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Know your niche and market to nobody

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When I talk with admissions leaders, cabinets, or boards, everyone wants to talk about what separates them from the school up the road. Yet, most schools tend to look and sound like the school up the road.

It seems like schools that are trying to be all things to all people are the schools that are having enrollment challenges. Ambiguity confuses the market place. A university president once asked, “What’s the greatest mistake we can make regarding a campus visit?” My reply was to have a family get in the car at the end of of their time on campus and say, “Nice school, but nothing special.”

Great marketing and positioning might offend. It might not appeal to the masses, but it ...

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10
MAY
3

Categories: Authenticity, Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit Experiences, Outside Resources, Word of Mouth

Social Media Style Guide

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It seems like everyone is trying to get their arms around social media. The future of “splinternet” is not easy to predict. (Though I agree with a recent Advertising Age Essay that “Facebook Will Rule the Web During the Next Decade.”)

While delayed at the Atlanta airport due to a pothole in the runway in Philadelphia, I got caught up on some reading, and want to share a few other observations about social media.

I’m a big fan of David T. Jones’ Adland Cartoons in the back of Adweek Magazine. This one made me chuckle:

136576-adlandwill-rogers42610

It seems like many colleges and universities social media efforts are guilty of trying ...

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13
MAY
2

Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Online Experiences, Outside Resources, Social Networking

Disney Stores, iPhone Apps, AR (Augmented Reality) and your campus tour

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So let’s connect some experience economy dots and make them all relevant to your campus visit programs.

Disney to finally make their Disney Stores an “Experience”
Disney Stores have never really matched the Disney Magic. They’re just stores. Passive buying. Not an experience and not at all reminiscent of a Disney park.

As reported in the New York Times:

“The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide. The company plans to unveil the new look in May in Southern California, Long Island and Madrid, and is close to signing a lease for that Times Square flagship.

Theaters will allow children to watch ...

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25
OCT
4

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Experience Economy Stuff, Millennials, Mobile Marketing, Outside Resources

XpertTip No. 115: Don't miss this conversation

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Have you heard?

Our CEO Brian Niles is going to be joining Abby Laporte, daughter of Leo Laporte from the popular “TWiT” podcast (This Week in Tech), as she and other high school seniors share their thoughts on the college search process.

It’s definitely a don’t-miss opportunity for all of us admissions-folk.

Brian and Abby’s video feed will be streaming live on Monday, July 13th at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (one week from today).

You don’t need to register to participate — just click the link below to listen in:
http://live.twit.tv/

This special live event will be part of a larger series of “Abby’s Road” podcasts that Abby Laporte is recording to document her college search experience.

For more information, check out Brian’s blog ...

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6
JUL
0

Categories: Millennial Generation, Millennials, Outside Resources, Podcasts

XpertTip No. 93: Sharing the knowledge

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Most of you know that, along with our tools and services, we like to provide “best-practice” information in an effort to educate and help you recruit more effectively.

Pardon my bias, but as a result, I maintain that our clients are some of the best and brightest in the business.  And part of my job is to make sure it stays that way;)

If you are a loyal XpertTip reader — my sincere thanks.  You’re incredibly kind to devote time each week to my musings.

But as much as I enjoy my role, I’m not the only one around here researching and following current trends and issues in our industry.  To be honest, at times this place can feel like an admissions “think ...

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26
JAN
0

Categories: Blogs, Outside Resources, Research, Uncategorized, Xpert Summit

XpertTip No.92: Take it personally

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In 1998, TargetX hit the scene with the first email broadcast tool exclusively for higher education.

Back then, the ability to merge demographics into the subject line or body of an email was considered revolutionary.  Marketers everywhere could hardly contain themselves with thoughts of pushing out messages and achieving direct marketing nirvana.

Oh, how things have changed!  More than a decade later, merging my first name into the subject line of an email not only fails to impress me — it’s downright spammy (not to mention annoying).

Naturally, once everyone could do it, it became abused — and the “cool factor” was gone.  It’s kind of like how I felt when my Dad got an iPod;)

Real, targeted, personal emails don’t need to resort ...

