By David Morgan, SVP Business Development

Show Cause Investigation is one of the scariest phrases in the current higher education accreditation environment.

While Show Cause Investigations can happen for many reasons, when an accrediting body asks you to prove that you and your affiliates provided accurate information to consumers, you need to be prepared to respond. You need to not only validate the information in market but also defend that you actively monitored all information in market to ensure that it is up-to-date.

Some of the most glaring examples in recent past have been issues with published employment rates of graduates. Consumers see this information and act in good faith on it. For potential students assessing educational options as a meaningful investment to improve their future employability, the information about what job prospects look like upon completion of a program can be one of the most influential pieces of information presented by a school.

So you can also imagine, when this information is incorrect—either through bad fact reporting or concerted effort to deceive—the impact on consumers can be harmful and the impact on your institution can be devastating.

Whether it is the description of your program, how long it takes to complete, where the program is offered, the earning potential of graduates or data on how many of them find employment upon completion of the program—accuracy is important for ALL INFORMATION, EVERYWHERE! (That means not only on your site but also on your affiliates and third party vendors sites too.)

Key areas to consider:

• Information on your own website cannot be out-of-date or incorrect.
• Information on a vendor or affiliate page cannot be out-of-date or incorrect.
• For both situations, there is NO excuse for not monitoring for accuracy.

As “owners” of your marketing programs, you write the vendor guidelines, establish the protocols for vendor review and approval, authorize them to provide you leads, you renew allocation insertion orders, you asses their conversion, ROI and pricing. If you don’t have one already, you need an oversight plan to ensure the accuracy of the information being presented about your institution and programs.

With education marketing compliance technology, oversight is easy, affordable and effective!  Remember, the key to an accurate marketing compliance programs is having the ability to monitor and review your specific guidelines. This will help you avoid unnecessary Show Cause investigations that could be triggered by marketing practices on your own website and those of your affiliates and sub-affiliates.

What are you going to tell your CEO when he asks about this? What are you going to tell your President when she wants to know what your doing to monitor this? What are you going to tell yourself when you can’t sleep at night because you know you are sitting on top on a tinderbox?

Now you have an answer.  Hiring the right marketing compliance technology can help you solve all those concerns.

PerformMatch discovers, monitors and protects our clients.

Consider yourself notified—and call us so that we can help.

This article is not intended to provide legal advice and should not be relied on as such.

LeadsCouncil announced the 2013 winners of their annual LEADER Awards today and we were so honored to be awarded TWICE  for BEST COMPLIANCE MONITORING by our clients, peers and partners.

PerformLine was named “Best Compliance Monitoring – Education” for a second year in a row by lead buyers, as well as “Best Compliance Monitoring – Technology” by lead sellers and other technology providers.

We  are honored to  be  singled out  as “Best in Class” for this prestigious award! Read the press release>

Photos of our team across the country celebrating this huge honor:

     By David Morgan, SVP Business Development, PerformLine

ALERT!

Anyone who ever doubted whether accurate Gainful Employment disclosures to consumers were important — or even a valid concern — needs to SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE.

Just read this article from Forbes “Kentucky Attorney General takes Spencerian College to Woodshed over Phony Job Placement Claims.”

Jack Conway, the Kentucky state Attorney General who pursued Quinstreet over GIBill.com and secured a $2.5M settlement, is pursuing a consumer protection lawsuit against Spencerian College claiming that they misrepresented employment placement rates on its website and in other publications. The consumer protection concern is the same approach used in the Quinstreet lawsuit, which ended up with participation from 15 State Attorneys General*.

The college has since corrected the information but there are 2 key takeaways:

- For Lead Sellers/ Lead Generators: linking to accurate and up-to-date school and/or program specific information is crucial. Knowing where these links are and when they have been updated is very critical. Work with your partners (schools or related companies) to insure that you have the correct links and info — and that they are working properly.

- For Lead Buyers/ Schools: making sure that you have clear market knowledge of who your partners are, where they have pages that require GE disclosures or links, and that they are accurate and working is mission critical. Also, knowing that you have the correct links and information on your own websites and pages that you may have forgotten about are of equal importance. You have the liability for incorrect information in market so you must have a plan and procedure for oversight on this.

