts Edwards, EdD, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Indiana University’s Business School has been at the forefront of teaching online programs since 1999. Both presenters share a background working with traditional and online programs. They have concluded that there is a difference in approach when engaging various student populations. The focus of this presentation highlights four key strategies that Kelley Direct Online MBA & MS Programs use as part of their recruitment and marketing strategies geared toward online graduate students. Know Your Audience. Who are online learners? What are the differences between online versus traditional learners? How do you attract the online population to graduate programs? Seven key points were addressed regarding getting to know adult learners’ needs and motivations: • flexibility • delivery of skills that will advance careers immediately • cost/completion time concerns • quality of program/faculty • blended learning opportunities • ROI (Return on Investment) and alumni testimonies • “Show me the value” Webinars. A primary approach to reaching the adult learner population. When scheduling webinars, focus on meeting student needs and what sets your program apart. Build Connections. Ensure students are invested in choosing the right program. Solidifying connections between the admissions office and the applicant are important. Building connections is a key factor when converting applicants to students. Email Journeys. Email campaigns are a clear path to reaching the online adult learner population. This tactic gives the opportunity to offer unique content to pique interest in graduate programs, increase and track click rates, and save admissions staff time by using automations.

In conclusion, working with an online student population is different from working with traditional students. Data indicate that 42% of graduate students are enrolled in some form of online classes as part of their degree program. Of this same population, 33% are enrolled in fully online programs. These percentages are growing, which means the adult learner population is very important in terms of the future of higher education. n

Strategic Partnership Council

The Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) is designed for organizations whose missions are aligned with NAGAP’s and who wish to become more strategically engaged with our association.

Through customized marketing and collaboration platforms we offer bundled packages and unique opportunities for organizations to help build and maintain year-round relationships with our members and GEM professionals across the nation and around the world. To learn more about the SPC, visit our website: https://nagap.org/strategic-partnership-council