Tag: Archer

Asking the Right Questions- Archer Education
Why Universities Need the Right Partnership Criteria

When a higher education institution outsources its enrollment, marketing, or student engagement efforts, the stakes are high. Missteps don’t just cost money — they cost time and, most critically, can hinder enrollment growth. Many universities make the mistake of selecting vendors that focus on chasing leads, rather than aligning with the school’s mission or long-term goals.

Without clear partnership criteria, even well-intentioned collaborations can falter. Misaligned university partnerships often lead to disjointed campaigns and wasted resources. What begins as a lead generation effort can evolve into dependency on a vendor that operates in isolation, without being guided by the institution’s strategy.

The right partner, by contrast, integrates seamlessly with the institution’s mission, aligns its services with the institution’s desired outcomes, and acts as a true extension of the institution.

The Risks of Choosing the Wrong Partner

The wrong partner can create more problems than it solves. Some vendors sell services focused solely on activities — ads placed, events hosted, emails sent — without tying its efforts to the institution’s overarching strategy. This approach often fails to generate real enrollment growth, causing internal teams to struggle with unqualified leads and retention challenges.

Another potential risk stems from failing to consider how a partner will mesh with the institution’s legacy systems. Universities invest heavily in their marketing resources, such as their customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and brand assets. A vendor that imposes its own tools without considering the university’s existing infrastructure can create costly redundancies.

Equally concerning are long-term, restrictive partnership contracts that lock an institution into dependency and limit its flexibility, leaving it at the mercy of a vendor whose priorities may clash with the institution’s broader objectives or evolving market conditions.

Strategic Alignment as the Core Test

The foundation of any successful university partnership is strategic alignment. True partners base the services they offer on the institution’s unique goals. They view marketing, admissions, and student success teams as interconnected — not completely separate entities.

Shared key performance indicators (KPIs) are a key component of this alignment. When both the institution and its partner commit to tracking metrics such as the conversion rate from inquiry to application, the yield rate from admission to enrollment, and the one-year retention rate, they create mutual accountability across every stage of the student journey.

Archer’s Growth Readiness Assessment offers a model for this type of collaboration. This tool helps an institution evaluate its readiness to scale its programs — whether they are in person or online — by evaluating the university’s internal capacity, identifying any potential hurdles, and aligning its in-house teams and external partners. Performing such an assessment early in the vendor selection process ensures the university partnership is built on a foundation of clarity and trust.

Procurement Criteria That Drive Success

When it comes time for an institution to formalize a partnership, focusing on transparency, flexibility, and accountability can make the difference between achieving sustainable growth and creating new operational challenges.

Institutions that emphasize these criteria are better positioned to form partnerships that deliver measurable results and long-term value.
- Transparency in reporting and asset ownership is vital. An institution should establish whether it will retain full ownership of the assets created and determine how often performance reports will be shared. A transparent partner will make reporting accessible and collaborative, not proprietary.
- Flexible contracts are another hallmark of a strong university partnership. The institution should have the freedom to pivot when markets shift or as its internal capacity grows. It should avoid rigid, long-term agreements that limit its control or create dependency.
- Accountability across the student journey should be among the institution’s demands. The most effective partners understand that success extends beyond generating leads and inquiries. Contracts should define what accountability looks like from marketing through enrollment and retention, with clearly articulated performance standards for each stage.
Integrating With Legacy Systems

Integration is a crucial element of successful university partnerships. A capable partner doesn’t replace or disrupt the institution’s existing systems — it strengthens them.

When integration is done well, the partner respects the university’s existing data, assets, and workflows, leading to a more unified, seamless experience for both staff and students. When integration is done poorly, the results can be costly, creating redundancies, inefficiencies, and siloed teams.

Archer’s Onward student engagement platform demonstrates how thoughtful integration can amplify an institution’s capacity without disrupting its operations. Onward uses behavior-based triggers and personalized multichannel engagement efforts to guide students from inquiry through enrollment — working alongside admissions services and complementing the institution’s existing systems rather than supplanting them.

