Best Practices in Grad & Adult Admissions & Marketing

Are you looking for ways to improve your recruitment efforts? An easy way to do that is to customize some of the questions you ask in your inquiry forms. Not only do we too often ask too many questions, we also ask the same old boring questions. 

Mickey asked, "Can I ask you how effective your communications have been in converting inquiries into applicants?"

The director replied, "Oh, they're fine. We have a CRM in place, messages go out to inquiries AND applicants. I love this technology."

There are few people, if any, that actually take advantage of all of the features of a CRM. 

(If you know of someone that does, please send their name so I can write a full article on the world's most technologically-proficient enrollment management professional!)

The key with your CRM is to ensure you aren't using less than 50% of its capability, because if you are,then you're spending money that is being wasted.If you use less than 50% of the capabilities of a CRM, there are other technologies that you could utilize to accomplish the same things much cheaper.

One of the most important prospective student conversion strategies for enrollment teams is the open house/information session. I am probably asked about these events 20-25 times per year. They are generally worthwhile, as long as you strategically consider their purpose and importance. And I am intentionally saying that up front. While I think many of you see the value and importance of the event, you aren't taking the full advantage of the time you have with your prospective students to engage them effectively.

I recently came across a report I received last year on effective recruitment tactics for graduate students.  What struck me about the report were the results about the telephone as a tactic in recruitment.