20 years ago, a traditional college viewbook was comprised of 30 pages that covered anything and everything that a prospective student might want to know about the school. Excluding writing and design costs, printing 15,000 copies of these viewbooks would cost $5 per book, plus $2 each for postage. A batch would only be sent out once enough students requested information, leaving some students to wait weeks before receiving anything from the school.
The shelves were stocked with these thousands of books, but then, there’d be a change. A new program would be added, another would be removed, the school had a name change, or a new award or ranking wouldn’t be included. The viewbooks were now inaccurate and sometimes unusable.
The future is here…
Today, things change quickly in higher ed and digital marketing. The unavoidable integration of the internet in our daily lives means that students expect communications to be immediate and relevant, and schools want their campaigns to be automated and trackable. Studies have shown that a personalized message earns a 20% increase in response rate. Factor in reaching the right individual, sending the right message and sending it at the right time, and there’s a 10x increase.
Yet, communication strategies haven’t changed
Despite data backing up the power of personalized messaging, Liaison’s 2017 research found that only 19% of small schools personalize their recruitment marketing with a student’s name and one other variable. 28% have generic communications that are sent to every prospect.
Schools that use Liaison’s enrollment marketing solution, the Enrollment Marketing Platform (EMP), don’t have this problem. They stand out from this crowd with instantaneous, fully personalized, multi-channel communication for prospective students.
This includes personalized print, which is still undoubtedly the best way to reach parents of prospective students. You read that right — print isn’t dead; it’s actually quite effective when used in unison with EMP’s digital campaigns via email, phone and text. These campaigns are all managed within one convenient platform, which enables schools to scale their efforts without scaling their staff. The result? Enrollment numbers soar, campus visits increase and deposits increase. Most importantly, schools are able to build a better class every year.
Here’s how EMP works
Let’s say a prospective student named Cassandra fills out an online form to request more information about Thomas Jefferson University. She selects Cell Sciences for her intended major and selects music and soccer as her extracurricular activities. She clicks “Submit.”
In just a day or two, Cassandra will receive a viewbook with her name on the front, showing a female student working in the science lab. Inside will be information about the music program and soccer team. With this personalized viewbook, Cassandra and her parents are able to tangibly experience her future life at college.
Ready to learn more?
The video below gives an in-depth look at how cross-media campaigns work in EMP. You’ll also see our New York-based print center creates customized postcards, brochures, posters and viewbooks for each of our clients.