Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

Just reading this afternoon a WebProNews article, "24 Ways to Get a Customer and Keep a Customer" at http://archive.webpronews.com/2008a/0701.html

The article reports that in the online world 75% of buyers experience a lack of information that keeps them from making a purchase "always, most, or some of the time." When that happens most people will move to a competitor who provides the missing information.

High Demand for Website Net Cost Information

That made me flash back to yesterday's (finished!) work on my advance workshop presentation for the ACT Enrollment Planners Meeting next week. According to the 2007 Noel-Levitz survey of college-bound students, 76% would use an online tuition cost calculator "if they could" and 80% would use an online "financial aid estimator" if they could.

But most can't. Less 25% of both private and public institutions provide those services. (The Noel-Levitz survey at www.noellevitz.com/expectations)

Can we conclude that colleges that do offer these services gain an advantage over their competitors who do not? From what I'm hearing about the popularity of those programs from people who have them, I'd not want to be in my competitive set without one.

Little Online Help for Net Cost

Check 7 schools that offer a variety of scholarship and cost calculators at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/12/5_online_financial_aid_scholar.html

What's required for each one? Some are extremely simple, designed to provide a merit scholarship estimate with just a little academic information (Dominican University), some require family income data similar to what's needed for a FAFSA, and some compare net cost over 4 years with lifetime earning potential for various occupations (University of Toledo).

The marketing impact of college and university websites will advance when more schools start to provide information that's in high demand. Until then, a wise few will enjoy their competitive edge.

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Sitting in the Sacramento airport this morning on the way back from a web review report at UC Merced, I got online to check email. That takes me through a first Yahoo "news" page. This morning, the lead story is a tease to learn about "degrees to get you hired" to help you move forward in life at least until 2016.

Since I'm always in favor of moving forward, I visited followed the link to http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_8_sure_fire_hires.html and scanned the list of growing employment areas. Pretty standard stuff. Along with the story "reporting" the list comes a plethora of advertising opportunities for colleges and universities of every type. Hundreds of them.

You can sort by the level of degree or the area of study. But if you're interested in a "doctoral" program, don't expect to have only those advanced fields reported back to you. Whoever programmed this thing really does follow the mantra of "just keep throwing things at people until something sticks."

I tried sorting the alpha list for on-campus programs by zip code, using one from Michigan. That did sort things out to the point where the first programs reported were indeed in or near the zip code. But the list kept right on going, reporting non-degree occupational programs in locations as far as 2,000 miles away.

Does advertising like this work? It all depends on ROI. Cost of leads returned and percent who convert to enrollments. But it sure isn't a direct marketer's idea of how to do things.

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You can't miss it just about anywhere on the web these days: Advertising for adults to enroll in bachelor's and master's degree programs.

And much if not most of this is tightly targeted to people searching for the right career. After all, "career advancement" is one of the strongest terms that students of every age favor in our Customer Carewords research.

Consider this example. Yahoo runs a "news" story on the front page about the "10 stealth careers that are on the rise." That's a fly trap to lure people into a plethora of ads for adult degree programs. Visit http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_10_great_careers_you_never_heard.html and you'll find a story on "10 Great Careers You've Probably Never Heard Of" and the chance to browse for degrees in just about any area you can imagine.

• The advertising isn't just from for-profits like Phoenix and Capella. Search for online Ph.D. programs, for instance, and you'll find an ad for Boston University. Follow that ad and you'll eventually learn that the BU choices are for Doctor of Physical Therapy and a "Doctorate in Occupational Therapy."
• Things fall apart just a bit at this point as much of the information you find with a "Ph.D." level search isn't for Ph.D. degrees. In this case, the BU trip takes you to ads for Northeastern, George Washington, and Norwich universities. Each is offering an array of master's degrees but no Ph.D. level programs.

But why quibble? If you throw enough ads on the wall, some of them will stick and attract flys. At least that seems to be the theory at work right now for online advertising for adults.

To sharpen your skills in adult student recruiting, come to Carol Aslanian's conference May 29-30 in Chicago on "Adult Student Marketing: Electronic, Mass Media and Print Practices that Work."

• The meeting is at the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center and there's only room for about 100 people. Over 60 have already registered and this one has sold out for the past two years.
• Register soon at http://www.aslaniangroup.com/events/

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Time for a little Friday speculation on a fine spring day in Michigan.

A visit to AdAge this morning linked me to an April 14 article at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=126364 with a title that will scare some people: "It's Web 3.0 and Somebody Else's Content is King."

• The article reports on a new online venture by Tina Brown, of New Yorker and Vanitry Fair fame, to launch an "aggregator" service that people will use to find information on topics that most interest them. Consider it a sophisticated version of present-day search. And an opportunity for focused online advertising.

