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By Mickey Baines

�  What is the Secret Shopper Study?

�  The study’s evolution

�  So, how do schools currently engage adult students? �  What should we be adding in 2015?

�  Questions & Closing

�  If there was one thing that converted more students than anything else in your recruitment tactics this past year, what was it?

�  If there was one thing that converted less than any other recruitment tactic this past year, what was it?

�  Are your communication plans and recruitment tactics better than, equal to or worse than your competitors?

�  The 2014 secret shopper study consisted of 60 programs o  30 grad and 30 undergrad o  Context – Why do I study this? o  Brief background about Fourth Dimension Partners

�  What do we study? o  Inquiry Forms o  Emails o  Phone Calls o  Direct Mail

�  The study’s evolution o  The first study – 2012 o  Changes for 2014 o  Changes for 2015

� This form has 16 fields

� Average fields in study: 16.3

� Note: 2 schools removed from study

� Why are forms important for the study?

� Business Industry: 5.7 fields

� Form length impacts response rate (We recommended ways to shorten form length)

�  Monitored all contact points for 6 weeks. o  34% Responded 1st day o  Majority of initial responses came through email o  Automated messaging (for the initial response) is very prevalent

�  12 Schools failed to respond at all. o  How did we handle no response? o  Majority of non-response institutions were for graduate programs o  8 of 12 use faculty for primary recruitment staff

�  Only 35% of schools phoned.

�  A new record was set during the study:

o  The highest number of calls by a single school:

�  Almost all voicemails could have been left by the same person – just insert school name. (We listen to and dissect voicemails)

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�  Increase in the use of CRM was significant. o  25% more institutions were using a CRM than in 2013. o  Only basic customization and personalization built into messages.

�  89% of schools sent at least 1 email (most sent more) �  Overall, messages were bland and dry.

o  Much like voice mails, content could be cut and pasted between schools. (We categorize email by topic; and create a top-10 list of overused words)

o  Subject lines need significant improvement to improve open and click rates.

o  Content too long. (We measure length of subject line and content inside of messages)

What’s wrong with this image?

�  12% of emails landed outside of the Inbox o  Spam vs. Graymail (We provided some participants with

recommendations to improve deliverability)

�  39% of emails had 2 or more graphics

What’s wrong with this image?

�  48% of programs sent at least one piece of mail.

�  More graduate than undergraduate programs used direct mail.

�  13% sent more than one piece.

�  Significant difference between the two in total contact points. The few for-profits in the study had nearly 4 times as many contact points as non-profits.

�  All for-profits phoned, emailed and mailed. o  Less than 10% of non-profits used all three

channels.

�  Standardized regional comparisons

�  Online vs face-to-face (and hybrid) comparison

�  Pre-study survey to include enrollment trends (opt-in only)

�  Identification and Comparison of Institutional Best Practices for top 20% of programs

�  Additional customization options multiple locations

�  Questions?

�  How to participate? o  Reply to my follow-up email which will come to you later today. o  We will schedule a short call to review your program and ensure a

good fit.