Digital Marketing In the Time of COVID-19
Blog
|May 6, 2020By Nicole Piering and Ann Levy
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, on-campus events and tours are being called off, and standardized tests and NACAC fairs have been canceled, making it harder than ever for admissions officers to secure qualified student names.
Spark451 is constantly exploring how we can better support the enrollment efforts of colleges and universities. In these ever-changing and uncertain times, we’ve been tracking digital marketing trends in relation to higher education and beyond, and we believe that now is an ideal time to strategically engage prospective students through digital marketing.
Current Digital Media Trends
With the world currently practicing social distancing and staying at home, it comes as no surprise that social media usage and web traffic has increased tremendously across platforms and industries. According to Kantar, who surveyed more than 25,000 consumers across 30 markets, social media engagement will increase “by 61 percent over normal usage rates” in later stages of the pandemic. Additionally, Facebook reported that in Italy, the platform saw “up to 70 percent more time spent across (Facebook) apps since the crisis arrived.”
In addition to above-average usage rates on social media platforms, users are more likely to click off their app of choice to visit a website during this unique period. SocialMediaToday is reporting that overall U.S. traffic from Facebook to other websites has increased by more than 50 percent week-over-week. This is especially noteworthy for our partners, as social campaigns seeing an increase in web traffic translates to an increase in leads and engagement.
Spark451 Trends
For additional context, we compared general digital media trends to what we’ve been seeing here at Spark451over the past few weeks.
For one, we’ve observed an overwhelming decrease in both CPM (cost per one-thousand impressions) and CPC (cost per click) across the majority of our social advertising. This is due to less competition within the platforms, as there are no longer ads running for brick-and-mortar stores, tickets, events, and similar in-person experiences, which target many of the same users. The CPMs have dropped anywhere from 20–50 percent, depending on the type of campaign. On campaigns where the CPM has seen a 50 percent decrease, we’ve essentially been able to serve twice as many ads to our target audience at the same cost as before.
Additionally, we’ve seen an increase in reach and impressions. If you’re wondering what that means for you, it means that now is the time to get in front of your audience. This is a unique opportunity to increase your reach at a lower cost (more on that later!).
As a result of lower costs and expanded reach, our number of clicks have increased. Basically, for our higher education partners, now is the perfect time to reach your audience. At the very least, all branding and lead generation campaigns not related to in-person events should be left running, and if possible, now is the time to increase your spend. If more users are online than ever, now is the time to be advertising to them.
What This Means for Your Institution
We believe there are several types of campaigns that may help you improve your prospects and get additional leads in the months ahead. Here are some campaigns that are on the rise:
Parent Campaigns, Local Campaigns
In addition to focusing on students, it’s essential that we now focus on their parents. They may be reconsidering their child’s college options in the wake of altered economic circumstances, or they may have new preferences or fears about their child’s intended location (city vs. suburban campuses, for example). It’s a great time to get creative with your campaigns and reach new audiences. Some of our partners are deploying parent campaigns, “stay close to home” campaigns, and increased sophomore and junior recruitment efforts to garner those new leads.
Transfer Campaigns
Another potentially untapped population is the transfer audience. With uncertainty of traditional summer and fall semesters, local students may be considering transfer options closer to home. One of our partner schools has been running transfer lead generation campaigns and has recently seen a spike in reach, impressions, and clicks, due to lowered costs. Additionally, their impressions have gone up by a stratospheric 154 percent in March compared to February.
Adult, Continuing Ed, & Graduate Campaigns
Perhaps the largest population being affected in times of a poor economy, recession, and unemployment is the adult market. With unemployment being at a historic all-time high, adults need to reassess their plans for the future. They’re asking themselves: “Am I on the right career path?” “Should I change fields and finally pursue my dream career?” or even, “What is the most secure career path to ensure I don’t get laid off again?” Your university can lend a helping hand in getting them to the next phase.
Historically, graduate and certificate programs tend to see an increase in enrollment when the economy takes a turn. Considering that most people are online and consuming content, it’s the perfect opportunity to run a graduate lead generation or branding campaign.