The scary part of this for traditional communication and public relations plans is that the "aggregation" efforts won't be limited to "just" formal websites. Instead, they will pull content about a particular topic from any place on the web that somebody is creating it. For colleges and universities, that means that it will become even more likely that when people search for something at your school, what comes back will include a Rate My Professors site, a Wikipedia entry, videos on YouTube about your MBA program, and blogs that people write about you.

Even more so than today (when Wikipedia, for instance, is almost always returned by a Google search not far below your official site), you won't be able to control the content that people see about your institution. What's on your own website will become less and less important, especially in the early stages when people explore to build a list of possible "best fit" places to study. You can continue to describe your faculty as if they have sprung forth from Lake Wobegon, but people will pay even less attention to the superlatives than they do now after they've reviewed your Rate My Professors list.

Will "aggregation" services indeed successful in the Web 3.0 world? Various people are busy diasagreeing about that now. But you can be sure that movement toward continued collapse of the Internet walls that separate sources of information will continue.

Two other places are worth a visit if the this topic interests you:

• The Wikipedia page for Web 3.0 for various definitions and predictions of what's to come at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3
• The Pew Internet report on "Financial Woes Now Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists" (not about salaries but the survival of the business model) at http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=403 

Will individual college and university websites remain important? Yes. But their value as an early marketing tool will diminish in Web 3.0. People will visit your sites in the future because they have already put you high on their list of possible places to enroll. The experience they have on your website at that point, and how it compares to your competition, will play a major role in sustaining or diminishing initial interest levels. Two elements will rise in importance: 

• More than before, strong marketing sites will be built around knowledge of the content your future students want to find and the tasks they want to accomplish on your site. That includes, for instance, information about real college costs similar to what a handful of colleges are providing with online cost estimators (see a list of 7 at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/12/5_online_financial_aid_scholar.html).
• You'll have to engage people with web-friendly language when they visit your site. Web editor positions will proliferate in a Web 3.0 world. And that is a very good thing.

Enough for now. More later. A great weekend to everyone.

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Financial aid and scholarship estimators from 7 schools is still far from a rush to fill in this important marketing element on college and university websites. But, every new site is a move in the right direction.

And so today, a welcome addition at Southwestern University. This one covers both merit and need-based aid, based on questions on class rank, ACT or SAT score, family income and assets, family size, and the number of family members attending college,

After you fill in your details, you get to watch a column graph fall down away from the maximum cost of more than $35,000 a year. Rather like watching United Fund success in reverse and a nice, immediate visual touch to see how much you might save at Southwestern.

See how low your cost can go at http://www.southwestern.edu/financial-aid/cost/calc2.html

Thanks to Paul Novack, director of web communications at Susquehanna University, for letting me know about this example.

You can see the list of 7 ways to do financial aid and scholarship calculators at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/12/5_online_financial_aid_scholar.html

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It isn't exactly a stampede, but after two Link of the Week selections since October about online financial aid estimators, I've had three more referrals to other similar sites. That makes a total of 7 that I've seen so far and that's enough to list them all together on one place on the blog.

This really is one area where colleges and universities have been very slow to adopt a marketing services attitude in an area that's of high interest to just about every family sending a child to college. That interest will express itself at different times during the recruitment cycles. An appropriate marketing approach will give people the opportunity to learn more about "real" rather than "sticker price" costs whenever they want to know that.

Approaches Vary from Simple to Complex

When you visit these links, you'll find very different approaches. Some require you to have at hand fairly detailed information about family income and resources and others focus more on merit aid based on academic profile. But all of them represent a major move in the right direction. Let's hope that even more schools will adopt a similar approach soon.

Here's the "Gang of Five" to get you started:

• Bradley University at https://admissions.bradley.edu/ssl/estimator/?status=viewtab1 
• Dominican University at http://www.ican.dom.edu/ScholarshipCalculator/ScholarshipCalculator.aspx
• St. Edward's University at http://www.gotostedwards.com/calculator/
• Southwestern University at http://www.southwestern.edu/financial-aid/cost/calc2.html
• The College of New Jersey at https://delphi.tcnj.edu:81/cgi-bin/tuitionestimator/estimate.cgi?step=1&selected=1
• University of Rochester at http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/
• University of Toledo at http://www.financialaid.utoledo.edu/estimator/

As with so many early adopters of marketing innovations, I'm always impressed by the lack of any "type of institution" pattern among these schools. We've got publics and privates, large and small schools, and very different enrollment profiles. At each place, somebody "gets it" and has decided to take a leadership position. Congratulations to everyone at these schools who helped show the way to others that will surely follow.

if you're reading this and have a similar feature at your website, let me know and help make the list grow. You can leave a comment or email me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com

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Yesterday, on the way back from the CASE V conference after a Writing Right for the Web session with 100+ people, my phone rings and its a student reporter from Yale. Turns out the Harvard announcement this week about new tuition discounts based on family income level has trumped a Yale assouncement about something similar planned for January.