By respecting the institution’s infrastructure, this kind of partnership model helps the university scale its engagement strategies without losing its operational continuity.

10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Partner

Selecting the right partner for an institution requires more than comparing price points or promises of lead volume. The most beneficial partnerships are built on mutual accountability, transparency, and shared metrics for success. The right partner should have staff with extensive institutional knowledge and higher ed industry experience, enabling it to provide universities and colleges with the best tools to improve their operations and achieve growth.

Asking the right questions early helps ensure alignment and prevent costly missteps. Institutions can consider asking the following 10 questions when vetting potential partners:
1. How do you handle internal and external communications? Institutions need to know who their main points of contact will be, and how knowledge and strategies will be shared across teams.
2. What metrics do you use to measure success across the student journey? The ideal vendor should be able to provide full-funnel visibility and focus on metrics that truly drive enrollment growth.
3. How frequently will our teams review results together? Successful partnerships depend on transparency and regular communication.
4. What have you learned from working with other institutions, and how will that inform our partnership? Vendors should always be willing to adjust their services based on past wins and challenges. They should also have the right resources to serve all of their clients with equal urgency.
5. How will you collaborate with us to set enrollment goals and forecast program growth? Credible vendors rely on historical data to inform their projections, and take the time to carefully explore existing growth drivers.
6. How do you differentiate marketing strategies at the institutional level from those at the program level? Institutions can benefit from asking for examples that illustrate this distinction.
7. What can we expect from this partnership in the first 90 days? Vendors should be able to communicate clear timelines for processes, such as onboarding steps, reporting cadence, and performance metrics.
8. Will our institution own all assets, data, and creative from day one? Institutions should have ownership of any assets created and have a clear understanding of how they will be shared and managed.
9. Are there any additional fees we should be aware of? Items such as creative assets will need to be refreshed over time, so institutions need to understand what associated costs may arise.
10. What questions do you have for us? An ideal partner wants to understand the institution’s unique needs, strengths, and challenges. Using historical data, it can shape a data-driven strategy for the institution, including realistic marketing budgets and lead goals.
These questions establish a framework for transparency, accountability, and scalability — ensuring the partnership begins from a place of trust and aligned goals.
Key Takeaways

Effective university partnerships start with asking the right questions.

When your institution prioritizes alignment, accountability, and integration, you can avoid critical missteps.

The right partner will strengthen — not replace — your institutional vision and help equip you to scale sustainably.
Build University Partnerships That Advance Your Goals

At Archer Education, we work with accredited universities to build strategic partnerships rooted in a shared vision that drive scalable enrollment growth. With decades of higher ed experience, our team of industry experts has developed a flexible partnership model that supports internal growth, so that institutions can build self-sufficiency over time.

Contact our team to learn how our tech-enabled marketing, enrollment, and retention services can support your institution’s long-term goals.
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December 1, 2025
What Is Organizational Development? – Archer Education
Applying Principles of Organizational Development in Higher Education

If you work in higher education, you know the industry is constantly evolving. Shifting student demographics, emerging technologies, and market pressures require institutions to be proactive in building a stronger, more adaptable foundation for long-term success.

That’s where organizational development (also known as org dev or OD) comes in.

OD uses a strategic approach that goes beyond surface-level fixes to create lasting, meaningful change. In higher ed, that means optimizing infrastructure, investing in the right people and resources, and fostering the leadership skills necessary to drive sustainable growth. This article breaks down the four essential pillars of organizational development and how they can help your institution navigate change with confidence.

Organizational Development Definition

Organizational development is a strategic, science-backed approach to improving an organization’s effectiveness, adaptability, and culture.

Rather than focusing on quick, short-term fixes, org dev emphasizes long-term, sustainable change through:
- Data-driven decision-making
- Continuous learning and adjustment
- Intentional plans for growth
At its core, org dev is about aligning people, processes, and strategy to create a stronger, more resilient institution.

