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Today's Quote:
A myth exists in higher education that college-bound low-income and minority students are not online. This just isn’t the case. Colleges are missing an opportunity if they do not utilize email to target prospective students and better provide them with specific information about scholarships and campus support programs.”
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10 Most Popular Brands With Teens Worldwide
Coca-cola falls from #1 ten years ago to #8 in 2005…
Favorite Brand 2005
- Sony
- Nokia
- Adidas
- Nike
- Colgate
- Nestle
- Cadbury
- Coca-cola
- M&Ms
- Kodak
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Favorite Brand 1995
- Coca-cola
- Nokia
- Adidas
- Nike
- Pepsi
- Kodak
- Colgate
- Disney
- M&Ms
- Reebok
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Source: Energy/BBDO
Meeting Diversity Goals With Email
Attracting the right students to your school is challenging enough. Attracting the right students to your school while meeting diversity goals is often listed as enrollment officers' #1 priority in industry surveys. And budget concerns aren't far behind.
| "An early eSearch, followed by a more targeted print campaign, may save you enough in print and postage to expand your geographic reach, while achieving better conversion rates overall." |
Every year, schools purchase prospect lists and send email and direct mail search campaigns in order to drive students to their websites and campuses. Although it's proven that the combination of email and direct mail yields the highest response rates, few use email upfront in order to save money on direct mail printing and postage.
We recommend that our clients start their email campaigns early, use the results to better target their print campaigns, and reallocate the savings from postage/printing to expand their reach both domestically and internationally. After all, increasing your geographic reach is a major driver of a diverse applicant pool.
Remove non-responders from your direct mail file.
eSearches typically see opens rates of 10-20%. A follow-up email to the non-openers of the original campaign typically yields another 5-10% in opens. That means at least 70% of the records in your purchased prospect list are either not interested or worse, bad records.
There is no reason to spend print and postage dollars on these records. Instead mail your print pieces to email openers only. (If you really want to get fancy, save the most expensive print piece for those who clicked only!)
You might ask…
Question: How do I get a file of my email openers?
Answer: Your email provider should be able to provide you with this file for any mailing that you do. They can also show you how to download it yourself from their email platform (or should). If you happened to upload postal address fields with email addresses into your email platform, then voila, you download the complete records for openers only.
Question: What if I didn't upload postal addresses along with email addresses into my email platform when I sent an eSearch?
Answer: You can still download only email addresses that opened. Then your technology department (or, your friendly neighborhood email services company, like Student Horizons, Inc.), will match the opener list to your original prospect file. The postal addresses of only email openers can be pulled into a new file, to be sent off to your printer. These are your most qualified prospects, and the ones who are worth your expensive print pieces.
Use print/postage savings to extend your geographic reach.
Once you've identified interested prospects from email and saved valuable budget dollars from less print/postage, you can afford to prospect outside of your usual area.
Additional demographics from prospect lists, like "Ethnic Indicator," "Country Name," or simply "State" or "Region" in the U.S., may be used to expand your reach. Ask for these targeted names in a second round of prospect list purchasing, or if you didn't originally mail to your entire file, revisit your original list.
Target your followup.
Once you've tested these new names in email, devise more targeted messaging when following up. If you sent email to international prospects, develop a follow up email or print piece that provides more detail about international programs at your school, gives the URL for the international student page on your website, etc.
Conclusion
An early eSearch, followed by a more targeted print campaign, may save you enough in print and postage to expand your geographic reach, while achieving better conversion rates overall.
For more information, or help with your school's enrollment strategy, please email info@studenthorizons.com.
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