Last night, I returned from Boston. This week marked the third year that Eduventures, a market research and consulting firm for education institutions, has put on their Competing in Higher Education tradeshow. With only a handful of lead generation firms at the show last year, yet fifty or so for-profits, it seemed like a rare find. Naturally, that didn’t last long. Instead of their being three or so advertising companies, this show almost ten crowded the small table top display area not to mention the others in attendance. Chances are the hundred or so representatives of smaller, regional universities or their counterparts from a few prestigious brands did not know what to make of the Internet marketers that descended upon them.
Eduventures’ Competing in Higher Education marks one of the only shows where the world of running a university meets with online advertising. Those from institutions attend because they run programs that target the adult-learner, one working full-time who has either completed some of their education, wants more education, or education for a new career. Attracting and servicing these students requires different operations than those required for the traditional, full-time 18-24 year old students. As they look to grow the adult-learner student base, it makes sense that these administrators have a dialogue with the online marketers, as the skills required to market profitably online require such specialization that for the schools to try and do so internally will become a distraction to their core business of educating students.
The accountability of advertising online has thus far made a good fit for growth oriented institutions such as AIU Online, who manages the key aspects of their brand in-house but relies on the performance marketers to show their message and deliver leads. Unlike more traditional schools, AIU effectively bridges both the academic world and the corporate world. Most institutions do not have their foot in the corporate world. They have not structured their processes the way a company might, and it will take time before these institutions can embrace Internet advertising in a manner that meshes with the tactical execution services offered by the lead generators. Most others, though, are still far away from being able to accept a lead.
The lack of immediate clients did little to deter the lead generators from attending even though virtually all of the presentations overlapped little with their area of interest. The majority of speakers were from institutions, and they covered topics ranging from how they market their programs in general to how they launched online degree programs, having not done so before, to how to change management techniques helped turn around decreasing enrollment. For the non-educator, like me, their stories and the presentations covering the market trends were at least more accessible than the equivalent presentations I attended in October of last year at the Mortgage Bankers Association trade show. I imagine though, that some in the audience felt as I did ther, when it came turn for one of the few non-educators to speak, me.
Some of the other lead generation firms would have preferred to see a panel or roundtable, anything but just one Internet marketer speaking. Given the economic impact the lead generator’s have, it’s one I suspect will happen at next year’s show. As it stood, I had the difficult but enviable task of covering online advertising to a show where a small subset of schools not only embraced lead generation but probably knew more than I, while the other half did not fully grasp the difference between paid search and organic. That other half included not just educators but also investment bankers that recently purchased small regional schools looking to run them like businesses. Neither the educators nor the bankers would find much value in a talk that tried to explain keyword insertion on the search engines or trademark bidding policies.
To make the most of their time, a talk to this group should have some practical, tactical value. If the information stayed too high level, it does not help them feel better armed when they begin planning or reviewing their online strategy. Often this means providing either a case study or a step by step guide that those interested in online marketing could follow. Both would have added value; each was like giving directions. In order for directions to have value though, a person needs a map. Directions without a map or directions on the wrong map both lead to the wrong destination. It was “just enough information to be dangerous” as one person put it. For any interested in some of what the presentation covered, I have a follow-up post coming. Long time readers will recognize certain elements as this one too contains an education lead generation specific “Venndor” diagram.
(And because I have some domainer traits at heart, I had to register "venndor.com" and "venndordiagram.com".)
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