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Table of Contents Higher Education Enrollment CRMs... 1 Introduction... 1 Best Practice: Closed Loop System... 2 Closed Loop Benefits... 3 Marketing Automation Platforms... 4 Algonquin College Case Study... 6 Enrollment CRMs... 8 How the Pieces Fit Together... 9 Questions to Consider... 10 Conclusion... 11 About ProRetention...11 Higher Education Enrollment CRMs ii
Higher Education Enrollment CRMs Some assembly required? Introduction This whitepaper looks at the emerging role of CRMs and marketing automation platforms in higher education enrollment departments. A best practice in the commercial market space has been to integrate marketing automation platforms with CRMs to form a Closed Loop system. A Closed Loop system is an engagement engine that automates communication between prospective students, the institution, and ultimately enrollment counselors. To put it simply, Closed Loop is an engagement engine that optimally attracts prospective students to your programs and seamlessly transfers that interest to the CRM inbox of your enrollment counselor so that they can serve better and convert the prospect to a student. A case study enclosed below, highlights the value of a Closed Loop platform for Algonquin College with pipeline increases of 28% and enrollment increases of 18%. This whitepaper also includes foundation material covering marketing automation vendors, CRM vendors, and finally a discussion on how the pieces fit together and the implementation effort. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 1
Best Practice: Closed Loop System Closed Loop Systems have been a best practice in the commercial market space for many years. Closed Loop provides enrollment departments a one-two punch as it pertains to meeting enrollment goals by integrating demand generation (marketing automation) with inquiry processing (CRM). Due to the increased competition for students among For-Profit schools and online programs, the changing communication channels of prospective students, and the advancement in marketing automation technology Closed Loop systems seems to be an area of increasing interest for enrollment departments to invest in. Implementing a Closed Loop platform for your enrollment department will have an immediate impact and clear ROI. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 2
Modern marketing automation platforms like Marketo or Eloqua are now the best way to reach prospective students by automating the communication across multiple channels that students utilize; social, mobile, email, SMS and events. Closed Loop Benefits 1. More Leads - The biggest impact created by Closed Loop system is that it enables enrollment departments to deliver more qualified leads to counselors. 2. Better Conversion - The Closed Loop system provides real-time information about leads, helps enrollment counselors improve close rates, delivers more predictable revenue, and provides a key infrastructure for staff to be more successful. 3. Better Execution - Performance metrics tracked by the Closed Loop system provides the information to manage the revenue cycle by numbers. Based on metrics, marketing and enrollment staff effectiveness can increase, revenue can become more predictable, and it s possible to check the status of your enrollment funnel and the contribution of marketing programs towards the bottom line. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 3
On the whole, a Closed Loop platform enables you to effectively plan and budget, automate demand generation, have your staff optimally engage and convert while providing all the metrics of the Closed Loop to improve department execution. Marketing Automation Platforms If you dig into the design and capabilities, you ll find that while CRM systems provide indispensable value to any kind of enrollment organization, the reality is that they fall short for most marketing departments. CRM systems are designed and optimized for a very different purpose, which in turn creates the need for marketing automation in enrollment departments. From a functional perspective, CRM systems typically do not provide functionality for things like email marketing, prospect behavior tracking, and marketing program management. And it s true that many CRM systems can be customized to handle things like automated campaign flows, lead scoring, and de-duplication. But it s hard. In the end, marketing automation systems focus on the needs of the marketing department in a way that CRM simply cannot, while CRM provides a must-have solution to the enrollment counselors (as well as many others). Most importantly, given the advanced integration capabilities of today s platforms, the two categories of technology are designed to work together in a way that was never possible before. To implement a Closed Loop system both platforms are necessary and it s essential to understand what advantages and disadvantages each holds for you. Business Goal Departmental Focus Communication Style Architecture CRM Track opportunities and pipeline, manage contact and account information Primarily sales and sales management, some marketing Individual communications (sales rep to buyer) Database-oriented, transactional queries Marketing Automation Develop customer relationships, automate marketing programs, measure marketing ROI Primarily marketing and marketing management, some sales Communications to groups and segments (may be personalized and triggered 1:1) behavioral data queries Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 4
