Mission-Fit Students: Graduate & Seminary Enrollment Marketing

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.520 Student see through US faster today than ever before. Is when we send out 2 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:07.349 marketing. This not authentic. Be True to yourself, be true to your 3 00:00:07.389 --> 00:00:12.789 mission, and you will be blessed in your enrollment. You were listening to 4 00:00:12.869 --> 00:00:17.269 the Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals in higher education. 5 00:00:18.309 --> 00:00:22.780 This show will tackle all sorts of questions related to student recruitment, don'tor relations, 6 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:26.980 marketing trends, new technologies and so much more. If you are looking 7 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:31.100 for conversations centered around where the industry is going, this podcast is for you. 8 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:39.609 Let's get into the show. Welcome to the High Red Marketer podcast. 9 00:00:39.850 --> 00:00:43.250 My name is troy singer and, as always, I'm here with Bart Taylor, 10 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:46.609 my partner in creation. Each week, what we try to do is 11 00:00:46.609 --> 00:00:51.880 identify higher red marketers that we feel that our listeners could learn from, be 12 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.640 entertained from and pull away with a better sense of how to do their job 13 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:02.640 within their daytoday. Today we get to talk to Kevin Bish about Grad school 14 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:07.030 and seminary enrollment marketing. Yeah, Troy, Kevin is a is a friend 15 00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:10.069 of mine that I've known for several years. He's vice president enrollment marketing at 16 00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:15.069 Asbury Seminary in Kentucky and thought we had to bring him on because I have 17 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:18.430 a lot of different folks that are constantly asking me about, you know, 18 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:23.859 the specifics of maybe a Dalton graduate studies or a Dalton Seminary Graduate School type 19 00:01:23.859 --> 00:01:30.019 of marketing. It's going to be different because there's not search campaigns like historically 20 00:01:30.019 --> 00:01:34.010 you might see in traditional Undergrad with sats and acts. It starts to really 21 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:37.250 kind of focus in a little bit more on mission fit and how to really 22 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:42.329 focus in on understanding the the right fit audience that you want to go after, 23 00:01:42.409 --> 00:01:47.159 and so Kevin does a good job of giving us some real tactical elements 24 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:51.319 of how they're achieving that at Asbury and I think there's a lot of really 25 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:53.200 good things for takeaways. Even if you're not a seminary, I would encourage 26 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:57.159 to listen to it because I think that a lot of what he's talking about 27 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:01.069 is relevant for just about any graduate type of program that you might be marketing. 28 00:02:02.269 --> 00:02:09.430 Thank you, Bart. Now for a conversation with Kevin Bish. It's 29 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:15.550 my pleasure to welcome Kevin Bish, vice president of enrollment management and student services 30 00:02:15.590 --> 00:02:21.979 at Asbury theological seminary, to the highered marketer podcast. Welcome, Kevin. 31 00:02:22.659 --> 00:02:27.060 Thank you. Try Glad to be here. Kevin, to frame our conversation 32 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:30.490 for today, if you can tell a little bit about yourself and, more 33 00:02:30.569 --> 00:02:36.650 importantly, about asberry. Sure I've had to privilege of being at Asbury for 34 00:02:36.729 --> 00:02:39.930 about the last twelve years. I was actually one of the first hires that 35 00:02:39.969 --> 00:02:44.879 are new president at that time was Dr Timothy Tenant made, and that was 36 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.960 a strategic hire because of originally there was no vice president of enrollment management at 37 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.319 the seminary and I think that was a neat time where Dr Tennant felt like 38 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:58.949 we needed to have someone who came to work each day and thought about the 39 00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:01.389 enrollment process. So I was one of the first hires that he made and 40 00:03:01.509 --> 00:03:06.669 it's been a real joy to be at the seminary during these last twelve years. 41 00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:10.509 I'm also have a lot of experience in nonprofit management. I've worked around 42 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:15.900 Twenty Eight Plus Years and nonprofit higher education had the opportunity to work a lot 43 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:19.819 in advancement as well as in the enrollment management area. I'm married, got 44 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.860 three great kids and just happy to be with you guys today. Thank you, 45 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:28.090 Kevin, and if you can give us the size of that asberry, 46 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:32.449 and many people probably know this, but it is not an undergraduate school, 47 00:03:32.569 --> 00:03:37.449 it's postgraduate degree. Tell us a little bit about that please. Yeah, 48 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:42.639 