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19
JAN
0

Categories: Email, Email Campaign Ideas, Outside Resources, Uncategorized

XpertTip No. 90: Facebookgate Part II: Lessons learned

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In case you missed it, a major social media scandal broke in higher education just before the holiday break.  Need to catch up?  Read my XpertTip from December 22 for a summary of what went down:

If you have been following, you already know that “Facebookgate” has some important lessons to teach us about social media and recruitment.  And while I’m certainly not the only person to weigh-in on the matter, I would like to share what I think are some key takeaways from the incident.

From my corner of the world (and in no particular order), here they are:

  • You can’t hide from social media. And in this tumultuous environment, authenticity is king.  If your efforts lack transparency, they ...
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5
JAN
0

Categories: Authenticity, Lists, Outside Resources, Social Media, Social Networking, Uncategorized

XpertTip No. 88: Cars and college

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Here at TargetX, we’re big fans of car shopping.

Mind you I didn’t say car buying (hey, we all know a career in higher ed doesn’t quite lend itself to such expensive hobbies;) But the process of searching and shopping for a car offers more than a few recruitment marketing insights.

Think about it — there are interesting parallels to be drawn between the process of selecting the right car and a choosing a “best-fit” college.

First off, we all go into the process with preconceived notions based on our personal experiences and what we’ve heard from friends and family.

Before we knew to call it “word of mouth marketing,” many of us began forming product opinions at a very early age. We ...

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16
DEC
1

Categories: Misc., Outside Resources, Research, Your Website

XpertTip No.87: Back to (design) basics

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This week, I was inspired to go back to basics. And what better place to start than with email design?

These days, it’s easy to get excited about all of the options available through the use of html.

From images and banners to intricate, framed newsletter templates, now more than ever we have the power to create meaning through design.

But with that power comes responsibility — so it’s important not to get too carried away. Increasingly aggressive spam filters and new email client features can make it very difficult to get your message to its intended recipients.

Though it can seem counterintuitive, a simple logo or even a plain-text message can be just as effective (if not more so).

Consider how ...

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8
DEC
0

Categories: Deliverability, Email, Outside Resources, Uncategorized

XpertTip No.86: Chiefs, chefs and eManagers

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Last week’s tip touched on the hot topic of adding a staff member to handle interactive and social media efforts for admissions.

I was glad to see my client and friend Nikki Chun from the University of Miami join the discussion. As Miami’s “eManager,” Nikki has a fair amount of experience in this type of role. She shared a bit of what she does and how she came to be queen of all things “e” for the Hurricanes.

In her post, Nikki wrote: “I actually wonder if my job will be kind of obsolete in about five years. If things keep going in this direction, everyone on the admission staff could be an eManager in some way, shape or form.”

It’s a great ...

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1
DEC
0

Categories: Communication Plans, Millennials, Misc., Outside Resources, Research, Social Media, Social Networking, Uncategorized

XpertTip No. 68: Tweet this

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Excuse the shameless self-promotion — but do you read Brian Niles’ blog?

One of his recent posts announces his foray into the world of Twitter.

For those of you who have tried numerous times to wrap your mind around the concept (only to end up feeling more confused), perhaps his real-life example will help.

Brian offers readers a little peak into his world via frequent posts of 140 characters or less. It’s called “micro-blogging,” and plenty of people are paying attention.

Our own Ray Ulmer even did an Email Minute on it back in May.

It’s clear the TargetX team gets pretty excited about how these technologies could change the way we build relationships with students.

When it comes down ...

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21
JUL
0

Categories: Blogs, Misc., Outside Resources, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized

XpertTip No. 66: A growth mind-set

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Guy Kawasaki did a blog post yesterday pointing us to “If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow,” a New York Times article that he calls “required reading for managers and parents.”

Since many of you are both, I thought you might find it interesting.

His post praises the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck and highlights a key passage from the article:

“Those who believe they were born with all of the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a ‘fixed mind-set.’ Those that believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a ‘growth mind-set.’”