Let s now look at the platforms that are available for marketing automation. The Gartner April 2013 diagram given below surveys the marketing automation platforms with Marketo and Eloqua in the Magic Quadrant. The market for marketing automation platforms has been quite dynamic with a lot of activity going on. Eloqua has been recently acquired by Oracle, SalesForce.com has acquired ExactTarget and Marketo has had a successful public offering. The following SiriusView survey also gives high marks to Marketo and Eloqua. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 5
Sirius View Summary Data: Marketing Automation Platforms 2014 Total Score Functionality Features (70% weight) User Experience (30% weight) Essential Elements Deployment (50% weight) Enablement (50% weight) Vendor Strength Vision (30% weight) Act-On 10.4 3.5 3.4 3.8 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.4 3.4 Adobe Campaign 11.6 3.8 4.1 3.0 3.7 3.8 3.5 4.1 4.2 4.0 (Neolane) CailidusCloud 8.7 3.0 2.8 3.5 2.7 2.8 2.5 3.0 3.0 3.0 Clickdimensions 8.2 2.9 2.8 3.1 2.5 2.6 2.3 2.8 2.9 2.7 etrigue 8.1 2.7 2.6 3.0 2.6 2.6 2.5 2.8 2.9 2.7 Hubspot 10.2 3.2 2.8 4.1 3.0 2.8 3.2 4.0 3.9 4.1 IBM EMM (Unica) 11.7 4.0 4.4 2.9 3.8 4.0 3.5 3.9 3.7 4.0 Marketo 12.8 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.2 4.0 4.3 4.1 4.4 Net-Results 7.9 2.6 2.5 2.9 2.5 2.8 2.2 2.8 3.0 2.7 Oracle Eloqua 12.7 4.3 4.5 3.9 4.1 4.3 3.8 4.3 4.2 4.3 Pardot 11.6 3.8 3.7 4.0 3.8 3.7 3.9 4.0 4.0 4.0 Right On Interactive 7.6 2.5 2.3 3.0 2.5 2.6 2.3 2.6 2.9 2.5 Salesfusion 9.4 3.1 2.8 3.9 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.1 3.3 3.0 Silverpop 10.8 3.8 4.0 3.3 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.4 Sitecore 8.6 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.6 2.6 2.6 3.2 3.3 3.2 Teradata (Aprimo) 12.1 4.0 4.4 2.9 4.0 4.3 3.7 4.1 4.0 4.2 TreeHouse Interactive 8.5 3.0 3.1 2.9 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.9 3.2 4.7 Viability (70% weight) The annual cost of marketing automation platform is determined on the number of contacts that you have in your prospect database. If you have modest database of <15,000 contacts, your annual cost might be around $25,000. If you have a million contacts in your database, your annual cost might be around $100,000. Marketing automation has tremendous impact on enrollment and the ROI based on increased enrollment can be easily calculated. Marketing automation platforms can also provide institution wide benefits in advancement, student services, and campus outreach and engagement. As the products are sold based on size of contact database it may be possible to have other departments assist with funding of the platform achieving a common institutional communication platform. Algonquin College Case Study Challenges Located in the Ottawa Valley of Canada, Algonquin College has over 18,000 full-time students and more than 36,000 continuing education students. To generate student leads, the organization operated essentially in batch email mode, leaving the college in the dark in terms of tracking the effectiveness of its marketing content. In addition, because of the diverse student base - from graduating high school students to mature adults taking Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 6
continuing education courses - the sales cycle could range from 18 months to just a few days. It was clear they needed a solution that was flexible enough to provide detailed insight into prospect behavior and the sales pipeline. Solution Algonquin College considered several marketing automation products before they ultimately selected Marketo. The college was particularly impressed with Marketo s ability to provide first-hand insight into how customers progress through the website, interact with landing pages, and respond to marketing campaigns in real time. The marketing organization is now in a position to move from basic nurturing to what they term advanced nurturing where they use a set of elaborate campaigns and triggers to launch relevant, targeted content at the instant the prospect expresses interest. This will allow Algonquin to further refine lead segmentation and ensure they deliver the right message at the right time. CASE STU DY: ALGONQUIN COLLEGE Highlights Improved lead generation by 28% year-over-year and increased sales by 18% Lowered cost of distribution and marketing Enabled precise measurement of which campaigns are most valuable in terms of closing new business Able to understand what is required to move prospective students from consideration to buying Allows Marketing to measure ROI and take a leadership role in driving higher revenues 28% Challenges With campuses in Ottawa, Canada s Capital, and across the Ottawa Valley, Algonquin College has over 19,000 full-time students and more than 36,000 continuing education students. To generate student leads, the organization operated essentially in batch email mode, leaving the college in the dark in terms of tracking the effectiveness of its marketing content. In addition, because of the diverse student base, the sales cycle could range from just a few days to four years. It was clear they needed a solution