I recently had the opportunity to review the new book, The Enrollment Growth Playbook: How to Launch, Market, & Grow Successful Online & On-Campus Programs, by Helix Education. This book is chock-full of actionable insights that can help any institution make significant strides to increase their enrollment.
Gone is the day of being all things to all people. Most colleges and universities have realized they need to have a niche to be successful in today’s crowded higher education marketplace. This book talks through defining goals, the importance of market research to determine potential growth opportunity areas, how to leverage technology and data to impact strategic decision-making, developing sound marketing strategies, and more.
As I’ve been saying for years, it is critical to think about and set goals before jumping to tools and tactics. So many tools make it so easy to just jump right in and try a bunch of things out, but without strong goals and a sound strategy, it’s a lot like throwing spaghetti on the cabinets to see what sticks.
Helix talks about the importance of Institution-wide change starting with strong leadership at the top. Basing decisions on market research and available data to then inform an effective marketing strategy comes down to delivering the “right message to the right student on the right channel at the right time, for the right price.” Easy peasy, right? Not without a strong measurement program and effectively establishing one voice through an integrated marketing program.
The book has helpful worksheets, such as the Marketing Channel Contribution – a way to determine your optimal marketing mix by mapping out your current marketing channels, inquiry volume, cost-per-inquiry, enroll rate and cost-per enroll. If you haven’t already guessed, a strong measurement program to be able to track this and more is also key to the success of any growth strategy.
They go on further to talk about testing the strength of your enrollment funnel to see which touchpoints really are most effective and to further streamline the enrollment operation.
Throughout the book they highlight key tidbits with little notes in orange, as though I took my own highlighter to make my own notes. The book is super readable in far under an hour and is a must-have for everyone in the enrollment management field in higher education. I highly recommend reaching out to Helix and getting your copy today.
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