By Jeremy Tiers, Senior Director of Admissions Services
3 minute read
Part of being an effective territory manager involves becoming a more creative problem-solver.
For example, over the past couple of years we’ve seen more students, for a variety of reasons, visit a smaller number of schools, or delay a visit until they’ve been admitted and received their financial aid package.
Knowing how important the “feel” of campus is in a student’s decision-making process – according to Tudor Collegiate Strategies research it remains the most influential factor for the majority – you have to come up with different ways to showcase campus to your admitted students and create an emotional connection.
Videos from current students that get posted on social media and a college’s website or admitted student microsite have proven to be effective.
Today I have another strategy for you to consider – Offer to give a live 1-on-1 campus tour on a video platform like FaceTime or Skype.
For admitted but undecided students, this is a way to visually connect the dots around different things they’ve read about online, or in various messaging throughout the year.
When it comes to who gives the campus tour, a student tour guide or ambassador is ideal, but the admitted student’s admissions counselor is also effective.
Here are some other keys to a successful experience:
- Collaborate with the prospective student ahead of time to make the video tour feel more personal. Ask them one or two things they’re most interested in seeing based on their interests and intended major.
- Make sure it’s a back and forth conversation, which means the person leading the tour needs to be genuine, relaxed, and conversational, not robotic, scripted, and formal.
- Show more, and talk less. They don’t need to see everything. Aim for quality over quantity.
- Half the time you can be on your phone or iPad talking to the student directly, and the other half you can be pointing the camera the other direction and showing them campus, the dorms, classrooms, and other key spots and resources that positively impact your student experience.
- If you do have a counselor leading the video tour, be sure and find a way to have the prospective student talk to one of your current students – ideally a student in the same major, or someone with a similar interest or background to the prospective student.
- 45 minutes to an hour is sufficient.
- At the end of the video tour, be prepared to one or two direct questions with the goal of discovering the impact of the tour and what (if anything) the student would like to see happen next prior to making their decision.
While nothing can completely replicate an in-person visit, many of our college partners have found that offering to coordinate a personal 1-on-1 video tour makes the student feel important and valued. It also helps to fill in many of the gaps and leaves the student feeling like they have a better feel for what it would be like on campus.
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