correct. So we serve master's degrees as well as doctorate degrees. At the 49 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:46.680 seminary. We roughly we're around eighteen hundred students. As past fall we started 50 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.039 at one seventeen hundred and fifty nine students and the year before we were around 51 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:53.280 eighteen o six, and so we've had steady and growment, enrollment growth over 52 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:57.030 the last seven years, you know, and that's kind of where we've been 53 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:00.750 position. We think we're kind to be staying at that optimal enrollment level of 54 00:04:01.229 --> 00:04:04.669 being around one thousand eighteen hundred mark. That's great, Kevin. I appreciate 55 00:04:04.789 --> 00:04:08.030 being here and I know that we've known each other for a while now and 56 00:04:08.069 --> 00:04:11.500 I just can one of the things I often find when I'm engaging with with 57 00:04:11.939 --> 00:04:14.379 different folks and some of my clients, to be honest with you, as 58 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:18.579 is the challenge there is and really doing marketing high and marketing for for graduate 59 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:23.139 degrees. And I think there's a challenge there because I think so many times 60 00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:27.810 undergraduate have gotten used to being able to purchase lists, you know, sat 61 00:04:28.329 --> 00:04:30.769 you know act lists and being able to do that, and that's obviously been 62 00:04:31.089 --> 00:04:34.449 challenging. And you know, we had James Steen from Houston Baptist on a 63 00:04:34.490 --> 00:04:39.079 few episodes ago talking about kind of going test optional, and so that's going 64 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:43.160 to start to change the landscape for undergrads. But those, those tests and 65 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.800 buying those lists don't necessarily they don't exist necessarily in the Grad world. So 66 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:50.920 tell us a little b about how you how you find mission fit Grad students 67 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:55.550 to to recruit, especially at this size that you are. I mean one 68 00:04:55.550 --> 00:05:00.350 thousand eighteen hundred students. You're you're filling a pretty large incoming class every every 69 00:05:00.430 --> 00:05:03.709 fall. Yeah, we're roughly bringing in around four hundred to five hundred and 70 00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:09.620 fifteen, somewhere in that category, students to maintain that that particular number. 71 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.699 And you know we've talked about this often bart over the years. It is 72 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:15.699 it's a it's a real struggle for us because, you know, just because 73 00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:20.300 someone graduates from an undergraduate institutions with a degree doesn't mean that they're necessary looking 74 00:05:20.339 --> 00:05:26.250 at theological education, and so that's something and my prior life, when I 75 00:05:26.290 --> 00:05:28.730 was working in the undergraduate world. It was great to be able to buy 76 00:05:28.889 --> 00:05:33.170 list and look at sat scores and put different programming together and since of marketing. 77 00:05:33.250 --> 00:05:36.160 But you know, the challenge here is really trying to find that and 78 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:41.480 so you know, there's no one silver bullet or one simple answer other than 79 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.600 we really try to identify what types of students would flourish at our institution and 80 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.189 then and how do we get to them? So, for instance, denominational 81 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:54.029 support is one way we do that. We work with a lot of different 82 00:05:54.069 --> 00:05:58.389 denominations. Matter of fact, Asbury serves around eighty eight different denominations, and 83 00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:01.189 so we work a lot with denominational leaders because a lot of times they know 84 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:06.860 and have their eye on certain individuals that were likely have a high probability at 85 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:11.300 least of coming to seminary. The other thing is our alumni base. You 86 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:15.819 never want to overlook your alumni, your we have over tenzero alumni and they 87 00:06:15.939 --> 00:06:18.089 love their for the most part, love their experience at Asbury and they're a 88 00:06:18.129 --> 00:06:24.050 huge resource for so we track references and referrals and a lot of times will 89 00:06:24.089 --> 00:06:29.810 find our alumni have been a key role in helping us identify future students and 90 00:06:29.930 --> 00:06:32.600 I think that sometimes even as you're bringing those four five hundred students in, 91 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:36.920 and especially from a theological and seminary education. I mean a lot of these 92 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.279 people are being called by God to come and do do their education, but 93 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.319 some of them might be a little hazy on what that call might look like 94 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:48.189 and where that is. How do you guys help even in the recruitment process, 95 00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:50.550 because I'm sure that there are some people are like, well, I 