At PerformLine, we’ve identified and have been elevating Gainful Employment disclosure monitoring as a very important issue for well over a year. While we continue to hear stories of lead sellers not taking GE disclosures seriously and lead buyers being frustrated not knowing where they have exposure, this lawsuit should serve as stern warning that this is not a joke.

Solution: as part of our PerformMatch compliance platform and related services, we have a specific process and methodology for monitoring oversight and reporting of Gainful Employment links on a client ‘s affiliate sites– as well as their own websites

Contact me at  david [at] performline.com if you would like more information on how we can assist with Gainful Employment disclosures.

Schools and lead generators that have been monitoring governmental activity around marketing to the Military community should now be aware that the trademark for “GI Bill” has been successfully registered with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs (the “VA”).

What does this mean?  Guidance from the VA on how they intend to let “GI Bill” be used by third parties (schools and lead generators) is not expected for at least 6 months, but this continues to be a very critical time. Along with other government agencies (DOE, FTC, CFPB, etc.) the VA is collecting information and digging into how the term is being used by marketers. The information that they have collected and continue to obtain will be key in the guidance they issue.

It is critical for schools and lead generators to:

-       Know where they are using the term “GI Bill”

-       Know where their affiliates and sub affiliates are using “GI Bill”

-       Know where they have exposure to other terms, images and marketing that is targeting the military community (active duty, veterans and retirees)

This issue reaches to the top of our government, directly to the President. This is an issue that schools and lead generators need to understand ,and have a strategy on, if they are exposed to it in any way.

PerformMatch has been monitoring this issue for our clients and continues to monitor, providing the business intelligence needed for effective diligence, strategy and execution.

Take a look at the fun here!

The LeadsCouncil is launching its 3rd annual LEADER Awards for the lead gen space. These awards give a voice to lead buyers and sellers like you who have an intimate knowledge of the lead gen industry.

PerformLine hopes that you might take a moment to fill out the survey and recognize us as a “Best in Class Compliance Monitoring” partner! Your vote is important, not only for this particular question but for all in the survey which aggregate data about the performance of all lead generation and lead technology partners.

The voting will close in the beginning of January and you DO NOT have to be a Leads Council member to fill out the survey.

Please help our industry, and PerformLine, by taking this short survey:

LeadsCouncil members, go here to voice your opinion: http://svy.mk/TGUXPt

Not a LeadsCouncil Member? No problem, vote here: http://svy.mk/R5KzW0

Join in to nominate your favorite company for a Crunchie: PERFORMLINE!

We would be honored to have your vote in a new category in 2012: BEST EDUCATION STARTUP — which recognizes the best startup focused on education technology applications.

Your can vote once per day so please get out the vote for PerformLine here

THANKS!

Read the story on Mashable: http://mashable.com/2012/10/31/googles-biggest-advertisers/

Hear David Morgan of PerformLine and Hagai Shechter of Fraudlogix as they covered automated compliance monitoring and fraud detection. 

Martin Lind of Leads360 and Chris McArdle of TARGUSinfo, a Neustar Company, added their perspectives.

Watch the recording>

In addition to credit card companies or mortgage lenders, the Education sector is squarely in the bureau’s sights and they continue to move aggressively. The CFPB recently asked ITT Educational Services and Corinthian to turn “over documents related to the advertising, marketing or origination of private student loans.”

If you think that there is no enforcement of the updated Dept. of Education regulations in marketing – you are wrong. If you think that states have no interest in consumer protection in Education – you are wrong. If you think that “not knowing” what is happening with your brand gives you any protection – YOU ARE WRONG.

The old adage “the best defense if a good offense” has never been truer in this day and age of marketing.  Showing processes, procedures and provable practices to monitor and enforce standards in your marketing activities AND THOSE OF YOUR AFFILIATES is the absolute MINIMUM you should be doing.

We believe that PerformMatch offers marketers the best offense to monitor for and stop deceptive practices before they become potential misrepresentations. We are the absolute “best line of first defense” for your school, company or network. Contact us to get protected now.

Don’t think the CFPB is doing anything? Read a few of the recent articles on the current practices of the CFPB:

“Aggressive Start for Consumer Bureau” TBJ Now on September 12. Read the article>

“Look at some of the Ways the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Enforces the Law” 
The Washington Post on September 12. Read the article>