Connected TV
In addition to an increase in website traffic and social media, there has also been a vast increase in television viewership, both traditional and streaming. According to Variety, Nielsen “found an average 61 percent increase in streaming video via the TV.” If you have the right video assets, now is the time to invest in a Connected TV strategy to get your ads in front of TV viewers.
Get Started
With huge spikes in digital media usage amid COVID-19, this is an ideal moment to digitally advertise to your prospective students and their parents. Spark451 can help you navigate this unprecedented situation and determine which campaigns would best support your college or university’s enrollment goals. To get started, reach out. We’ll be happy to schedule a call to discuss your options.
Spark451 Special Report: College Parents React to COVID-19
Blog
|April 22, 2020Last month, as the spread of COVID-19 forced colleges and universities across the nation to quickly close and transition to fully-online environments, Spark451 Research sent a brief survey to parents of current first-year college students. Our goal was to begin assessing the potential long-term enrollment-related effects of those changes.
In just a few days, more than 950 parents of first-year college students responded to our survey. To access all the results, download the full report today. You’ll gain valuable insights on topics such as:
How parents feel their children have adjusted to remote learning
Whether parents expect their children to return to the same institutions in the fall
If parents still feel they can afford to send their children back to school
If you’d like to discuss any of these topics further, feel free to reach out. We’d be honored to help you navigate any student search and enrollment challenges you may be facing as a result of COVID-19.
In the meantime, we hope that you, your loved ones, and your entire campus community are healthy and safe.
Watch the Webinar: The Art and Science of Data-Enhanced Graduate Student Recruitment
Blog
|April 21, 2020As the world continues to grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19, now is the time to reconsider your approach to graduate recruitment. If history and the nation’s recent record-breaking unemployment numbers are any indication, we are likely to see a wave of recent graduates and mid-career professionals heading back to school as they wait out the volatile job market.
To help you prepare for this influx, we invite you to watch a recording of our recent webinar, “The Art and Science of Data-Enriched Graduate Student Recruitment.” During this session, Mike McGetrick, Spark451’s Principal, Creative & Interactive Services, and JC Bonilla, Element451’s Chief Analytics Officer, teamed up to discuss how you can use data to enhance your graduate recruitment efforts.
Watch the recording to discover how to:
- Build a data-enhanced pipeline using data enrichment, behavioral analytics, and persona development
- Create dynamic segments based on student behavior
- Utilize enhanced data to reach students via targeted marketing and highly-personalized messaging
Webinar: What Parents Are Saying About College Search
Blog
|April 15, 2020Admissions pros know that parents play a critical role in the college search process, but it isn’t always easy to know exactly what these key influencers are thinking. To help meet that need, Spark451 Research recently conducted an expansive survey of parents of Fall 2019 college freshmen.
In our recent webinar, enrollment strategy expert Pete Colbert released the findings of the 2019–2020 College-Bound Survey: Parent Edition, which features feedback from nearly 900 parents from 46 states. Some of the results will be eye-opening for even the most seasoned enrollment managers!
Watch the recording to gain insights about:
- Parents’ perception of the value of print vs. digital communications
- Which communication tactics resonate best with parents
- Which application incentives resonate best with parents (and the potential impact of NACAC’s new rules)
- Whether most parents would encourage a child to transfer if they received a better offer from a competing school
- The timing of the search process and when parents helped their children commit to schools
- Whether the Excelsior program was compelling to parents in New York
- Plus: Hear emerging feedback about how the COVID-19 outbreak is impacting parents’ and students’ enrollment decisions beyond this spring
You’ll also have the opportunity to download the full report!
Webinar: Making Your Class Amid COVID-19
Blog
|March 20, 2020For the past several weeks, COVID-19 (a.k.a. “the Coronavirus”) has been top-of-mind on college campuses throughout the nation. Numerous enrollment managers are reevaluating spring yield events in an atmosphere where groups of people congregating are temporarily unwelcome.
In our recent webinar, enrollment and marketing experts Steve Kerge, Michael McGetrick, and Western New England University’s VP for Enrollment Management and Marketing, Bryan Gross, discussed smart strategies for keeping your team and your students safe while still building your class for the year ahead.