How, the chap is asking, do I think this early Harvard announcement will impact Yale in the market place? And my answer is, "Not very much." After all, Yale's market strength is built on much more than the discount rate and at this point in the recruitment cycle for 2008 the great majority of people know where they prefer to enroll. If Yale announces something similar in January, that's still well in advance of final decisions that might be based on net cost before deposit due dates.

But the call also got me thinking while driving in a heavy rain (and for the safety-minded, I took the first call but put the conversation off until later in the afternoon) about why schools with almost impregnable marketing strength take such charitable steps. Thoughts like that bring out the cynic in me just a bit.

Princeton Starts a Trend

Back in 2001, Princeton was the first highly selective school to do something like this when it eliminated loans for a range of middle class students.  At the time, I wrote that this wasn't just a gift from Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. Instead, it was a reaction to increasing numbers of students and their families who were electing to take advantage of generous merit scholarships from colleges not quite as selective. Muhlenberg College came to mind, with an excellent record for medical school placement. If you're bright enough to get accepted at Princeton, you'll likely get a nice merit scholarship at Muhlenberg and enter med school with less debt.

What's the motivator today for the Harvard move and what comes along next? Just might be the increasing pressure in Congress and from the Department of Education focused on very wealthy universities who are not using much of their endowment (relatively speaking) to offset their high cost. And so fewer students from the middle class enroll and the schools become progressively more limited to higher income families. And that, of course, isn't supposed to happen as much as it seems it is in the United States.

Endowment Income for Tax-Exempt Status?

The Harvard move does represent reaction to the market. In this case, an effort to fend off further intrusiveness by the Federal government. Imagine, for instance, a future in which things got so bad that schools like Harvard faced limitations on their tax-exempt status. Much better to slice off some endowment income now to lower costs for students.

Details of the Harvard plan and USA Today coverage are at http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/12/harvard-aims-to.html

USA Today followed up the next day with another story on a similar move by Duke University at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-12-10-harvard-aid_N.htm

The story got front-page coverage from the NY Times but was buried well inside yesterday's edition of the Wall Street Journal.

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Tom Richmond, director of admissions marketing and communications at Bradley University, has shared some preliminary results after Bradley went live in September with an online Financial Aid Estimator service. You can try it at https://admissions.bradley.edu/ssl/estimator/?status=viewtab1

I selected that page as the October 19 Link of the Week featured website and asked Tom if he had any information to share about changes in yield results. It hasn't been working long enough for substantial results but the early information that Tom sent indicates that people indeed value the service.

Here are some points to consider:

• In previous years, a service was available online that allowed visitors to submit the information to a live person, who then calculated the results and returned an estimate in about a week. Last September about 650 estimates were completed.
• This September, the number of estimates completed online increased to about 1100. When you try the estimator for yourself, you'll see that after taking a few minutes to enter your information, you'll have a response back to you in just minutes more. I wasn't using a stop watch, but it was pretty fast.

And here's what I find especially important:

• Tom writes that "I am also seeing our first juniors and sophomores 'discovering' the feature. The numbers are countable in the dozens." I can just imagine how most colleges and universities would react to a request for a financial aid estimate from a junior, let alone a sophomore.

No longer do people who might be considering enrolling at Bradley have to wait until a predetermined point to find out what the net cost of an education at the university might be. From a marketing perspective, this is indeed a service-oriented change that is very likely to pay future enrollment dividends.

Congratulations to Bradley for getting out in front of nearly every other school with the estimator service. So far, I've only found two others available, both at public universities:

• University of Toledo at http://www.financialaid.utoledo.edu/estimator/
• The College of New Jersey at https://delphi.tcnj.edu:81/cgi-bin/tuitionestimator/estimate.cgi?step=1&selected=1

Both of these were also Link of the Week selections. You'll find more than 50 college and university web features at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/linkoftheweek.html

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Did you by chance think the Washington Post was just the name of a newspaper?

Major newspapers don't survive today by selling papers, subscriptions to papers, and advertising in newspapers. The Washington Post Company has been diversifying for years and holdings now include the college test-prep business of Kaplan, Inc.

And so it isn't a surprise that the Post has now bought a search marketing firm used by a plethora of colleges and universities to find adult students for masters and bachelors programs. The announcement in the Washington Business Journal at http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/10/08/daily35.html reports that advertising in the education sector was a bright spot. Education-related advertising increased 23 percent in the 2nd quarter of this year.

