Prospective students and alumni have very different relationships with an educational institution. Alumni already have an emotional connection to their alma mater. But they’ve typically already gotten what they wanted out of the relationship. Prospective students may have feelings about their desired school, but they don’t have a sense of loyalty yet. But while alumni may or may not care about what the school has to say, prospective students care a great deal indeed. Communication with the two groups requires completely different approaches.
So what do they have in common?
They both respond better to personalized communications.
A recent study by Ellucian examined how personalized communications for educational institutions affected the way that prospective students and alumni responded to those schools. They found:
For prospective students, for example, Ellucian reports:
“During the enrollment process, 87% of students who received personalized communications said it was an important factor in their college decision process. And almost half of students who applied to multiple colleges said they decided against attending an institution because of poor communications.”
The fact is, people respond better to outreach that specifically applies to their interests and backgrounds. Tailored communications get better responses than generic ones.
One way to make school communications more personal is through data. Sending prospective students communications that refers to their declared majors, extracurriculars, financial situations, and more will get their attention. The same thing goes for alumni–referring to what they majored in, what clubs they had participated in, specific professors they had, etc., helps them remember their ties to the communities they once belonged to.
To take personalized communications to the next level, video has a lot to offer. How can you use video to make communications to alumni and prospective students feel more personal?
Personalized communications have a huge impact, whether it’s convincing students to matriculate or alumni to donate. You don’t have to dive in all at once; dip in a toe and see what a difference you can make!
Intrigued by the idea of video messages?
Watch the recording of "The New Way to Connect with Students: Video Messages."