Doc Type: SEM Source
Written by: James Maraviglia
Published: 07/20/2006
The Journey Toward Technology: Cal Poly’s Emergence in Enrollment e-Marketing Strategy
Historical Perspectives: Uncovering a Need for Technology
By
1999, Cal Poly had noticed a trend. Students all over the nation were
beginning to communicate more frequently via e-mail and the Web during
the college search and admissions processes. National research studies
and surveys verified that this was the case and that student
preferences were indeed leaning toward communication via online methods
versus telephone or direct mail. However, most colleges and
universities had not begun to capitalize on this trend and had not yet
begun to shift their enrollment communication strategies to the Web.
Cal Poly recognized immediately that building online methods into its
admissions plans could be the key to competing for a larger, more
diverse class and a higher quality of student in the coming years.
During
this time, Cal Poly also noticed a need for its admissions office to
become more efficient to handle the influx of student inquiries that
were filtering through its doors. Direct e-mail inquiries to a general
admissions e-mail address were nearing 200 per day. Phone inquiries
came in by the hundreds each day. Most of these inquiries were requests
for general admissions information. Cal Poly’s already overloaded staff
had the administrative task of responding to each one and, as a result,
could not focus on higher-level recruiting work that would help Cal
Poly become more competitive.
As was the case with many
admissions offices (and still is), as the workload of the admissions
staff increased, budgets did not. The university demanded more
students, and Cal Poly was indeed seeing year-on-year growth in the
number of students who applied to the university. In fact, Cal Poly’s
total applicant pool had increased each year since 1993, and excluding
strategic enrollment limitations in 1997 and 1998, total enrollment
also increased year-on-year (Table 1).
Table 1. Application, Acceptance and Enrollment Numbers for Cal Poly, 1993–99
| Applied | Accepted | Enrolled |
| Fall 1999 | 19,396 | 7,912 | 3,584 |
| Fall 1998 | 18,113 | 6,538 | 2,953 |
| Fall 1997 | 17,535 | 6,464 | 3,031 |
| Fall 1996 | 16,076 | 8,743 | 4,094 |
| Fall 1995 | 15,471 | 8,109 | 3,891 |
| Fall 1994 | 14,176 | 6,883 | 3,370 |
| Fall 1993 | 11,740 | 5,563 | 2,847 |
To
sustain this growth and continue to build a bigger, more diverse and
higher-quality incoming class, increased marketing activity would be
necessary. However, money simply was not in the budgets to support the
costly traditional marketing activity that would be required to meet
the demands of the administration.
This resulted in a frustrated
team. It became clear that to maintain a competitive recruiting edge,
and do so without a large increase in marketing spending, Cal Poly
needed to provide students with access to a self-service model for
obtaining the information they wanted and needed. With such a model in
place, staff resources could be shifted to more personalized recruiting
efforts that would be key to courting the types of students Cal Poly
hoped to attract. In essence, a shift of resources resulting from an
automated marketing system could help the university reach out to more
students in a more effective manner, without significantly increasing
costs.
Cal Poly knew that to engage these tech-savvy students,
the university would need to reach out in an interactive and
personalized way. Capturing the attention of a generation that was
becoming inundated with marketing through electronic channels would
require a unique approach that other institutions (and companies) did
not yet employ. Cal Poly had already taken steps toward this objective,
by providing several interactive tools that allowed high school to
communicate online with the university. For example, it provided access
to virtual tours on CollegeView.com, an online college search and
information request site. Cal Poly was also already providing online
applications and had built an admissions section into the school’s Web
site, where students could find information about the university and
direct e-mail communication to the admissions office when they wanted
to take the next step.