96 00:06:50.589 --> 00:06:54.509 kind of feel calling, but I'm not sure you know that. That's a 97 00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:57.069 little bit different than saying I kind of feel like going college but I'm not 98 00:06:57.149 --> 00:07:00.269 sure. I mean, how do you kind of help? How's your admissions 99 00:07:00.269 --> 00:07:02.379 team in your marketing help with that? Yeah, that's a million dollar question 100 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:05.620 there. You know, one of the things that's really challenging is the age 101 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:10.220 spectrum on which we work. So we have those students that are fresh outs, 102 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:12.540 are Undergrad twenty three, twenty four years old, and then we go 103 00:07:12.699 --> 00:07:15.170 clear up into our six these and so that's a wide spectrum. We also 104 00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:19.490 see a large bivocational group. A lot of them maybe already be in ministry 105 00:07:19.569 --> 00:07:24.250 and just looking for credentialing at some level. So that's a much different approach. 106 00:07:24.290 --> 00:07:27.889 But let's just focus on the younger younger students day, those students that 107 00:07:27.930 --> 00:07:31.199 are just out of their Undergrad and are challenge with that. We identified real 108 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:36.319 quick when I started at the institution that a lot of time students knew that 109 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:41.680 seminary, they had to attend seminary if they were serious about going into ministry, 110 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:46.269 especially working for one of the mainline denominations. But that what we found 111 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:48.629 out very quickly. They were struggling with was that call that you were talking 112 00:07:48.670 --> 00:07:53.430 about and they're trying to figure out if we could answer their calling component, 113 00:07:53.990 --> 00:07:57.629 for instance, then we could overcome a lot of the obstacles that would prevent 114 00:07:57.709 --> 00:08:01.180 them potentially of not coming to the seminary. So we talked about inform of 115 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:05.860 a missional enrollment and we talked about the ideal student and we're just really trying 116 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:11.100 to identify what we think are the attributes, in characteristics of a student that 117 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:16.050 would thrive at the institution, and so we start with that in mind. 118 00:08:16.209 --> 00:08:20.689 We do a lot of different exercises. Actually don't draw stick figure of a 119 00:08:20.769 --> 00:08:24.529 person on the wall and we talked about if you can't use words and only 120 00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:28.600 pictures describe the type of person that we're looking for at the seminary. So, 121 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.519 for instance, a lot of times you'll see ears, you know, 122 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:35.080 drawn on the person. So they have ears to hear what's going on around 123 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:37.519 them. They have a heart of service for God, so draw a heart. 124 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.350 They'll have big shoes on. They have feet to walk out what God's 125 00:08:41.389 --> 00:08:43.669 calling him to do. And so then we take that and we lay that 126 00:08:43.750 --> 00:08:48.470 into the recruitment and our marketing plan then saying what are those key things that 127 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:52.830 we want to translate? If you have these types of attributes, you're heading 128 00:08:52.870 --> 00:08:56.379 done that right track of being someone that could come to Asbury and have an 129 00:08:56.419 --> 00:09:01.740 amazing experience and thrive there. It's it doesn't do us any good to bring 130 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:05.940 in students that's going to struggle with who we are want first and foremost, 131 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:09.169 but then struggle continually struggle with who they are and are calling with God's placed 132 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:11.610 on our life. So we try to do a lot of stuff with that 133 00:09:11.850 --> 00:09:16.850 up front. Our Roman advisors are a little bit different their recruiters, but 134 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:22.289 they also continue on as their academic advisor. So we eliminate one of those 135 00:09:22.330 --> 00:09:26.759 handoffs that usually happens in the traditional model where the recruiter goes out on the 136 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:31.840 road meets with them and then then they turn them over to the academic advisor 137 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.679 and there's that odd handoff where they're the recruiter knows everything about them and the 138 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.830 advisor knows a little bit about them but not enough to really make that connection. 