I volunteer with a remarkably talented but financially challenged group of young people. With the exception of their status as high-need students, they are a college recruiter’s dream. It is the financial aid process, however, that strikes fear in the hearts of these seemingly unstoppable, resilient young people because they know it is the one obstacle that stands between them and the education so important to long-term success.

Some of these students traverse the financial aid process almost entirely alone either because their parent(s) don’t speak English, are disabled, abusing a substance or working multiple jobs to pay the rent. They are organized and proactive, yet this process leaves most of them confused and overwhelmed.

As administrators, we all play the role of teacher and mentor whether or not we actually work in a classroom. While many of us have explained the concept of financial need, how an Expected Family Contribution is calculated or how outside scholarships are handled, literally thousands of times, we must remind ourselves that our customers, students and mentees are hearing it for the very first time. They are intimidated and beleaguered. While many of us understand these processes intimately, we must remember that taking the time to kindly and gently explain them to a teen and his/her family can truly have a lifelong impact.

In the weeks prior to the May 1 deadline, I worked with several students who illustrated the need to make sure our message is being delivered as if for the first time, every time. The fact that Federal Work Study appears on a financial aid package yet does not get deducted from the student’s bill has confused students for the 20+ years I’ve been in higher education. The fact that the process requirements and deadlines differ on a school-by-school basis, as does the handling of outside scholarships, is confusing and seemingly unfair to families. Additionally, the fact that each school has its own way of listing info on their website and that there is little, if any, consistency across schools makes the process that much more maddening.

Financial aid officers are among the most dedicated, passionate people I’ve met, and I’m proud to be one among them, but the financial aid system is still not a user friendly one, and until such time as it is simplified, each one of us must remember to treat every student with care and understanding, a difficult task among so many competing priorities in our work day.

One way to touch prospective students more thoroughly is to train each admission officer as a front-line financial aid officer. If admissions and financial aid offices exist independently, the prospective student suffers. Communication breaks down. At some basic level, the people in these two offices should be able to operate interchangeably and seamlessly.

In an era when paying for college is such an awesome undertaking, we may not always be able to give people the answers they want, but we should always strive to make them feel like they’ve been heard and valued. Our goal is not to administer financial aid. Our goal should always be to help students finance their college education in a way that, within the law and the goals of the institution, best serves the student.

I think simplifying applications would be beneficial to all colleges (and helpful to the students who are applying). Sometimes, when completing applications, I felt like the information that was being asked of me was a little too personal.

The fees associated with certain schools’ applications was something I hadn’t anticipated in my search process. You’d be surprised how many kids I know didn’t apply to schools strictly because they were turned off by having to pay an application fee. Is it worth losing a potential $30K a year because of your app fee?

I felt like 90% of the emails and letters I received were from schools that I had no interest in going to. If all of my applications were strictly to large city schools, rural universities in middle America weren’t going to have very much success reaching out to me about their programs.

Colleges don’t realize the impact that current students have on prospective students. It was easy to get a sense of how the student body was feeling on campus simply by the expression on their faces, whether they were smiling or moping around with their heads down! I’m not suggesting that students should drop everything to help prospective families find their way around, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to point someone in the right direction.

Campus tours should be specialized, based on major as well as interest. I wanted to see the communication building on campus and I’m a huge sports fan, so a stroll through the arenas and locker rooms was great for me — but might be a waste of time for another student.

On a positive note, I appreciated the attention schools gave me when I voiced my interest in attending. After applying and being accepted, many sent me a full series of recruitment letters and packages. When colleges made me feel like they wanted me, it made it that much easier to want them back.

Andrew chose Temple University as his home for the next four years. He will be majoring in communications, and will surely be a proud Owls fan. Congrats Andrew and best of luck!

Experts from retail, news, government and more shared tips on how to infuse more imagery in your user and online experience, and they had some valid points that translated well to higher ed.

