Q: Historically, we have sent out the summer schedule featuring both credit and continuing education course content. Does LERN have any information, research, stats or white papers, commentary on this topic? Are there other colleges on record that produce a similar product?

We're looking to have a discussion early next week here at the college

A:
Thank you so much for your question. Although some organizations do combine their credit and non-credit brochures, LERN does not recommend it.

Combining the non-credit program classes with credit classes is not a good idea. While it is true that it may save some costs on printing and mailing, it is very likely to have greater costs in lost revenues resulting from fewer enrollments in the non-credit program. I have attached an article that addresses this, but I will also summarize the key issues to consider when making the decision about brochure development.

1.       The non-credit audience is different from the credit audience. Although there may be some overlap, it is important to market differently for credit and non-credit programs. Because non-credit programs are almost always placed after the credit programs in the brochure, the enrollments decline. In some cases we have found a drop in enrollments by as much as 20%.

2.       Marketing is an investment, not a cost. The best way to save money on marketing is to do careful tracking to determine your most effective carrier routes in terms of responses. (LERN can do this for you as part of your membership benefits). Once you have identified the areas where your mailings have the best ROI, you can reduce or eliminate mailings to other areas where the revenue generated is too low. You will save money by mailing fewer brochures. You will increase your response rate by targeting areas where people are most likely to enroll.

3.       Mail more than once to your past participants. You will generate enrollments from the second mailing that will more than offset the cost of the mailing.

4.       You should have more than 3 brochures a year. For non-credit programs, the ideal number is 5-6, and 4 is the minimum. Consistently we see that classes that begin more than 8 weeks after the brochure comes out have higher cancellation rates and fewer enrollments than classes that begin earlier in the term.

5.       Your audience for non-credit classes is becoming more segmented, so your marketing needs to be more targeted, not less, as it would be if the brochures are combined.

LERN can help you develop a successful marketing effort that will allow you to have separate brochures and cut costs and increase revenues. If you combine the brochures, you are very likely to cut both costs and revenues, which is self-defeating.

I have attached a report on this topic which will provide additional information.

http://media.lern.org/webinars/Combining-Credit-and-Noncredit-Brochures.pdf