Is there anything more frustrating than having to compete with virtual schools for students?
This isn’t a new problem. I chose my school because:
- 1 – it was because it was a top rated business school
- 2 – that was affordable
- 3 – with smaller class sizes
But what does the homepage say today?
‘THERE’S A PLACE FOR YOU HERE.’
What does that mean?
You’ve got extra room? It’s easy to get in and we’ll take anybody? I don’t fit anywhere else so fortunately there is a place for me there?
Whatever it means, it’s the wrong message. You want to have the student or parent say to themselves ‘That is exactly what I’m looking for!’.
You want them to come to your home page and say ‘yes!’.
Then they will trip over themselves to book that visit, or fill out that contact form, or request more information if you understand their needs.
Stop!
For a second. Open a new browser. Look at your homepage. Then come back. What does it say?
Is it inspirational? Motivational? Functional?
That’s all great but does it answer the question: Why would a person looking at post-secondary education chose YOU over their other options?
In fact have you ever stopped and asked ANY of your students, the people who’ve made the choice and paid you good money:
‘Why did you pick our school over your other options?’
Have you collected that data, analyzed it, sliced it and diced it to truly understand how your prospective students and their parents see you?
The key to your success is you have to answer this most fundamental question: ‘Why you?’
Why You?
Answering this question is very important now that a huge proportion of classes are online. Even the ‘in-person’ classes are online. You had a part-time online offering before? It’s now fully online. But so are your rivals.
It goes against the grain to think or talk about yourself this way. I know. We’re all raised to talk about the features and benefits.
How many College and University websites say ‘Learn. Grow. Transform.’ or ‘Change The World.’ What about ‘Explore our campus’ or more recently ‘Check out our Virtual Campus Tour’.
Let’s get real for a minute. If you’re Harvard or Yale, that’s enough.
But for the rest (and that means you) one website touting Academics, Admissions, Life on Campus starts to sound a lot like another. Just look at any four or five school sites, and they all start to sound the same. The same way this photo could be from just about any college or university campus, it doesn’t stand out.
You have to answer ‘why you’ over the other options. What about your experience is making the difference for your students.
I’m asking because if you’re like 99% of the schools out there, you either don’t know, or can’t communicate it well.
So you have two choices – you can go through the process here, or you can give us a call. We’re happy to help.
The ‘Why You’ Process:
Let’s start at the beginning. People are not attending your school for one of four reasons:
#1 – Risk
People won’t attend if they don’t think your solution will work for them. They won’t get whatever outcome they want to achieve.
#2 – Friction
It is too difficult to attend your school, and the resistance is just too great.
#3 – Confusion
Confused high school students and parents will rarely buy if they don’t have a clear understanding of what it is you offer.
#4 – Believable Execution
They do not believe that your promised solution is designed, promised, and delivered to exceed their expectations and meet their definition of success.
Here’s what you need to know to figuring out why people are currently saying no to you:
- What do your current (and future) students want?
- What are they afraid of?
- How do they define success?
If what your service / experience delivers will not deliver what THEY define as success, not what you define as success, they will not sign on the dotted line. Ever.
I wanted a good business degree, that wouldn’t put me in debt for a lifetime, and yet I wouldn’t just be a number. I got all those things, but no thanks to my school’s site.
Let’s take a closer look at you.
Questions That Need Answering
- What core skills, expertise, knowledge, strengths or competencies do you have?
- Do you have any special relationships you can leverage to influence prospective students and their parents?
- What do your competitors and rivals have that you don’t? Where are we strong where they are weak? Why isn’t this strength enough to stop people from going somewhere else?
- Knowing we can’t be strong everywhere, what is the niche we should focus on who has a strong problem I can solve or pain I can relieve?
- What is the niche market most afraid of? What are they most frustrated about?
- Where is the gap between what they want, and what our rivals are offering?
- Where is our competition weak in delivering outcomes or values?
- What is the primary success they want to achieve?
- Who are the decision makers? Is it the students or the parents? Both?
- Given our strengths, and the gap between what our rivals are offering and what our prospects want, where should we position ourselves?
There is more, but the whole point of this exercise is to define your success proposition. Lots of people have a value proposition and f you’re not familiar with it, there’s a great framework in the Value Proposition book and canvas that Strategyzer produces.
A success proposition is slightly different. A success proposition is a clear positioning statement and compelling promise of what outcomes and values you deliver.
Think of the old FedEx tagline: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” That is a success proposition. Or ‘Everyday Low Prices’. Do I have to name the company?
Now you might be thinking ‘there’s nothing that makes us different’. And you could be right, but if you have any students there are all, there’s a reason. Ask them, or ask us. We’d be happy to help you sort it out and get more people like them to attend.
Good luck!
P.S. If we can help, let us know. But here’s some food for thought: Are you the cheapest, the closest, the most forgiving, the most athletic, the best program, the best local program, the closest or best faith based, the best community, the most active on twitter… what is it?
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