Internet Lead Strategy Systems
People have more tools to do research on your institution than ever before. They utilize social networks for referrals and Internet search engines to locate websites that provide them with relevant information, all in an effort to help them find the best possible education. It’s no wonder why seven out of every ten prospective students now contact schools and colleges via the Internet.
The challenge for a marketing director of a college is pretty daunting… how to attract the attention of perspective students once they begin doing their research and ultimately convert them into future students?
An effective recruitment strategy includes systems that integrate Lead Development, Lead Management and Lead Follow-up efforts for the best possible outcome. The focus of this particular article is on Internet Lead Management Systems… the most important tool a marketing director can have to help the admissions teams achieve cost-effective starts.
A web-based Internet Lead Management System is a program that electronically links your admissions follow-up efforts with your Internet Lead Vendors to give you the easiest, most efficient way possible to convert your Internet leads into students. A good system will:
- Evaluate incoming leads based on the lead criteria that you set up (such as age, distance from campus, education, program of interest, etc.) and reject the leads that do not meet your requirements. This effort will save you and your admissions team valuable time.
- Sift through incoming leads and instantly reject duplicate leads that you already own to give you instant credits from your Internet Lead Vendors.
- Provide you with a simple way to rescind leads that slipped through the system (such as false names, addresses and/or phone numbers) so you don’t spend hours composing and sending out emails to your multitude of vendors.
- Provide you with instant Reports that can help you:
- Evaluate your vendors; reject those that are not providing cost-effective leads or who are sending you too many unqualified leads that are wasting your admissions team’s time and efforts.
- Analyze your daily lead-flow to help you reach your monthly requirements. This gives you the ability to increase your lead-flow from one vendor if another is running slow on any particular month.
- Make it easy to reconcile Internet Lead Vendor invoices so you only pay what you owe.
- Help you communicate with your vendors
- Make it easy to add new Internet Lead Vendors and eliminate others.
- Electronically deliver your leads via a variety of methods (including XML Feeds, Form Posting, and email delivery) for real-time follow-up programs… making it easy to send leads to call centers, into lead management and CRM systems, campus management programs, email and direct mail follow up programs, etc.
There are a lot of systems out their, most of which are being used by Internet Agencies to help them manage their clients’ Internet Advertising.
- Lead Development –
- Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations – This is an online and offline effort that requires constant attention and balance.
- Developing an effective Search Engine Strategy that gives people looking for your institution the best possible chance of finding you and becoming active prospects.
- Finding as many prospective students as possible once they start doing their research on how to better their lives; and sparking enough interest in your college so they will ask you for more information.
- Creating as many phone calls and real-time interactive communications as possible as they are the easiest way to motivate an individual to come in for a campus tour.
- Lead Management –
- Incorporating an electronic call tracking and monitoring system to help you:
- Manage your advertising and marketing mix.
- Manage and train those answering your inbound calls, which include receptionists, internal and external call centers and your admissions team.
- Developing an Internet Lead Management and Delivery System that manages:
- Your Internet Lead Vendors
- Your Website and Landing Pages
- Outside vendor microsites.
- Lead Delivery – Efficiently and effectively routing all incoming Internet lead-forms electronically to systems created to help you convert those leads into Interviews.
- Creating meaningful reporting systems that will help marketers understand their lead-flow and conversion rates so they can continually improve their efforts.
- Lead Follow-up – The best and fastest admissions team usually wins
- Enlist telecommunication system(s) that enable admissions representatives and/or call center personnel to reach to speak with their prospective students.
- Incorporating technology systems that will automatically send meaningful information back to prospective students that will highlight advantages over competition and inspire people to take a campus tour.
Lead Conduit™ - Internet Lead Management and Distribution System
The center of the Internet Lead Universe