The Creative Visionary: Joe Stewart, partner and global creative director at Huge
“Consumers expect the same level of quality and service from digital that they would get in a store,” says Stewart. “I’m willing to believe that you can draw a direct correlation between a heavy investment in imagery and a return on sales.” Now, we may not be in the retail business, but we ask prospective students to visit us on campus to understand who we are. Are we telling the campus’ story through our online experience too? Images can help tell that story.

The Headliner: Akshay Kothari, cofounder, Pulse
“Text equals stress.” Kothari refers to the founding days at Pulse, a mobile news app, stating that people would cringe opening all of their RSS feeds, because the first thing they saw was all this text. Simple is always better, and if an image can tell the same story with a simple headline — that can do more than you know.

The Collaborators: Edward Flynn, chief of the Milwaukee Police Department, and Chris Jacobs, executive creative director, Cramer-Krasselt
“We wanted humanity, not people kissing babies or fake imagery. We wanted real people,” says Jacobs. No more staged photos for the Milwaukee Police Department, no more staged photos for higher ed.

Still not convinced?

“In January, Facebook announced that it has 240 billion photos total. With Instagram, there are 40 million photos uploaded every day. Photos are becoming the default of communication,” says Loren Appin, director of growth, Pixable, an application that personalizes the photo-sharing experience.

Sharing your story via images is the way of the world. We see it through our social sites and can easily incorporate more of this throughout our college websites.

Because we all know a picture is worth a thousand words.

Meet all the experts in Fast Company’s “Fast Talk: The Visual Shift”

And check out this bonus article, “The visual shift in social media, online brands and marketing” from Optimize My Brand

“Pinterest has taken social media by storm, already catching up to Twitter in its short existence,” says Coco, founder and president of FSC Interactive, an online marketing agency that specializes in social media strategies for higher education. “The addition of metrics solidifies its place in the online marketing sphere. This is not a shiny new toy, but rather a formidable and results-driven online marketing tool.”

The addition of data-mining means colleges can now answer such questions as how many people are pinning content and what content is most popular.

“These new analytics allow us as higher ed communicators and marketers to further drill down into what visual content is most appealing, and then redirect social media strategies as needed,” says Meredith Hartley, public affairs director at Loyola University New Orleans. “Since Pinterest is so popular with young people, we also use it as an admissions recruitment tool that visually showcases campus life. Knowing what images are most relevant to prospective students is a great way for us to really make the case visually for our university.”

Hartley’s strong embrace of Pinterest is the exception among college marketers. A recent survey shows that most schools spend little effort trying to engage audiences on sites not named Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube. Pinterest, for example, is used by only 28 percent of colleges while 96 percent use Facebook, 82 percent use Twitter, 74 percent use LinkedIn and 71 percent are on YouTube.

That seems short-sighted to Coco, who thinks Pinterest can provide new insight into what makes an impression on prospective students, alumni, faculty and other key constituencies. Analytics will allow strategists to identify specific groups and create boards that speak to them.

“The idea here is to get a better sense of what your audience wants and how they interact with your brand,” she says. “Tracking referral traffic from Pinterest shows us how pins translate to website conversions. For universities, conversions can range from requesting an application, making a donation, purchasing online merchandise or visiting multiple pages on the website. With the new analytics, we’ll now be able to show the link between the popularity of a pin and those conversions.”

Read “New Pinterest Analytics Show Higher Ed Communicators What’s Hot on Campus.”

Download a summary of the social media survey from CASE, mStoner and Huron Education.

For the first five years of TargetX, we provided our email broadcast tool (now called eXpress) to many industries — higher education, publishers, pharmaceutical marketers, even the Philadelphia Eagles, Olympus America and Utz Potato Chips. In 2003, we went to a Direct Marketing Association trade show in New York City where we were bombarded by companies wanting to send tens of millions of emails a day for fractions of a penny each. We were clearly out of our element given the growing competition and the unclear success we could envision from being a commodity.