How Is Org Dev Applied in the Higher Ed Industry?

At higher education institutions, organizational development is used to drive strategic change, improve institutional effectiveness, and enhance the student and faculty experience.

Universities can apply OD to initiatives such as:
- Conducting leadership training and faculty development
- Restructuring academic programs to align with industry demands
- Fostering an inclusive campus culture
- Improving communication across departments
- Streamlining administrative processes
By leveraging data, collaboration, and iterative improvement strategies, org dev helps institutions stay competitive in a volatile educational landscape.

But how can your institution actually execute on these initiatives? Let’s dig into the nuts and bolts of true organizational development.

The Four Pillars of Organizational Development

Organizational development can be distilled into four essential pillars that need to be addressed to create lasting, effective change. From the right technological infrastructure to the competencies that drive leadership, each element plays a critical role in shaping a university’s success.

1. Infrastructure

A strong OD strategy starts with the right tools. A school’s information technology (IT) infrastructure encompasses all the systems and programs that support the institution’s goals by facilitating seamless communication, data management, and student engagement across all departments.

Learning management systems (LMS), customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and student information systems (SIS) are all essential for effective operations.

Additionally, collaboration tools — like Asana, Trello, Monday.com, Slack, and Microsoft Teams — are critical for project management and internal communications. With a solid tech foundation, faculty, staff, and administrators can more easily work toward common objectives.

2. Resources

People and capital investments drive organizational development forward. Universities need dedicated staff to support their online and on-campus programs, including instructional designers, student success coaches, and faculty development specialists.

Beyond personnel, financial resources play a crucial role in funding curriculum development, marketing initiatives, and partnerships with third-party service providers. The right investments empower institutions by giving them the capacity to scale programs, enhance student support, and maintain a competitive edge.

3. Skills

Skills are the specific, teachable abilities that allow team members to execute org dev initiatives effectively. In higher education, these range from technical expertise — such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid media management, and statistical analysis skills — to operations skills in areas such as course mapping, instructional design, and system administration for LMS, CRM, and SIS platforms.

Providing training and professional development to staff members in these skill areas can help them better implement and manage institutional improvement efforts.

4. Competencies

While skills focus on execution, competencies are the broader abilities needed to apply knowledge and lead meaningful change. Important org dev competencies for university leaders and staff members include being able to align online growth initiatives with institutional goals, make data-driven decisions, and foster a culture of adaptability.

Higher ed leaders also should be able to communicate a clear vision and gain buy-in from stakeholders to navigate transitions with confidence. Without these competencies, even the most well-equipped institutions can struggle to implement lasting transformation.

Benefits of Org Dev for Institutions

Effective organizational development creates lasting improvements in how institutions operate, innovate, and serve students. By investing in OD, colleges and universities can:
- Enhance their efficiency through streamlined processes, better technology, and clear workflows to reduce bottlenecks and improve day-to-day operations
- Improve their student outcomes through strong support systems, streamlined curriculum design, and data-driven decision-making processes
- Increase their adaptability to become better equipped to navigate market shifts, policy changes, and emerging educational trends
- Strengthen their collaboration through communication tools and cross-functional teamwork to break down silos and align departments toward common goals
- Drive their sustainable growth through strategic investments in people, technology, and training to ensure the institution can scale programs without sacrificing quality
Ready to Level Up Your Institution’s Org Dev Strategy?

At Archer Education, we take a strategic, structured approach to organizational development, starting with a full assessment of your institution across all four pillars using our Good, Better, Best framework.

From there, we partner with you to implement targeted changes, optimize your processes, and drive your long-term growth.

Our ultimate goal? To make ourselves obsolete. By the time we’re done, your institution will be operating at its best across all dimensions, equipped to sustain growth and innovation without relying on external vendors.