139 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:43.470 So we've taken that out of there, and so the recruiter and the 140 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:50.149 enrollment or the advisor is the same individual, and so we've eliminated that awkward 141 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:54.620 handoff and what we've seen is a much higher retention rate, especially past those 142 00:09:54.659 --> 00:10:00.340 first initial fifteen hours, because of the connection of relationship. And so when 143 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:01.820 they get into their first class and they say man, this is hard and 144 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:05.940 I thought it was going to be more difficult, we focus back on the 145 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:11.009 relationship component it and that seems to really help with the calling component and they 146 00:10:11.049 --> 00:10:13.769 can say now you know when I talk to you back and whatever will. 147 00:10:13.769 --> 00:10:18.929 We were talking about events and such, or you're calling. You said this 148 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:22.600 to me. Did that change? And a lot of times we know you're 149 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:24.759 right. Thanks for that call out. I really appreciate it. Yeah, 150 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:28.919 that's great. I think that that. We had nate Simpson from the Gates 151 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:33.200 Foundation on a couple weeks ago and he was talking about the I forget how 152 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:37.750 he described it, but just the the travesty sometimes where we try it. 153 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:39.629 We work so hard to get a student in and then, like you said, 154 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:43.710 a lot of times those handoffs or fumbled or things happen and we really 155 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:48.950 end up losing them from retention, from other from a whole host of reasons. 156 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:50.500 So I really like that idea of being able to kind of have the 157 00:10:50.580 --> 00:10:54.379 same recruiter and then turning into advisor for those students. That really I'm sure 158 00:10:54.419 --> 00:10:58.059 that does kind of build that bridge. And so just one last question. 159 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:01.259 I'm thinking about just kind of finding these mission fit Grad students. Is the 160 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:05.289 idea we talked a little bit before the recording, with the idea of, 161 00:11:05.570 --> 00:11:07.970 you know, I was I was looking at your website if a few weeks 162 00:11:07.970 --> 00:11:11.809 ago with another client, a very small seminary, just trying to help them 163 00:11:11.850 --> 00:11:15.690 understand the importance of, you know, the way that you want to present 164 00:11:15.730 --> 00:11:18.720 your tuition information. I was I was impressed with the way that Asbury does 165 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.720 their tuition presentation on the website. I'm not going to go into too many 166 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:26.279 details on that, but I think that there are elements in the marketing that 167 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:31.600 you're doing whether it's the way that you're presenting your tuition so that people understand 168 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.149 you compared to other markets and cost of living and things like that. There's 169 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:39.149 beyond just the tuition but also just you've made a comment about you know, 170 00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:41.950 you're basing a lot of the decisions on your marketing and you've just already outlined 171 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:45.629 that a little bit with the mission fit student. But you're basing a lot 172 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:48.379 of that of just understanding the market and the context of where these students are 173 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:52.460 and what's around them. Maybe talk a little bit about that. Yeah, 174 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:56.779 well, we realize most of the students that are looking at Asbury there we 175 00:11:56.899 --> 00:12:01.610 have used a one of two categories, and usually the first categories they're fully 176 00:12:01.649 --> 00:12:05.250 committed to come to Asbury. They went to a particular church in the pastor 177 00:12:05.610 --> 00:12:09.889 that's that happened to be the pastor there's and Asbury graduate or there are some 178 00:12:11.049 --> 00:12:13.490 other connection to an alum or a board member or maybe a book that a 179 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:18.000 faculty member wrote. And that doesn't mean we don't want to market to them 180 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:20.799 and still communicate with them. It just means it's maybe a little bit different, 181 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.240 almost like an insider approach versus an outsider approach. But then we know 182 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.399 we have this other group that says they're like we talked about, they're struggling 183 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.509 with that call of God on their life and they know they need to go 184 00:12:31.590 --> 00:12:33.990 to seminary and they may not even know a whole lot about seminary and they 185 00:12:35.070 --> 00:12:37.750 just know it's a graduate program. But what does that all on tail? 186 00:12:37.830 --> 00:12:39.509 And so those are types some of the things that you know, when we're 187 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:43.190 looking at so okay, so what do they need to hear from us in 188 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:46.419 regards to making these types of decisions? We sure don't want it to come 189 00:12:46.460 --> 00:12:50.019 down just a simple tuition pricing. You know, of course we need to 190 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:54.820 talk about that. They need to know what what the return under investments going 191 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:56.860 to be? How much is it going to cost them? What's the time 192 00:12:56.980 --> 00:12:58.929 