It’s not uncommon for a recent graduate
There are few things more important to universities today than staying connected to their alumnus. Besides the importance of word of mouth referrals bringing in new students, the development departments also rely on the generosity of their alums to have successful fundraising campaigns. One of the biggest struggles these departments face is maintaining the proper contact information for their graduates beyond graduation. It’s not uncommon for a recent graduate to move three or four times in as many years immediately following graduation. A few things are pivotal to successfully maintain communication with your alumnus, the most important of which is a crystal clear mode of post-graduate communication. Establish a program that allows each graduating student to have their own website connected to your university for as many years as they’d like following graduation. Giving your graduates a personalized URL (PURL), like Level 10 does, prior to their graduation will streamline communication, while showing your alumnus that they’re important to you behind their years on campus. Helping your graduates in essay writing and career building. This way, you can keep them informed about fundraising that is needed for programs that interest them. A graduate of Arts and Sciences may want to be notified of endowment funding that their college is seeking, while College of Dentistry grads will likely want to know about funding efforts for the new mobile dental lab your campus is piloting. More developed PURLs can take it a step further by providing a quick, easy and secure method to donate to your fundraising efforts. This eliminates the need for an extensive mailing effort by providing an easy way to donate to a campaign with nothing more than a credit card and Internet access, saving you time and money. Presently Development departments will tell you that keeping up with their alumnus is one of the most difficult aspects of their jobs. A PURL eliminates the need to follow a graduate from their personal email to their corporate email to their next personal email addresses. They will have their own URL where they can maintain communication with you and also, update you as to what is the best way to contact them. This once again is mutually beneficial, giving your alum the ability to dictate how you communicate with them and helping you maximize your contacts with your alums. To keep in contact with your university alumnus in the digital age, we truly believe that PURLs and Level 10 are the future of development in the education world.
0 Comments
Reflecting on this, we gleaned a few things from the success of this e-blast. First, e-marketing still works. It seems like “experts” like to go back, forth, up and down about what is the best way to reach consumers in today’s market. Some days we hear that e-marketing is going to be the only way to reach consumers of the future and the next week a report is released showing “facts” that e-marketing is on the decline and it’s reaching fewer people. The fact remains that there is no single “best marketing solution” and any marketing campaign needs to be diverse and targeted. Targeting brings us to the next success point for this campaign…it was uber targeted. They blasted information that is really exciting about one of their former students to potential students. It was about the Olympics, an international event that was taking place at the time of the blast and is a source of interest for most of the country, and world really. That was a huge factor in the e-blast’s success, undoubtedly. I think it’s important to capitalize on exciting things that are happening in relation to your school. Not just things on campus, or to current students, teachers and administrators, but to alumni and people who are connected to the school in meaningful ways. If you have a connection to a current event that is garnering attention from a large audience, be it local, state or national, use it! People are opening emails that they can relate to or interest them. It’s essential to remember current events when finding ways to reach your target audience. This week, BlueSky saw, once again, an amazing example of e-marketing in action. As we all know, the Olympics are in full swing (who hasn’t been glued to their TVs?!) One of our clients is a Catholic High School and they are lucky enough to have an alumnus who’s a member of the US Women’s Soccer Team. In celebration of this, the school sent out an e-blast congratulating the member and encouraging recipients to use a PURL and log on to their Admissions Level 10. This e-blast response rate doubled the average of previous e-blasts. It was amazing and obviously the client was so pleased! Reflecting on this, we gleaned a few things from the success of this e-blast. First, e-marketing still works. It seems like “experts” like to go back, forth, up and down about what is the best way to reach consumers in today’s market. Some days we hear that e-marketing is going to be the only way to reach consumers of the future and the next week a report is released showing “facts” that e-marketing is on the decline and it’s reaching fewer people. The fact remains that there is no single “best marketing solution” and any marketing campaign needs to be diverse and targeted. Targeting brings us to the next success point for this campaign…it was uber targeted. They blasted information that is really exciting about one of their former students to potential students. It was about the Olympics, an international event that was taking place at the time of the blast and is a source of interest for most of the country, and world really. That was a huge factor in the e-blast’s success, undoubtedly. I think it’s important to capitalize on exciting things that are happening in relation to your school. Not just things on campus, or to current students, teachers and administrators, but to alumni and people who are connected to the school in meaningful ways. If you have a connection to a current event that is garnering attention from a large audience, be it local, state or national, use it! People are opening emails that they can relate to or interest them. It’s essential to remember current events when finding ways to reach your target audience. We were so excited to be able to partner with our client on such an exciting e-blast, and we know we’ll be keeping the strategy behind it in mind when utilizing e-blasts for future marketing campaigns. Doubled response rate means double the data capture, and that’s what it’s all about. Watching Level 10 in action, working the way it’s supposed to is always amazing! How do you pique interest and encourage your audience to actually open your e-blasts and read through them? Let us know, as always, in the comments! |
ArchivesCategories |