Education is a Business: Using ROI Data to Have Hard Conversations

It’s time to come around to the idea that education is, in fact, a business. How can you use ROI data to decide which of your programs are winners and which are losers? How can you use the data already available to you to identify where the problem lies – the marketing message or audience, or is there something about the program offering that’s impacting enrollment? How and when do you make the decision about a program’s future? We’ll share how Emerson College’s graduate team approached these exact questions, and the conversations now happening at all levels of the institution.

Session Agenda/Outline (200 words or less): Emerson College, and our marketing agency, 5 Horizons, have had the opportunity to dive into our CRM data and analyze which academic programs are bubbling up as “red flags.”

By measuring conversion rates between leads, applications, and enrolls, we’re able to identify: if a program isn’t hitting its enrollment goals, is it due to lack of leads, low quality leads (one’s who don’t apply), or, if there’s a gap between applicants and enrolls there may be something deeper going on with the program offering itself (cost, modality, curriculum). Layering spend and revenue data on top of this allows us to take the conversation one step further – if we’re spending more money than we’re making, that’s a problem. If we were Nike and this program was a shoe, would we keep making it?

This can be a difficult conversation for marketing and enrollment to have with program directors and leadership. No one wants to hear their baby is ugly. But, by using ROI and conversion data, we begin to open up a conversation that’s not built on assumptions or feelings, but rather – how do we address this? Does this program have a viable audience and are we finding them?