It was at that time we decided to focus TargetX to serve ONLY higher education. Every decision we made as a company (features we built, employees we hired, events we attended) were based on that singular industry focus. And the success of TargetX from that point forward is nothing less than dramatic (what people in business call the “hockey stick” experience — describing what a financial graph might look like).

In Al Ries’ book, Focus, he points to the success found in focusing your efforts as a business. While it was written almost eight years ago, his key points are even more important today. Unfocused companies lose efficiency, lose competitiveness and lose leadership over time. Narrowly focused companies are:

- Perceived as having higher quality in the customer’s mind
- Enjoy better profits and less competition (holds true for nonprofits also)
- Are memorable because in 1-2 words one can describe who they are
- Have employees who are more dedicated to that common goal (which improves retention)
- Have focused managers (unfocused companies have well-rounded managers who get shuffled between divisions frequently)

The concept of “focus” resonates well with me when it comes to higher education. And to TargetX. Recently we announced we’re splitting off our successful campus visit consulting division into its own company called Render Experiences. The reason for doing this is simple — focus. TargetX can focus on being the best CRM company in the industry and Render can focus on being the best experience consulting company in the industry. And with that focus, each will be empowered to be that much more successful.

As for higher education, go back to a 2010 TargetX iThink blog post “Simplicity and nauseum” where we highlighted The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Eric Hoover, who noted at our annual NACAC event how often he sees schools struggling with “ands” (i.e., we offer this AND that AND this AND, AND, AND…). It seems that schools just kept adding to the endless litany of “features” without regard for how confusing the messages and processes have become. Al Ries reminds us “to focus, one must subtract.”

In order for colleges and universities to be successful in this changing period in history, authenticity wins, a clear offering wins and focused leadership and message wins. Time to put down the “ands” and keep our eyes focused on what we each do best.

Visit our video library to watch yesterday’s webcast on the new focus for TargetX and Render Experiences.

As children during the 1960′s, we viewed McDonald’s as a rare treat. But as teenagers in the 70′s and 80′s, its Golden Arches drew us like moths to a flame. It was the place to gather after most high school and church youth group activities. It was for many in our generation, a home (with a red Mansard roof) away from home.

Well, times have changed. A recent article in Ad Age reveals that Millennials don’t care for McDonald’s! In fact, a Golden Arches internal memo points out that it’s not even in the demographic’s top 10 restaurant chains.

So what does McDonald’s Millennial problem mean to you in recruiting students?

At TargetX, we’ve frequently said that to connect with Millennials you can’t just repeat what the school down the road is saying or study what your competition is doing. Instead, look at what big brands with big resources in research and marketing are doing to connect with America’s largest, most wanted and most watched over generation. Besides adding McCafe’s to compete with Starbucks and investing in creating new interiors, McDonald’s is stressing their new McWrap sandwich to Millennials.

Said the McDonald’s memo: “Our customers are consistently telling us, particularly Millennials, that they expect variety, more choices, customization and their ability to be able to personalize their food experience.” The McWrap, according to the memo, “affords us the platform for customization and variety that our Millennial customer is expecting of us.”

What should you learn from and integrate from McDonald’s? Customization! This is a generation that wants what they want, when they want it — in their recruitment marketing messaging from you, and especially in their campus visits to your school. One size does not fit all.

The Ad Age article also states that Millennials want “higher quality products and lots of choice” because they’ve been raised in a hyper-capitalistic society. Smart phones, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, DVR’s and more all feed them customized results/content — instantly in that moment. Yet colleges and universities still churn out publications and usher everyone around on the same campus tour route just like they did 30 years ago, back when Ronald Reagan was President!

Don’t “value size” your recruitment efforts (more of the same from the assembly line), but instead “customize” your efforts through better use of technology, data, storytelling and knowing your audience. That’s what you can learn from McDonald’s!