Basically, Dweck is arguing that it’s not necessarily what we’re ...

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14
JUL
0

Categories: Client Concierge, Misc., Outside Resources, Uncategorized

XpertTip No. 65: Your regional ACAC group

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Have a good time at your regional ACAC conference this year?

Chances are you sat in on some great sessions, caught up with colleagues, ate and drank too much and slept way too little (but hey, it was worth it, right?;)

Hopefully, you even got a chance to say hello to Jeff Kallay (a legend on the ACAC circuit) or meet other folks from TargetX’s colorful cast of characters.

But have you continued the conversations you started while in “conference mode?”

Jeff has been kind enough to create groups in the TargetX Knowledge Center for every ACAC conference we participated in this year. As a member, you can download presentation slides, participate in forum discussions and connect back to your experience.

Just head over ...

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30
JUN
0

Categories: Misc., Outside Resources, Social Networking, Workshops and Events

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XpertTip No. 48: Introducing the new Knowledge Center

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This week, I have the privilege of announcing our brand new Knowledge Center!

If you’ve visited our Knowledge Center in the past, you know it’s the place on our website to access our blogs and podcast: An Email Minute, The Recruiting Revolution, The Experience Evangelist — and this little project of mine called the XpertTip;)

We’ve also traditionally included recommended readings, research studies, books, magazines and other great resources from some of the brightest brains in marketing and higher ed.

Well, we’re not changing any of that. But we are enhancing it quite a bit. We’ve created the new Knowledge Center as a social network so you can easily connect with us (and vice versa).

So here’s your assignment: head ...

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25
FEB
0

Categories: Client Concierge, eXpressNet, Invitations and Reminders, Misc., Outside Resources, Research, Social Networking, Workshops and Events

XpertTip No. 47: The social media election

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Ok — let me just start by saying I’m no political analyst.

While I certainly follow election coverage enough to educate myself as a voter, most times the political pundits’ affection for talking in circles leaves me nothing but dizzy.

What I am quite clear on, however, is the role that social media has played in this election.

Last July saw our very first YouTube debate and Facebook didn’t take long to get in on the act. Bloggers (both paid and unpaid) have become a political tour de force-to-be-reckoned-with. And let’s not forget how candidates across the political spectrum are learning to respect the power of viral video and Twitter.

Yes, it’s web warfare out there — and we’re just scratching the surface.

So what ...

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18
FEB
0

Categories: Blogs, Lists, Misc., Outside Resources, Web Traffic, Your Website

XpertTip No. 34: Interaction, exploration and your website

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I’m frequently asked about tracking the “ROI” of the latest technology trends in higher ed. This can be really difficult, as you don’t track a student from “read a blog post” to “enrolled” very easily.

That being said, how do you know your efforts are worth it?

A recent post from Seth Godin’s blog offers some insight (his blog is chock full of great marketing advice if you’re not familiar).

Seth points us to FreeRice, a website that seeks to end world hunger while improving your vocabulary.

His advice? “If you’re a web developer, notice how interaction leads to involvement which leads to learning and exploration. In that order.”

Sounds very abstract at first, but trust me — give it a ...

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12
NOV
0

Categories: Blogs, eXpressNet, Outside Resources, Social Networking, Your Website

XpertTip No. 29: Beyond student bloggers

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The student blogger “boom” has changed the landscape of college websites.

As a medium for telling authentic stories about students living the ultimate experience (college), blogs have lent a credibility that brochures and viewbooks simply can’t.

Have you ever thought about looking beyond the student body to hire bloggers?

If you don’t know him already, Bob Johnson has been a marketing champion in college admissions for years. In recent months, he’s been paying particular attention to blogs.

More specifically, Bob has been following those schools with faculty, admissions directors, even university presidents getting in on the action.

Check out more information on faculty bloggers on his “Higher Education Marketing Link of the Week.” While you’re there, sign up if you don’t already ...

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8
OCT
0

Categories: Blogs, Outside Resources, Research