According to an April 2, 2012 Deutsche Bank report on online education, diversification of marketing channels in terms of recruiting new students reduces financial risk. Maintaining a balance among referrals, corporate channels, community colleges, military, traditional media, inbound organic search, and purchased leads was cited in the report as essential to reducing volatility and enhancing your higher education marketing efforts. Analysts perceived 10% to 25% exposure to purchased leads as a safe percentage while they viewed exposure of 50% or more as risky. The higher the exposure to purchased leads,  the more difficult it becomes for a university to control its destiny.

Traditional schools need to pay close attention to these analyses and spend wisely so that recent improvements in market share versus online schools continue. These brick-and-mortar institutions need to take control of their recruiting processes in a way that minimizes overexposure and maximizes brand recognition. Many analysts feel that brand recognition is one of the key drivers behind recent gains in market share for traditional colleges and universities.

One of the keys to effective marketing is the ability to track and measure expenditures across channels at the campaign level and in real time. The web should serve as the hub of a school’s marketing efforts. Creating segmented campaigns with unique landing pages and inserting QR codes on mailed pieces that are intended to drive recipients to the web are two methods that can help institutions start to track and measure marketing expenditures more effectively and efficiently. Similarly, utilizing email applications to track clickthrough and open rates as well as driving people to an institutional web site via social media channels enable more robust campaigns in terms of channel utilization, management, and analysis.

Diversifying the marketing mix, leveraging brand recognition, understanding ROI per channel and per campaign, these are the ways to:

• Attract more visitors
• Attract the right visitors
• Control user experience once prospects land on your site
• Measure your marketing across campaigns and channels
• Continue what is working
• Discontinue what isn’t working

For more information regarding how to strategize, execute, and analyze your recruitment marketing, please learn more about our services.