Read the Advertising Age article: “McDonald’s Has a Millennial Problem”

What Mr. Mason recognized in his exit was this basic concept: retention equals relationship. Groupon’s business model failed to recognize that serving the customers needs (whether good or bad) builds relationships and brand loyalty. Think about your favorite restaurant or coffee place. What is it that keeps you coming back? The phone representative who treated you like just another statistic? Or was it the person behind the counter who said Hi [insert name here], how’s the family?

A place where everybody knows your name? You may say, no way! We are too large to know everyone. Whether you are a large or small institution, it only takes one personal connection with one staff member to make an impression.

Ask yourself, if the admissions office at your institution is creating that personalized experience then shouldn’t your retention plan continue this relationship? Many times, software solutions that support what you are trying to accomplish are pieced together from multiple solutions and fail to offer the entire picture.

Imagine a place where the money is invested to recruit the ideal student and then the student is handed over to a very caring advisor who can view the entire student’s file in order to continue the relationship and provide the same level if not better experience. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know that the student who was admitted had certain risk factors that could help an advisor better build a rapport with the student? Maybe the advisor becomes a part of the recruitment process that establishes a support system even before the student steps foot on campus.

When an institution begins to explore retention strategies, the institution is often led down the path of finding a technology solution or company that says it has the solution and the plan to help improve your retention. The best companies understand that no one knows your student population better than you do, and they understand that you and only you can identify your retention needs and plans moving forward.

As someone who directed a college admissions office for seven years, I can tell you that the best companies also offer a technology solution that helps you create the same positive experience for students from the moment they enter the pipeline until the day they graduate. With retention becoming more and more critical to the financial health of an institution, look for a company that thoroughly understands our unique industry, respects us as the enrollment experts, and offers integrated technology that helps us identify, recruit and retain best-fit students.

Read Andrew Mason’s goodbye memo.

College is a transformative experience.

Most colleges and universities hope to light a spark within their students, encouraging them to spend their lives learning something new, trying something different and striving to be their best. Institutions want students to participate in class, sign up for an internship, study abroad, engage in community service, live in the residence halls — and most importantly — learn about themselves.

But often, we forget to tell the stories behind those experiences during a campus visit. We simply tell prospective students that when they come to the institution they can do those things.

You need to show a real student’s room on campus rather than a room that looks like Bed Bath and Beyond and the Campus Bookstore exploded in it. You need to go into the “boring classroom,” sit down and talk about what it is like to engage with a professor and interact with the other students in your class. You need to burst the bubble surrounding prospective families and say hello to tours as they walk by.

You must dive into what matters. You, as an admissions person or member of your campus, can eliminate the need for services like those provided by insidervisit.com that promise to match you up with a real student, not a campus tour guide, in order to get the “inside” story on a school, and therefore circumnavigate the admission office and their “canned responses.”

An article posted last week on the Huffington Post (originally from hercampus.com), 10 Things That Matter When Picking a College (& 10 Things That Don’t), should be a mandatory read for every high school senior and parent. While it may not completely sway their train of thought, it will at least get them thinking.

The article tries to push prospective students to think below the surface level to what is really important to them when making a college choice. In the writer’s words, “ignore all the other, silly stereotypes that build up around a school…tune out what everyone else thinks and focus on what fits for you.”

It’s your job as a school to help them see what kind of student thrives in your environment.

The bottom line is that each and every college and university must acknowledge what’s real and fight the greater culture that says, “show off what is pretty.”

As the article, Authenticity is great!!! Just as long as you’re not TOO authentic says, an institution that doesn’t show what is real is “skirting their obligation to help prospective students make informed decisions about where to spend the next 4+ years of their life.”

Render authenticity. Own who you are. Enroll best fit-students. And most importantly, whether you are in admissions or not, change the pieces you can control.

Read 10 Things That Matter When Picking a College (& 10 Things That Don’t).

Check out Authenticity is great!!! Just as long as you’re not TOO authentic.

Authenticity. It’s a topic mentioned both directly and indirectly in higher education circles and in articles talking about ways to get the most from your college visit experience. However, it isn’t always the easiest subject for campuses to wrap their head around, especially this time of year.