Though the live event already occurred, you can still watch a recording of the webinar to:
- Get up to speed on how COVID-19 is impacting the admissions practices at colleges and universities
- Anticipate how your prospective families are going to react, and how you can adjust accordingly
- Determine how you should adopt and leverage remote events and presentations
- Rethink counselor travel
- Learn how to adapt a communication plan that is proactive, empathetic, and captures the spirit of your brand
College Campuses and COVID-19 Interactive Map
Blog
|March 11, 2020
The college community around the United States has created a crowd-sourced Google Sheet to track college campus closures and the replacement of in-person classes with online versions as a result of COVID-19 issues. This map represents a visualization of that data with with circle size representing the enrollment of each institution. You can roll-over for notes and use the zoom and pan tools in the top left. Please note that the vast majority of college campuses listed have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in their campus community, and are pro-actively closing or moving online out of “an abundance of caution.”
Since the document has become too popular and repeatedly times out, we have created a snapshot of the data here, and will updated it at least once a day.
Welcome 2020: Plan for Success In the Year Ahead
Blog
|January 24, 2020By Bill Sliwa and Steve Kerge
Happy New Year, readers. As we enter the modern-day “roaring twenties,” we’d like to begin the year with two related topics:
- Using lessons of the past to navigate the current and future landscape
- How setting goals — not making resolutions — will make you a better enrollment manager
For a better future, learn from the past.
As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 (OK, we couldn’t resist). Though the proverb is always true, we still think that the start of 2020 presents the ideal opportunity for admissions professionals like yourself to look back at the challenges of the past and collaborate with your team (and trusted strategic partners) to figure out some solutions that will help you avoid repeating your biggest enrollment management mishaps for the balance of the 2019–20 cycle and beyond.
Take a moment to reflect and consider the macro-forces that have positively and negatively impacted your new student enrollments over the last five years. Those factors may include:
- The economy
- Demographic shifts
- Perception of college affordability
- Institutional/internal roadblocks
- New academic program(s)
- Athletic teams
- Perception that liberal arts programs may not be career focused
- Fierce competition (waitlisting and repackaging)
- Institutional brand/marketing
If any of these factors are preventing you from meeting your enrollment goals, now is the time to correct course by reevaluating your strategy, strengthening your programs, and updating your marketing materials. (If you could use a fresh perspective, feel free to reach out. We’d be happy to help you toss around some ideas.)
One guarantee we will make: If you continue to conduct the exact same activity year after year, you should not expect to see very different results.
Make Goals, Not Resolutions
While this certainly is the season for new year’s resolutions, we believe that too many people fail to achieve what they set out to accomplish because they are making resolutions instead of setting goals. A resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something moving forward, while a goal is a specific destination.
For example, it is so easy to say “I’m going to get in better shape this year” or “I’m going to eat better,” but what does that mean and how will you measure that? If you wish to get in “better” shape, you’ll need to ask yourself what that looks like, evaluate your baseline fitness, and determine where you want to be by December 31. Once you know those answers, you can set a goal, not make a resolution.
This distinction matters because once you set a goal, you can develop a realistic path to achieve your desired result. To continue with the fitness analogy: you can say “I am going to walk a minimum of 10 miles a week this year,” and then you can measure your progress and adjust course as needed throughout the year. You can also make a point to schedule time on your calendar to walk each day — when you schedule something, there’s a much better chance you’ll actually do it.
The same logic applies for colleges and universities that aren’t enrolling the number of students they wish to enroll. You’ll set yourself up for failure if you simply resolve to “enroll more students,” without establishing measurable metrics or scheduling plans to execute on it regularly.
We challenge you to be a stronger enrollment manager in 2020 by being consistently data-driven and taking a formulaic approach. If you are not sure how, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll be happy to show you some proven methods.
We will leave you with one closing thought: Those enrollment managers who commit to being data-driven will succeed at their jobs. Consider forming a data unit on your campus as part of your overall strategic enrollment planning team. You can likely tap into some already established resources — institutional effectiveness and research, the registrar, and perhaps some faculty from across mathematics and the sciences — to create measurable indicators of your goals and objectives that will help you get better at bringing in new classes and retaining those students. You have an incredibly rich data set you can harness. Make it a priority to do so in this new decade.
