4 Top Questions about Contact Strategies for Higher Education Prospects – Part 1
Missed our webinar on higher education contact strategy – or do you want to see it again? View it here now!
Post-webinar, our audience asked lots of thought-provoking questions about contact strategy. Now, we give you the answers!
We know how challenging it can be to develop and maintain a savvy contact strategy. But that doesn’t stop us from pushing for more than mere maintenance. Let’s discover strategies that help our institutions strive for better and more valuable connections with every engagement. Here are four of the best questions that we received on our most recent webinar.
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Your Burning Questions & Savvy Strategist Answers:
1) Should you worry that calling prospective students ASAP may come across pushy or overly aggressive? When is the best time to make that initial response so as to avoid this concern? While a larger data set suggests that responding right away does perform the best, you need to decide what works best for your brand. You can always give prospects the option to choose how and when they want to be contacted via your RFI form. They’re making decisions and doing research. No matter how you choose to handle this, help them cut through all that work on their end and choose you first by telling them your value right away. In fact, 87% of surveyed online students said they enrolled in the first school that got back to them after requesting information!
Data from “Online College Students, 2017”
2) How often should you review and evolve your Contact Strategy?
Always! It’s an ever changing landscape out there. So, you’ve got to make it a part of the process to keep evaluation intrinsic to your strategy. Don’t be wary of mixing it up with new ideas. Keep your strategy a living document that can bend and turn when necessary. You can also try creative tactics that may end up big winners. No worries when it comes to potential setbacks, just stay on top of your numbers so you can quickly nix what doesn’t serve your goals. Do
3) We get it, there are lots of important KPIs to keep in mind but what are the #1 most significant KPIs that are most crucial? What’s top of the list when reviewing a strategy for effectiveness?
Of course it varies based on the goals but three that are most crucial regardless when it comes to Contact Strategy. The first is Contact Rate – How many students are you actually contacting as a result of your strategy and is that a competitive number among your competitors? The second is Response Rate. This tells you how responsive your audience is and how engaging your message is. Enrollment/Application Rates are also crucial given that these are the ultimate goal for higher education Contact Strategies. Stay on top of all three and monitor how your evolving strategy impacts each one.
4) What about AI bots for first response with prospective student inquiries?
They are fine and often expected. But you want to use them tactically and efficiently. For instance, we know that you can drive stronger outcomes and better engagement by getting students on the phone. So, make sure you have a specific strategy for your chat outreach to create that outcome. That means data mining your chats to find out which AI bot questions and answers most often result with an enrollment advisor phone call. This way you can train your chats to engage students in a way that motivates further contact on the phone.
We hope you find these questions and answers enlightening. It’s important to face content strategy challenges like these directly in order to address the multifaceted market of students today. This is how we can all better engage and capture student attention. Keep your focus on that primary goal so that your business can evolve with the market more effectively.
For more information on how and when to apply your contact strategy improvements, schedule a free consultation with EducationDynamics team. We’ll help you find the optimal way to efficiently grow enrollments at your institution.
* Download the full Online College Students Report here: http://learn.www.educationdynamics.com/online-college-students-2017