Measuring the Impact of Collaborative Marketing

In 2010 we analyzed the measurable effects of our collaborative marketing initiative, which brings together resources from our member colleges and universities to reach prospective Lutheran students and families. 

Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary (download the full PDF document here):

The Lutheran Educational Conference of North America is the oldest pan-Lutheran organization in the

United States and Canada. For 100 years one of our primary goals has been to support our member

institutions and church bodies by helping students discover the values of our colleges and universities.

We are engaged in a variety of activities to achieve that goal, from our well-established college fair

events to a new presence in social media.

Ultimately, however, we must prove that our activities are having their desired impact and thereby

positively affecting enrollment. To that end, we have assessed the results of our efforts on the applicant

pools and enrolled classes for our member colleges from 2007–09. Thirty of our 39 U.S. institutions

submitted their institutional data to us for this assessment. We are pleased that the data demonstrates

that we provide measureable assistance to them in their enrollment efforts.

The LECNA-influenced student cohorts in 2007–09 have been between 3.3% and 4.4%

more likely to enroll at one of our colleges or universities than students not included in

our collaborative efforts. This outperformance has resulted in 2,796 additional enrolled

students and an estimated $75,000,000 in additional gross tuition revenue for our member

institutions.

We also engage in a variety of additional activities that have positive impacts for our institutions.

While we cannot quantify their direct influence on enrollment, they provide underlying support for the

recruitment efforts of the consortium and individual colleges and universities. These activities include

ongoing communications with congregations, church leadership and synodical offices; direct contact

with parents and youth ministers; a burgeoning Facebook presence; and direct student contact

generated by the 700+ members of our “Champions of Lutheran Higher Education” program and

“Champions of Lutheran Colleges and Universities” Facebook fan page. This suggests that the results

outlined in this report represent the minimum and not the full impact of our ongoing communications.

As our outreach efforts have expanded, so too has our impact on our member institutions. Over the

past three years, the number of enrolling students emerging from our cohort has increased,

even as overall enrollment has remained fairly constant. In addition, we have leveraged our

communications structure to reduce the per-applicant cost from $10.65 in 2007 to $9.01 in 2009.

This means that we are increasing our share of enrolled students who had contact with LECNA while

reducing your investment costs.

We appreciate the opportunity to serve our colleges and universities, and we are pleased that our efforts on their behalf have been fruitful.