Drip & Nurture Marketing for Higher Ed

Drip & Nurture Marketing for Higher Ed Thursday, June 17th, 2021 Your Speakers

Chris Wilkins, Haley Prentice, Founder & CEO, The Community Marketing SchoolFinder Group Manager, The SchoolFinder Group

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Agenda

1. Intro 2. Email Marketing Trends 3. Drip and Nurture Marketing Defined 4. Benefits 5. Building a Drip Campaign 6. Drip Marketing Examples 7. Q & A

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup The SchoolFinder Group Clients

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup The SchoolFinder Group Platform

The SchoolFinder Group is a platform of websites designed to help students find schools, scholarships and careers. We have over 1 million registered students in our database.

We work with about 100 educational and other organizations to find and recruit students. In a given year, we send over 5 million emails to the community.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup The SchoolFinder Group Platform

HERO v1 HERO v1 HERO v1

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Email Marketing Trends

The biggest changes in the next 5 years?

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Email Marketing Trends

Sustainability: Email is more likely to be around in 10 years than Facebook, Cable TV, Twitter and other channels 70% likelihood compared to Facebook (67.6%), Cable TV (67.4%), & Twitter (60.2%).

Artificial Intelligence: Many decisions and campaign planning will become increasingly more automated. AI makes it easier to spot trends and understand correlations by utilizing learning from past campaigns to optimize future results.

Content: Writing in a conversational, approachable tone; less hard selling, more helping; telling a story that an audience will engage with. Help not sell!

Sources: Litmus: Email Marketing in 2020; https://www.emailmonday.com/email-marketing-automation-trends-predictions/ https://blog.benchmarkemail.com/6-email-trends-in-2019-no-one-is-talking-about/

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Email Marketing Trends

Data: By 2020, 1.7 megabytes of data will be created every second, for each person on earth.

Personalization: Technology allows much greater personalization. Personalized subject lines help get 26% higher unique open rates, and were responsible for improving click-throughs on CTA links by an average of 14%.

Automation: Set it and forget it!

Sources: https://expertsender.com/trendbook-2019/?utm_source=emailmonday&utm_medium=article; https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics/ https://blog.benchmarkemail.com/6-email-trends-in-2019-no-one-is-talking-about/

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing

How often do we send out one email to prospects with everything they need to know about our school and then expect them to apply and ultimately enrol?

students to convert with just one email.

Drip email marketing is all about building a relationship with prospects.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing for Higher Ed

• drip marketing should be part of your strategy.

• Drip and nurture marketing is an effective method for building relationships with students and influencers.

• It involves a series of communication delivered over a period of time to a targeted group, culminating in a call-to-action.

• It is designed to build relationships with the audience which in turn results in better engagement and higher conversion - at reasonable costs.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing

Drip and nurture email marketing allows you to connect with prospects in a timely and relevant manner.

Once the campaigns are set up, they run on autopilot, sending targeted content to prospects when it matters the most.

This makes it one of the most efficient ways of communicating with prospects.

Drip Email = suspects to prospects

Nurture Email = prospects to applicants

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing Benefits

Drip email marketing allows you to connect with

• Awareness • Interest • Consideration • Application • Accept • Register

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing Benefits

79% of marketing qualified leads never convert

Automated emails get 119% higher click-through rates than broadcast emails.

Sources: https://emailmonks.com/drip-email-marketing/infographic.html; https://myemma.com/email-marketing-automation/21-stats

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Email Marketing Benefits

Drip emails receive 80% more opens than single sends, and average click-through rates are 3x higher.

Organizations that excel at drips generate 80% more sales at 33% lower costs.