detailed insight into prospect behavior and the sales pipeline. Solution Algonquin College considered several marketing automation products before they ultimately selected Marketo based on its ease-of-use and Salesforce integration, which were at the top of the requirement list. However, the college was particularly impressed with Marketo s ability to provide progress through the website, interact with landing pages, and respond to marketing campaigns in real time. The marketing organization is now in a position to move from basic nurturing to what they term advanced nurturing - where they use a set of elaborate campaigns and triggers to launch relevant, targeted content at the instant the prospect expresses interest. This will allow segmentation and ensure they deliver the right message at the right time. With marketing automation, Algonquin College has gained deep, actionable insight to determine the content that has the most immediate positive impact on lead generation, open rates, conversion rates, and closed sales. and are able to move prospects through the buying cycle faster. In fact, the college has improved lead generation by 28% year-over-year and increased sales by 18%, all while lowering its cost of distribution and marketing. In addition, their ability to measure ROI has dramatically improved with Marketo, allowing Marketing to take a leadership role in driving higher revenues. LEAD GENERATION YEAR-OVER-YEAR 18% IN CREASED SALES Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 7
Benefits With marketing automation, Algonquin College has gained deep, actionable insight to determine the content that has the most immediate positive impact on lead generation, open rates, conversion rates, and closed sales. As a result, they have improved deal flow and are able to move prospects through the buying cycle faster. In fact, the college has improved lead generation by 28% year-overyear and increased sales by 18%, all while lowering its cost of distribution and marketing. In addition, their ability to measure ROI has dramatically improved with Marketo, allowing marketing to take a leadership role in driving higher enrollment revenues. Enrollment CRMs A source to stay updated on the topic of enrollment CRMs is to visit Tim Copeland s Blog on Enrollment Marketing at www.enrollmentmarketing.org. Tim has done a nice job discussing the evolutions of Closed Loop systems pertaining to enrollment departments. Evolution is probably the keyword here. Due to the increased competition for students among For- Profit schools and online programs, the changing communication channels of prospective students, and the advancement in marketing automation technology, Closed Loop systems seems to be an area of increasing interest for enrollment departments to invest in. Early adopter institutions utilized commercial CRMs like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM as their foundation CRM and integrated marketing automation platforms to construct their Closed Loop platform. Several new offerings have been announced and/or are available from traditional SIS providers such as Ellucian and Jenzabar. Other solutions are available from higher education focused providers such as TargetX and ProRetention. A variety of options are available to enrollment department wanting to implement a Closed Loop platform: 1. Commercial CRMs: SalesForce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM have very good integration capabilities with the top-tier marketing automation products but suffer from poor data model fit with enrollment departments. The poor data model fit further results in greater set-up costs and higher adoption risks. 2. Traditional SIS Provider Solutions: Ellucian has announced its new offering based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the ExactTarget marketing automation platform. In addition, Ellucian has created an Enterprise or Student-Lifecycle approach that addresses full student lifecycle from enrollment, student services, to advancement/alumni. Jenzabar has whitelabeled TargetX Enrollment CRM that is based on the SalesForce.com CRM platform. Since it is based on the commercial SalesForce platform it can be easily interfaced with the top tier marketing automation platforms. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 8
3. Enrollment Specific Solutions: Several other non-sis solutions exist for enrollment. ProRetention provides an enrollment platform that integrates with marketing automation provider Marketo. Like Ellucian the platform is designed to provide full student lifecycle support. We talked about pricing models for marketing automation solutions. The pricing models for enrollment CRMs vary significantly. The traditional commercial CRMs such as SalesForce.com utilize a monthly subscription/per seat model. Other solutions have an annual subscription based on the size of the institution regardless of the user count. How the Pieces Fit Together So how do you assemble an enrollment Closed Loop platform utilizing a CRM and a marketing automation platform? If you are a large institution that has experience with systems integration, CRM platforms, and marketing automation, you will likely to be comfortable with the set-up and integration of the CRM and the marketing automation platform. If you choose a commercial platform such as Salesforce.com or Microsoft Dynamics CRM and a top marketing automation platform such as Marketo or Eloqua a number of tasks need to be completed, as mentioned below: 1. On the CRM side the sales funnel will need to be defined as per your requirements; stages from prospect to admitted to enrolled. 