[CentOS-devel] Martin Pelmore, Survey: Higher Education Marketers Credit Online Lead Generation for Half of Qualified Inquiries, Yet Most Invest a Fraction of their Budgets in Online

Fri Jan 4 10:18:34 UTC 2008
Super Star <candyshop999 at gmail.com>

Martin Pelmore, Survey: Higher Education Marketers Credit Online Lead
Generation for Half of Qualified Inquiries, Yet Most Invest a Fraction of
their Budgets in Online


New York, New York (PRWEB) December 4, 2007 -- Higher education marketers,
in large part, have been slow to invest in online marketing, however an
imminent paradigm shift looms according to a new survey, the Study of
Institutional Goals for Student Recruiting and Retention.

 The survey conducted by EducationDynamics (www.educationdynamics.com), a
leading interactive marketing company focused on helping institutions find,
enroll and retain students, shows that 42 percent of respondents credit
online lead generation for the majority of their qualified leads. However,
65 percent invest less than 20 percent of their budgets in online marketing.
Realizing a need to adopt new technology, half of respondents say they
intend to increase their commitment to online marketing in the coming year.

 "In an industry that each day becomes more competitive and complex, higher
education institutions are looking for proven methods of recruiting
students, and are embracing technology as the solution," says Steve Isaac,
EducationDynamics Chairman and CEO. "Emerging technological marketing
platforms allow institutions to reach out to prospective students in their
space on their terms, in a way that actively engages them, creating a
personalized experience."

 Nearly 100 not-for-profit higher education marketers attending the American
Marketing Association conference in San Diego November 11-14, 2007
participated in the survey, designed to capture the current trends and
practices in prospecting, enrollment and retention. Survey highlights
include the following:

 Student Prospecting

? Only nine percent of respondents devote more than 40 percent of their
budgets on online marketing.

? While most survey respondents (50%) say they plan to increase their online
marketing budgets in the coming year, no respondents anticipate decreasing
their investment.

? Surprisingly, tools to engage parents throughout the student lifecycle
were attractive to this crowd with 55 percent of respondents saying that
online parent communication and networking would be helpful in both
converting inquiries into students and reducing attrition among students.

 Student Enrollment

? While 41 percent of institutions gauge marketing success by the rate of
inquiries to enrollment, 9 percent of schools have no way of measuring this
success.

? In what is becoming a more metrics-driven industry, only 26 percent of
respondents know their student cost per start.

? When asked about technology solutions, 81 percent suggest that customized
online academic and social networks would be helpful in enrollment efforts.

 Student Retention

? Respondents overwhelmingly (76%) indicate that customized online academic
and social networking that commenced before or during orientation would be
helpful in retention efforts.

? 82 percent would find an early warning alert system that notifies
administrators when current students are struggling or dissatisfied to be
helpful.

? Among institutions that offer freshman seminar classes (61%), marketers
report that the biggest obstacles are lack of hard data showing the course
effectiveness and participant satisfaction(34%), lack of student interest in
taking the course (13%), and faculty disinterest in teaching freshman
seminars (14%).

 About EducationDynamics
EducationDynamics, a portfolio company of Halyard Capital, is a leading
interactive marketing and information services company focused on helping
higher education institutions find, enroll and retain students. Through some
of the most visible education websites, including EarnMyDegree.com,
eLearners.com, GradSchools.com, and StudyAbroad.com, as well as its Internet
marketing services team, EducationDynamics is one of the leading providers
of qualified leads for colleges and universities. The company offers a full
suite of web-based products and services to manage a school's relationship
with students across their entire lifecycle from acquisition to alumni. For
more information about EducationDynamics, please visit
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/attachments/20080104/99cfafa8/attachment-0006.html>