The new acquisition was founded in 2004 and will continue to operate under its Course Advisor name at http://www.courseadvisor.com/

When you visit, be sure to notice the client mix that ranges from University of Phoenix and Capella University to University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Boston University, and numerous trade schools.

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For every student and parent who has been waiting for a new way to compare one college or university with another, there's a new way to do that announced yesterday. This one is sponsored by NAICU (National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities) as a way to help banish a competitor from the land. Otherwise known as the annual ratings issue of US News and World Report.

You'll find the entry page at http://www.ucan-network.org/

About 450 school profiles exist now along with a list of about 150 that are still forthcoming "within the week."

People who read the press release (http://www.ucan-network.org/id.11,id2.654/default.asp) will know right away that UCAN is limited to several hundred private colleges and universities who have joined together to develop "the first national consumer information resource created and provided directly to students and parents by colleges and universities themselves."

Alas, students and parents who happen upon the UCAN (University and College Accountability Newwork) website and don't happen to read the press release might waste some time searching for public universities.

• The front page for UCAN doesn't mention anything about the NAICU sponsorship or tell visitors that searches won't work for public institutions. So the claim that this is a place to "Get the facts for a smart college choice" isn't quite accurate if you think that making a smart choice includes looking at some public institutions. Plenty of room exists to add the private college qualifier. Let's hope that's done soon.

The new UCAN listings offer a marvelous marketing research opporunity.

• When you arrive at the start page of your favorite college, you'll see a link to a "What Makes Us Special?" feature. The link leads to a place on the college's website. And so market researchers with time to explore will be able to see just how well the UCAN participants do in setting themselves apart from everyone else.

Of course, some people love ratings. And those folk will continue to buy the annual US News issue. And, since US News has something for just about everyone, many colleges will continue to tout the results on their websites for a high finish in one of the categories available.

And so it goes. Choice is a good thing. So UCAN must be a good thing. I'm looking forward to a report six months from now that tells us how many people have used the site and, in my dreams, how many searches were done for each of the participating colleges.

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How much will video replace text in online communications?

Obviously, not completely. But in some cases, especially story telling, video just might be a better way to engage visitors. Here are three examples that are worth exploring as you ponder future directions for your web communications plan:

• Capella University has preplaced traditional text testimonials by students with three video segements on the front page of the website at http://www.capella.edu/ The videos explore an academic program, financial aid, and the online learning environment.
• The Kenan-Flagler Business School is using a variety of student videos to illustrate various marketing points. Why is an MBA a good "Return on Investment"? Listen to the answers at http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/emba/advance/roi.cfm and continue on to others that include balancing work and family obligations while studying part-time.
• Boston University uses faculty and student videos from the front page of the website to introduce academic and social life as well as the college experience in Boston at http://www.bu.edu/

The rapid increase in broadband household penetration over just the last year or two is responsible for the ability to easily watch video on a home computer. Comcast and Yahoo offer a plethora of opportunity from the sublime to the ridiculous. YouTube has exploded. Expectations for what's on college and university websites are changing as a result.

Keep one critical point front and center: video is "just" another form of content. And that content has to match what key audiences expect to learn and do on your website. Ask them what that is. Then start filming.

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Colgate has sent two more postcards in August... both of them focused on the opportunities to make a campus visit this fall. I'm not quite sure which arrived first, but logic tells me it might have been like this:

• A "Saturdays@Colgate" card showing that the Colgate admissions people truly do value campus visits as a key recruitment step... no less than 13 fall Saturdays are listed as available: 5 in September, 4 in October, 3 in November and a final day on December 3.

There's also a glitch here... the postcard invites registrations by phone or website visit. But the URL for the web registration leads to the front page of the university and there isn't an obvious campus visit link from that page. The search feature, however, worked well... "Saturdays at Colgate" brought up http://offices.colgate.edu/admission/Saturdays@Colgate/Saturdays@Colgate.htm 

Visit this link and you'll see the front side of the postcard and an easy to complete registration form. In an ideal world, the postcard itself would lead visitors directly to this page.

• The second postcard urges readers to "Make new friends" and lists 8 ways to do that, all involving a campus visit. Again, the website link is to the front page when it might have been to a page created especially to repeat and reinforce the message of the card.

The email newsletters also continue. The last one arrived on Saturday, September 1. An image of the "Saturdays@Colgate" postcard is included in the left hand column and when you click on it you go direct to the special "Saturdays" page above. Nicely done. With the postcard arriving before the email, the image in the newsletter reinforces the original message and likely prompts a few who haven't yet acted to plan a visit.

I'm not sure if Colgate holds a record for the number of fall weekend visit opportunities available, but it sure seems as if at 13 that might be the case. As critical as campus visits are to the recruitment process, this is a standard that everyone should try to match. Convenience for the customer. A nice thing to see.

