Student Search- What To Do When Your Target

Market’s Gone DigitalSee the

“7 Points Mind-Mapping”

exercise on slide 5

© 2014 Big Dog Innovations

Think About Where Your Target Market is Spending Their Time These Days

The fact of the matter is student prospects between the ages of 16-21 invest over 90% of their

communications time in mobile and social media platforms today

Moreover, Their Parents, Usually Between The Ages of 35 to 55 Are Cross Media Invested

Direct Mail Is Still The Primary Launching Point, But Your Target Market Overwhelmingly Prefers Digital

Give them the option to connect with you digitally. Make the digital option, the “Call to-Action” (CTA), prominent. Once you

get them there, you can stay digitally connected AND use traditional media such as print when you need to.

When planning new “integrated approaches” we suggest a mind-mapping exercise using these 7 buckets to stay on track-

Rewriting your approach using whiteboards- we think whiteboards are awesome for this vertical

Update and begin to formalize your present lifecycle Define your new communication opportunity roadmaps Increase message relevancy by mapping your data Structure and produce your cross media “look and feel” Define your connect and engage online interactions Build your “if-then automation” logistics to define your

trigger points

See next slides for illustrations

“Whiteboarding” can be fun; for many schools it’s been a long time since this was last done!

Organizing and updating admissions workflow can become a newly documented process, particularly as “cross media”

continues to infiltrate your communications lifecycles

When planning moves towards the execution phase your cross media “if-then roadmap” may start to look like this

When student prospect data is added to your strategy plan the resulting “segmented messaging” outcomes positions you to

dramatically impact acceptance rates & quality of student scores

Thus, Your Outreach Program Could Look Like This…

Initial Touch Data Version A-Scholarships Under 100 Miles

Initial Touch Data Version B-Scholarships Over 100 Miles

(with data-driven communications you can have unlimited versions)

12

Personalized Digital Engagement Pages With Responsive Design for Web, Tablet &

Smartphone

With Pre-programmed 2nd & 3rd Touches for Non-

responders

Example- 3rd Touch Non-responders

15

Depending on student-prospect activities & responses, automated triggers can define-

Notifications for admissions officers and what their next steps should be

Drip nurture student prospects via mobile messaging- take your Look Book and put pieces of it into mobile push messaging; it’s the media format with a 99% open rate on the platforms they live on today

Drip nurture student prospects with content that most closely fits their demonstrated areas of interest

Email (or any media) follow-through parents of prospective students

Update the school’s internal database

A Great Example of Staying Digitally Connected With Them is With Your Look Book; Build Stickiness Using Drip Messages- Use Mobile To Your Advantage

You’ll accomplish three things by doing this-1. You’ll continue to connect with them using mobile- where they live today2. You’ll show them that your school is hip- most other schools are not mobile

optimized yet3. Over time you’ll dramatically reduce the printed costs of your Look Books

Great Data Preparation Can Let You Know Which Lists, Profiles & Approaches Worked Best, Putting You In The Cat-Bird’s Seat Next Time Your Purchase Lists

Remember, When It comes To The Student Search Process Today…

Old tactics no longer yield the same results

You’ll still use many of the same tools- direct mail, e, website, recruiters and open houses

But, your approach plans will need to change with the times- after all your student prospects already have

Someday, perhaps it can all be synchronized!

Always happy to elaborate or share further…

I’d love to know if this deck was helpful to you in any way.

Plus, what you might like to see more of, or differently…

Peter Winters 917 301-9100 pwinters@bigdoginnovations.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peterwintersbigdoginnovations/SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/BigDogInnovations

Cross Media Implementation Team-MSP Digital Marketingwww.mspdigital.com