Alumni Matter: Unleashing a Lifetime of Value
The Benefit of CRM Principals in the
Postsecondary Environment
Betsy Bedigian,
Marketing & Communications Manager
In the competition for students, America’s 4,100 colleges and universities implement mass marketing strategies, at considerable expense, to maintain or increase their market share. According to University Business, the postsecondary sector will spend over $270 billion per year in advertising alone. This is in addition to a blizzard of email, web, direct, and personal strategies—each institution trying to outmaneuver the other.
In a recent survey of continuing and professional education leaders, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) reported that marketing budgets are steadily rising with institutions spending an average of $319 million on an integrated marketing mix that targets would-be students. But what the numbers do not say is the potential benefit of employing relationship-management principles in marketing to the customer—college alumni and alumnae.
Relationship marketing has emerged as the leading revenue-driving tool, for savvy marketers especially within the service sector. Although education is widely viewed as a service industry, education has been slow to adopt relationship marketing practices.
The basic principles of CRM are simple:
- Embraced by the organization—from the top-down, successful CRM programs are dependent on embracing a new way of thinking.
- Data-dependent, not data-driven—CRM is the ability to gather data about customers, store data in an easily accessible format, analysis, and using the data to effectively communicate with customers.
- Identify—lifetime value drivers; lifestyle changes; behavioral cues; customer attitudes.
Data plays an important role in the success of any CRM program. Customer needs are constantly changing and CRM systems companies can track those changes. Data analysis of CRM information helps companies to compare and contrast companies. CRM technology gives companies a range of information on customers, such as demographics, geographics, and ideologies.
As an example of customer tracking, communications, and offers, Best Buy divides its customers into specific subgroups in order to better analyze them. It costs less for companies to keep customers than to generate new ones, so extra attention to specific groups is important.
CRM changes how the organization thinks and works. Success is focused on the customer; processes are engineered around the customer; organizational structure is implicit in that form follows function to meet the customer’s needs; and the culture manifests CRM—everyone thinks about, listens to, and responds to the customer. The emphasis is to create long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with customers.
To unleash the benefit of the lifetime learner relationship, here are a few new and alternative strategies to replace worn traditional methods of message development:
1. Strategy: Customer Centric Focus
Think like the customer (potential students), investing time in knowing the segments is critical. Take the time to do the research to understand your customer-segment by geography, life-stage, major, or career.
2. Strategy: Internal Infrastructure
Cultural shifts are a powerful force for higher education. Successful implementation of CRM principles requires a hard look at the central processes that guide the organization including shared metrics, internal policy, staffing, and training.
3. Strategy: Technology
Create an integrated database system that efficiently manages data, allows shared analysis, is easy to use, and accessible: one necessary, but tough order.
4. Strategy: Relationships and Partners
How many prospective customers does each alumna represent? Customer-centric thinking starts with the organization but extends well beyond its door.
5. Strategy: Cross-Marketing
Integrated and consistent, cross-marketing is proactive vs. reactive. Create a core message that can be surrounded by niche, target specific messaging.
6. Strategy: Success Measures
Linked to the institution’s strategic plan, the value of CRM is in the measurable benefit to the institution.
To read more about CRM principles at work in higher education, and download additional market-strategies you can use today, go to www.hezel.com/discover