Using Call Campaigns and Micro-Email Campaigns to Recruit Students SEMM 2012 May 3 rd, 2012
Agenda 1. Introductions 2. Call Campaigns 3. Email Campaigns 4. Best Practices
Meet Chris Wilkins Chris Wilkins, company founder, is a dynamic and spirited entrepreneur with extensive experience in media and technology. His industry knowledge stems from fifteen years working with leading international companies such as Canal+ in Paris, France; Reed Business Publishing, Electronic Publishing and Sony in London, England; and Webcom in Toronto. Before launching EDge Interactive in 1995, Chris graduated with an MBA from the highly acclaimed London Business School in England where he distinguished himself by winning the European Business Plan of the Year competition at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD). Working with students and educational institutions around the world, Chris has developed a keen understanding of the needs and demands of the education marketplace.
Meet Barry Naymark Barry Naymark originally comes from the University of Ottawa where he began his student recruitment career conducting presentations in English and French across the province of Ontario. In the evenings, he project managed the first call campaign for the University. Afterwards, he moved on to Seneca College s Student Recruitment team and was introduced to Edge s Easy Recruit CRM for phone calls and emails. For the last 4 years, he has project managed the calling of prospective students amongst many other portfolios in Student Recruitment that is now part of Marketing.
EDge Company Overview EDge was started after Chris finished his MBA at the London Business School in 1995. The business started as SchoolFinder.com designed to help students make a decision on which college they should apply to, since then half a dozen websites have been launched. These websites now help over 6 million students, guidance counselors and parents every year make decisions about the college they will attend, the career they go into and find financing to pay for it all Seven years ago we started developing products and services designed to help colleges recruit and communicate with students this became ezrecruit ezrecruit is now being used by colleges that range in size from 250 students to over 100,000 students in four countries
EDge Company Mission Helping students find schools and schools find students... because our survival and prosperity depends on an educated planet
Call Campaigns: Background & Fit A well timed Call Campaign is an important extension of the student recruitment season Peer to Peer interaction is critical and meaningful to Student Recruitment A successful call campaign is dependant on good integration with IT services and student applicant databases
Call Campaigns: Student Callers & Training Finding student callers is challenging and keeping them motivated & enthusiastic is even harder Training of student callers needs to involve; detailed manual, mock calls and customer service standards
Call Campaigns: Reporting & Best Practices Effective measurement of results and strategies for improvement Campaign scheduling and timing Call Duration Call Script: key messaging
Email Campaigns: The Perfect Love Story The most direct way to connect with the Millennials Cost-Effective Results Oriented (Tracking) Personalized Relationships
Effective Email Campaigns: Subject Lines Purpose: Entice students to open the email Keep it short and sweet (iphones show 33 characters) Include your school name and main topic or email Effective words: Your, Opportunity, Invited, Discover, Take Part, Learn More, Participate Ineffective words: Join, Sign-up, Click, Now, Free, $$$
Effective Email Campaigns: Content Purpose: Relay relevant information to encourage clicks Begin with a personalized introduction (i.e. Hi <First Name>,) Use a conversational tone that values service Keep it short: 250-300 words, 3-4 paragraphs, 2-4 sentences each Caution: Do not need to tell the full story, it s about encouraging the call to action (i.e. application email does not need full qualifications if clicking onto your website)
Effective Email Campaigns: Call to Action Purpose: Direct students to specific information Stray away from general website referrals Focus on specific subsections, microsites or landing pages Utilize buttons with hyperlinked text and ALT tags
Effective Email Campaigns: Images Purpose: Enhance the aesthetics of your campaign Keep your design clean, organized with white space Make use of impactful images and real faces Work within a table, using rows and columns (600-650 pixels wide) Caution: Prepare your campaign to work without images
Email Campaigns: Marketing & Recruitment Include email campaigns in your recruitment plans Segmentation: target messages in relation to specific audiences Frequency: bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly Variation: school news, deadline reminders, events, student life Consistency: branded templates
Best Practices Target campaigns to specific audiences (i.e. age, location, program) Create strong email campaign templates, including content and images Deploy campaign frequently A university using ezrecruittm CRM deploys 190+ email campaigns a year, receiving a 34% open rate.
Questions
Wrap Up Thank You!