February 5, 2012

LeadsCon discount to ForProfitEDU.com Members!

For-Profit-Education Group Members,

LeadsCon Las Vegas 2012 is just six weeks away (February 28th and 29th). We were once again able to secure a special group discount of $200 off the current price and more than $400 off the on-site price.

In addition to two full days of conference sessions and networking, along with two receptions and a VIP after party, this year’s LeadsCon offers a few other goodies – a buyer’s only summit taking place on Monday, February 27th, and LeadsCon Playback – online access to sessions and interviews after the show available to all attendees.

—————————————–
* Check out the Full Conference Program *
—————————————–
Two full days of relevant and timely sessions:
http://leadscon.com/leadscon-las-vegas-2012/full-conference-program/

—————————
* View the Exhibitor List *
—————————
Your tickets gets you into the expo, along with all sessions and networking events:
http://leadscon.com/leadscon-las-vegas-2012/exhibitor-list/

—————————————
* See the List of Companies Attending *
—————————————
More than 500 have already signed up:
http://leadscon.com/leadscon-las-vegas-2012/companies-attending/

———————–
* Buyer’s Only Summit *
———————–
Exclusive content with no sellers, aggregators, or vendors:
http://leadscon.com/leadscon-las-vegas-2012/buyers-summit/

————
* SAVE BIG *
————
You MUST use this link in order to save. Registering through LeadsCon.com will result in you paying more:
http://leadscon.com/special-discount-for-profit-education-group/

(Offer valid on new registrations only. No refunds on existing registrations, but select cases will receive credit towards a future event. While supplies last. You MUST use this link above in order to save.)

We look forward to seeing you there!

CareerMotivations today announces it’s free assessment service for students and career changers

 

 

 

November 29, 2011

CareerMotivations today announces it’s free assessment service for students and career changers.   We provide a best in class validated assessment that helps prospective students determine career paths & college degrees which best fit their personal interests & motivations.  Combining a proven, reliable, fully validated assessment with the US Govt’s O’net, BLS & CIP code data allows us to provide an in-depth snapshot into one’s personal interests & motivations aligned with Career Path’s and associated College Degree programs.   Most agree that those who make well informed educational decisions are more likely to be students with higher retention, graduation & placement rates.
It’s about outcomes, we strive to ensure a Win – Win relationship between the student and the college.  Often students do not understand their motivations and therefore enroll in a path that leads to a lack of interest & boredom; when that occurs, the commitment vanishes and ultimately they drop out.  Since colleges are looking to improve outcomes and students are looking for guidance as to what’s right for them, CareerMotivations assessment provides that.
For Students: If you are a student or a working professional who is pursuing or advancing a degree, CareerMotivation’s online assessment can help you choose a specific degree that will lead you to your desired career path based on your personal motivations and interests. Selecting the right career path along with the associated degree program is an important step in reaching your future career planning, goals & success. Your personal career assessment will reveal your skills, interests, learning styles and motivation. The results are mapped to career & degree information which can be used as your guide for career development.
Solutions for Colleges: Colleges can offer the assessment to their prospective students  allowing both the student and the admissions reps to make a more informed decision.  We can map your college’s specific degree programs to the results allowing both admissions & prospective students to see which of your schools programs they are best suited for.  When you reach out to prospective students you can establish a value proposition and a trusted relationship with them & their families. The assessment when offered by your school will reinforce the importance of the decision they are looking to make and show them that you have their best interest in mind. What better way to establish a relationship of trust than by offering them a Free Career Assessment- one that helps them identify which career & educational path’s are available at your college is right for them. Advertising a Free Career Motivations assessment can also help attract new students, yield significant return with your recirc’s and reduce acquisition costs of students. Think of the relationship you establish with the prospective student and family when your admissions representative sits down with them to go over their results and helps them plan for their future and achieve their goals & desires.

Solutions for Call Center & Lead providers:

Lead providers can utilize a private labeled or co-branded version of the CareerMotivations assessment to increase lead generation volume and reduce the cost of prospect acquisition.  The registration can be customized to collect the data fields you require prior to users being able to take the assessment.  The registrations can be posted directly to your lead management system or dialer.  CareerMotivations believes the value of a lead who has taken an assessment is significantly higher than a lead alone.

 

About

CareerMotivations is an educational services company that specializes in providing interactive assessment solutions to secondary, post-secondary institutions and individuals. By capitalizing on proven techniques to determine a person’s educational and career motivations, we help identify mutually beneficial relationships between a student and their desired education and career path.

For more information on CareerMotivations services please visit www.careermotivations.com

 

Press Contact:

 

http://www.careermotivations.com/students/contact-us/

or email us at info (@) ffventures.com

Address:
14 Vervalen Street
Closter, New Jersey 07624

Phone: 201-564-7651
Fax: 201-215-0751

 

The Misrepresentation Rule and Third- Party Vendors

 


So many colleges have asked us for guidance on compliance and misrepresentation especially around the use of third party vendors.  While we are happy to discuss with you individually we wanted to share the following from APSCU:

Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (“APSCU”) has put out a memorandum giving guidance for the Misrepresentation rule and Third party vendors.

