Is it Time to Flush The Goldfish?

Author: Neil Frutuoso

Are you willing to flush the goldfish? The main goal of any enrollment marketing campaign is…well, enrollments. However, most enrollment marketing campaigns and strategies are focused on one thing: leads. Can you confidently say that more leads = more enrollments for your university?

Think about it: you constantly optimize lead generation campaigns, train your team to convert those leads to applications, and fine-tune your lead nurture process. Infrastructure, process, operations, staffing, digital experiences, marketing assets — all focused on attracting and converting prospective student leads. But even with all this hard work and resource allocation, enrollments just aren’t where you need them to be.

From there, you identify external factors that hamper enrollment growth and work to find ways to insulate your institution from them. And every few years, you work your way through this never-ending cycle again. Does it sound a bit insane? Yes, it is.

With many universities facing reduced marketing budgets and increased competition, there is a good chance the health of your lead pipeline is in danger. As with goldfish – depending on overall health –there comes a point in every strategy’s life where it is time to move on. There is no better time than now to take a deep dive into your enrollment data to determine if it’s time to flush the proverbial goldfish. Ask yourself, does the composition of your enrollments originate as leads in the first place? If not, why are we so obsessed with getting more of them?