Let’s build a stronger, more resilient future — together. Contact us today to get started.

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February 27, 2025
Tips for the Student Journey- Archer Education
5 Tips for Keeping Students Engaged Throughout the Admissions Process

In higher education, the enrollment funnel can feel like a battleground for institutions vying to convert interest into commitment.

Traditionally, the enrollment funnel has been viewed simply: attract, engage, and enroll. But the modern student’s journey is anything but straightforward — it’s a complex, winding path influenced by numerous digital touchpoints and personalized interactions.

The health of the enrollment funnel extends beyond mere numbers; it represents the institution’s ability to connect with prospective students through every phase of their decision-making process. With technology reshaping expectations and behaviors, colleges and universities must not only catch the eye of prospective students but also keep them engaged through multiple channels and strategies.

This article unpacks key elements of the enrollment and admissions funnel, offering actionable insights and innovative tips to capture and retain students’ attention from their first inquiry through their enrollment stages. As we explore these strategies, you’ll discover the vital role that continuous, tailored engagement plays in transforming interest into activity, setting the stage for a successful educational journey.

The Modern Student Journey

Today’s students embark on their educational journeys equipped with a wealth of information and digital tools at their fingertips, making their paths to enrollment more complex and multifaceted than ever before.

Complexities and Challenges

The student journey is far from linear. It involves numerous interactions across various platforms and touchpoints. Each student’s path is unique and influenced by personal, financial, and academic factors.

For instance, a modern student, such as a working professional returning to education or a parent seeking to balance family responsibilities with schooling, may have different priorities and use different resources compared to a younger, first-time college student.

Technology has diversified the ways students gather information, and also how they engage with institutions. Prospective students might start their journey by conducting a simple Google search, but they will also often visit social media platforms, participate in virtual campus tours, and attend online webinars before starting their application. During this time, they are continuously evaluating their options and being influenced by each interaction they have with a school’s digital presence.

Impact of Technology

The proliferation of digital platforms has dramatically altered the student journey, both for students and institutions, in ways such as the following:
- Digital Touchpoints: Websites, social media platforms, online forums, and virtual tours provide initial impressions and ongoing engagement. Prospective students can interact with current students and faculty, view online classes, and even participate in community events, all from their devices.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Students use data such as graduation rates, employment outcomes, and student and faculty testimonials to inform their choices. They expect personalized interactions and content that addresses their specific concerns and aspirations.
- Engagement Analytics: Institutions now have the tools to track and analyze how prospective students interact with their digital content. This data is invaluable for refining marketing strategies and improving engagement tactics to ensure they meet the expectations and needs of prospective students.
Given these technological influences, it is essential for educational institutions to adapt their enrollment strategies to meet the changing behaviors and preferences of modern students. Integrating data analytics, enhancing digital communication channels, and providing personalized experiences are all critical to effectively engaging with prospective students throughout their decision-making journey.

Understanding the Enrollment Funnel

The enrollment and admissions funnel is a foundational concept in higher education marketing that illustrates the progressive stages a student navigates, from awareness through enrollment. The funnel is not just a theoretical model but a practical guide for shaping effective engagement strategies.