commitment? How many hours is it going to take? But we also want 193 00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:01.649 to talk about the whole process. You know, we take a lot of 194 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:05.850 pride at the institution talking about formation, for instance. A lot of schools 195 00:13:05.889 --> 00:13:11.009 talk about formation, but we take a really deep dive into the formational approach 196 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:13.360 at Asbury. So we want to talk a lot about that. We're just 197 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:18.360 right now in the process of making some really big moves and talking about the 198 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.679 whole person formation. So just not just the academic side or not just a 199 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:28.110 spiritual side, but also that professional side is one area, because we understand 200 00:13:28.149 --> 00:13:31.870 that that's becoming something of a big reality to them when they leave the seminary, 201 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:35.549 as they want to know more about how to lead the church from even 202 00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:41.019 as this perspective great, and I think the exercise that you referred to before, 203 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:46.940 the stick figure and finding that ideal student, that's also something that probably 204 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:52.139 benefits the student and as you're trying to identify that student's mission statement why they 205 00:13:52.179 --> 00:13:56.169 are there, can you tell us a little bit about your philosophy and approach 206 00:13:56.250 --> 00:14:01.289 and how that helps in the long run with the students that come to Asbury? 207 00:14:01.970 --> 00:14:05.809 Well, I think anytime you start answering their questions and tearing down barriers 208 00:14:05.970 --> 00:14:11.279 that they have, it just makes the decision process that much easier and I 209 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:13.039 think it also makes it that much clearer that they know they're making the right 210 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.799 decision in that so we spend again, we try to spend as much one 211 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:20.639 on one time with them. We try to drive students to campus. You 212 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.429 know, just like most campus visitation programs, you'll get eighty five to ninety 213 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:30.190 percent easily if they come to empus and actually see the product and get to 214 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:33.149 experience the classroom and go to one of our chapel services. You know, 215 00:14:33.190 --> 00:14:37.549 again, we have a rich community at Asbury, especially in our residential campus 216 00:14:37.659 --> 00:14:41.980 in Willmore Kentucky, but also, you know, we're looking to how they 217 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:45.539 implement that even more in our extension sites and even in the online environment, 218 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:50.259 especially today with all this zoom technology and some of the advances that covid did 219 00:14:50.659 --> 00:14:54.009 and provided to us. Is it we're trying to be more facetoface and more 220 00:14:54.090 --> 00:14:58.970 relational and how we communicate. Try to use some of our customer relation management 221 00:14:58.049 --> 00:15:03.610 software and some of our other techniques to just really over communicate a lot with 222 00:15:03.730 --> 00:15:07.399 students about what's important to them. We just finished a call book actually is 223 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:13.399 another part of our why where it actually it's a particular passage of scripture that 224 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.240 we're using. Then we have a factor. We ever talked about that in 225 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:20.759 the sense of calling, but then we also have a real life testimony of 226 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:24.789 somebody that that particular passage fits perfectly in to the calling that they have on 227 00:15:24.870 --> 00:15:30.909 their life and why they selected Asbury in that decisionmaking process. So we're getting 228 00:15:30.909 --> 00:15:33.429 ready to launch that, hopefully here by the end of the month. That's 229 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:39.659 great and I know we'd also been talking about you. Obviously you talked about 230 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:43.379 your your tenure there Asbury, but there's Asbury has been around for a while. 231 00:15:43.379 --> 00:15:46.299 I'm get coming up on a hundred years. So tell us a little 232 00:15:46.299 --> 00:15:48.860 bit about you know a lot of schools are kind of celebrating milestones different areas 233 00:15:48.940 --> 00:15:52.809 like that, but how are you planning on leveraging that in your recruitment, 234 00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:56.330 in your messaging? I think there's different ways to do that. I'm just 235 00:15:56.450 --> 00:15:58.370 curious if you can tell us that. I mean maybe it's a secret, 236 00:15:58.409 --> 00:16:00.929 but you can tell a little bit. Well, some of it's probably a 237 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:03.799 secret, but but a lot of it's just good, good practice. I 238 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:08.559 think so because of the obviously we're at an ex higher it institution and we 239 00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:12.399 walk off an academic year. It actually falls on the next year, two 240 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:17.519 thousand and twenty to