In a span of 12 hours, I’ve had numerous telephone conversations, email exchanges, and text messages with enrollment management leaders about COVID-19 (coronavirus). The pandemic has hit higher education in an unprecedented way, how you communicate and strategize moving forward will dictate your personal health, the institution’s response, and the strength of your incoming class. You are dealing with humans, real feelings, and a somewhat lack of awareness of the COVID-19 virus. Your role as an enrollment manager is fairly simple. Be Human!
Here are six recommendations as you redefine your enrollment marketing and communication strategy during the final stages of the fall 2020 enrollment cycle.
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- Be a human and use your heart. Put the sales playbook away and think with the human side and your heart! This might be the one time in your career to set goals aside, albeit only for a day, and determine the best path forward for your staff, students, and community. All of that will lead you forward down a path to the best strategy that will guide future students to your doorstep.
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- Be the voice of reason to the president and board of trustees. Don’t wait for the pandemic to subside, rethink enrollment goals and budget. Initiate the conversation with the leadership team and the board of trustees. Highlight realistic, attainable enrollment goals and budget numbers reflecting the current environment in which we live. Have a plan, articulate the plan, and follow it through without being afraid to deviate as necessary. Nobody knows what’s next, but being proactive, prepared, and poised will pay dividends.
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- Think about ALL of your student outreach. Consider re-positioning or altering both the content and the timing of communication from your internal teams, as well as your external partners. No changes may be needed but do a quick audit in your head and respond accordingly.
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- Extend your May 1 decision deadline into June or July. For the majority of colleges and universities nationwide, May 1 is a superficial date that places undue stress on students to make a decision. Again, show your human side and push back the May 1 deadline and any other pertinent or relevant deadlines approaching as the enrollment cycle moves closer to the end. Consider altering housing due dates, summer orientation requirements, financial aid deadlines, and even billing or payment plans.
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- Host May and June yield events. Or at least be prepared to. Several marginalized students will need opportunities to visit at a later date so set-aside resources to get them to campus. While they might be smaller programs and you think they aren’t worth your financial investment, families unwilling to travel until the pandemic settles will be appreciative of your approach. As colleges adopt this approach, the pressure for other institutions to conform will mount. If you’re concerned about having enough staff or a smaller group waning in energy, combine an event with one of your summer orientation programs or coordinate a joint program with the classes of 2025 and 2026, but create a few separate tracks.
- Engage your staff. They often have exceptional ideas and creative approaches in times of crisis so utilize their input as you make decisions. Not to mention, they have the eyes and ears of the students and parents they have been working with through the recruitment cycle.
We are sending colleges and universities worldwide positive vibes, health, and well-being as we enter unprecedented times in enrollment management. Waybetter Marketing has every bit of confidence you’ll weather the storm, be successful, and come out on the other side better than you were before.
This is a rapidly evolving situation and this post captures our stance as of March 13, 2020.