How To Build A Successful Higher Education Lead Generation Strategy 

When building a successful lead generation strategy, an important question to ask is “What result am I aiming for?” Great question! But what do real results mean? It's different for every school however one thing translates across all the higher education institutions we've encountered. A big part of the answer lies with their successful graduates. Successful graduates are the real test of the entire school's ecosystem, and it starts with the marketing efforts and reaching the right future graduates.

So how do you reach those future graduates? Simple. With a higher education lead generation strategy that works. The key to connecting with your prospective students is reaching them when and where they want you to. There are numerous options, be it Google, social channels, through lead generation companies, or traditional media like TV and radio. Maybe your students attend college fairs or school Open Houses. There are many different channels, and each has its strengths. How you use them depends on who your students are .

Three Sales Lessons From The Lions

As a co-founder of a boutique growth agency I realized it was time to scale our business and not only focus on growing other peoples businesses. What a concept! The problem was, I hate to sell. I’ve always been so uncomfortable that when I have to do it, frankly, I suck at it. At least that’s what I thought. My mindset defeated me before I even began. I had to break that trend, so I started looking at Sales Optimization strategies to help get me over the hump.

Is your school growing?

We all love data when evaluating the success of marketing campaigns, website redesigns or the performance of our admissions teams. But are we using it to establish our growth strategies? We should!

When working to increase enrollment in your school, setting executable and attainable goals to drive your strategies is a must. There is nothing wrong with making them difficult, just not impossible. Setting unattainable targets do more damage than good. It deflates the team and likely impacts agendas across the entire operation. So how do we create a successful growth plan?

Below is a quick clip of a workshop we did for the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator on becoming an Artreprenuer. We cover the basics of establishing your business, finding opportunities and using digital marketing to grow. More to come!

This article by Partner Chris Davie orginially appeared in the September 2015 issue of ProSound News and touches on the new Department of Education's "Gainful Employment" regulations and thier potiential affects on Pro Audio Educators and Students.

NASHVILLE, TN—When I sought a school to learn audio engineering, the choices were very limited. In the decades since my education experience, aspiring audio engineers have become bombarded with choices and, in may cases, extremely skilled marketing and admissions departments are wooing them to attend their programs. This trend has been exemplified not only in professional audio education but also across almost all academic studies; it has become the norm in public, private, not-for profit and for-profit schools. As a result, we are seeing enormous growth in student debt and graduates not finding what the Department of Education terms “gainful employment.”

Have you ever been caught off guard by a really challenging question? Not one of those difficult and uncomfortable parenting questions from your inquisitive child that I can only imagine gets your tongue tied. Instead a question so simple it’s complicated. What is your leadership style? Most leaders have been asked to describe their own leadership style in some setting. Whether it’s by a staff member or during an interview this can be a complex topic to discuss. In fact it probably raises a series of additional questions. What type of leader do they want me to be? What should I say? What’s the wrong type of leader? What is the trendy or hip response? What was Steve Jobs leadership style? Is there even a right answer?

One of the areas Sonority Group works closely with clients on is their focus.  In a recent meeting with the CEO of a small business, he expressed his struggles staying focused on the things that will really move his organization forward. Instead his time is filled with all the daily to-dos, keeping people on-task and the demands of running his own company. Our conversation shot me back almost 20 years to the moment my views on focus where shaped from a pretty nasty mountain bike wreck.

As I was being interviewed for an article that explores the state of education and training in broadcast audio by Dan Daley of Sports Video Group, it dawned on me how this issue affects so many other types of professions and the schools training in those professions. Not a new topic but one that got me thinking. How does an industry needing qualified new talent, that will be gainfully employed, keep their pipeline filled if students are not attracted to the programs training them in these particular areas?

"If you do the education right... the business will follow". I've had some pretty sharp conversations as a result of this statement over the years. Some in agreement and some adamantly on the other side. I'm a true believer that when we ground our decisions on a few simple principles, decisions are easily made, trust is built and everyone grows.

-Chris

I remember exactly the moment I heard a colleague say “Sometimes it’s better to be decisive than right” for the first time. We were discussing the hiring process for 2 open positions within our company. He introduced a new hiring concept to me of having a group information session for interested applicants, then scheduling individual interviews for those who stood out. This was such a foreign concept for me that I had to be convinced that it was going to work. I was guilty of being stuck in the “This is the way we’ve always done it” mindset and I was admittedly skeptical already.