Due to it being a relatively young industry, education-specific lead generation and management have come a very long way and are still evolving. However, schools must continue to take more control of the lead origin and distribution methods to fully capitalize on their marketing campaigns. Many schools pay agencies expensive management fees and entrust them to spend their marketing dollars for leads that do not convert into students or do not stay enrolled. The fact of the matter is that schools, agencies, and their marketing partners know that more transparency is needed in this industry to help foster the system’s long-term efficacy. However, the battle to improve lead quality and management has become increasingly difficult due to such a competitive environment, not only between the schools, but also between lead gen companies. Now, the schools are forced to buy more and more leads, hoping that at least a few convert so that student start targets can be met.

Well, Edufficient is well-prepared to regulate the industry once and for all by not only being an advocate for the schools, but by serving as their trusted marketing manager. Though we are a new company, our industry experience as advocates for schools and more transparent lead generation is virtually unparalleled. Back in 2004, our founders designed a unique lead management system that has been simulated by many agencies years after. Our philosophy as an agency has always been “focus on the quality of the leads, not the quantity of lead flow. We put our philosophy in practice as we trained our account teams to police the industry not only in terms of pricing, but also compliance. Our model was extremely successful because of our schools cooperation and our willingness to become smarter buyers and managers.

Now, a few years later, we are revolutionizing the industry once again. Judging by the lead generation industry’s struggles to increase lead flow and quality, it seems that production techniques have not evolved as well as anticipated. So, why do prices continue to increase? Because schools are competing with each other to buy the most leads and lead providers are more than happy to sell them. The reason why leads are becoming more expensive is not because they are higher quality, but because the demand has increased and the advertising costs have increased. That said, there is another large problem with the current lead generation situation- it is the tremendous amount of opportunity cost that schools are spending working on poor leads. Schools invest too many resources on poor quality leads when they could be placing an emphasis on the prospects more likely to convert into students.