By Jeremy Tiers, Director of Admissions Services
You probably know this but it bears repeating – the average attention span is now eight seconds long. To give you context, according to some studies, that’s less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish.
The 2018 world we live in is full of choices, and everybody is getting marketed to from so many different directions that our brains are getting tired. Throw in social media and the growing number of apps, and well it’s no surprise that young people in particular are drowning out the noise more than ever.
I’m talking with you about this today because it ties in with the way that prospective students take in the recruiting messages that you and your school send to them.
Having creative content (i.e. messaging that looks and sounds different) that’s easy to take in and offers value to the reader has never been more important.
This generation of students has been conditioned to receive information in a certain way and in certain amounts. How you give them information is almost as important as the information you give them.
So, how do you ensure that your recruiting messages aren’t wearing out your prospect? Here are four things I want you want to think about:
- How much information do you give them at the beginning? The majority of prospective students aren’t ready to take in the massive amount of information that most colleges unload on them in the early stages. One of the surest ways to alienate a prospective student is to immediately give them a long list of statistics, facts, figures and random talking points about your school, your academic programs, etc. In fact, we’ve found that colleges who take this approach at the beginning almost instantly see their prospects tune them out for future conversations. The goal early in the process should be to get their attention, generate a response, and get a back-and-forth conversation going. If that didn’t happen this past cycle, go back and review the first and second communication pieces that you sent out. Were you trying to get their attention and a response or just giving them a ton of information that they may or may not care about, let alone be ready to take in?
- This generation of students is busy. How are you making the college search process easier for them? Along with a general fatigue, there’s another important element to how your emails and letters may be making prospective students feel. If they’re busy, which you and I both know they are, it diminishes their desire to want more information. Making the process (and the conversations that come with it) easier for them to take in is a simple way to make you and your school stand out and to improve your customer service. Your messages should be shorter in length, more conversational, and be limited to one topic. Remember, students are looking for help with what is a confusing and scary process. Give it to them, and you’ll gain their trust and their loyalty.
- A college search without a timeline will quickly become exhausting. “There are too many forms to fill out and some of them take forever.” That’s a direct quote from one student this past cycle when we asked them about the most frustrating part of the college search process. When prospective students don’t know how much is left to do or when it needs to be done by (and why it’s so important in some cases), it becomes mentally exhausting. Working together with your students and their parents to build out a defined timeline with markers early in the process is the easiest way to avoid that exhaustion.
- How much information do you give them later on? After students have been admitted and you’ve delivered your financial aid awards, your prospects need logical points to reference. Giving them specific things later in the process will help them differentiate your school from your competitors, and it will also help them justify a decision to pick your school. Too many schools slow down their communications after the admitted stage. That’s when your admits and their parents need your information, specifically the value part, the most…even if you’ve already told them before. From start to finish, there needs to be a consistent flow of information that explains why your school is the “right fit” for that particular student.
Do you have a question about this article? Reply back and ask away. Or if you happen to be reading it secondhand, you can email me: jeremy@dantudor.com
And if the emails and letters that your school is sending are in need of an overhaul, then let’s start a conversation about how we can help you get and keep the attention of more students this next recruiting cycle. I’m happy to share the communication strategy we help our clients execute, and why it continues to work!