The Archives

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TARGUSinfo Lead Scoring Summit: Recap

Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Whether or not you have been hiding under the proverbial lead generation rock you have redoubtably heard the buzz around lead scoring. If your a direct response veteran you know how important lead scoring is to the success of performance based campaigns. Over the last 2-3 years lead scoring in the lead gen space has become the number one buzz phrase used at every conference and networking event and for good reason. Lead scoring adds uber insight into your lead generation campaigns and can drive serious levels of optimization and customization. In the minds of lead buyers across the world the questions still persists: “Is lead scoring right for my company?”

At this point you’re expecting me to give you the magical answer, yes! However, instead I am going to be completely, 100% honest with you – I have no idea. I think we can all understand that each buyer needs to closely evaluate how lead scoring could benefit their operations to be able to answer that question appropriately. The first step for buyers is to determine what questions are they looking to have answered by lead scoring. Answering this question will get you on the right path to deciding whether or not lead scoring is right for your company.

Posted in Conferences, Education, Enrollment Marketing, Higher Education, Lead Management | No Comments »

The Art of Articulation Agreements with Community Colleges

Monday, November 15th, 2010

When President Obama convened for the first ever White House Summit on Community Colleges, he lauded the schools as the “unsung heroes” of our nation’s education system.

The president has set the goal that by 2020 American will once again lead the world in producing college graduates. He said that community colleges play an important part of that goal, hoping to produce an additional 5 million degrees and certificates in the next 10 years. Read More

Posted in Enrollment Marketing, Higher Education | 1 Comment »

Making the Best of the Holidays: The NY’s Resolution Effect

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Just when it seemed like the summer days would never end; it’s suddenly the holidays again. Everywhere one turns there are Thanksgiving hams and turkeys propped up in market windows, Christmas lights and Menorah’s adorning neighborhood homes, and limitless displays of toy commercials and jewelry ads. All of the festivities will be punctuated with the beginning of 2011.

At Geary, we’ve noticed a funny phenomenon happen during this time of year. After eating one too many turkey and cranberry sandwiches, and suffering through a December 24th mall trip, many people are ready for a fresh start. As the New Year approaches, after the gluttony of the holidays, individuals avow to lose 20 pounds, quit smoking, watch less TV, spend more time with their children, and other self-improvement goals. Now a new one is being added to the list more and more each year: go back to school and FINALLY get that degree.

Career colleges and online universities have changed the face of education in many meaningful ways, one of which was to erase the prohibitive semester system which gave students fixed windows as to when they could or could not attend school. Now learners can go back to school on their own clock, and many of them get the urge right before or around the New Year’s holiday.

Ways to Make it Work in Terms of Lead Generation

1. Cater your copy and creative to resonate with prospective students who are looking to enroll as a part of their New Year’s resolutions.

2. Allocate media budgets appropriately to capitalize on a new wave of prospective students. Where will they be searching or looking online? What times are they most likely to conduct their research?

3. Rethink your content/ pull marketing strategies like email campaigns and social media to take advantage of the holidays. How can you help prospective students in their decision making process? How does this relate to their holiday-inspired desire to continue their education?

Posted in Education, Enrollment Marketing | No Comments »

Behavior trends EDU marketers should pay attention to

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Prospective students are constantly adopting new technology and adding new modes of communication to their repertoire. Education marketers need to go where their prospective students go. Here is our list of new trends or user behavior that is here to stay.

Third party sites/ aggregators aren’t going anywhere. If you are not on these sites, you are losing some prospective students. Dive into the process and set up quality assurance steps like lead scoring and brand standards to ensure that you are getting the most from your investment.
Microblogging sites are a credible source of school reviews and information. If you are ignoring trends because they seem irrelevant to you, you’re also ignoring viable market segments and how they communicate. Take a strategic approach to social media marketing with multiple touch points that target specific demographics; for example a particular group could be extremely active on Facebook while another might have moved on.
Post secondary students are mobile marketing savvy. SMS can be a powerful tool if used correctly. Many marketers are already incorporating it into their follow up process. Keep in mind that prospective students might have to pay for this service, so be careful how and when you employ this tactic.

Facebook is a source prospective students use to gauge the personality of a school. If students are using social media as an education tool, you should become part of the conversation and monitor buzz about your brand. Let the conversation happen naturally and inform where appropriate. Remember a referral from a friend-even a digital one- can carry more weight than a canned marketing message.
Students use generic queries to start their pre-enrollment research. Since the largest amounts of searchers don’t search using your school brand/ name, you need to focus search efforts on identifying profitable long tail keywords. From both a SEO and paid search aspect, your terms should be in the language of your prospects and should direct them to customized landing pages that relate to their query.
New devices like iPads can be utilized to engage students outside of traditional classroom settings. Using new devices proves that your school is cutting edge and adapts to progressive students who are on the move. Applications could involve taking an interactive virtual tour or flipping through a virtual course guide that leads to a form.

