VLOG: Unauthorized Landing Pages – Free Advertising or Conversion Killers?
You could be missing tens of thousands in missed revenue every year.
Unauthorized publishers are taking advantage of your brand and your inquiries. Put a stop to it. Watch the clip below to discover what this “free” advertising is really costing you.
https://integrishield.com/unauthorized-landing-pages-free-advertising-or-conversion-killers/https://integrishield.com/unauthorized-landing-pages-free-advertising-or-conversion-killers/https://integrishield.com/unauthorized-landing-pages-free-advertising-or-conversion-killers/https://integrishield.com/unauthorized-landing-pages-free-advertising-or-conversion-killers/
Fraudulent Advertising: What Nobody Tells You
Your company is liable for what others do on your behalf. When your business hires an advertising agency, you might very well be paying for a third-party marketer too—even if nobody told you.
That’s because many agencies will subcontract with third-party firms to handle Internet advertising, landing pages and the digital side of promoting your company. These marketers can help you obtain a huge number of client leads very quickly. https://integrishield.com/fraudulent-advertising-what-nobody-tells-you/ https://integrishield.com/fraudulent-advertising-what-nobody-tells-you/ https://integrishield.com/fraudulent-advertising-what-nobody-tells-you/ https://integrishield.com/fraudulent-advertising-what-nobody-tells-you/They can position your business in front of literally millions of consumers. In most cases you and the third-party are not responsible to each other because a direct contractual relationship doesn’t exist.
So what happens when this third party marketer misrepresents your brand through fraudulent advertising? Click here to continue reading the full article on demystifying third party marketers and what you can do to protect your business.
Originally Published in: Thinking Bigger Business magazine – July 2015 (Vol.24 Issue 7)
Vlog: The FTC and Updated Rules on Testimonials
Do you use bloggers and social media to promote your company, school or products? The FTC has released new monitoring method requirements.
Watch as our president, Jennifer Flood, explains how that may impact your organization:
Follow IntegriShield on Twitter and LinkedIn for more compliance news.
Industry Insight: New Placement Verification Research
If you have difficulty connecting with graduates for placement verification, you’re not alone. From a recent poll we hosted of a sample of proprietary schools, we found that most institutions spend a significant amount of time in contact attempts to graduates.
Often, graduates may have changed their primary form of contact. When accreditation and Title IV funding hang in the balance, not having the correct information is frustrating.
Poll Results
- 62% of our sample said that it was difficult to verify employment for graduates 15-25% of the time.
- 32% said that it was difficult to verify employment for graduates 25-50% of the time.
- 3% said that it was difficult to verify employment for graduates greater than 50% of the time.
- 3% said that it was difficult to verify employment for graduates 0-15% of the time.
Next Steps
If verifying employment for graduates in a timely manner is an area of concern, download your Verification Playbook to gain insight on how to improve contact rates and increase accuracy.
Compliant Website Checklist
Institutions are under strict scrutiny surrounding their online advertising efforts. But, it’s also imperative for the institution’s website to be in compliance with the standards and regulations set forth by the Department of Education (DOE), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), your accrediting body and industry standards. Below is a checklist of points to consider when reviewing the information provided on your website.
Compliant Website Checklist:
Accreditation
- Visibility of accreditation statement
- Representation of accreditation – full and complete accreditation information – acronyms and banned terms omitted
- Easily navigable – at least within one click of the homepage
Admissions
- Provide all required criteria expected to be completed prior to enrollment
- Include all educational requirements
- Contact information provided for prospective students
Career Services
- Detailed and clear explanation of offerings that the Career Services department provides
- No job placement guarantees
- Omission of banned terms, such as “career placement”
Gainful Employment Disclosures
- Clear presence of disclosure information
- Disclosure information is in the required Gainful Employment Disclosure Template developed by the DOE
Financial Aid
- Qualification rules
- How applicants can learn about qualifying
- Financial aid eligibility disclaimer present
Program Descriptions
- Timeframe for completion listed correctly
- Program length disclaimer
Program Listings
- Listings are accurate and approved by the DOE
- Acceptable states for admissions
- Citations provided for statistics listed on the page
TCPA Requirements
- Consent language present on lead form
- Language must include all components within the FCC definition
Testimonials
- Must be actual statements
- Some accreditors do not allow institutions to use testimonials from current students on their website
Stay tuned for our next webinar where we’ll cover this topic in more depth! Get early access to webinar information. (opens in a new window)
A Rise in the Trade Industry
In America, unemployment is twice as high for those with high school diplomas versus a 4 year college graduate. However, that doesn’t mean high school graduates need to spend the time or money on a 4-year school.
Millions of trade industry jobs are open and ready for those with specific job skills training, some even paying more than the average 4 year college graduate’s starting salary. Those from the baby boom era are coming close to retirement and more of these trade jobs will be available for millennials. There are around 600,000 electrician positions today and half of these will become available within 10 years. Baby boomers will be retiring from trades and America will need more young people trained to take over these positions. However, not enough young people will have the opportunity to gain the proper training due to the removal of vocational programs in high schools.
Thankfully, the private-sector colleges and universities are available to make up for the lack of encouragement high school students are receiving. Private-sector schools are a necessity to educate those in the trades industry since the skills that students learn are job specific and are usually taught by individuals that have worked in the field.
Private-sector schools have strengths over the typical 4-year state school. The faculty members are dedicated to watching their students succeed, often taking extra measures such as tutoring and one-on-one learning. Private-sector schools are focused on helping place graduates in jobs specific to the training they received. Small class sizes and hands-on learning are additional benefits to a student’s experience.