6 Stages of the Enrollment Funnel

The enrollment funnel can be divided into several key stages, each requiring specific strategies to move prospective students to the next step:
1. Awareness: This is the initial point where potential students first learn about an institution. Efforts here include broad-reaching advertising, social media presence, and participation in educational fairs. The goal is to cast a wide, though still strategic, net and garner interest from a diverse pool of students.
2. Interest: Once awareness is achieved, the focus shifts to nurturing interest and familiarity. This involves providing more detailed information about what the institution offers, such as programs, support services for online students, and financial aid options. Content marketing, informational webinars, and targeted emails play a significant role in this stage.
3. Consideration: At this juncture, prospective students are comparing their options. They might engage more deeply with admissions counselors, attend virtual or in-person campus tours, and participate in Q&A sessions. Personalized communication and reassurance about academic and social fit are crucial.
4. Intent: The intent stage is where decision-making becomes serious. Prospective students might discuss their choices with family, friends, colleagues, or advisors, conduct comparative research, and seriously evaluate financial aid details and options. Institutions should focus on direct engagements, such as personal calls, text messages, or engagement-driven content, to solidify their interest.
5. Application: The application stage is the formal step of submitting necessary documents and fulfilling admission requirements. Support through streamlined application processes, reminders, and help desks is vital to ease this phase for students.
6. Enrollment: The final stage, where accepted students confirm their attendance and complete registration. At this point, effective communication about orientation, class selection, and enrollment procedures can ease the transition and ensure that students feel welcomed, supported, and valued.
A deep understanding and effective management of the enrollment and admissions funnel is crucial for any educational institution aiming to increase its student body. Let’s see how it’s done.

How to Keep Students’ Attention Through the Enrollment Funnel

Maintaining the attention of prospective students throughout their educational journey is crucial for successful enrollment. Here are key strategies to keep students engaged from initial inquiry through enrollment:

1. Consistent Engagement Across Channels

Leverage multiple channels to engage with students to ensure your institution remains top of mind. Implement a mix of digital and traditional marketing strategies to reach students where they are most active, such as the following:
- Digital Channels: Targeted social media ads, engaging video content, and informative blog posts
- Traditional Channels: Direct mail, phone calls, and face-to-face interactions during campus visits
2. Personalization and Differentiation

Tailor your communications to meet the specific needs and interests of each prospective student, and utilize data from their interactions with your digital content to personalize messages. Strategies to achieve these goals include the following:
- Segmented Email Campaigns: Customized emails based on the prospective student’s program of interest, engagement history, and stage in the funnel
- Custom Content: Relevant information that addresses specific concerns or questions that may arise at different stages of their journey
3. Incentives and Urgency

Create a sense of urgency and motivation by offering incentives that encourage prospective students to take the next step:
- Priority Deadlines: Upcoming application deadlines that can be highlighted to spur action
- Exclusive Offers: Application fee waivers or access to special events for early applicants
4. Building Relationships

Foster a sense of community and belonging from the first interaction through forums such as the following:
- Virtual Engagements: Live Q&A sessions with current students and faculty
- Personal Outreach: Admissions counselors who reach out personally to high-interest candidates
5. Continuous Improvement

Regularly assess and refine your engagement strategies based on feedback and analytics tools and processes:
- Feedback Loops: Surveys and feedback channels that gather insights from prospective students
- Analytics Review: Regular analysis of engagement metrics to adjust strategies and improve outcomes
It’s Time to Build Out Your Enrollment Funnel

The landscape of higher education is competitive, but the enrollment funnel could be your institution’s edge. By engaging prospective students at every stage of their journey with tailored strategies and personalized communications, institutions can significantly enhance their enrollment rates. If you’re ready to elevate your enrollment marketing strategies, Archer Education is here to take you to the next level. Reach out to us, and let us help you create a robust enrollment funnel that not only attracts but also converts prospective students into committed learners.
John Van Fleet

John Van Fleet is the Chief Marketing Officer at Archer Education. With more than 20 years of experience in higher ed marketing, John has a continuous track record of successfully supporting institutional growth.

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September 18, 2024
Improving the Student Experience – Archer Education
Attract and Retain the Right Students for Your Institution

Choosing a higher education program is often a defining moment in a person’s life. Whether it’s a teenager deciding on a traditional, on-ground undergraduate program, or someone in their late 30s selecting an online master’s program — it’s a big decision, and one that can be heavily influenced by the experiences they have with the institutions they’re considering.

Your students don’t just deserve a great experience, they expect it. Which is why identifying opportunities to enhance the student journey at your institution is essential.