Admissions leadership is constantly forced into a corner, thinking “Ok, accepted student, I know you want to see what is real, but now you want us to roll out all the stops when you ask to speak with a faculty member, tour a residence hall, enjoy ‘chicken tender Thursday,’ and do your laundry in a washing machine on campus just to see what it is like.” Okay, maybe not the last one, but still, you understand the point.

Families know that they are in the driver’s seat and that colleges are going to great lengths to enroll students. How can you remain real as you try to meet their needs?

At what point do you have to realize that it is time to give up the “canned speech” as Donna Krache calls it in her CNN blog article titled, “How to get the most out of your campus visit?” Donna encourages families to “ask questions that can’t be answered by canned responses” in order to get answers that render the authentic and real side of the student experience.

I couldn’t agree with this advice more.

Jeff Kallay, TargetX VP of Consulting, and I constantly find ourselves on tour with families just looking at each other in amazement at the questions families ask that prove they have done little to no research on the institution. We stand there just wishing families would ask questions that truly matter to the student experience rather than asking if the school has their son’s or daughter’s intended major. Really? You didn’t find that out before you registered for a visit?

Sometimes a campus’s enemy to authenticity is their own audience. How can you be authentic if families don’t give you the chance? If they don’t ask those questions that let you get beyond the surface details?

The answer? Your campus tour. You provide them with “real” before they get the chance to ask whether or not it is. You empower your student guides to talk about what their experience on campus is like, to tell their stories, to talk about their conflicts and resolutions, their coming of age moments, and their memories.

Read “How to get the most out of your college visit: CNN School for Thought”

Next week: Read Part 2 of Emily’s advice on rendering authenticity.

As the conference planning coordinator, I’m very much involved in the process — from session proposals to final shipping (I know, super glamorous right?) – and I’m always looking for tips on how to improve our presence at tradeshows.

I came across a great article this week by Dan Roche in MediaPost, and that got me thinking about its value to all of you, our friends in admissions, and how you could tie these tips into your time on the college fair circuit.

According to Roche, here are three things to consider when planning for your presentation or booth exhibition:

Content. “The content presented should make it clear to your customers that working with your company is the business solution their organization needs to succeed.”

You have a limited amount of time to talk to parents and students at a college fair. Make what you say count.

We discuss our “elevator pitch” every year before NACAC. It’s a great exercise for us to go through as a company and it brings us on the same page when asked the question: “So what does TargetX do?” What would you say about your institution in 60 seconds or less?

Delivery. “Representatives at your booth need to know your product/service like the back of their hand, while at the same time exuding enthusiasm and passion.”

Prepare your staff to go on the road. Make sure new staff is informed about your institution. Have them shadow a senior staff member at a college fair before they go out on their own. I know oftentimes there isn’t a lot of time between hire and hitting the road, but proper training is the key to success.

Interactivity. “Conference attendees don’t want to be spoken at or hear a sales pitch and a bunch of industry jargon.”

The same goes for your students and parents. Engage them in conversation. Ask them questions and find out what they’re interested in. This will certainly help to identify whether or not your institution is a right fit.

College fairs are one of the few ways we have anymore to make an in-person connection, so it’s important to make those interactions count. Otherwise, it’s a whole lot of travel and expense for nothing.

Read Dan Roche’s article “Conferences: Ensure That Your Customers Show Versus Snooze.”

Attending a conference this year? Here’s where TargetX will be this spring and summer:

Kentucky Association for College Admission Counseling (KYACAC)
Southern Association for College Admissions Counseling (SACAC)
National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP)
North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals (NACCAP)
Collegiate Information & Visitor Services Association (CIVSA)
UBTech Conference
Pennsylvania Association for College Admissions Counseling (PACAC)
AACRAO Technology Conference
Campus Technology Conference
National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC)
EDUCAUSE Annual Conference
Dreamforce Conference