Although providing methods for the
student to gather information on the university was a good first step
toward building an electronic enrollment communication strategy, Cal
Poly came to realize that it needed a better system of tracking and
communicating with these students in a targeted, timely and
professional manner. Not only did Cal Poly want to provide the tools
for students themselves to gather proactively information on the
university, but the university also needed a way to begin pushing
information to students early enough in the college search so as to
brand Cal Poly in their minds and build relationships with them early
in their decision-making process. In addition, Cal Poly recognized that
this method could extend to assist the university in other areas beyond
enrollment. If there were a way that data could be collected and used
to communicate and build personalized relationships with prospects, it
could also be used to maintain those relationships through enrollment,
graduation and even as students became alumni. It was clear that
establishing a technology system to not only manage prospect data but
also continually gather knowledge on prospects and applicants and then
use those data to deliver personalized messaging to contacts could lead
to the achievement of institutional goals on multiple levels. The
potential return on investment of such a system could be realized
quickly and multiple times over.
A Meeting of the Minds: Joining with Corporate America
When
the decision was made that a technology-driven enrollment strategy
would be the answer to Cal Poly’s need for growth, the next step was
deciding whether to build or buy the system that would act as the
centralized hub of all enrollment data management and communication. At
the time, the availability of such systems in the market was extremely
limited. Although building in-house seemed the best option from the
standpoint of delivering the required functionality, cost was still a
roadblock. The talent was available in-house to build the system that
Cal Poly needed, but devoting resources to developing the custom
technology would prove unrealistic from a cost standpoint. Cal Poly
needed to find another way of turning its idea into reality.
Cal
Poly’s historical relationship with Hobsons, the higher education
marketing services company that powered the CollegeView.com Web site
with which Cal Poly had been participating as an advertiser, proved to
be the solution. Cal Poly’s participation on CollegeView.com had been
successful at generating student inquiries for the university. In a
April 1999, one of Hobsons’ consultants and I sketched out the plans
for what would become EMT Connect, a Web-based prospect data center and
communication system that would help create a complete, personalized
online information session between the campus and the student.
Implementing the Technology: A Transformation of Processes
By
the beginning of 2000, development was complete, and the new technology
was operational within Cal Poly’s admissions office. The idea of a
self-service model created a general excitement among Cal Poly’s staff,
who expected service levels would improve and student complaints would
decrease. In addition, staff were confident that the new technology
would allow them to shift some of their focus from routine
administrative tasks to more high-level recruiting work that would
truly make an impact on continuing enrollment growth. Not only would
efficiency improve, but also Cal Poly would be able to establish itself
as an early adopter in the enrollment technology market.
Upon
implementation, Cal Poly’s entire recruitment experience became powered
by its EMT Connect prospect database. Contacts could enter the system
from a number of different sources. The system works directly with Cal
Poly’s SIS Plus campuswide student information database by merging data
to and from EMT Connect into and out of SIS Plus. Data are also
imported into the prospect database from third-party list providers
such as ACT, the National Research Center for College & University
Admissions and the College Board. Data also come from any of the 300
other touch points Cal Poly has with prospective students throughout
the year.
As a result of Cal Poly’s need to reduce the number of
direct inquiries via e-mail or phone coming into the admissions office,
inquiry forms, or interest pages, were developed and strategically
placed on the Cal Poly Web site. These interest pages collect as much
information about a prospective student as is necessary to customize
communication with that student. Today, Cal Poly has interest pages to
collect information on freshman, transfer, graduate and international
prospects, as well as parents and guidance counselors. Links to these
forms are found front and center on the admissions home page. With this
contact database and inquiry collection system, Cal Poly is in touch
with more than 100,000 prospects per year.
Each of the
prospects, parents or counselors on which Cal Poly collects data is
automatically assigned a unique username and password to what is called
a VIP Page—a customized prospective student portal Web page that a
student could log in to at any time of the night or day and obtain
personalized information and content about Cal Poly that is distinctly
in line with his interests. It is customized based on the student’s
interests and preferences and is branded with a look and feel unique to
Cal Poly. As a result, when they log in, the students feel as if they
have never left the university’s Web site. This method of communication
allows the university to best address the needs and desires of this
market segment in a highly personalized fashion for a fraction of the
cost of any other traditional outreach effort.
