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Ferrum Tries to
Stand Out From Other Liberal Art Colleges
Higher Ed Marketing
January 2009
Ferrum College, located in Ferrum, Virginia,
is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college
located on a picturesque campus.
This means it's no different from many other
institutions of higher education, says Dean Browell, Ph.D.,
Director of Public Relations and New Media for Neathawk
Dubuque & Packett. "They have a competition list a mile
long," he says.
Before joining the Roanoke, Virginia, office
of the agency, Browell worked for Ferrum for six years, four
of them as Public relations Director. During that time
Ferrum's new president, Dr. Jennifer Braaten, launched a
years-long campaign to increase enrollment. The effort
included revamping the website, adding programs, and
updating the institution's buildings. Also, Ferrum College
hired a consulting firm and began using a different
enrollment model.
"It was really a total overhaul of
everything we were doing in admissions," says Gilda Woods,
Director of Admissions.
In 2002 enrollment was about 1,000, which
was low for the school. "Even more than that, our previous
admissions materials looked like everyone else's materials,"
Browell says. The search piece and other materials were
prepared by the school's previous agency, which specialized
in higher education materials.
Woods says one reason the college chose ND&P
was that it did not specialize in college recruitment. "We
went to a marketing firm that was not standard to get out of
the box a little bit," she says.
The school was founded in 1913 and is
located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia,
35 miles north of Roanoke. The school is affiliated with the
United Methodist Church. The name Ferrum refers to the Latin
word for iron and the region is known for iron deposits. The
school has newsletters called Fe (the symbol for iron) and
Iron Blade.
Research
In 2003, when Ferrum hired ND&P, one of the
first things the agency did was research high school
students' opinions about college marketing materials.
Browell says in focus groups, students were asked many
questions, including, "What would stand out in the pile of
materials you get now? What colors would pop? What kind of
type do you like to see? What would make you keep a piece so
you don't throw it in the trash?"
One of the early discoveries was the
students liked certain bright colors that were similar to
the colors of their iPods. At the same time, Browell says,
Ferrum's admissions materials were mostly brown and green.
Also, they contained a great deal of text, Browell says,
because administrators were eager to tell many stories about
the school.
Browell points to another reason why the old
materials were not as effective as they could be in
communicating with current high school students. "I wrote my
entire Ph.D. dissertation on engaging various ages," he
says. "In higher education, there is a big gap because
Generation X graduated and did not stick around, because in
the 1990s you had the dot com boom, so the last place you
were going to work is higher education," he says. "So today
you have baby boomers working with Generation Y and there
are no translators."
New Materials
The new materials feature large text and an
easy-to-read layout. "It's not about doing something kooky
with die cutting," he says. "It's not gold foil or sparkles
and let's get their attention." In one piece, the Outcomes
brochure, the text focuses on the student's future, and
includes quotes and short profiles of graduates who now work
in education and healthcare. The agency also developed
postcards, business cards for the admissions staff, and a
search piece.
Ferrum began using ND&P's printed materials
in January 2004, mailing them to high school juniors. In
2005 Ferrum hired a new vice president of enrollment
management, Douglas Clark. Ferrum then began working with
The Dysart Group,
a higher education consulting firm in Charlotte, North
Carolina. John Dysart, President of the firm, says he had
worked with Clark at other colleges over the years.
Dysart says
Ferrum was willing to try a different kind of recruitment
model. He says the model relies on personal communications,
and on the school taking a more targeted and customer
service-focused approach to contacting prospects. "Instead
of sending out a viewbook and waiting for people to respond,
we worked with them to be more aggressive on the phone."
Aggressive in a
good way, he adds. Admissions staff called people who had
attended college fairs and signed up to receive more
information. The staff phoned again a month later to see if
the students had questions about academics, activities, or
financial aid. "They would call them every month, and step
by step, walk them through the process," Dysart says.
The firm also
worked with Ferrum on its direct mail campaign. The effort
consisted of post cards with the students name on the front,
and information on coursework or activity the person was
interested in. The information came from the Student Search
Service. "We tailored the message to emphasize the athletic
program, or that the student said she wanted to be an
English major, or a certain activity," Dysart says. "Most
schools don't get that specific. It's easier to send a
generic message."
Woods agrees
that the effort was nontraditional. "Rather than going with
ads and your typical campaign, it's taking it directly to
the student and being methodical about how we contact
students."
Also, Ferrum
updated its web site. The college hired a web designer who
worked for almost a year updating the site. While the old
site had dark colors and static photos, the new site has
bright colors to match the ND&P materials, and newer
technology, such as Flash. Woods says it's a work in
progress, and the site will continue to gain new features.
Meanwhile the
700-acre campus underwent renovations in most of its
buildings, and also built three new dormitories. Applicants
are encouraged to visit the campus and see the updates.
There is also a new summer term called e-term, an
experiential learning program.
Results
In the Fall of
2005, the incoming class totaled more than 400 students. It
was an increase from the previous year's 350 students, but
more importantly, the school finally hit the 400-student
milestone. "That was a goal we'd been shooting for, for five
years," Woods says. The increase continued. The Fall of 2006
class had 490 students, and that number increased to 600 in
2007 and 645 in 2008. The Fall 2008 enrollment was the
largest in 24 years, and applications were up 89 percent
compared to 2004. Today the student body is more than 1,300
people.
The school is
still using some of the ND&P materials. "So many schools
decide to ditch their look after just a couple of years,"
Browell says. "The anecdotal evidence is that at all their
college fairs their materials are still standing out."
"All of it came
together and we had perfect conditions to have growth,"
Woods says. The goal now is to have a total of 1,700
students by 2013. "It is an exciting time to see the
institution growing like it is." |