twenty three year, but the actual celebration or the actual 241 00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:19.909 Hundred Years Actually two thousand and twenty three. But I've also been in the 242 00:16:19.990 --> 00:16:25.070 process of redoing our view book. We're making some changes to our website and 243 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:29.350 we're also creating some what I call lobby banners for each one of our sites 244 00:16:29.470 --> 00:16:33.820 and we're already starting to do some teaser so speak, in our legacy to 245 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:37.259 talk about the hundred years. And then June of next year then we'll watch 246 00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:41.980 really heavy into a fullblown kind of campaign around the hundred year celebration. But 247 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:45.220 the idea is, though, obviously it's a big deal for a seminary to 248 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:48.370 be around for a hundred years and to be thriving at this in this season, 249 00:16:48.450 --> 00:16:52.169 and so we're really excited about telling our story but, more importantly, 250 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:56.490 bringing along a lot of people who have come alongside us over the years, 251 00:16:56.929 --> 00:17:00.649 and and so that's going to be with board members and alumni from around the 252 00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:03.200 world. We're actually got to be doing a lot of different types of events. 253 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:07.480 Some of them will actually will be global as well as here locally, 254 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.599 and the idea is a lot of it's probably more branding than it is actual 255 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.680 recruitment, but of course you know they're interconnected at some level. You can't 256 00:17:15.710 --> 00:17:18.710 discard one from the other. So we're real excited about the hundred years. 257 00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:22.549 Dr Ten. Then it's spending a lot of time and investment and putting that 258 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:26.470 together he's fully committed to that. It will also be celebrating the wrap up 259 00:17:26.509 --> 00:17:32.980 of our comprehensive campaign at the same time. So we're celebrating our enrollment, 260 00:17:33.019 --> 00:17:36.900 we're going to be celebrating the wrap up of our comprehensive campaign and then we'll 261 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:41.299 be celebrating all that together as part of the hundred year celebration. That's great 262 00:17:41.339 --> 00:17:44.289 and I love the fact that you mentioned that it's going to be a three 263 00:17:44.329 --> 00:17:48.289 year celebration. I remember, I don't remember when it was, but it 264 00:17:48.329 --> 00:17:52.849 was either Disney or Mickey or something like that. I mean they have always 265 00:17:52.890 --> 00:17:55.089 done that. It's like, you know, you start a year before and 266 00:17:55.130 --> 00:17:59.039 kind of build it up that year of you celebrate that and then the following 267 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.000 year you continue to celebrate it until the next one. And so, you 268 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:04.240 know, if schools have that coming up, I would encourage them to think 269 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:07.319 that way. And then I love the fact too, that either end or 270 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:11.910 start a capital campaign around those major milestones. To a is another another tactic 271 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:15.190 that I've seen in high had marketing that works really well. So very good. 272 00:18:15.230 --> 00:18:19.069 Yeah, that was that was actually part of our strategic plan as well. 273 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:22.190 So, in other words, when Dr Tenne came here. That was 274 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:25.630 the first thing we did and we had the we look down the road that 275 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:29.140 far about ten years ago and said this is what we want the end resolve 276 00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:32.220 to be and it was a capstone around the hundred year anniversary. That's great, 277 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:36.539 very good. As we wrap up the episode, Kevin, we always 278 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:40.579 ask the question, is there a thought or maybe a quick tip that you 279 00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:47.769 can leave your fellow marketers or enrollment executives with that you feel that to be 280 00:18:47.849 --> 00:18:52.690 either immediately implemented or a thought that they could take away that will make a 281 00:18:52.769 --> 00:18:56.000 difference in their day to day yeah, I probably leave it with a thought. 