Curiosity question: are you seeing an increase in the number of campus visitors making a first visit after sending you an application for admission?

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After my earlier posting on YouTube videos featuring college presidents, Rita Abent at Slippery Rock University sent an email to let me know that Bob Smith was featured in a video introducing prospective students to the school.

You'll find the video a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPbYHXNWMI and I've added it to the original list at the August 23 posting for a new total of 9 YouTube presidents.

One immediate difference that strikes me between blogs written by presidents and most of the vidoes I've watched so far: the vidoes are much more formal and in the "public relations marketing" mode while most of the blogs feel much less scripted. No surprise in that. Both forms of communication have a place in the online world, although there's still an imperative to have even the more formal videos present a "real" picture of the president and the campus.

The Slippery Rock video, for example, does just that. The message is pretty clear: this isn't your father's or mother's Slippery Rock University any more. Lots of new buildings. Higher academic standards for entry, More demanding academic work while you're enrolled. And greater rewards for graduates in the workplace after earning a degree.

How effective are presidential messages like these as part of the marketing mix? Too early to say. But it is good to see that people are experimenting and learning more about how to best use video as a valuable Web 2.0 practice.

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In blog postings and presentations, I've noted that the "traditional" viewbook (the big, beautiful, expensive publication often planned as a first inquiry response piece) is much less effective today than just a few years ago. Lots of reasons for that, but one of the most important is the reluctance of colleges to send that piece to early sophomore inquiries. In most cases, the response to people who inquire early in the recruitment cycle is still pretty weak.

Does that mean that print publications don't have a role in recruitment? Not at all.

Colgate University continues to impress me with their adaptation of print in an extended recruitment cycle. One of the things waiting for me this week when I returned from my Customer Carewords meetings in Ireland was yet another large and impressive publication from Colgate. And that made me recap what's come along from Colgate since my inquiry in May of 2006 as a high school sophomore.

Here the sequence since then:

• A 32-page photo book highligting life at Colgate over a single week, sent soon after the inquiry as the first response piece. Almost entirely photos, almost no facts.
• Early in June of 2006, the first of 14 monthly email newsletters that arrive in the first few days of each month.
• At least 12 email invitations to chat sessions have been included between early summer of 2006 and August of 2007.
• No later than September of 2006, the first of at least 9 large postcards. I suspect two or three more have escaped from my folder. The most recent was just a couple of weeks ago.
• A 64-page "viewbook" sent in September of 2006. Yes, it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. This is a viewbook, although obviously larger than most.
• A 32-page book on "Multicultural Life at Colgate" arrived early in November.
• And in early August, 2007, Colgate sent a clever twinned publication: a 40-page "This is Colgate" publication featuring the connecting "webs" that students build and the available activities with a 20-page reverse attachment at the rear featuring "Just the Facts" about the school.

Is this expensive? Of course. Is it effective marketing? Only Colgate knows the conversion rates, but I suspect that in this competitive arena it is. Colgate certainly has solved the dilemma of how to stay in touch with possible students over a three year or longer recruitment cycle and it obviously took a major investment in time and money to do that.

Not everyone needs or can afford something as elaborate as this. But everyone receiving inquries two or three years before the intended enrollment date needs to invest in an integrated print and online communication plan that says "We're glad you're interested in us" and "We really do want you to enroll here."

Note the relatively inexpensive elements here... the postcards, email newsletters, and chat invitations. Use your "traditional" viewbook money to create a strong first response piece and use that whenever a student first makes an inquiry. After that, postcards and email on a regular basis, IM for individual contact with the most serious prospects, and a really strong campus visit experience will go far to win competitive advantage for residential students in a challenging recruitment environment.

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Brian Niles at TargetX a few days ago sent along a link to a YouTube video... the president of Dickinson College talking about his leadership of a campaign to develop a new (and, of course, better) college evaluation system in contrast to the US News and World Report version.

That made me wonder... just how many college presidents are appearing on YouTube these days? For now, I haven't included interviews or speeches, just videos of the presidents at the schools listed here talking on the topics below.

Dig deeper and you'll also find commencement addresses and interviews with presidents in a variety of formats. Meantime, if you always wanted clear instructions on how to tie a bowtie, give thanks to the president at Dickinson. I actually think I might be able to do it now.

From what I found, Dickinson College is the only example of a planned effort to present the president to his YouTube audience on a regular basis, with at least three videos to date. Overall, YouTube lists 84 videos about Dickinson.

Visit and decide for yourseelf. Are these interesting? Inspirational? Brand building? A help to student recruitment?