In the competitive world of higher ed enrollment, the ability to attract and retain students goes beyond offering picturesque campus views or flexible online scheduling. It hinges on understanding and navigating the complexities of the process a student goes through, from their initial awareness of your program all the way through to their graduation, and identifying where students can get stuck, or worse, drop off.

When it comes to enhancing the student journey, I’m often asked, “Where is the best place to start?” To that end, this article dives into some of the most common areas for improvement. Focus on these areas and you’ll be on your way toward delivering a stand-out student experience.

This article explores:
- Common bottlenecks institutions face at different stages of the student experience
- Methods to identify the most important issues
- Strategies for prioritizing improvements to maximize impact
Common Bottlenecks in the Student Journey

Institutions aiming to enhance the overall student experience need to understand where students tend to get stuck. By pinpointing these bottlenecks, your university can devise strategies that streamline the journey and boost student engagement and retention. Some common points of friction in the enrollment process include:

Top of the Funnel: Driving Awareness

Every student journey begins with awareness, but getting potential students to visit your institution’s website to gain awareness of its programs can be a stumbling block. Many universities face challenges due to poor audience targeting, ineffective creative strategies, or a lack of investment in organic channels like websites and content strategies.

If your awareness efforts are falling short, your potential students won’t land on your university’s digital doorstep. This means opportunities to engage and inform them go untapped, which sets the stage for a cascade of engagement issues downstream.

It’s called an enrollment funnel for a reason — if you don’t attract enough qualified traffic at the top, the bottom of your funnel will fall short of your goals.

Mid-Funnel: Generating Interest

Let’s say your awareness efforts are working, and your brand, story, and program marketing tactics are finding prospective students. Once these prospects are aware of your institution and have visited your site, the next challenge is to convert them into active inquirers. In other words, getting them interested enough to raise their hand by filling out a form, contacting an enrollment advisor, or even starting their application.

This stage often suffers from two main issues:
1. Attracting too broad of a range of individuals, including many who are unqualified or not aligned well with the institution’s programs or areas of specialization
2. A mismatch between what prospective students expect to find and what the website provides
If your paid ads told one story and your website tells a totally different one, it can be a turnoff for prospective students. If the content does not resonate with potential students’ academic aspirations, they are less likely to take the next step. If you’re not highlighting what makes an education at your institution truly unique or how it connects to your target audience, it’s likely that your content won’t resonate, even if you did identify the right audience.

Bottom of the Funnel: Growing Application Submissions

What’s every enrollment leader’s least favorite word? Melt. Even after marketing to the right audience and generating inquiries, there’s often a drop-off before the application stage — commonly known as the application melt.

This is a delicate phase, where bad strategy moves and overly clunky processes can cause big problems. This could include generic follow-up communications that fail to engage the interests of prospective students, a lack of personalized experiences that can make students feel valued, or insufficient time spent nurturing and managing these warm leads. Each of these factors can lead to a significant reduction in the number of completed applications.

Methods to Identify Student Experience Bottlenecks

Now that we’ve covered the most common bottlenecks, let’s talk about how to identify where these bottlenecks are showing up in your student experience. Once you identify them, you can target improvements effectively and efficiently. Methods to identify bottlenecks include:

Benchmarking

A powerful starting point for identifying pain points is benchmarking your institution’s performance against your peers or similar programs. Benchmarking involves a comprehensive comparison of your processes, outcomes, and student satisfaction levels to those of other institutions.

By evaluating where you stand in relation to your peers, you can identify specific areas where you lag behind. Benchmarking provides a clear, external perspective on your institution’s relative strengths and weaknesses, guiding you toward the most impactful areas for enhancement.

Leveraging Internal Data

Once you understand the external picture, you can dive in internally. Your internal data is an invaluable resource for tracking the effectiveness of changes in the student experience. By analyzing metrics such as enrollment rates, drop-off points, and student feedback before and after implementing changes, you can gauge their impact.

