How do you break through the clutter of emails, direct mail and websites to deliver a compelling message to potential students?  How do you get them to take an action?

As marketers we know that personalization is the antidote to keeping mail and email recipients from glazing over – Increasing personalization and relevancy in your mail, email, and web communications is the key to increasing your response rates.  PURLS are a device for personalizing a web interaction that increases your mail and email response rates significantly.  PURLs, or Personalized URLs, are database-driven Web pages that are the ultimate form of personalization and relevancy.

For example, a PURL might be www.tombennett.spectrumedusolutions.com, and the moment that I enter my PURL address into my browser, the web page template is merged with the information from my database record – creating a personalized online experience for me and only me. This web page can contain very specific information about the site visitor, such as my name, details based from my profile such as street address (such as the name of my local school), photos that relate to who I am (a woman’s photo for women in the database, a man’s photo for a man), and so on. Eventually, you can even build the site to reflect  what choices and decisions the prospective student has made. This is the same concept that Amazon.com uses to recommend products to their customers.

Instead of sending direct mail and email, consider using the same resources to send personalized mail, personalized email, and PURLs. They let you to make an immediate, personal first impression on the recipient.

There’s no doubt that email is one of the most important communication tools at your disposal. Here are three ways to get more out of your email efforts:

1. GIVE ‘EM WHAT THEY WANT

According to a new forecast by Forrester Research, spending on email marketing will reach $2 billion by 2014—which means your message will be drowned out if it doesn’t stand out.

With the increased level of importance placed on e-search, your emails need to do more than raise awareness if you want to gain a significant response—they need to engage.

One of the easiest ways to extend your level of engagement is to segment your database to make emails relevant to individual prospects. This allows you to send specific messages to specific individuals (e.g. about your math program to those interested in math, or about your honors program to those with great SAT scores). In market tests, relevant messages outperform generic messages by an average of 62%.

2. STRATEGIZE AND TRACK

It’s a bad idea to compile a list of random prospects and “blast” them with a bunch of emails. It’s best to carefully plan the messages you want to send, who you want to send them to, and when you want to send them.

For example, if most students choose your school because of your strong academic programs, send out your first message about strong academic programs. If the second reason students choose your school is that graduates get great jobs, send an email that profiles successful graduates. This type of thinking leads to successful communication plans.

However, no matter how great you think your initial plan is, you must track results. Using email without a tracking plan is like playing darts blindfolded. It’s best to have an automatic tracking system in place so that you can test which subject lines get the most opens, which messages get the highest response, etc.

3. GO CROSS MEDIA!

One of the most successful email strategies is to combine your email message with a direct mail message. In market tests, the combined effort of print and email outperformed email alone by 2.5 times.

Cross-media means that you have a similar message and call to action in both the email and the direct mail pieces. This way, you’re consistent in asking students to do the same thing (e.g. sign up for an open house) across all media channels.