For millennials looking for an alternative to the expense and time of a 4-year state school, take a look into the trades industry. There are many opportunities to gain the job specific training needed and succeed in a fast paced industry.
For more information on the economic impact of trade jobs visit the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities’ Knowledge Center.
Financial Aid Fraud Rings: Is your school at risk?
In the higher education field, we all know that distance learning is the way of the future. Online learning has provided many people with the access to receive a quality education when, in the past, they have not had this opportunity. However, taking away the face-to-face aspect of education has allowed some individuals to abuse this opportunity. With the increase in the amount of people utilizing online learning, we also see a significant increase in the amount of financial aid fraud that is happening. Groups of people are starting financial aid fraud rings and making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in Department of Education financial aid funds.
How do they do it?
These groups, which can consist of any number of individuals, submit multiple financial aid applications to schools. Typically, these schools are focused on online learning and have a low tuition cost. The individuals do the bare minimum in the courses they have elected to take to make sure they meet the participation requirements. Once they have received the excess of their financial aid funds, they disappear.
How can you detect this activity?
There are a couple different things you can look for:
- Multiple FAFSA applications submitted using the same IP address.
- Multiple FAFSA applications submitted using the same address, phone number, e-mail address etc.
- Multiple FAFSA applications submitted from the same area with similar household situations (i.e. single parent households with one or more children).
- Offenders typically pester the financial aid staff for information on when they will receive their funds. They can become aggressive and will threaten to report the person or the school to their congressman or the Department of Education.
How do you handle these situations?
- Delay the financial aid process for these individuals as much as possible. Select for verification or require participation in online orientations or other lengthy processes.
- If possible, set up a team of a few people from different departments to specifically identify and handle such cases.
- Delay the posting of financial aid funds on suspicious students.
- Report any suspicious activity to the Office of the Inspector General.
Understanding Bait and Switch Advertising in the EDU Sector
Knowing where and how your school appears is virtually a full-time job in and of itself in the vast community of online marketing. Whether or not your school contracts with a third-party vendor for the purpose of lead generation and online presence, the unauthorized use of your brand is a consistent problem.
Many schools are typically unaware of the extent of their brands’ presence on third-party websites and lead forms. Even institutions that do not buy leads still exist on the web and lead forms are readily available when paired with certain key terms. Unauthorized use of your school name allows room for the possibility of bait and switch techniques.
You might ask yourself:
- We don’t work with this website, so how heavily is it actually trafficked?
- How many potential students per month or per year are utilizing the lead form found on this page?
- Since we don’t purchase online leads, who receives this information?
- What is done with lead information after it is submitted by the prospective student?
Deceptive advertising is a growing problem in the EDU space, and it is important to stay ahead of the game. A prospective student’s information in the hands of someone else or a competitor is of no use to you and can serve as a direct cut to your company’s revenue.
In order to prevent the possibility of baiting and switching of your brand, it is important to employ routine monitoring to identify how and where your school is being advertised. If you buy leads from online vendors, confirm that sites you find are part of their affiliate networks and that they’re meeting compliance regulations.
To learn more about compliance monitoring and brand management, call 888-547-7110 or email IntegriShield today.
LinkedIn for Higher Education
Recently, LinkedIn announced the launch of University Pages, providing another channel for colleges to reach perspective students. According to LinkedIn more than 200 schools have created profile pages.
The new college profiles will include a breakdown of:
– Number of alumni on LinkedIn.
– Main fields of employment for graduates.
– Top employers of alumni.
– General student body information.
In addition to University Pages, LinkedIn announced updates to their terms of service, lowering the minimum age for users in the United States from 18 to 14 years of age, allowing high school students to explore schools worldwide. This update, making LinkedIn accessible to high school students, will begin September 12th. Not only will this increase membership, but more so will provide LinkedIn a prime opportunity to reach the younger market.
As LinkedIn’s University Pages expand, so will IntegriShield’s effort to monitor higher education and gainful employment in the social media realm. IntegriShield’s Managing Director, Jennifer Flood commented, “As the internet expands, so does the possibility of non-compliant brand messaging. This is why utilizing a compliance monitoring tool is invaluable to schools.”
For more information please visit: http://www.linkedin.com/edu/?trk=blog
The Presidents Call to Action: Value, Affordability and Student Outcome
Change has been a main focus for the Obama administration from the start of his 2008 campaign, and after Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address it is apparent that change is on the horizon for the for-profit education sector. As the status quo currently stands, access to federal aid is granted through individual accrediting organizations, each holding a separate set of standards and requirements for qualification. web service security . As stated in the supplemental document released by the White House following the address, “the government currently provides more than $150 billion each year in direct loan and grant aid for America’s students.” With the current economic restraints, the administration is going to tighten what some colleges already consider strict regulations to qualify for Title IV funds.
The Obama administration’s proposed changes to the status quo
The President will call on Congress to consider value, affordability, and student outcomes in making determinations about which colleges and universities receive access to federal student aid, either by incorporating measures of value and affordability into the existing accreditation system; or by establishing a new, alternative system of accreditation that would provide pathways for higher education models and colleges to receive federal student aid based on performance and results.
The administration also proposed a new College Scorecard that will require colleges to provide clear and accurate information on transparent levels that have not been reached in past years. This scorecard will in turn provide prospective students another tool as they search for higher education.
What this means for Compliance
For 2013 compliance is going to take a leading role as regulations in higher education are released throughout the remainder of the year. With the outbreak of compliance in 2012 for-profit colleges will have to once again shape up their advertising efforts to ensure Title IV funding.
For more Information and the Full Report:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/sotu_2013_blueprint_embargo.pdf