The content on
the VIP pages is served up based on unique “filters,” or queries, that
the Cal Poly admissions staff can write on their own to search for
students with like interests, demographics or any other characteristics
deemed relevant to properly craft and target a message to a certain
group. Essentially, each student who logs in to her Cal Poly VIP Page
has a unique experience and receives unique information that speaks
directly to her needs. Additionally, an “update profile” functionality
was built into the system to speak to the fast-paced, constantly
changing mindset of today’s generation of prospective students. If a
student indicates an interest in engineering when she first submits her
interest page, content on the engineering program will be served up on
her VIP Page. If she changes her mind a month later, however, and
decides that she would rather major in math, she can simply update her
profile and indicate this new interest, and the content on her VIP Page
will instantly change to provide information on the math major.
The
VIP program is the backbone of Cal Poly’s integrated enrollment
marketing message. When student data collected from recruiting events,
from direct phone, e-mail, or Web inquiries, and purchased lists are
entered or imported into EMT Connect, Cal Poly immediately sends an
e-mail encouraging prospects to log in to their VIP pages. When they
fill out an interest page and create the VIP Page on their own, they
are automatically placed in a cycle to receive e-communications that
push them to continue logging in to the VIP Page to gather information
on Cal Poly throughout the recruitment cycle.
The system has
also transformed Cal Poly’s method of monitoring and tracking its
marketing success. Through the centralized communication hub, Cal Poly
has been able to send out multiple student surveys online and to
receive direct, quick feedback on the effectiveness of its
communication initiatives. In fact, Cal Poly was able to use the
system’s survey features to identify the top campus information sources
for prospective students. The survey features allowed the university to
realize that, along with the Web, the campus visit was one of the most
important points of contact. This realization led to a revamping of its
campus visit program.
One of the more powerful features of the
system that Cal Poly has also been able to implement is its automated
e-mail communication functionality. Students within the prospect
database receive periodic e-mails, designed using Flash technology,
that remind students of application, financial aid and housing
deadlines and promote and manage events such as campus open houses. In
addition, each newly admitted student receives personalized e-mails
from the president, provost, vice president of student affairs, college
dean and department chair. These e-mails promote a two-way
communication between the school and the student and keep the prospect
engaged. The messages are compliant with standards set by the American
Disability Association, ensuring that they are accessible and usable by
people with disabilities and provide Cal Poly with back-end tracking
statistics to view which prospects are most engaged with the
institution and which are not.
The e-mails can be designed and
scheduled to be sent automatically when triggered by certain events or
attributes, allowing staff to remain virtually hands-off when the
initial communication plan is queued. For example, Cal Poly is able to
automate the process of sending personalized e-mails to all accepted
students, reminding them of housing deposit deadlines. By removing the
need for human resources to manage and monitor each of these campaigns,
more frequent and effective communication has come out of the Cal Poly
office at a significantly lower cost and with a significantly reduced
dedication of staff resources and time to execute.
In moving
toward an e-marketing model, Cal Poly has also employed some other
unique tools and integrated them with its core e-communication effort.
For example, Cal Poly has also been able to automate the manner in
which students receive answers to their general admissions questions,
using Hobsons EMT Answer, a fully automated and interactive
self-service knowledge base. At any time, students visiting Cal Poly’s
Web page or their personal VIP Page can enter search terms such as
“financial aid” and receive a response within seconds. In return, Cal
Poly’s staff spends less time sending direct e-mails and making phone
calls. In addition, Cal Poly has created and marketed a digital
viewbook, which resides on its Web site and provides prospective
students with a detailed, flashy, electronic look at the Cal Poly
experience.
Results: The Proof Is in the Numbers
In
August 2003, Hobsons conducted a research survey to gauge how well Cal
Poly met the recruitment needs of its incoming freshmen compared to
other similar institutions. Cal Poly scored higher than its peer group
average and the entire study average in almost all areas, including
frequency of visits to school Web site, relevance of Web site
information, personalization of Web site, timeliness of Web responses,
personalization of e-mails, influence of e-mails on decision to enroll
and appropriateness of the frequency of e-mail communications. In
addition, 77 percent of Cal Poly’s students that were surveyed had
visited Cal Poly’s Web site more than 11 times, compared with only 31
percent of all those surveyed and 39 percent of those surveyed in Cal
Poly’s peer group having visited their own institutions’ Web sites more
than 11 times. In addition, 60 percent of Cal Poly’s prospect pool, or
60,000 students per year, create VIP pages.