2. Define enrollment teams, roles and responsibilities as it pertains to your institutional structure. 3. Define lead distribution rules that will work in concert with your marketing automation platform. 4. Define the lead scoring rules that will work in concert with your marketing automation platform. 5. Configure your CRM to reflect your program offerings; i.e. Healthcare, Radiology Spring 2014. 6. Populate the CRM with program content so that your enrollment counselors can quickly respond to inquiries with high-value program content. 7. Build reports and dashboards that reflect the enrollment goals and pipeline as it pertains to the programs for a given Campus, Area, Program, Term. This can be labor intensive in that the commercial CRMs are not designed specifically with a higher education data model of Campus, Area, Program and Term. Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 9
8. Lastly configure the API communication between the marketing automation platform and the commercial CRM. The API allows your marketing campaign to automatically place new inquires into the CRM in-box of your enrollment counselors and provides the Closed Loop tracking of your marketing campaigns. This task is fairly straightforward in that the APIs for the commercial CRMs and the top marketing automation platforms are mature. A lower risk, higher value approach would be to utilize the emerging higher education-focused enrollment CRM solutions. The approach eliminates much as the systems integration needs because the CRM platform natively supports a higher education data model reducing the set-up time, cost, and improves the overall adoption, dash boarding, and reporting capabilities. Many of the early adopter institutions chose commercial CRMs because that was all that was available at the time. With the importance of Closed Loop systems several excellent options are available for enrollment specific CRMs. We recommend that you carefully evaluate these higher education specific platforms because the fit will have a big impact on ROI. When you select an enrollment CRM and marketing automation vendor also consider the standard start-up packages as it pertains to training your enrollment and marketing staff. Questions to Consider If your enrollment department is researching about CRM/Marketing Automation providers, include the following questions in your CRM discussion. 10 Questions to Ask 1. Will the CRM support my academic structure and calendar? 2. Will the CRM support my institution structure; i.e. do you have multiple colleges and campus locations? 3. Do enrollment counselors have multi-channel communication (SMS, Social ) capabilities? 4. Does the CRM provide for personalized content templates and packages for multi-channel program communication? 5. Does the CRM provide vendor and order management for third-party leads? 6. Does the CRM integrate with leading Marketing Automation platforms? Who does the setup and integration? 7. Can the Sales Funnel be defined by area/program/term and does it support and report real-time on the Funnel Math ; i.e. plan vs. actual at each funnel stage? 8. How does the CRM handle cross-department hand-offs such as from the enrollment department to the admissions department? Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 10
9. What is the implementation effort and cost? What is my staff responsible for? 10. What level of ongoing support do I receive with the annual subscription? Are other support services available on demand? Conclusion Implementing a Closed Loop platform for your enrollment department will have an immediate impact and clear ROI. From the marketing automation perspective, the top tier platforms have a clear advantage over the lower cost options. Marketing automation will impact the top of your enrollment funnel and partnering with a top provider will magnify that impact. From the CRM perspective, many of the early adopter institutions selected commercial CRMs but because of the commercial design of these products resulted greater set-up costs and higher adoption risk because of the lack of fit with enrollment and higher education requirements. New higher education enrollment specific options are available that will reduce the systems integration and adoption costs and risk. If your institution does not have extensive system integration capacity, CRM expertise, and marketing automation experience you should focus your evaluation on those vendors with higher education focused offerings. About ProRetention TM ProRetention TM is a student lifecycle CRM solution, creating meaningful engagement for the student from the time he is a prospect to graduation and beyond. ProRetention TM eliminates uncertainties faced by universities and colleges in tracking, managing, touching and servicing prospects, students, and alumni. ProRetention TM is a product of QuScient Technologies, a leading solution provider for higher education institutions. QuScient Technologies 16211 N Scottsdale Rd, Suite 424,Scottsdale AZ 85254. Email: info@quscient.com Phone: +1 (347) 380-7697 www.quscient.com Higher Education Enrollment CRMs 11