Sources: https://blogs.constantcontact.com/benefits-of-drip-email-marketing-campaigns/; https://emailmonks.com/drip-email-marketing/infographic.html

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Secret Shopper Results

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Secret Shopper Winter 2021

Following on from 2012, 2016, and 2020, we wanted to know how (and if) student enquires were being managed.

is in grade 12, living in Ontario and interested in interested in coming to Canada to study a STEM program. They sent requests between December January.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Secret Shopper Results Comparison

Percent of Schools Responded 70.0 67.0 64.8 65.0 61.7

60.0

55.0 50.7

50.0

45.0 2012 2016 2020 2021 % of Response

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Secret Shopper Results Comparison

• In 2012, 64.8% of the schools responded to a request for information.

• In 2016, that number declined to 61.7%.

• In 2020, the trend continued at 50.7%.

• In 2021 67% response rate.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Secret Shopper Program 2021

Which means more than 1/3 the colleges and universities did not respond to a qualified request for information.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Building a Drip/Nurture Campaign

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Building a Drip Email Campaign

1. Set a Goal

2. Identify Your Target Audience

3. Build the Templates

4. Schedule the Campaign

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup 1. Set a Goal

• Set a goal for the campaign to help develop the content and purpose of the emails

• Some common goals are: • Boosting enrollment for a particular program • Overall brand awareness • Reaching students from a certain location (international, provincial, etc.)

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup 2. Identify Your Target Audience

The more refined your target is, the more specific and personalized your messaging can be.

• Location (Country, province, town, postal code) • Age • Program of Interest • Intended Start Date (Month/Year) • Academic Average • Interested Region of Study • Interests (Travel, politics, technology, religion, etc.) • Heritage • Citizenship • Gender

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup 3. Build the Templates

• In building a drip campaign, there are some things to consider:

• Preheader and subject line • Header image • Body Content • Call to Action • Personalization • Footer • Logo(s) • Email Signature

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup 3. Build the Templates: Best Practices

• Often overlooked preheaders can assist the subject line in increasing open rates.

• Body text should be as minimal as possible (>150 words). The less content, the more likely students will read and engage with the content.

• Include 3-6 hyperlinks and a clear call-to-action.

• Add a signature which includes the name, email and photo of a recruiter to encourage students to reach out.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup 4. Scheduling the Campaign

• Determine the sequence and time between emails we recommend 4-6 emails spaced 4-8 days apart. • We set up campaigns as recurring. With hundreds of new students joining our students who match your criteria, as they create their accounts. • Track Results: Easily determine who has opened and clicked move high-interest prospects to a nurture email or call campaign.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Drip Campaign Example: Capilano University

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Capilano University Case Study

Goal: To recruit students for any undergraduate programs for Fall 2020.

Target: Students living in Canada, aged 17-19, interested in studying in BC, and intended start date Fall 2020.

Method Using drip marketing, we targeted high-quality leads and sent 4 emails from May July, which produced stronger, more cost-efficient conversions.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Emails 2 3

• The next two emails introduced students to program options, campus life, and financial aid offered by the university, providing a variety of hyperlinks to engage varying student interests.

• These emails received an average unique open rate of 34%.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Email 4: Apply Now

• By the time students had received this fourth email, they were familiar with the university and its offerings.

• This email employed a hard call to action: Apply Now.

• Email 4 received a 38% unique open rate.

The Results: Overall, this campaign resulted in 123 applications

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Nurture Campaign Example: Vancouver Island University

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Vancouver Island University Case Study

Goal: To recruit students for any undergraduate program.

Target: Any leads coming from the SchoolFinder platform.

Method Using nurture marketing, we targeted all leads and sent 4 emails each spaced 4 days apart.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Emails 2 3

• Email 2 introduced students to program options. The unique open rate was 30%.

• Email 3 focused on financial aid and scholarship options. The unique open rate was 22%.

• Both emails also included a signature to encourage reach-out.

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Email 4: Apply Now

• This email also employed a hard call to action: Apply Now.

• This email received one of the highest unique open rates from the campaign: 39%.

The Results: Overall, this campaign resulted in 88 applications

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup Q & A

[email protected] in schoolfindergroup