Agnes Scott College... Why I came to Agnes Scott College at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Nhr_3kI4c

Carleton College... Carleton Class of 2004 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BidpAaKtnc

Dickinson College... How to tie a bowtie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unmiqRbEIUc

Dickinson College... The importance of volunteering at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twD8NdXpEvM

Fort Lewis College... President's Welcome at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwu7qGNKY10

Lehigh Valley College... August Video Update (on the impending sale of the college) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_3X10kYzqg

McDaniel College... Welcome to McDaniel College at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXSMUcUHxk

Saint Francis University... Students in Free Enterprise welcome at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqlstQKyh7Q

Slippery Rock University... "Overview" of the university at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPbYHXNWMI

Sonoma State University... Welcome by University President at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-DOLaX39o

And not to forget Brian's original email... at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0-FFO_Inak the Dickinson College president rallies the faithful against the US News rankings.

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Kara Kane at Medaille College sent along a link to another nicely done IM page that future students can use to contact an admissions counselor.

You'll find the page at http://www.medaille.edu/admission/undergraduate/people/ and its been added to the list of 25 at my 21 August 2006 blog post. You'll find links to the IM pages at each school listed. Select the student recruitment category and scroll quickly to the list.

The Medaille page includes a photo and brief profile of each counselor and the primary recruitment area they cover. No special IM contact times are listed, but you'll see right away which counselors are online when you are visiting the page.

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Are people interested in Instant Messaging as part of their admissions office communications mix?

Monday's Link of the Week selection highlighting the way Gustavus Adolphus College presents IM to prospective students generated the highest number of page views at my website that I've ever had from a Link of the Week email. That just might mean more people are getting ready to add this feature or at least want to see how others are including it on their websites.

If you missed it, the Gustavus Adolphus IM page is at http://admission.gustavus.edu/admissions/connect/im.asp

In that email I also promised to send along this week several new additions to the IM list at my August 21 posting in 2006. I'll also add these soon to the master list so everything stays in one place. Here are the new entries, with links direct to where the IM feature is presented:

• Catawba College at http://www.catawba.edu/admissions/meet/im.htm 
• Clearwater Christian College at http://www.clearwater.edu/admissions/im.asp
• Hofstra University at http://www.hofstra.edu/Admission/adm_aim.html
• Northwestern Iowa Community College at http://www.nwicc.cc.ia.us/pages/admissions/admissions/im.html?&TYPE=M&PID=CORE-WBMAIN&TOKENIDX=8987400988
• University of South Carolina at http://www.sc.edu/admissions/imchat.htm

As with so much in higher education marketing, what strikes me again is the variety of institutions represented. You just can't predict the leaders based on type of institution. So often, innovation is a function of who "get's it" at a particular place more than any other factor. The five schools presented here certainly confirm that.

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Google continues to gain market share among people using search engines and Wikipedia is among the Top 10 must visited websites in the United States.

If you or someone else at your college or university isn't checking your Wikipedia content regularly, it might be time to start doing that.

In the past few days, while searching for various schools, I've noticed that the URL for the Wikipedia entry is listed among the first 5 responses that appear. With the overall popularity of Wikipedia as an information source, it seems likely that more than a few people will make a visit to the Wikipedia location.

I'd love to see research among people who have visited both the official website and the Wikipedia counterpart as to which one has more credibility.

Here are four institutions and how the Wikipedia URL finished in Google searches over the last few days:

• McDaniel College... fourth listing
• Philadelphia University... fifth listing
• University of Toronto... fourth listing
• Hofstra University... fourth listing

Google for your school soon and see if it is listed as high as these. I've not done anything resembling a "scientific" review, but it does seem frequent enough to pay attention.

How useful are the Wikipedia entries? For basic information about the number of students enrolled and the academic programs offered, it is usually faster to visit Wikipedia than an official website. Pity about that, but it is often the case.

And don't forget the official seal. For some reason, most of the Wikipedia entries I've seen include the seal or crest of the university right on the front page.

If you haven't already, start checking your Wikipedia content soon.

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Is MySpace the right space for college marketing efforts?

One of my smartest friends in this business says "No." He can't understand why organizations think that a website presence in a Web 2.0 environment designed for individuals is a good marketing move. And he reminds me frequently that the "cool" people are fleeing MySpace in search of a new frontier where everyone can still be free.

That might be true. I certainly would not bet any part of my retirement funds that it isn't. But despite my friend's thoughts, interest in MySpace for marketing is growing at colleges and universities. In my March issue of "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter," I had two entries about marketing on MySpace. They were far and away the highest interest items measured by people who clicked on the relevant links, more than double the next most popular.

I haven't seen a response that strong since the first time I included something on Web writing about two years ago.

One college was featured, Drury University. If you go to http://www.myspace.com/druryuniversity you'll find an elaborate attempt to take advantage of Web 2.0 features by this "Female, 100 years old, Springfield, Missouri" resident.

