1. How can you help accepted students make a positive and lasting decision?
2. What can help accepted students feel like enrolling at your institution?
3. Is there a way to make their vision of the future match your vision?
4. What specific approach can tip the balances in your favor?
5. What yield strategy is sure to be justified by its results?
The first of May is fast approaching. Deposits are due, and colleges and universities will have a reasonably clear picture of their incoming freshman class. This is a time of hard work and anxiety at many institutions. But some universities have found ways to ease the pressure and increase the odds that they’ll be smiling on May first. Knowingly or unknowingly they’ve made good use of some important psychological principles that add to their success. What are some of these?
First the Thought….
Many institutions do an excellent job of giving prospective freshmen the information they need to make good decisions. Their marketing people effectively package that information in well designed publications. This is important – decisions that are based on facts have proven time and again to have the greatest, longest-lasting impact. According to eminent social psychologist Dr. Elliot Aronson and his coauthors, research shows that “people who base their attitudes on a careful analysis of the arguments are more likely to maintain this attitude over time, more likely to behave consistently with this attitude and more resistant to counterpersuasion than people who base their attitudes on peripheral cues.”
Students who carefully examine their college options are more likely to enroll and persist than students who decide on a school for emotional reasons (like the fact that their friends will attend). Getting prospects to carefully consider what your institution has to offer is a good first step towards getting a class that will enroll and stay enrolled.
Then the Feeling
By the time prospects have applied, they certainly ought to know the basic facts about the colleges receiving their applications. One institution, though, will gain the inside track. What often makes the difference here is feeling. That feeling can be a sense of belonging. It can be a sense that, “this could be for me.” Consumer behavior expert Ray Wright states, “Research seems to show that feeling plays as much as 75% in the purchasing of consumer products…So, according to this theory on consumer involvement, consumers become interested in brands because they make them feel happy, ..or important, or part of a group…or proud and so on.”
For years, wise enrollment managers have recognized the importance of helping their accepted students feel like part of a group. Websites and Facebook pages for accepted students work toward this goal. But since virtually every institution is already doing that, are there other feelings that colleges can stir up that will help students want to enroll?
Seeing Themselves in the Picture
Author Alvin Burns writes in The Journal of Advertising, “Several consumer researchers have shown that imagery-eliciting strategies can significantly affect attitudes…That is, imagery-eliciting stimuli resulted in more positive attitudes than stimuli not attempting to elicit imagery.” In one such study in the early days of cable television, persuasion expert Robert Cialdini and his colleagues found that homeowners who were asked to envision themselves enjoying the benefits of cable TV were more than twice as likely to subscribe as those who were just told about those benefits.
This strategy works for colleges as well. To help accepted students see themselves enjoying the benefits of enrolling at their institutions, a number of colleges and universities have started using customized yield publications. If these publications are designed effectively they can have a very positive impact on yield rates. A few years ago, the University of Hartford began sending customized yield books out to each accepted student as a major part of their yield program. These books helped prospects see themselves pursuing their goals at the university. Deposit rates increased by 14% to a record level. Southern New Hampshire University saw similar results with a scaled-down version that helped increase deposits by 11%.
But stimulating visualization was not the only benefit of these publications. They can also show students and parents that the institution highly values them. They can make students feel important. One Dean of Admissions wrote about his customized yield book,
So many of the PARENTS loved seeing this in the mail. I had parents coming up to me at the Accepted Student Days saying how much they loved seeing that book come in the mail. The general sense from parents was that we really care about their kids.
Clearly, customized yield publications can have a positive impact on both students and parents. If you would like to see an example in the case study, When Yield is a Problem, it’s Time to Get Personal, please email me at lrondeau@thealliedgrp.com and I’ll forward it along. There are additional strategies that can increase yield as well. What are they? Stay tuned.
