Designing and Implementing an Effective Student Search: Part Two
Dr. Douglas Spadaro
President
David Waggoner
Vice President
Premier Communications
Implementing the Search
Admission professionals realize a graet many direct mail firms are more than happy to send out tens of thousands of search pieces. Of course most of these firms will approach your project just like they approach putting retail catalogs or brochures for swampland in South Florida in the mail! As noted above, the principals at Premier Communications bring experience in the field of college recruiting to the table. Our dedication is shown by the fact that we’re typically in the office at midnight on the morning the College Board releases PSAT data in order to help ensure that your search piece is one of the first to reach a prospective student’s mailbox. Our expertise and understanding of the particular needs of college recruiting is also illustrated by the fact that we actively counsel our clients against using traditional tri-fold search pieces. Your primary goal in search is to catch the attention of a prosepective student. How can you do this sending out a tri-fold that looks like what your competition is sending out?
Unique Search Communication
Premier Communications favors an alternative to the traditiinal tri-fold search piece. A personalized postcard can be more effective. Variable, digital printing is a relatively new technology that permits every item in a given production job to be unique. Somtimes referred to as “image personalization,” it allows the recipient’s name to be incorporated into the picture on the face of the card in an incredible creative, attention-grabbing manner. The name isn’t just printed on top of an image, but rather is part of the image, which makes every card unique and personal! Nor are you limited to a single image in a given search. Many clients have further personalized their search by using different images to promote different majors or targe specific groups, i.e., men, women, scholarship students, etc. Premier Communications is a strong proponent of this new technology. Personalized cards are unique and stand out, cutting through the mailbox clutter created when the typical high school student is contacted by several hundred colleges. In fact, at a time when the national response rate on Student Search hovers at 1%, our clients have seen rates as high as 7% when using personalized postcards.
Variable, digital printing also permits personalization of the copy on the back of the cards on the basis of factoris such as intended major, geography, gender, scholarship ability, etc. In addition, the postcards incorporate a personal URL (PURL), e.g. David.Waggoner.MyPremierMailUSA.com, which combines the recipient’s first and last name and a domain connoting your institution.
The personalization generates an novelty factor that further enhances response rate. When the PURL is keyed into a browser, a personalized website opens. This website provides information about your institution and includes an Information Request Contact Form that can be submitted via the Internet. Premier has also recently added a cell phone text messaging option for searches. Each student is assigned a unique number which they are invited to text message to the institution so as to receive additional information. After they send it, they receive a message such as “Thank you for your interest in XYZ College. We will be in touch with you shortly.” Premier records these unique text message numbers, matches them with the student search record, and supplies them to the client for follow up. This new serivce takes advantage of the “texting” mania which is proliferating among high school students.
The Role of E-mail
Many institutions have begun to experiment with email as a search tool and we agree that it has a valid role. However, we argue strenuously against relying solely upon it for three reasons. First, only about two-thirds of College Board and ACT records include an email address, so by definition you fail to contact many prospective students in any given set of search parameters. Secondly, teenagers are notorious for changing Internet providers, hence their email address, routinely. Therefore many of the email addresses provided by the testing services are out of date by the time you receive data and bounce back rates are extremely high. Finally, think for a moment about the amount of SPAM reaching your inbox on a daily basis. Studies show most individuals delete email from unrecognized sources without ever opening it. For all these reasons, Premier Communications advocates using email as a follow-up to search letters and personalized postcards. Our clients have found the first piece creates name recognition for their institution, which enhances the open ratewhen the follow-up email arrives. We recomment incorporating personalized URLs (PURLs) and links to your institution’s website in the body of the search emails.
In the Dark Ages of student search when tri-fold mailers predominated (and perhaps in your office today??), search response took the form of the tear off reply card. These tended to accumulate in large stacks in little trafficked corners of the office as legions of work study students slowly progressed through the tedious task of data entry. In fact, if you’ve been in the field of college recruiting for more than few months, you’ve undoubtedly engaged in lively sessions of “guess how this is spelled”! Unfortunately admission office databased reflect the fact that deciphering the handwriting on these cards is an inexact science.