how do you stack up?

How Do You Stack Up?Mystery Shopper Results of Lead Communication Plans for Online/Blended Programs

Pat McGrawDirector, Consulting Servicespat.mcgraw@hobsons.com

Hannah WilkeySenior Market Research Managerhannah.wilkey@hobsons.com

WELCOMEChris McNameeVice President, Marketingchris.mcnamee@hobsons.com

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Methodology

7,758 Colleges & Universities from IPEDS

Private, Non-profit, 4+ years

Approximately 900

• Focus on Graduate/ Online MBA

• Home Page .edu• Program Page .edu• Completed form

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Ease of finding RFI form on site

Evaluation Criteria

Ease of completing the form

Automatic form reply email

Thank you page

Process To Become A Lead:

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Evaluation Criteria

Appropriate timing for follow up comms.

Use of appropriate communication channels

Appropriate content in follow up comms.

Clear CTA that sets expectations of what’s next

Communication Plan:

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KEY FINDINGS

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1 – doesn’t exist; 7; 16%

2 – hard to find from home page; 4; 9%

3 – hard to find from program page; 5; 11%

4 – can find it but be-low the fold/must

scroll a lot; 5; 11%

5 – clearly visible when interacting with all content; 24; 53%

EASE OF FINDING THE REQUEST INFORMATION FORM ON THE .EDU

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1 - Form did not exist, 7, 15%

2 - More than 5 fields all required, 19, 41%

3 - More than 5 fields only basic information

required, 12, 26%

5 - Less than 5 fields with errors to show

when you successfully completed or errors, 8,

17%

EASE OF FILLING OUT THE FORM

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Form Fields

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Mobile Experience

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1 – No thank you page; 11; 22%

2 – Thank you page with no relevant con-

tent; 17; 35%

3 – Thank you page with minimal content or a lot of irrelevant content and no clear next steps; 10; 20%

4 – Thank you page with digestible con-tent about specific program OR next

steps; 10; 20%

5 - Thank you page with specific digestible program content, next

steps expectations clearly set, and material they can view in the mean-

time; 1; 2%

THANK YOU PAGE

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1 – No reply no con-firmation of sub-mission; 23; 47%

2 – Confirmation of submission no note of program or next steps confirmation did not occur au-tomatically; 10;

20%

3 – Automatic con-firmation of sub-

mission, no call out on program or next

steps; 10; 20%

4 – Automatic confirmation with callout of program and or next

steps or other resources; 6; 12%

AUTOMATIC FORM REPLY EMAIL5 – Automatic confirmation with confirmation of program of interest AND next steps AND things they can checkout while they wait, 0, 0%

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Auto-reply Email

Subject Line

From Name

Reply-To

Personalized Content

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1 – No Follow up Communication (email

nor phone for 2 weeks); 17; 35%

2 – Email only follow up – 1 email within 2 weeks; 10; 20%

3 – email and phone call – 1 touch base within 2

weeks ; 6; 12%

4 – more than 1 email and or phone call within 2 weeks without reply/response from us ; 10;

20%

5- First follow up within 24 hours, and then more than 1 additional

email or phone call within 2 weeks; 6; 12%

APPROPRIATE TIMING OF FOLLOW UP COMMUNICATION

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1 – No Follow up Com-munication no channels

used; 16; 33%

2 – only one channel follow up very minimal ; 15; 31%

3 - use multiple channels not frequently, 12, 24%

5-use multiple channels and seem to build on each other. Content

length and topics are appropriate for channel; 4; 8%

4 use multiple channels but they

don’t seems to build on each other , 2, 4%

USE OF APPROPRIATE AND EFFECTIVE CHANNELS

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1 – No Follow up Com-munication no channels

used; 16; 33%

2 – content not specific to degree chosen nor state of your process (ex: lead vs engaged lead vs app vs app

in progress etc) ; 19; 39%

3 - content degree specific and appropri-ate to stage, builds on previous content; 8;

16%

4 - content degree spe-cific and appropriate to stage, builds on previ-ous content, written in digestible format (ex: bullets, clear subject

line and to line) ; 5; 10%

5- content degree specific and ap-propriate to stage, builds on previ-ous content, written in digestible

format (ex: bullets, clear subject line and to line), clear CTA and next

steps; 1; 2%

APPROPRIATE CONTENT IN FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION

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1 – No Follow up com-munication; 17; 35%

2 - No CTA - Long List of Info, 3, 6%

3 - CTA but Onus is on Student to contact School,

28, 57%

5 - Clear, engaging CTA with onus on school for next step, engaging/relevant

content, 1, 2%

CLEAR CTA IN COMMUNICATION THAT EXPLAINS WHAT TO DO NEXT

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Many schools have a form that can easily be found, but it is often full of irrelevant information and then they do not follow up well once the information is provided.

Key Findings

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BEST PRACTICES &RECOMMENDATIONS

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Easy to Find RFI form

Best Practices

Simple for that is easily filled out from any deviceImmediate Confirmation your information was receivedAutomatic redirection to a Thank you page that calls out next steps

Process To Become A Lead:

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Best Practices

Appropriate timing for follow up comms.

Use of appropriate communication channels

Appropriate content in follow up comms.

Clear CTA that sets expectations of what’s next

Communication Plan:

Pat McGrawDirector, Consulting Servicespat.mcgraw@hobsons.com

Hannah WilkeySenior Market Research Managerhannah.wilkey@hobsons.com

Chris McNameeVice President, Marketingchris.mcnamee@hobsons.com

Questions?

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emsinfo.hobsons.com/mystery-shopper-study

• Fill out the form to be included in the second round of the study.

• Receive a report of your institution’s results.

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