Guest Post: It’s Time For Colleges to Boost In-House Video Production Resources
Blog
|January 9, 2020A steady stream of fresh, engaging video content is critical for keeping prospective Gen Z students engaged with your college or university’s brand.
In a recent guest article for The Cutaway, a digital magazine for media and advertising production professionals, Spark451 Principal Mike McGetrick detailed why institutions must invest in in-house video production resources in order to meet that demand.
Check out the article for Mike’s insights on why high-quality video matters so much to today’s teens and to learn how you can deliver compelling personalized video content that will resonate with prospective students. Then, reach out to us so we can help you determine how to maximize your video marketing efforts.
Re-Recruitment is Born: What the NACAC Vote Means for the Admissions World
Blog
|October 23, 2019We’ve all heard the news by now: the biggest update from the NACAC Annual Conference was “the vote.” In an effort to avoid accusations of antitrust law violations, delegates agreed to make several significant changes to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP). In all likelihood, these modifications will dramatically alter the college admissions recruitment landscape.
As higher education enrollment marketing consultants, it’s our job to help you get out in front of the changes. Here, I’ll provide a quick rundown of what happened at NACAC and the impact we expect it to have on the world of college admissions. I’ll also discuss some potential next steps you can take to adapt your recruitment tactics for this new era.
(For more details on the changes to CEPP, see NACAC’s Meeting Notes.)
What it Means for Colleges and Universities
Under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, our industry has collectively agreed to abandon several long-standing recruitment and marketing practices, which we expect will impact how college admissions offices operate year-round. For admissions and enrollment managers, there will be new challenges, and possibly new opportunities, but your outcomes will depend on how prepared you are to adapt to the changing landscape.
We anticipate:
- Increased melt risk – We’ll likely see more competitive financial aid packages later in the cycle.
- More competitive “poaching” practices – Expect to see competing communications post May 1st with incentives from schools who have missed their enrollment goals.
- Aggressive early decision offers – Be on the lookout for incentivized early decision packages from schools attempting to lock in higher percentages of their incoming classes earlier in the cycle.
- Higher volume of financial aid appeals – Early decision incentives and more competition will create the need for more competitive packages with higher discounts and increased average awards.
We Can Help
Spark451’s team of admissions and marketing professionals has resources to help you quickly adjust your marketing and communications plans for the year ahead. We can help you fully prepare to compete in the new more-aggressive-than-ever college admissions marketplace.
Spark451 is ready to assist with:
- Purposeful student search marketing programs to build the top of your funnel
- Personalized admitted yield campaigns to build brand affinity and cultivate an engaged admit pool
- Robust anti-melt campaigns that deliver valuable engagement analytics
- A revitalized approach to transfer recruitment and marketing. We can help you:
- Identify students from your applicant pool who enrolled at other four-year schools
- Create offers of admission that illustrate cost and time efficiencies
- Grow brand awareness and ongoing transfer opportunities
We’d love to discuss your institution’s specific challenges and help you determine which strategies and tactics will best prepare you for next year’s cycle. Reach out so we can get started.
Navigating the Great Enrollment Shift
Blog
|July 11, 2019You’ve been watching the news. You know that the overall population of college graduates is dropping and the emerging pools of prospective students are, in many ways, unlike the ones we’ve seen in the past — in terms of their geographic locations as well as their cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
These demographic shifts mean only one thing for proactive college and university admissions professionals like yourself: Now is the time to reassess your recruitment strategy and adjust your approach to ensure that you can continue hitting your enrollment goals for years to come.
In our latest white paper, “Navigating the Great Enrollment Shift,” Spark451 Client Development Strategist Megan Brammer and Digital Marketing Strategist Ann Levy review some of the trends that will have the greatest impact on the future of enrollment, and they introduce several tactics that will help you keep your institution positioned to attract the emerging pools of students.
If you’d like to discuss the specific enrollment challenges facing your institution, please reach out. We’ll be happy to help you pinpoint the tactics that will best support your enrollment goals.