Time for a prediction.

I'm just starting to work on a "Trends and Tribulations" keynote presentation at the eduWeb confernce in July about the future of online marketing communications. And I've got a strong feeling that what you see here for Drury will move over to regular college websites over the next few years as organizational formality crumbles. Expect more content decisions based on what web visitors want to find (and what they create) rather than what organizational decision-makers think is right and proper.

It won't happen overnight. But it will happen. And so part of my eduWeb presentation will focus on how Web 2.0 is already starting to spread into the world of higher education websites.

For a peek at the future, visit the Drury MySpace website.

For more on eduWeb, visit http://www.eduwebconference.com/

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Flying back from Orlando this morning reading USA Today... and the story about how colleges are reconsidering the use of merit aid as a recruitment practice. You can read the article at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-03-14-merit-aid_N.htm

This made me think about how almost no schools provide decent web content about merit aid practices. In a world of "reality" marketing, this is one subject that is seldom treated with any realism.

USA Scoops Hamilton College Website

The USA Today article mentions that Hamilton College is taking the plunge and elminating merit aid for the new class of 2008. That's pretty major news indeed, not only for higher education in general but for future middle class students considering Hamilton who do not quality for need-based aid according to the stringent federal guidelines. And we know, of course, that many families don't consider loans as a desirable form of financial aid.

A visit to http://www.hamilton.edu/ and a review of the news stories didn't reveal anything about changes forthcoming in the merit aid practice. A search for "merit aid" found the list of current merit scholarships but nothing about any planned changes. The 2008 freshmen are of course juniors right now and many of them are well into the college selection process. Let's check back in a few days and see if the USA Today article prompts new content about this on the Hamilton website.

Muhlenberg College Still Does it Best

Meanwhile, my favorite content on how financial aid awards really work at many colleges is still found at Muhlenberg College. "The Real Deal on Financial Aid" tells future students and their parents that the mix of grants and loans a student receives is driven in no small part by how much the college you've applied to wants you to enroll. That, Muhlenberg, admits is best called "preferential packaging" and is in widespread use. See the content at http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/aid.html

Let's hope that more colleges take the Muhlenberg path and present more realistic content about financial aid, student debt, and much more. If reality marketing (no, that's not an oxymoron) is really growing, that will start to  happen soon.

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The Link of the Week email sent yesterday highlighted the second-most desired website actiivity by college bound high school students... a tuition cost calculator.

The College of New Jersey

The featured link was at The College of New Jersey at http://www.tcnj.edu/~admiss/costs.html

Purdue University

A few hours after the email was out and about the land, Mary King at Purdue University sent along a link to the "Tuition and Fees Calculator" available for "several years" at http://www.purdue.edu/Bursar/Calculator/2006-2007/Welcome.html

Arcadia University

And this morning Bob Fesler, Jr. at Think Ahead, Inc sent along a link to Arcadia Universities calculator at http://finaid.arcadia.edu/calc/cac72C133start.html along with a note that his firm had also built this feature for Williams, Amherst, and the University of Arizona.

That should give everyone interested places to start visiting. I haven't completed all of these forms, but you'll see right away that the approach of each is different from the others. So take time to experiment with them and identify the features you think would most benefit your students. Check for ease of use, time to complete, cost elements included and whatever else comes to mind.

When a highly desired website feature benefits your visitors, the reputation of your brand grows as well. Financial aid and scholarship estimators and tuition cost calculators should receive high traffic on your website if interested visitors can find them easily enough. To make them work best for you, check these two points:

• Be sure they are very visible at least from your first admissions page.
• Be sure that if a visitor types variations on "tuition cost" into your search engine on the front page of your website, the response takes them to your calculator.

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The Buffalo State results mirror those reported by the other schools responding earlier... each has between 10 and 13 of the activities most desired by college-bound high school students already in place. The two that were on the top of the Noel-Levitz list (financial aid estimator and tuition cost calculator) are the two most often missing from the reporting sites. And, I suspect, these are the ones most often missing from everyone's sites.

Several people have said they plan to work on adding one or both of these features. Keep a close eye on your competitors. If they get these in place before you do, they've gained an important element of competitive advantage.

You can review what's available at Buffalo State by visiting www.buffalostate.edu

Thanks to Melissa Meehan for sending along the details.

I've received a new link to a tuition cost calculator. I'll add that in a new post not long from now, along with the link to The College of New Jersey that was in the Link of the Week email sent on Monday.

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Since my post earlier this week, two more schools are reporting that they've passed my challenge to report having at least 10 of the 15 website features most desired by college-bound high school students.

One of those is the University of Toledo. Not only do they have an example of an institution-specific financial aid estimator at http://financialaid.utoledo.edu/estimator/ that I've mentioned before, but they have enough of other 14 features to boost them over the bar.

