According to the latest Tudor Collegiate Strategies research (March, 2023) on frequency of communication that students were comfortable receiving from colleges and universities during their search, 59.4% told us they preferred one email per week. Only 18.4% were comfortable receiving multiple emails in a given week. It also might surprise you that 94.1% of students wanted to receive letters during their college search. Direct mail that is personalized can still make a significant impact!
Now, how would prospective students describe the emails, letters, text messages, and other communications that make up your enrollment communications plan? Does everything look and sound like what they’re receiving from other colleges and universities? Additional Tudor Collegiate Strategies research over the past three years says only 12.5% of students felt that what they received from colleges and universities was very personal. The majority of students said it all looked and sounded the same.
Email remains the preferred method of communication for the overwhelming majority of students during their college search. However, this generation is tired of overproduced emails that are loaded with facts, figures, and rankings, blanket, generalized statements, as well as language that’s outdated, robotic, and overly formal. Students say all of it feels impersonal, completely transactional, and very “salesy.”
Having research-based, personalized, relevant, and engaging communications for prospective students that differentiate you from your competitors and tell a better story has never been more important!
And don’t forget about parents. They require separate personalized messaging versus just CCing them on student emails.
Whatever your needs are, our team of experts is ready to help.
Services we offer include yearlong, research-based monthly email campaigns that target high school seniors at all stages, plus their parents (our most popular service); Inquiry specific communications; Yield specific communications; Melt communications; Parent communications; Underclassmen communications; Event communications, and more.
Customization is at the core of everything we do, so if you’d like more information about a certain type of communication work, or you have other questions, let’s talk.
HERE’S HOW OUR YEARLONG MONTHLY EMAIL CAMPAIGNS WORK:
We conduct survey research with both incoming and current students, and we combine those results with our database of national research on communication preferences and college decision-making factors.
We then partner with your admission and enrollment marketing team to create monthly email campaigns that are data driven and student-centered – they target all the different groups of high school seniors (prospects, inquiries, incomplete apps, and admits), as well as juniors.
The focus of your monthly messaging will be key topics that make up your school’s value proposition – things like your location, campus life, academic environment, financial aid/affordability, community, and outcomes. Our goal is to not only tell your school’s unique story, but also create engagement that leads to action, including additional conversations between students, parents, and your admissions counselors.
In addition, we create both parent and high school guidance counselor communications each month to engage and help cultivate relationships with those important influencers.
Each monthly communication plan also includes talking points for the admissions counselors that tie in with that month’s messaging topic. These are questions they can utilize during various conversations with students. And we also provide you with a monthly social media focus that includes content recommendations.
When needed we will craft various ad hoc emails, letters, and text messages to target specific groups of students, and to push specific actions.
Once those seniors start to choose your college or university, we will provide an additional set of monthly messages for those committed/deposited students (and their parents) to help prevent melt.
We also train the entire admissions and enrollment marketing group on how to effectively engage, lead the conversation, build relationships, and guide students and families through the college search process.
THE RESULTS?
Our clients consistently tell us that besides higher open rates, the engagement they get from students and parents is at a level they’ve never seen before. Our messaging also helps admissions counselors better understand the mindset of more students in their territories, which results in more personalized customer service, and higher levels of conversion.
Check out these responses that two of our clients received from prospective students after they received a TCS generated email:
“I have been following your emails and you have influenced my consideration for <College Name>! Thank you for putting in the time to help me find my future! :)”
“I just wanted to tell you that, even though this email was more than likely sent by a robot, receiving this meant a lot to me. I get all sorts of emails from colleges that contain nothing but shallow compliments and information on the school. It has been a while since I have felt such a personal touch from a piece of college-related mail. Even if this will only be seen by a computer and all I get back is a quick “thank you,” email, I hope you know that it was really therapeutic to write this. I am excited to look further into your school.”
Numerous colleges and universities we’ve worked with have achieved record first-year enrollment thanks in part to their partnership with Tudor Collegiate Strategies. We’ve also helped multiple schools increase their application numbers, FAFSA completion rates, number of campus visits, as well as lower their “melt.”
Associate V.P.
Illinois College
“The TCS team has challenged us to reframe the way we approach communication with students, families, and school counselors. They have helped us craft a relational communication strategy that is true to our institutional identity. It has transformed our interactions with students and driven us to big results. They are truly a partner in that they are responsive to our feedback and available to any of our staff to talk through everything from drip marketing strategies to staff burnout. The whole admission team knows Jeremy, has his cell phone number, and knows that he’s available to them when needed. It’s about relationships and that’s what TCS is all about.”
*Illinois College has partnered with TCS since 2018.
READY TO PARTNER WITH US TOO?
Contact us here to start a conversation about your specific needs, pricing, and timing.