282 00:18:56.039 --> 00:19:00.240 I love a there's a Zig zigler quote that I love. It says 283 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:03.559 if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time, and I think 284 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:07.440 that's really important to people enrollment manage today. I mean we're living in a 285 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:11.990 disruptive environment more than ever before and, you know, being doing this as 286 00:19:11.029 --> 00:19:15.190 long as I have, we used to say the ball of education roll slowly 287 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:18.910 and change and adaption, and now it's really rolling at box speed and so 288 00:19:18.309 --> 00:19:22.390 you know, I'd really encourage people, instead of trying to do the shotgun 289 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:26.380 approach and going after everything, really become a focused right for or laser and 290 00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:32.299 focus on what you're good at and be authentic about it. One thing studency 291 00:19:32.460 --> 00:19:34.980 through US faster today than ever before is when we send out marketing. This 292 00:19:36.180 --> 00:19:38.690 not authentic. Be True to yourself, be true to your mission, and 293 00:19:40.289 --> 00:19:42.809 you will be blessed in your enrollment. That is wonderful and thank you so 294 00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:48.289 much for the blessings that you gave us few your time and your talent and 295 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:51.890 wisdom today, Kevin. If someone would like to reach out to you for 296 00:19:52.009 --> 00:19:55.640 any reason, will be the best way for them to do so? Yeah, 297 00:19:55.640 --> 00:19:57.519 I think the probably the best one to be just my email at Kevin 298 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:03.720 Dot bish bish at asbury seminary dot Edu. Thank you, Kevin. You're 299 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:08.349 welcome, barn. Do you have any closing comments? Yeah, I just 300 00:20:08.390 --> 00:20:11.309 wanted to point out a couple things that Kevin said just for everybody to kind 301 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:15.829 of think about or either go back and view it again listen to it again. 302 00:20:15.910 --> 00:20:18.950 But just this whole idea of really being able to take a look at 303 00:20:18.990 --> 00:20:22.819 how mission fit is working for your campus, whether you're an Undergrad, whether 304 00:20:22.859 --> 00:20:26.940 you're a seminary graduate school. You're really going to go after those mission fit 305 00:20:26.059 --> 00:20:29.740 and you know, one of the things word that Kevin didn't use, but 306 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:34.259 obviously the stick figure was a persona exercise figuring out who your personas are, 307 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:38.930 who you're going to market to, understand their attributes and their traits and then 308 00:20:40.170 --> 00:20:44.130 really, you know, develop your messaging and all of your voice around that 309 00:20:44.250 --> 00:20:47.569 so that that really attracts them. And I also like the fact of what 310 00:20:47.650 --> 00:20:51.279 they're doing with the calling book. You know, there's questions their perspective, 311 00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:56.079 students are asking, and so I'm a big believer and in Jay bear and 312 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:59.240 the book utility, where he really outlines the fact that, you know, 313 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.630 those those organizations that tell people provide answers to the questions that people have, 314 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:07.349 are where you're going to see success. And so what Kevin and Asbury are 315 00:21:07.349 --> 00:21:11.150 doing and basically saying people have a lot of question about their calling. So 316 00:21:11.269 --> 00:21:15.150 if we can provide them answers around that, that's not only going to endure 317 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:18.859 them to us and our brand, but it's also going to help them along 318 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:22.579 their path, whether they choose to come to to Asbury or not. And 319 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:25.059 then, finally, I really love the idea of, you know, thinking 320 00:21:25.099 --> 00:21:27.500 creatively and outside of the box, of using your recruiters to also be your 321 00:21:27.980 --> 00:21:33.730 your advisers moving forward. The relationships today are so critical and I think as 322 00:21:33.769 --> 00:21:40.730 we move down the generations from boomer to xt millennials to to Z, that 323 00:21:41.210 --> 00:21:45.730 that importance of relationship gets even tighter. You know, it's kind of funny 324 00:21:45.730 --> 00:21:48.960 because I think people always joked about while you've got, you know, five 325 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:52.880 thousand facebook friends, but I think even more today relationships, because we have 326 00:21:53.240 --> 00:21:57.039 so many ways to do them, are becoming even more true when they're authentic, 327 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.680 and I think that was another term that Kevin us. So those are 328 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:03.470 just a couple thoughts that I have just to kind of wrap everything up, 329 00:22:03.029 --> 00:22:07.069 way to put an exclamation point on it. Thanks again, Bart Kevin. 330 00:22:07.509 --> 00:22:11.269 Look forward to seeing you in the future. That wraps up another episode of 331 00:22:11.309 --> 00:22:15.579 the High Ed Marketer Podcast, which is brought to you by Klo Solutions, 332 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:22.380 which is an education the marketing branding agency and, by think patented. We 333 00:22:22.539 --> 00:22:29.859 are a marketing execution company specializing in printing and mailing for Higher Ed marketers. 334 00:22:30.289 --> 00:22:33.970 On behalf of my cohost, Bart Kaylor, I am choice singer. Thank 335 00:22:33.009 --> 00:22:40.130 you for joining us. You've been listening to the Higher Ed Marketer to ensure 336 00:22:40.170 --> 00:22:44.359 that you never miss an episode subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player, 337 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:48.480 if you're listening with apple podcasts. We'd love for you to leave a 338 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.039 quick rating of the show. Simply tap the number of stars you think the 339 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:53.559 podcast deserves. Until next time,