Internet brings many assets to higher education. As with multiple other industries, however, the misuse of the Internet can have harmful consequences for consumers and organizations. With the possibility of so many different entities involved in online student recruitment, APSCU felt it both appropriate and important to provide its members with this guidance.

Click Here to view Memo

Many lead providers note lack of Demand for leads by large schools

 

demand for education leads

After many discussions with some of the top aggregators & lead providers it became clear that most noted a lack in demand by the major schools.  This softness in demand seems to be continuing from the first 8 months of the year by the major EDU players. Not all lead providers indicating lack of demand, a select few of the highest quality providers tell us that the demand for their leads (even at the higher prices) continues to be strong.

Vendors have noted schools being slow to test new campaigns, delays in providing campaign approvals, and restrictions pertaining to taking on new partners/affiliates.

For most schools the demand for leads softened last year and has continued thus far this year.  Many site internal changes, program changes, more emphasis on direct acquisition, branding compliance fears as well as internal admissions process changes.

It looks like supply has outpaced demand of EDU leads in the current market environment.  Now lets hope the schools continue to cut out the poor converting providers and test new higher quality ones.  If you are a school looking for top quality lead providers visit www.forprofitedu.com  and contact us for a free list.

A call with an industry short fund

 

Last week we spent some time on the phone with a well-known industry short fund.  We discussed the industry as a whole, as well as specific issues facing the industry which were behind their premise that shorting the industry was a good play for the next few years. Topics such as gainful employment, new compensation rules, default rates and the power of non-profit brands extending into the online education were the main points.  Gainful employment in conjunction with 90/10 is in our opinion a biased illogical political move to hinder the growth of one industry segment for profit schools to the benefit of another nonprofit schools.  If the rule is sound & logical, why wouldn’t it

be industry wide, the answer is clear, it’s not a well thought out rule.  If the traditional colleges had to live within gainful employment you would see far fewer lawyers, doctors, economists, political scientists (maybe that’s a good thing) philosophers, literary scholars, teachers, artists, theorists etc.  Who’s going to fill the entry level positions?  Aren’t they stepping stones?  We guess they will be filled by graduates of traditional colleges with English, Liberal Arts & Art history degrees whose $200,000+ education clearly provided them with such a solid and relevant foundation.  Default rates, well they need to be managed, schools need to ensure that the engagement & value their student receive from the education provided them is compelling.  We need to utilize assessment to make sure students enter program they have real interest and a likelihood of success in.  And we need to screen for and provide the remedial assistance necessary for students to be able to be successful in their education.  Will the industry be able to manage them successfully, YES.  As for the value of brands, this is a topic which has been discussed for many years.

 

 

We all know a brand is valuable.  We all know having a brand is a huge advantage and can significantly reduce the marketing costs of student recruitment.  But the big caveat is “can”.  Most traditional colleges significantly lack the admissions infrastructure and wiliness to adapt as necessary to be competitive to succeed in the fast paced world of online  education.  The partnerships between traditional colleges and for profit enterprises have proven that they can work and achieve fast growth, but those are still few in number.  The real questions is when will we see an influx of these partnerships, and how much of an effect will they have on the for-profit EDU industry>

 

Special Discount for Leadscon to For-Profit EDU group Members

discount on leadscon

For-

Profit-

Educatio

n Group Members,

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to make plans for LeadsCon East 2011, August 24 and 25 in New York City.

Every show is a who’s who of customer acquisition and inquiry generation. This year is no exception, and with the sweeping changes taking place in the for-profit-education sector, never has attending LeadsCon East been more timely or valuable.

As we try to do at each show, we have organized a special group discount of $150 off the current price and more than $300 off the on-site price. The past two LeadsCon East shows have sold out so don’t delay.

—————————
* View the Exhibitor List *
—————————
Your tickets gets you into the expo, along with all sessions and networking events:
http://bit.ly/nJVila

—————————————–
* Check out the Full Conference Program *
—————————————–
Two full days of relevant and timely sessions:
http://bit.ly/nlKwiH

—————————————
* See the List of Companies Attending *
—————————————
More than 400 have already signed up:
http://bit.ly/n9HrBp

————
* SAVE BIG *
————
You MUST use this link in order to save. Registering through LeadsCon.com will result in you paying more:
http://bit.ly/ncJLgGhttp://www.leadscon.com/special-discount-for-profit-education-group-members.html

(Offer valid on new registrations only. No refunds on existing registrations. While supplies last. You MUST use this link above in order to save.)

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

a Special opportunity for a Free trial of CareerMotivations Assessment

education assessments

 

 

 

ForProfitEdu.com is pleased to announce a Special opportunity for a Free trial of the CareerMotivations Assessment for its Members.  This opportunity is open to the first 10 Colleges that inquire and get started.  CareerMotivations is a fully validated assessment (University of Minnesota did the validation study) and over 7,000,000++ have taken the assessment.  In essence a person takes the assessment and it tells them which career paths (US govt. data Onet) they are most motivated to enjoy & succeed in.  It provides them with their learning styles, motivational qualities & which corresponding degree programs (available at your colleges) are a best match for them based on Govt. CIP code (Classification of Instructional Programs). It also provides the most recent Government data as to the career description, the employment outlook for that career path, related career paths, as well as salary information.

