Keeping Hot Leads HotRelational Student Lead Management 101

May 1, 2014

Bob BarlowPresented by

What brings you here?

What is your current lead management strategy?

How successful has it been in producing strong, qualified leads?

What is your typical attrition rate from initial lead to enrollment?

How cost effective are your current efforts? If your current efforts are yielding less than passing grades, take notes!

Who are your prospects?

Today’s students are a combination of

MillennialsThe challenging generation born wired and resistant to being treated as a herd

ANDNon-traditional studentsOlder, veterans, returnees, second- or third-career students looking for very specific academic and vocational needs As prospective students, both Millennials and Non-traditional students share similar values.

Who are your prospects?

Today’s Students Value• Authentic exchanges

• Personalized communications

• Rapid response

• Individual attention

ProspectiveStudents Value

Authentic Exchanges 

Use the language students recognize and the media they trust.

ProspectiveStudents Value

Personalized Communications 

Approach them who and where they are, not as addresses on a mass mailing list.

ProspectiveStudents Value

Rapid Response Today’s students expect response with no downtime. Letting them hang while they wait for a follow-up communication is the easiest way to turn a hot lead into a lost lead.

A hot lead can cool in the time it takes to send a text.

 

ProspectiveStudents Value

Individual attention Not only do they want to know you know them—they want to know you. Fortunately, keeping in close personal touch doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of money or staff time. Today’s lead generation and management technologies, including personalization and automation, can make the connection quickly and cost-effectively.

If you remember only one thing . . .

Relationship Is Key!

The Fundamentals

Relational Lead Management 101 The best lead management is…

Targeted

Personal

Nurturing

Responsive

And yields the best results.

The Fundamentals

TargetedFocused on capturing and nurturing the best leads for you

The Fundamentals

PersonalTailored to let prospective students know you know who they are

The Fundamentals

NurturingKeeping the personal connection engaged throughout the application funnel

The Fundamentals

ResponsiveNimble and timely in responding to prospective students’ needs, inquiries, and changing status

The Fundamentals

Yields the Best Results • Leads that are truly qualified• Relationships that grow stronger

all through the cycle• Cost-effective• High rates of conversion• Positive ROI

Best Practices Start with where you are and what you know.

Review recent enrollees

Trace the lead management process back to the original lead sourceTally the costs along the way.

Calculate your ROI(return on investment).

Note what works—and use the information in this presentation to revise and re-launch.

Best PracticesCheck your sources.Leads may come from

EmailWebsite VisitsDirect MailSMS

Make sure you’re capturing leads from reliable sources that will offer you as much data as possible.

Social MediaPhone CallsTalking to Parents

Best Practices Don’t fear the data

The data you capture from initial leads will be your most important tool in qualifying and continuing to personalize the lead relationship throughout the funnel. The more individualized the data, the better your chance of establishing a personal relationship with your best prospects.

Best Practices Optimize the data From first contact to enrollment, what you know about your prospective students makes the difference between leads that are hot and leads that are not. Never settle for one-size-fits-all name and address lists. Make sure you are asking the right questions of your lead capture efforts.What programs might the student be interested in?

Is the student willing to look beyond the home city or state?

What does the student care about?

What extra-curricular activities, hobbies, career goals, and values excite the student?

What are the student’s expectations for campus life?

Best PracticesDON’T sweat what you can’t control—institutional realities such as:Your location

The programs and degrees you offer

Cost

These may automatically disqualify some leads, making a scattershot approach to recruiting unproductive and costly. But don’t lose sight of these factors. For the right students, they’ll be major attractions.

Best Practices

DO pay close attention to what you can control—a combination, studies show, of two key factors driving quality leads:The mindset of the individual prospective student

The process that the individual goes through before inquiring--and all through the funnel

Best PracticesAs an example of mindset, learn what motivates prospects to seek higher education in the first place.

Getting to know why your prospective students want to be students, and how well your institution will meet their goals, is one key way to make sure your leads and follow-up are targeted.

Best PracticesIt’s not overwhelming.Here’s a portrait of one prospective student that can be generated using very simple lead generation coding:

Is male

Family income level $120K

Lives in PennsylvaniaInterested in pursuing EngineeringPreferred college location is Southeast USResponds to Instagram and Direct Mail

Best Practices

Use smart data in two key ways: 1. To help you qualify leads

2. To help you personalize your communications with prospects

Best Practices

There’s no more effective way to communicate with prospective students than by making them feel you’ve known them all along, that they’re not faces in a herd or numbers on a list but individuals who are welcomed by name for who they are.

 

Apply what you’ve learned to the whole lead nurturing experience.

Best Practices

Always communicate personally, whatever the mediumCommunicate through the prospective student’s preferred means

Keep in touch frequently throughout the cycle, with messages tailored to where the prospective student is on the journey

Drive opportunities for in person, one-on-one interaction

Lead nurturing

Best PracticesAnd most importantly,

KEEP YOUR RESPONSE IMMEDIATE!

Best PracticesThe quick, personal response so vital to today’s prospective students requires you to be nimble, so hot leads don’t have a minute to cool off.

Automating your response systems can be one of the most cost-effective ways to make sure you never lose by snoozing!

Wrapping It UpRELATIONAL LEAD MANAGEMENT 101What NOT to Do

Don’t mass mail.

Don’t communicate with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Don’t let time elapse between inquiry and response!Don’t waste money your money.

Wrapping It UpRELATIONAL LEAD MANAGEMENT 101What to Do

Capture good data, and lots of it.

Use data smartly, to personalize your communications.

Respond quickly and personally.

Save money with cost-effective data management and communications technology solutions.

Evaluate your results, revise, and relaunch.

Learn how StudentSource —A Division of Cathedral Corporation can be your resource for powerful, cost-effective relational lead management solutions!

Bob Barlow

888.466.4711 toll free

518.221.3515 direct

bbarlow@student-source.com