3 Innovative & Reassuring Email Marketing Campaigns Driving Higher Education Interest

To meet the excitement and expectations of prospective students, colleges and universities deploy multichannel recruitment campaigns that connect with students at various points throughout their enrollment journeys. Email, a media channel that reaches prospective students across desktop and mobile devices, remains one of the most valuable channels for recruiting prospective students, offering the opportunity for higher education institutions to personalize their messaging and communicate at scale about campus life, upcoming deadlines and events. 

Email is also an effective tool for offering answers to frequently asked questions regarding application, enrollment and campus life. Several colleges, including Millersville College, University of Vermont and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, use email campaigns to offer options to students who want reassurance about current campus challenges while driving engagement and encouraging prospects to take specific actions with unique in-email CTAs.

Millersville College Email Marketing Campaign Comforts Parents & Encourages Applications With Inclusion Of Ranking As “Safe” College Campus

For many parents and students, campus safety is one of their primary concerns. Millersville College addresses this worry head on with the email subject line “Did you know we [Millersville College] are ranked in top 10 for safety?” By immediately highlighting the issue of safety, Millersville is able to encourage email opens from prospective students and parents. An eye-catching subject line can be particularly effective for schools that are smaller and less well known. The Millersville College email goes on to highlight the “cozy” and “beautiful” Lancaster, PA location, conveniently located near major metropolitan areas, ending with a link to schedule a visit and an “apply now” button. Reaching parents and students with email messages that resonate can boost open rates, click-through rates and application rates.

Email marketing is often considered an “earned” media channel, but email reach (and results) can be scaled by leveraging third-party providers that deliver college-branded emails to the inboxes of more prospective students. Contact DMS to learn more about branded email opportunities.

University Of Vermont Email Marketing Campaign Suggests Prospective Students Take Pre-College Courses To Ease The Transition To College

College readiness is on the minds of many high schoolers, particularly students who didn’t feel satisfied with the virtual instruction they received during the pandemic. Higher education institutions that leverage email marketing campaigns to address college readiness concerns may be able to garner increased interest from prospective students. 

A recent email campaign from University of Vermont (UVM) encourages high school students to “take a course now and make college easier later.” The UVM email explains that getting ahead with a few courses now can help students stand out with recruiters and make the transition to college easier, allowing more time to enjoy the excitement of moving on to campus and getting comfortable. The email concludes with a call-to-action button linked to the pre-college program web page on the UVM site plus links to individual courses and information about UVM. 

By educating prospective students early in their college research process, UVM is building affinity with prospective students and likely a loyal audience of future applicants who are happy to receive helpful college readiness tips.

Higher education email marketing can be used for building awareness, nurturing prospective students and boosting application and enrollment rates, but email marketing campaigns work best when audiences are opted in and have high intent. Contact DMS to learn how to build a continually updated email subscriber base of opted-in hand raisers.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Appeals To Female Applicants With “Female Perspective Visiting Day,” Offering Easy Webinar Registration Via Email

For many women entering a traditionally male-dominated field like STEM, understanding a college from a female perspective is an integral part of deciding whether or not to move forward with an application. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute addressed the “fitting in” concern proactively with a virtual event called “Exploring Rensselaer from a Female Perspective.” The webinar featured “unique perspectives of women studying and working in the STEM fields [and] their views on the cultural environment at Rensselaer,” as explained in the email sent by RPI. Interested applicants were taken directly from the email to the webinar landing page to register. 

Webinars, virtual tours and other virtual events, often promoted via email, have been indispensable tools for colleges and universities throughout the pandemic, with many higher education institutions likely to continue using virtual options to offer access to a broader audience base.

User experience from email to landing page can make or break the performance of a higher education email marketing campaign. Branding and messaging should be in alignment with the CTA and the form easy to fill out. Contact DMS to learn more about how to maximize email marketing campaigns to boost higher education enrollment marketing efforts.

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