Balancing out a large public university like Toledo is Cataba College at www.catawba.edu

Check the well-done faculty page that students with serious interest in a particular major are likely to find at http://www.catawba.edu/academic/historypolitics/faculty.htm Short, easy to read intro information on faculty with links to learn more... and the obvous email to send along a query.

And I'm happy to report that I've found my first example of a tuition cost calculator, the number two item desired by 83% of students at a college website. Intereting enough that I'll make it the Link of the Week... look for your email next Monday morning.

Thanks to Rashad Smith at Cataba and Don Curtis at Toledo for reporting on their schools.

Posted by Bob at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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In my January marketing newsletter, I included a link to a report on the Noel-Levitz website reporting the expecations of college-bound high school students about the features they wanted to use at college websites. The entire report is at www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Research/ResearchLibrary/E-Expectations.htm

The top 15 activities, with the percent indicated for how many respondents wanted to use a particular feature were:

1. Complete a financial aid estimator form (88%)

2. Complete a tuition cost calculator form (83%)

3. Complete an admissions application online (81%)

4. Request a campus visit by completing a form (81%)

5. Exchange instant messages with an admissions counselor or student worker (72%)

6. Complete a form to RSVP for a campus event (72%)

7. Inquire online (70%)

8. Read profi les of faculty (64%)

9. E-mail a faculty member (64%)

10. Read a blog written by a member of the faculty (64%)

11. Read profi les of current students (63%)

12. Read a blog written by a current student (63%)

13. View a virtual tour (63%)

14. Personalize a Web site (62%)

15. E-mail current students from the site (61%)

I asked newsletter readers to review the capabilities of their websites and let me know if they had at least 10 of the 15 active on their sites. And three people answered in the affirmative:

Saint Michael's College  www.smcvt.edu

Hollins University   www.hollins.edu

Huntington University   www.huntington.edu

Two of the schools sent details on which features were active now and which ones were not. I'm asking for the same information from the third and then I'll post some additional individual links to these features so that blog folk can visit and review.

The invitation is still open. Review your website. If you have at least 10 of these features on your website, let me know and I'll include that in a future blog post. As you might imagine, I'm especially interested in anyone that has one of the Top Two, a financial aid estimator and a tuition cost calculator. Not too many of those out and about the land. No, you can't count a FAFSA calculation of "Expected Family Contribution." Has to be specific to your college or university.

Thanks to Anne Conaway-Peters at Saint Michael's, Linda Martin at Hollins, and John Paff at Huntington for taking the challenge.

And no... nobody had all of the activities.

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Late on a Friday afternoon is a good time to check on the week's marketing mail... both the print type and the email.

Always question your list broker

Right now I'm looking at a large postcard from Pinnacle Yachts that's reminding me to remind everyone thinking about buying student recruitment prospecting names from a third party other than ACT or College Board to ask some serious questions:

• How were the names acquired?
• How often is the database purged for old and non-responding names?
• How often is the list?
• To whom is it sold?

Yes, those are all legitimate questions that any regular list broker can answer. If your potential source balks at any of them, find another source.

Back to the Pinnacle postcard. This arrived earlier this week to "Roger Johnson." Roger is one of the many combinations of REJ that I use when secret shopping while doing competitive website reviews for clients. The reviews always include completion of the online inquiry form (except in the fortunately very rare cases when I can't find one!). Whoever I happen to be on that particular day ends up in many different databases.

Right now I'm assuming that Roger did not complete an inquiry form for an individual college or university. If he did, that school is making some extra cash by selling their inquiry lists. More likely, Roger's name was sold by a third-party firm that solicits interest in higher education opportunities and then was sold in the general market.

Of course, the Pinnacle Yacht people don't have a very good direct marketing plan. Trust me, Roger never told anyone he was interested in sailing or yachting or anything else that would take him off dry land. But here he is, getting an "All Season, All Inclusive" offer to spend "Just $5,250" for access to a "34 to 42 Foot Yacht" (is that really "yacht" size?) at a marina near him in Michigan. Picture looks like a mid-sized sail boat to me but hardly a yacht.

Recent names with interest in your offer are best

And so let's revisit the basics. If you are searching for names to contact, make sure they were acquired in the not too distant past (6 months is nice) and that they have expessed a particular interest in what you want to offer them. And that's not just a warning about yachts.

In the past 24 months I've acquired a huge file of email college offers from one third-party provider on just about anything you can imagine in higher education. The email contacts have been coming along now for about two years. Lots of colleges wasting lots of money.

Want to know more about Pinnacle Yachts? Check them out at http://wwwpinnacleyachts.com where "You're the Captain of Your Personal Yacht!"

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Is this my moderately advanced age