Cal Poly has also
been able to increase the productivity of its staff and the efficiency
of its processes while reducing the impact on its admission goals of
statewide higher education budget cuts. In fact, since the
implementation of the EMT Connect system, Cal Poly has saved $100,000
annually in print costs and $150,000 in postage due to its move toward
e-mail as its primary communication method.
In addition, Cal
Poly has moved to the top tier of various college rankings and has
improved the quality and retention of its recent classes, as proven by
its year-on-year statistics. From 1993 to 2005, Cal Poly has seen a 139
percent increase in its total applicant pool and a 50 percent increase
in its total enrollment (Table 2).
Table 2. Application, Acceptance and Enrollment Numbers for Freshmen and Transfer Students (Combined) at Cal Poly, 1993–2005| Total | Applied | Accepted | Enrolled |
| Fall 2005 | 28,060 | 12,325 | 4,272 |
| Fall 2004 | 27,042 | 9,852 | 3,684 |
| Fall 2003 | 24,893 | 9,385 | 3,649 |
| Fall 2002 | 23,995 | 8,946 | 3,627 |
| Fall 2001 | 23,230 | 10,672 | 4,498 |
| Fall 2000 | 20,816 | 8,871 | 3,893 |
| Fall 1999 | 19,396 | 7,912 | 3,584 |
| Fall 1998 | 18,113 | 6,538 | 2,953 |
| Fall 1997 | 17,535 | 6,464 | 3,031 |
| Fall 1996 | 16,076 | 8,743 | 4,094 |
| Fall 1995 | 15,471 | 8,109 | 3,891 |
| Fall 1994 | 14,176 | 6,883 | 3,370 |
| Fall 1993 | 11,740 | 5,563 | 2,847 |
Also,
Cal Poly has been extremely successful in increasing its number of
freshman applications submitted (Table 3). From 1993 to 2005, Cal Poly
has had a 205 percent increase in its freshman applicant pool and an
almost 110 percent increase in its freshman enrollment. Since the
implementation of the e-communication technology in 1999, the number of
freshman applications has increased more than 53 percent and the total
freshman enrollment has increased almost 26 percent.
Table 3. Application, Acceptance and Enrollment Numbers for Freshmen (Not Including Transfers) at Cal Poly, 1993–2005
| Applied | Accepted | Enrolled |
| Fall 2005 | 23,656 | 10,553 | 3,418 |
| Fall 2004 | 22,549 | 8,526 | 2,928 |
| Fall 2003 | 20,828 | 7,989 | 2,829 |
| Fall 2002 | 19,728 | 7,658 | 2,845 |
| Fall 2001 | 18,888 | 8,759 | 3,364 |
| Fall 2000 | 16,728 | 7,491 | 3,122 |
| Fall 1999 | 15,407 | 6,473 | 2,716 |
| Fall 1998 | 14,159 | 5,428 | 2,296 |
| Fall 1997 | 13,097 | 5,138 | 2,156 |
| Fall 1996 | 11,689 | 6,706 | 2,825 |
| Fall 1995 | 10,796 | 5,957 | 2,511 |
| Fall 1994 | 9,622 | 4,874 | 2,091 |
| Fall 1993 | 7,744 | 3,696 | 1,635 |
Not
only has Cal Poly been able to increase the quantity of its incoming
class, but it has also been able to increase the quality of its class
due in part to its ability to more effectively use EMT Connect to
segment its prospect pool and target e-messaging to students who meet
certain levels of academic criteria. As a result, average grade point
averages and SAT scores of the freshman class have increased steadily
since 1993 (Table 4).