This approach helps you identify which efforts are helping the student experience and which aren’t, allowing you to make data-driven decisions. It also enables you to adapt your strategies dynamically, continuously improving the student journey as students’ needs continue to evolve.

Intuition and User Testing

As we all know, data alone isn’t enough. Intuition and direct feedback play a crucial role in creating the full picture of your student experience. Conducting user testing sessions in which potential or current students navigate your enrollment process can reveal obstacles that data might not capture. This can be as simple as a conversation or as intricate as a survey.

Additionally, personally walking through each stage of the student journey yourself can provide you with insights into the emotional and practical challenges prospective students face. Think of it as acting like a secret shopper — fill out an inquiry form and see what happens. This method helps you uncover hidden roadblocks that might not be evident from quantitative data alone, adding a human element to your analysis.

Fixing Bottlenecks With ICE Scoring

Now that you’ve got a list of bottlenecks to fix, you need a system to prioritize them. This next critical step ensures that you properly allocate your time and resources. The ICE scoring framework, which stands for impact, confidence, and effort, is a structured approach to evaluating potential fixes and deciding which ones to tackle first.

Impact

The first step, impact, involves evaluating how much a potential fix could enhance the student experience.

Fixes that address issues at the top of the funnel, such as increasing awareness and initial engagement, often get a high score because they can influence the largest number of prospective students. The more qualified prospective students you can get into your enrollment funnel, the more you’re likely to enroll.

By prioritizing high-impact fixes, you can see substantial improvements in overall student engagement and satisfaction.

Confidence

Confidence measures how certain your institution is about the effectiveness of a proposed fix. This assessment is based on evidence from user testing, adherence to best practices, personal experience, and insights from experts in the field.

For example, if you get a large volume of inquiries outside of business hours, you can give a high confidence score to an effort that would engage students at any hour, like Onward or a chatbot.

A high confidence score indicates a strong belief that the fix will achieve the desired outcome, reducing the risk associated with resource allocation. You are more likely to succeed when you base your decisions on robust, tested solutions.

Effort

The final component of the ICE framework is effort, which estimates the time, financial investment, and organizational energy required to implement a fix. This step also considers the level of internal buy-in necessary to move a project forward.

Effort scoring helps you understand the resource demands of each potential fix, allowing you to consider its feasibility against its expected benefits. Implementing a new learning management system (LMS) is a huge project that requires organization-wide input and execution. This equals a high effort score. Refreshing your creative assets? Much less effort.

Prioritizing fixes that require reasonable effort but offer significant impact can lead to more sustainable and effective improvements.

Implementation and Iteration in the Student Experience

Improving the student experience is not a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process that demands continuous attention and optimization. As your institution implements changes, you’ll need to monitor the effects and iteratively refine your efforts based on the outcomes.

Monitoring Results

The first step after implementing any change is to closely monitor the results. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as cost per lead, application melt, enrollment numbers, student retention rates, and satisfaction scores, are a gold mine. Continuous monitoring validates the effectiveness of new strategies and highlights areas that may require further attention.

Rinse and Repeat

Once the initial results are known, the next step is to apply the ICE framework again — this time to any new bottlenecks or existing issues that were deprioritized in earlier rounds. This iterative approach ensures that your resource allocation remains dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs of your students and your institution.

Ready to Improve Your Institution’s Student Experience?

At Archer Education, we understand the transformative power of full-funnel data visibility when you’re improving your student experience. Our commitment to transparency and knowledge sharing drives our partnerships with colleges and universities, helping higher ed leaders and marketers exceed their online learning growth and enrollment goals.

Our experienced team is adept at identifying and addressing the bottlenecks that can hinder student journeys, utilizing strategies like those outlined in this article to maximize impact. By applying the ICE framework, we help institutions prioritize and implement improvements that significantly enhance the student experience.

If you’re ready to transform your student journey and achieve remarkable outcomes, contact our team today, and explore how our offerings can bring your educational goals to fruition.

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September 9, 2024