Is it Time to Retire Your Recruitment Funnel?

Most colleges and universities build their recruitment programs around the admissions funnel—you collect a certain number of inquiries, a percentage of which will convert to applications and a portion of which will convert to deposits. The prospect's stage (as an inquiry, applicant, or deposit) drives where they fall in the funnel (and in turn what types of communications they receive).

They are a tried-and-true method of tracking leads in the sales world... but funnels are no longer the right tool for higher education enrollment management. Why?

The Engagement Spectrum helps you segment your prospects based on their interactions.

This helps you develop highly-targeted, highly-personalized campaigns that bring far greater returns than the traditional funnel.

Reason #1
Enrollment funnels focus on a student's stage, not their actual engagement.

Many schools will wait until a student has applied for admission to begin the personalized part of the recruitment process. With tens of thousands of names in your inquiry pool, how would you know where to begin otherwise?
    Many times, an inquiry who has engaged with your communications (past their initial search response) is more likely to deposit than a random accepted student. By focusing on engaged students rather than just applied students, you can drastically increase your yield.

While it takes a lot more work to capture and track that engagement information, it allows you to better focus your energies on those students who are most likely to attend… no matter what their stage.

Reason #2
Marketing funnels work best when dealing with a fixed sales cycle.

If you're selling cars and a lead hasn't made a purchase from you in the past three months, you might consider that a cold lead (similar to a search non-responder name). And while you may try to reactivate that lead through regular marketing (monthly e-mails, perhaps), you can pull that lead out of your sales funnel (which keeps the process organized and predictable).
    But for admissions recruitment, it can take multiple years from the time students inquire to when they enroll... with a single "date of sale" at the end of the year. And since the age of the lead doesn't have much correlation with their likelihood of depositing, every lead is a viable one until very late in the process. This leaves you with a large, unwieldy list from which to work—making it a real challenge to know which students are your best prospects.

A more narrow targeting allows you to focus more attention on those students which are the best prospects for admission.

Reason #3
High school seniors follow their calendars (not yours).

The best students are often the busiest ones... and they will complete their application when their schedules best allow. If you wait until a student has applied or been accepted before you start engaging with them at a higher level, then you neglect a whole range of engaged students who are very likely to deposit (but are still in the inquiry stage).
    Each week you neglect them is another week in which they may be lured away by another institution.

Engaging students at their first sign of meaningful engagement (not just after they apply) is key.

A New Solution: The Engagement Spectrum

If you don't use the admissions funnel to predict yield and develop targeting, then what are your other options? Here at Orrio, we use what we call the Engagement Spectrum. In it, we segment prospective students into different buckets (or silos) based on an assigned color of the rainbow.

The goal is to guide prospective students further along the spectrum— which in turn increases their engagement (and their likelihood of depositing). By tracking the number of prospects in a given bucket, you have some sense of how your class will yield at any time of the year. It also tells you which buckets need additional attention (through targeted marketing and cultivation), so that you can stay on track to meet your recruitment goals.

Remember Roy G. Biv from your elementary school art class? If so, you can follow the Engagement Spectrum.

How do you know which students are engaged (and deserve further engagement)?

Sometimes it's done in direct ways (like when a student applies Early Decision, for instance). Other times, more indirect indicators—like a student's first source, their distance to campus, or their existing relationships to your school—can help flag students who deserve your attention right now.

There are three main stages in the Engagement Spectrum: Connect (Red and Orange), Cultivate (Yellow and Green), and Commit (Blue and Violet).

We engage with each prospect in a method that's cost-effective based on their color. For instance, low-engagement prospects (Reds and Oranges) may receive regular e-mails from your school to build brand awareness. Clicking links in multiple e-mails or completing a form might convert them to a higher-ranked color. In broad terms, our goal is to get Reds and Oranges to connect with your school.

Engaged prospects (Yellows and Greens) receive additional, highly-personalized communications. These might include direct mailings, personalized mass texting (designed to feel like one-on-one communications), and one-on-one texts or calls. Our primary goal with Yellows and Greens is twofold: to get them to complete their application and to get them to visit campus their senior year.

Blues are students who have pledged to attend to your school by depositing. Your goal is to keep Blues committed to your institution long after the deposit deadline has passed. To make this happen, you need the help of departments across your institution—everyone from the Dean of Students' office to Alumni Relations. The ultimate goal is to convert Blues into Violets—the students who enroll in the fall.

Engaged students typically make up half of your applicant pool...

...but the vast majority of your deposits.

How can I use The Engagement Spectrum?

Implementing an Engagement Spectrum is a bit more complex than following the traditional enrollment funnel... but its effectiveness far outweighs the added work. When used properly, it helps you target the right prospects at the right time, regardless of whether or not they have applied. It also lets you pull more value out of your existing leads (which means a substantial savings in future search programs).

Orrio builds and manages Engagement Spectrums for higher education institutions. We then use these Spectrums to inform the targeted marketing campaigns we run on behalf of our clients. We also develop tools which get your school's constituents (whether staff, faculty, alumni or current students) actively involved in the recruitment process.

Let's get started on your Engagement Spectrum today.

We'll give you some free tips on how to do some basic modeling in-house,
or would be glad to discuss having Orrio do a more thorough analysis for your institution.
Click below right now to schedule a conversation.

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