Table 4. Average Grade Point
Averages and SAT Scores of the Freshman Class (Not Including Transfers)
at Cal Poly Since Implementation of EMT Connect | Grade Point Average | SAT score |
| Fall 2005 | 3.73 | 1203 |
| Fall 2004 | 3.77 | 1213 |
| Fall 2003 | 3.73 | 1195 |
| Fall 2002 | 3.71 | 1192 |
| Fall 2001 | 3.65 | 1169 |
| Fall 2000 | 3.62 | 1165 |
| Fall 1999 | 3.64 | 1162 |
Finally,
Cal Poly’s first-time freshman retention rates and graduation rates
have continued to improve since implementation of the e-communication
methods, proving that early establishment of positive, personalized
relationships with prospects can result in successes beyond the
enrollment function of the university (Table 5).
Table 5. First-time Freshman Retention Rates and Graduation Rates at Cal Poly Since Implementation of e-Communications Methods| Cohort | Headcount | 1-year Retention (%) | 5-year Graduation (%) | 6-year Graduation (%) | Average SAT Score | Average HS GPA |
| Fall 1993 | 1,676 | 87.1 | 45.9 | 64.4 | 1121 | 3.54 |
| Fall 1994 | 2,098 | 85.6 | 50.0 | 64.5 | 1125 | 3.49 |
| Fall 1995 | 2,507 | 86.4 | 53.0 | 66.0 | 1132 | 3.52 |
| Fall 1996 | 2,869 | 85.8 | 49.9 | 64.4 | 1124 | 3.48 |
| Fall 1997 | 2,291 | 87.1 | 50.7 | 65.3 | 1159 | 3.60 |
| Fall 1998 | 2,466 | 89.0 | 54.5 | 68.6 | 1164 | 3.64 |
| Fall 1999 | 2,850 | 88.6 | 55.7 | | 1162 | 3.64 |
| Fall 2000 | 3,253 | 88.6 | | | 1165 | 3.62 |
| Fall 2001 | 3,629 | 88.2 | | | 1169 | 3.64 |
| Fall 2002 | 3,075 | 89.1 | | | 1192 | 3.71 |
| Fall 2003 | 3,006 | 90.0 | | | 1195 | 3.73 |
Conclusion: Applications Beyond Enrollment
Cal
Poly’s journey as an early adopter of enrollment technology methods has
led to an improvement in academic reputation, increased revenue for the
university due to increased enrollments, and national recognition as a
leader in the shift from traditional prospect marketing methods to
electronic-based strategies. As more institutions realize the return on
investment in technology to power their recruitment and marketing
efforts, Cal Poly will continue to capitalize on the success of these
methods. By using the foundation of data gathered at the prospect stage
and continually gathered throughout enrollment, Cal Poly will be able
to build and maintain a strong, personal relationship with each
student, long into his or her alumni days.
Editor’s Note: This article was written in collaboration with Sarah Hums, Hobsons EMT Marketing Manager
James
Maraviglia has been actively involved in admissions and recruitment for
the past 31 years. He was appointed Assistant Vice President for
Admissions, Recruitment and Financial Aid at Cal Poly in 2002 after
serving as the Executive Director of Admissions and Recruitment from
1993. He joined Cal Poly as the Director of Admissions in 1991.
Prior
to his tenure at Cal Poly, Maraviglia was the Director of Admissions
and High School College Relations at Central Washington University from
1984 until 1991. He has also worked in admissions at Triton Community
College and Chicago State University and started his career in
admissions as a student intern at Elmhurst College.
He
has been responsible for reengineering the workplace of two very
different institutions. He has won a series of awards from a number of
professional associations for initiatives his unit has brought to the
profession. He helped launch the first electronic application,
electronic view book, CD-ROM prospectus and was one of the earliest
innovators of electronic customer relations support systems.
He
has also written numerous papers on enrollment planning, admissions,
recruitment and re-engineering the workplace through technology. He now
serves as a professional consultant to a number of institutions
interested in implementing similar solutions for their enrollment
initiatives.
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