Posted in Best Practices, Education, Enrollment Marketing, Higher Education | 3 Comments »

GearyPMG Whitepaper: Lead Generation and Lead Management Strategies

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

GearyPMG just released a whitepaper about proper lead generation and management strategies. The whitepaper investigates:

How marketers are mismanaging their lead generation campaigns
Criteria for evaluating a lead management technology solution
Strategies and tactics to increase the efficiency of lead management programs

The following in an excerpt from a newly released whitepaper from GearyPMG. To download the whitepaper in its entirety, click the download link at the bottom of this post.

Lead generation is a common marketing goal. Most strategies and a majority of marketing programs are created with the goal of producing leads. While this goal keeps marketing and sales departments progressing forward, lead generation is only the means to the end goal of driving revenue. If leads do not convert into business, are they serving their intended purpose? This whitepaper will investigate how marketers might be losing leads through fragmented management tactics and present tips and tricks about how marketing departments can manage earned leads efficiently—so not one lead is wasted.

Lead generation is a sizeable marketing investment with $1.7 billion projected to be spent on lead generation in 2011. Digital lead management is still transitioning into the digital space as 65 percent of marketers note that they are increasing spending on lead generation-based website design and 47 percent are investing in online data quality and management (CSO Insights). While efforts and budgets are being allocated to digital lead generation, most marketers note it as one of their top three challenges—behind lack of budget and lack of time for efficient program execution (MarketingProfs). This means that generating leads is a top marketing priority that will get resource support, but there is still a gap between generating leads and generating business.

Download here–

GearyPMG Whitepaper_Lead Management Generation Strategies

Posted in Best Practices, Enrollment Marketing, Lead Management, Whitepaper | No Comments »

.Edu Lead Management Tips

Monday, July 19th, 2010

I recently wrote an article about how lead management is a major component of many industries—including enrollment marketing. A study released by Leads360 showed that converting a lead is 57 percent lead quality and 43 percent an efficient sales process. This bears mentioning because it shows that conversion is not based just on lead quality; it is a combination of lead management and quality.

The following are the 2 most prevalent issues with edu lead management.
Read More

Posted in Enrollment Marketing, Lead Management | No Comments »

Best Practices for World-Class Affiliate Marketing

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Affiliate marketing can be daunting for education marketers. There are various levels of strategy across career college marketing. World-class education marketers have robust affiliate marketing programs that guarantee lead quality, accountability and integration with affiliate partners. They qualify leads, vet duplications and set priorities based on conversion forecasting models.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Best Practices, Enrollment Marketing | No Comments »

Bill Clinton Embraces Lifelong Learning

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

The GearyPMG team was fortunate enough to be part of a lucky few, thousand that is, who were able to hear former President Bill Clinton speak at the Career College Association’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas.

Clinton didn’t disappoint; and was dynamic and articulate. He touched on many “big picture” topics, namely advancements that we were fortunate enough to witness in our time: the mapping of the human genome, space travel and exploration, cell research, and other profound innovations in biology, physics, and our favorite, technology. As he highlighted those benchmarks of achievement, he underscored the importance of each person, regardless of age or background, being committed to lifelong learning.

Posted in Career College Conference, Enrollment Marketing | No Comments »

Interactive Day San Diego

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

GearyPMG to attend and participate in Interactive Day San Diego

San Diego Ad Club

SAN DIEGO (June 16, 2010) − GearyPMG, a national leader and innovator in performance-based marketing services for higher education, will attend and take part in Interactive Day San Diego 2010, an all day conference featuring some of the top talent in digital marketing and advertising.

“We always look forward to Interactive Day. It is a great forum for San Diego’s top marketers to collaborate and discuss what’s new in our industry,” said GearyPMG Founder, John McKusick, who participated on the Interactive Day San Diego Planning Committee. “We are especially excited to see the new technologies exhibited and show attendees some of our projects like DegreeScout. It’s our tool to help prospective students communicate with colleges and universities.”

“Interactive Day proves that San Diego is home to some of the nation’s top digital marketers,” said Andreas Roell, Geary Group Chairman and CEO. “It continues to draw a prestigious group of marketers, brands and vendors that are executing impressive interactive campaigns.”

Roell will also be moderating various speaker sessions at the event, as well as speaking himself on topics that include mobile marketing and the future of digital marketing.

The all-day trade show is expected to attract more than 300 guests and takes place at San Diego’s Hilton Bayfront. It will showcase online advertising solutions and services, including seminars on trending topics such as email marketing, mobile, online video, web design, SEO, ad networks, and social media.

Posted in Digitial Marketing Conference, Enrollment Marketing | No Comments »