Make It Easy For Prospects To Contact You

It is that time of year when admission professionals eagerly await numerous inquiries from their web site. I spent some time last week with a college that is looking to drive more inquiry traffic from their web site. As we began to review their admissions homepage, it was apparent that one "contact us" link in the center of the page would not be effective in meeting this goal. So we began to brainstorm additional locations to include links where visitors could request more information. Our goal was to make it easy for prospective students to locate and submit the inquiry form.

I recommend that you to take a few minutes and do the same.

Ask yourself, if I were a prospective student with very little knowledge about the college search process, or the organizational structure of colleges and universities, could I easily locate the inquiry form to get more information?

If your answer isn't a resounding "yes," you may want to consider:

• Placing the link in a prominent location. Review research on eye-tracking patterns to understand what placement will deliver the most value.
• Placing the link in more than one location.
• Using both text links and images to convey your message.
• Developing a variety of wording options such as "request more information," "learn more about [insert name here]," or "is [insert name here] right for you?"

Cathy Willette,
Vice President of Higher Education, James Tower