A disturbing economic reason for recruiting

This story came out a few weeks ago, but  it’s still relevant: http://www.projo.com/news/content/URI_MIDYEAR_HIKES_08-04-08_9NB2Q07_v35.42cc430.html

In a nutshell, the University of Rhode Island is facing a budget crisis and they’re weighing their options. This includes raising tuition, cutting back on open/instruction days, and of course, trying to recruit more new students.

If they implement the first two, it’s going to put a damper on the third. A lot of institutions are probably facing the same dilemma, or could be soon. But the lesson is clear:

Either you need to step up on recruiting because you need an immediate increase in revenue, or you need to step up recruiting to ‘break even” when budget cuts discourage new enrollment.

It’s a tough situation. We need to get creative. Any ideas?

What is your school’s most compelling cause-connection?

There is a great post on marketing to millennials over at the blog Print Advertising Eye Candy that makes a compelling argument for a new approach to marketing to this group.

They sure are a dynamic group:

…they are extremely confident, community-minded, tech-savvy, and goal[oriented.  They believe in themselves and believe in the big picture of society.  And more than other generations, Millennials want to have as individuals a positive, a “bigger than life” impact on their culture.

But like all groups, they have their own challenges:

…they all believe they are special, they believe they should be rewarded just for showing up, they are rarely loyal to the corporation, and they will walk off the job if treated like they’re incompetent.  Their passion for life often clouds any pragmatic judgment.

So what does this all mean? As the post argues deftly, a marketing plan that is going to work for millennials is a message that connects your school, your program to a greater cause, the so-called “cause connection”:

You must connect your products with the passion which drives the Millennial generation. You have to show them that what you have to offer will help them make their world a better place.

Is your marketing message exciting your millennials?

Peak into the mind of a Millennial

Beloit College has published its annual Mindset List for the entering college class of 2012. According to the authors, the list is “an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2008.”

The Mindset Listis a set of touchstones that shape the lives of the approximately 2 million first-year Gen Y students entering college this fall, of which most were born in 1990.

Some highlights of the list include:

• Harry Potter could be a classmate playing on their Quidditch team.
• They’ve always been looking for Carmen Sandiego
• GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
• WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
• Personal privacy has always been threatened.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
• Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

See the full 2008 Mindseat List, or watch the Webcast.

Are your marketing strategies one-dimensional?

In a rather long post, recent graduate and millennial Alex Berger argues that current class room technology strategies are not working for educating millennials:

Simply put, tech savvy Millennials are not being engaged or challenged by the one-dimensional delivery systems in a majority of today’s classrooms. They are not interested in sitting passively and having information spoon fed to them.

So what does this have to do with marketing to millennials? A lot, actually.

If millennials expect engaging, interactive and information rich experiences in the classroom, why would they not expect that from your marketing and communication materials? This isn’t the view book generation, where glossy photos of classes taking place outside evoke warm-fuzzies in applicants.

This is a skeptical bunch. They know how to get unbiased video coverage of what your campus looks like and they know how to find out what your professors are really like. You can either ignore these resources at your own peril, or accept and engage them and write your own ending to these stories which you can’t control (or ignore).

So next time you are putting together marketing material for a millennial, ask yourself and your team a few important questions:

Is this engaging? Does this satisfy their information addiction? Does this put them in control and allow them to obtain the information they want?

Do you spend 80% of your budget on online marketing?

Alliant Center for Forensic Studies Facebook Group

Gracia Bone, systemwide director of marketing and media relations for Alliant’s University does. In fact, the San Diego campus’ Center for Forensic Studies launched its Facebook Group and ad, which targets users with bachelor’s degrees in psychology who watch the show “Criminal Minds.”

People who saw the ads were asked to take a quiz to find out how much they know about serial killers. After responding to the quiz, the program invites them to visit program’s home page or Facebook Group. According to the article in the San Diego Union Tribune, 5,000 people took the quiz and 500 visited the department’s how-to-apply page, while the Facebook Group now has 105 users.

It turns out this ad campaign has been the best performing ad campaign in the history of Alliant University. Gracia says that she spends 80 percent of her budget today on online marketing because it is the “most effective recruitment method.”