Communication Plans: Keeping in Touch with Propsects and Applicants

1. Communication Plans: Keeping in Touch with Propsects and Applicants Hobsons Connect Training Series David Baugher, Director Office of Graduate Admissions

2. Agenda • What is a Communication Plan • Why do we need one • What are “best practices” for marketing emails • How do we edit emails currently scheduled in Hobsons

3. What is a Communication Plan • An organized set of communications (emails, phone calls, letters, etc) • Purposefully timed • Give information to prospects to entice them to apply • Give information to applicants to encourage them to complete their file • Give information to accepted students for “next steps”

4. Why do we need a Communication Plan? • Keep in touch with prospects • Keep KSU in their thoughts • Give prospects the information they need to decide if your program is right for them. • Let applicants know what they need to complete their file and by what deadline

5. What are some “Best Practices” for setting up our Communication Plan • From Line • Subject Line • Message/Body • Frequency

6. Best Practices – From Line • More effective when from a person not a company • 7 out of 10 judge whether it’s spam by From and/or Subject line • From line and Subject line should work together • 55% will open if they trust the sender

7. Best Practices – Subject Line • Call to action • 35% open because of the Subject line • Shorter out performs longer • Personalized perform worse • Trusted Company name increased open rate • Tell what’s inside, not sell what’s inside • Headline or question type subjects do well

8. Best Practices – Message/Body • Clarity – Short and sweet • 15-20 seconds for an email/51 seconds for a newsletter • 54% only read half the message • Segmentation – unique content by segment • Call to action • Consistent Branding, use of templates • Key points high in body • Mixed results on using images

9. Best Practices – Message/Body (cont) • Prospects – • simple content • Interactive • Call to action • 1-2 links • Applicants – • More detail • Information and instructions

10. Best Practices - Frequency • People tolerating less • Opt-in marketing 2x/week – 2x/month • People opt-out because content no longer relevant • Follow-up messages can be based on interaction with previous message(s).

11. Communication Plans – Frequency Currently running for most programs. (not MAC, MBA, MCM)

12. Emails in Hobsons • Who is the email going to? • Create a filter • Who is it from? • Use a return address someone monitors • Will the subject line get their attention? • What do you want to say to this group? • Create the email • Does it look right? • TEST, TEST, TEST!!! • Queue for delivery

13. Today’s Demo in Hobons • Reviewing and editing currently scheduled emails • Creating scheduled emails in a future class • These are your “live” emails • Don’t have to edit them now, but soon • “Renew” annually in October • Notify David that OK for another year

14. Let’s Log In! www.kennesaw.edu/graduate/admissions/connect/manual.html