Enrollment Builders' Blog

Institutions have thousands of leads and wonder why they don’t turn into students. The answer is that the institution doesn’t build a relationship with each lead. Colleges and universities flood prospects with email, one-off calls, and print pieces designed to inform the prospect about the institution. When there’s no consistent, systematic approach to building a relationship with those prospects, then the “relationship” that’s built is simply transactional (e.g., Apply Now! Complete your FAFSA!). Think about it. In your regular life, that me-centered approach is not how you get a date. It’s not how you make a friend. How does it make sense, then, for one-way, transactional communication to create enrollments? EB knows that this just isn’t the most effective way to create long-lasting relationships.   

Here at Enrollment Builders, we’ve worked with many traditional and non-traditional institutions, and we know what it takes to engage your prospective students. In the end, you need to provide each prospective student with an engaging, consistent experience. To stabilize the admissions funnel and ensure that no interested prospective student is missed, Enrollment Builders has created cadences.

Being down in enrollment causes panic for any admissions executive. During this stressful time, any number of thoughts run through your head. You’ve either heard it said or thought to yourself: “If we had more leads at the top of the funnel, we would have hit our goals.” Sure, because more in equals more out, right? 

As the person ultimately responsible for ensuring enrollment growth at your institution, you will be challenged with “defending” and advancing any changes to existing plans. You may find yourself wondering ..."What will leadership (and my team) want to know about my plan to introduce a Contact Center partnership?"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could guess what questions might be asked of you before these presentations?

Well, look no more!

This Contact Center Guide contains all of the answers to common questions you may be asked.

You work hard to generate leads so your institution can grow.

Despite the increases in marketing budget and lead volume (not to mention the long hours you’ve poured into the project), you’re still struggling with your enrollment goals.

By Verne Harnish

Since the COVID-19 crisis began, Enrollment Builders, a lead generation company in Lexington, Ky., has been growing like gangbusters. The company, which helps nonprofit colleges and universities connect with potential applicants, has expanded from nine employees to 23 since March. The company expects 2020 revenue to hit about $2 million, up 20% from last year, and is profitable. With institutions seeing a decline in applications and state funding decreasing, many schools urgently need to build up their admissions funnel. “We pitch ourselves as an enablement service,” says CEO Jennifer Goode.

Goode, who became CEO in 2014 and bought out the company’s partners in 2016, has pulled it off by tapping the Scaling Up platform for growing a company. She started out using the EOS operating system but embraced Scaling Up when she began working with Scaling Up Certified Coach Robert Fish in 2017 and 2018.

“I love that Scaling Up allows me to apply what I sometimes ‘feel’ as an entrepreneur to a strategic and tactical framework that leaders in the company can embrace and harness with a shared understanding of how to get where we are going—but it takes serious commitment and focusing on the right things,” says Goode.

"The truth is, we didn’t realize at first how working “aged” leads would make such a huge impact for our clients who are trying to grow academic programs. We had a thought that if we combined two established practices, aged lead follow-up and outbound contact strategies, it would redefine the way our higher education Contact Center operates. It wasn't until we saw it in practice that we noticed how significant of a game-changer it was for our partners. By placing the prospective student's experience at the forefront of our strategic proven process, we uncovered a whole new way to drive growth."

Jennifer Goode / CEO of Enrollment Builders

With summer around the corner, it's a great time to get your admissions and marketing offices on track before fall. With so little time to address weaknesses, how do you make progress and still impact your next big recruitment period?  Reviewing and aligning admissions and marketing practices is key given the continued decline in enrollment according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recent findings. 

Imagine you have called an institution’s admissions office to find out more about their online programs. Who picks up the phone? The admission counselor. This representative is the first and likely most influential person in the selection process because they can make or break the experience. Hiring for this role is sometimes more complex than what it used to be. So, what happens when institutions must recruit for themselves?

Since COVID-19 wreaked havoc on every facet of life, colleges and universities have experienced an enrollment decline of about 1 million students, which is more than 5 percent in a little more than two years.¹ 

Strategic Enrollment Management (or SEM) has never been more critical for institutions that are working to attract the right students, balance academics with the needs of the market, and focus on long-term student success—especially in today’s environment where increasing numbers of students are ditching college altogether.