 

The tool is customized for each school/system, CareerMotivations enters all of the schools specific programs (CIP codes) and the school tells us what questions to ask on the registration (this becomes a valuable lead).  Then the user takes the assessment and when completed they can see the matches to each of the school’s programs as well as all of the government descriptions around each of them.   The report data is incredibly easy to understand yet detailed and the relationship & trust the admissions representative can have with the potential student and family is unmatched.   In essence, it provides a new low cost means of generating interested students, a strong bond and value created with admissions and a greater likelihood the student enrolls in the correct program (thus more likely to graduate), not to mention it shows the world that the school cares about each student individually and makes efforts to help the student make wise choices with accurate information.

 

Additional benefits over time include the ability to identify specific motivational traits & learning styles which tend to align with students who graduate as well as those students who drop.  Once these are identified, schools can utilize this information on intake to determine the appropriate degree path for the student and which ones may need additional attention from student management to help them graduate.

 

Schools thus far, have been interested in adding this to their website for increased inquiry generation, utilization in recirculation email campaigns to regenerate students from old leads and in social media & TV advertising to increase return on their advertising.

 

If you are interested in the Free Trial please contact us: http://www.careermotivations.com/contact-us/

 

CareerMotivations and ForprofitEDu are non related entities, if your firm has a special offer for the 5000+ member of forprofitedu.com group please contact us

 

Transparency

transparency in lead generationWith all that’s going on with regards to compliance and schools taking more and more time to be selective in who they work with, will aggregators eventually give in to transparency?  This topic is one of many heated discussions.  I have been to multiple edu marketing  panels with the who’s who of the major edu aggregators and it seems to be split.  Some of them say that if forced to they will come around and identify all of their sources, others however refuse to and say they will never disclose every source for their leads.  They believe their lead quality speaks for itself and don’t believe transparency is necessary.   Well these firmare very protective of their sources and they do not want to be open for cannibalization, but if there is some type of vendor protection why can’t there be complete transparency.  Some believe its because of the use of call center generated leads which continue to be tossed into the pile of Internet generated leads for many of the lead providers both at the top and bottom of the food chain.  I think schools have the right to know where the leads are comming from PROVIDED they protect the lead sources from their vendors, non-circumvention, non-disclosure etc should help provide this protection.  Many of the most astute schools will agree to this in order to get the transparency they want.  What do you think?

Debate Over Pay for Overseas Recruiters

college recruiters

A dirty secret used heavily by traditional colleges and unknown to many is now coming under pressure.

Interesting article from the Chronicle on the debate over paying recruiter fees for students.  Overseas recruiting practices coming into scrutiny.

The long-simmering debate over the ethics of paying overseas student recruiters is threatening to boil over.

American colleges could be forced to choose between contracting with international-recruitment agents, who supporters say are a critical conduit for students in an increasingly crowded global education market, and maintaining their standing in the primary U.S. membership organization for admissions officials. That group, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, released a proposed policy statement last month, which, if approved by its members, would expressly forbid colleges from using commission-based agents to recruit domestically or internationally. Colleges that do could be subject to sanctions.

At the annual meeting here this week of Nafsa: Association of International Educators, the admissions group’s potential policy change is being received uneasily by college officials and overseas counselors alike. Hundreds of conferencegoers packed a Tuesday afternoon session on overseas recruiting.

The proposed policy would not ban the use of all private-sector recruiters abroad. Rather, it would prohibit American colleges from paying overseas agents on a per-student basis. That practice already is illegal in the United States, and the change would bring domestic and international policy in line.

Interesting how the traditional are so quick to comment negatively on the recruiting practices of the for profits in the US while they pay fees for international students.

view article in its entirety at the Chronicle:  http://chronicle.com/article/Debate-Over-Pay-for-Overseas/127730/

Tom Ferrara to moderate Education panel at BMO Marketing Conference

June 2, 2011

Join us for our 3rd annual conference showcasing leading companies in the Advertising & Marketing Services sector. The conference will focus on trends in technology and consumer behavior and their impact.

3rd annual advertising & marketing services conference Grand Hyatt • Park Avenue at Grand Central • New York City

Education Marketing Moderator: Tom Ferrara, Creator of ForProfitEDU.com & CEO of FF Ventures

Ad Venture Interactive, Mike McHugh, COO

Avenue100 Media Solutions, Brian Eberman, CEO

EducationDynamics, Steve Issac,Co-Founder & Senior Advisor

The CollegeBound Network, Greg O’Brien, CEO

Link to the Agenda:  http://www.bmocm.com/conferences/showAgenda.aspx?id=325

Link to registration: https://www.meetmax.com/sched/event_9091/investor_reg_new.html?cmd=register&event_id=9091

BMO conferences are consistently some of the best events every year, usually standing room only with the industry’s top companies and executives, if you can be there, GO!

208