Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

From the TargetX workshop in Philadelphia last week, you could look out to Independence Hall and imagine for a moment the debates and discussions that finally created the Declaration of Independence. It wasn't quite that dramatic at the workshop, but there indeed was an effort to take stock of the revolutionary changes in recruitment marketing that have taken place in just the last year or two.

The 11 point Recruitment Revolution manifesto sums up the changes rather well. Boiled down, the essence is this: colleges and universities can't control the messages that are out and about the planet about them. The Internet has pretty much destroyed that, along with the general and growing reluctance to believe "marketing speak" messages.

What's next? The 11 points outline the path. My favorite? "We will give students the tools to create their own content, even if that means giving up some control." Most of the people in the room didn't yet have student blogs on their websites. Until you do, you haven't joined the revolution. Real blogs, where students sometimes talk about stolen iPods, excess drinking, and transferring. In other words, this Revolution is about Reality Marketing.

A Revolution at NACAC?

Next stop for the Revolution Manifesto? If I can mix a little history here, maybe figuratively nailed to the doors at the NACAC meeting in Pittsburgh?

Here's the list. How far down the path have you gone?

- We will encourage interactive communication whereby we talk with prospective students, not at them.

- We will forego marketing speak for credible, authentic content in all our communications.

- We will embrace prospective students' parents in the admissions process and provide information directed to their specific interests and needs.

- We will communicate with prospective students when they are ready, not when we're ready.

- We will declare an end to boring campus tours and open house events, replacing them with memorable experiences.

- We will give students the tools to create their own content, even if that means giving up some control.

- We will strive to tell stories over statistics.

- We will equip everyone on the admissions team with the skills and confidence to interact with a culturally diverse population, and not simply rely on a "minority recruiter" to reach our diversity goals.

- We will use technology only when it helps us tell better stories and communicate more effectively, not because it's trendy or cool.

- We will promote "word of mouth" by creating connections between prospective students, current students, our campus community and alumni.

- We will champion the recruiting revolution within our office, our administration and our campus.

Add your thoughts here or at the TargetX blog at http://www.blogs.targetx.com/targetx/emailminute/

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Years ago, way back in the 1990s, I once thought that personalized printing was going to revolutionize student recruitment publications. Admissions offices would collect personal information about their inquiries early in the recruitment cycle and create specialized print contacts based on that information. That's a revolution that never happaned.

Despite the promise of higher yields from inquiry pools, the higher per person contact cost was an obstacle that very few colleges and universities were willing to undertake. It wouldn't have been as much of a challenge, of course, if the idea of smaller inquiry pools had ever caught on, but that was a concept that almost nobody would consider. Smaller inquiry pools? If you put in less at the top, wasn't it guaranteed that less would come out the bottom of the proverbial funnel?

Print on Demand Institute Best Practice Reviews

Are attitudes to "print on demand" or "personalized printing" changing in the Internet era? Time didn't permit an exploration of that topic in my presentation tomorrow on "The Evolution of Print Publications in the Internet Era" for TargetX, but a review of the Print on Demand Institute website at http://www.podi.org indicates some renewed interest.

PODI is the umbrella organization to promote digital printing. They've been working at that for many years now. One of the results is a series of "Best Practice" case studies on the use of digital printing.

PODI offers a series of best practice reports on users of digital printing services. A visit this morning shows 11 college and university examples are available. Non-members have to pay for these, but if you see one of your competitors listed that might be a wise investment.

College and University Best Practice Reports

These are the colleges and universities included for either student recuitment or fund-raising:

• Bob Jones University
• D'Youville College
• Franklin University
• Huntington University
• Kennesaw State University
• Manchester College
• Montreat College
• Northern Arizona University
• Slippery Rock University
• University of Richmond
• University of Toronto

If you want to stay up to date with the latest print-on-demand news, sign up for the PODI email newsletter when you visit the site.

Your website is a great place to ask for information to allow print personalization as people use your inquiry form. And if you're at all concerned about the impending decline in traditional-age students, it might not be too soon to start thinking this as a way to increase inquiry to applicant conversion.

Perhaps the print-on-demand revolution in student recruitment was only postponed.

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Don't miss Erin Kassane's article on "Attack of the Zombie Copy" when you visit the A List Apart website dedicated to "People Who Build Websites."

If the examples of zombie copy don't remind you of university webistes heavy with academic jargon, I'll be surprised. But don't stop with the zombies, continue on through the collection that runs back to 2000.

If you think storytelling on the web is a new topic,  be sure to check Curt Cloninger's December 2000 contribution, "A Case for Web Storytelling."

For continued progress in improving writing quality and impact at your side, visit the 16 articles at http://alistapart.com/topics/content/writing/

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Last week I was writing about Colgate and other universities that were breaking new ground in first response communications sent to new inquiries. These revolutionary schols were abandoning the traditional viewbook as the first response piecel. Imagine my surprise this week when along came a traditional 72-page viewbook from Colgate.

In May, the 52-page photo collection

What's special about this? First, consider the investment that Colgate has made since May. First, a 52-page "24/7" photo book to introduce life at the University with photos taken by the same student photograher that signed the cover letter. Then several postcards, including the skeleton skull that Sam Jackson hated and wrote about at his blog at http://www.samjackson.org/college

Along with the photo story book and the postcards have some four monthly email newsletters that arrive right about the start of each month.

So what we have so far is an admirable and continuing contact program that clearly sends the message that Colgate is interested. Colgate's version of The Courting Game is being played with unusual intensity.

In September, the 72-page viewbook

And then arrives the viewbook. More great photogaphy, for sure, but lots of substantive information as well, including a strong "Graduation and Beyond" section.

The viewbook's existence doesn't change any of the comments in last week's posting. Colgate is  not using it as a first response piece. In this case, it is being sent to a person who made an initial inqiury in May of the sophomore year and is now starting the junior year. I haven't asked Sam Jackson what he thinks about the Colgate program. Since Sam doesn't list Colgate as one of the places he's thinking about applying to, he isn't in the target audience.

What's the target audience? Anyone with a genuine initial interest in Colgate. I'll be amazed if Colgate's visit and application yield from that group isn't higher than rivals who are not making a similar effort that starts as soon as the inquiry is received. And that should pay dividends for a university that's already in a very strong recruitment position.

Now, I'm looking forward to more monthly emails as th recruitment season unfolds.

TargetX and the Recruitment Revolution

The Colgate effort is featured in my new presentation on the evolution of print publications done for the TargetX "Recruitment Revolution" workshop that's now less than two weeks away. For details about the other sessions offered that day, visit http://www.targetx.com/workshops/index.html Still time to register and join us in Philadelphia.

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Ray Ulmer at TargetX interviewed me this week for today's "Email Minute"... and while we touched on email, most of the conversation was related to my September presentation for TargetX on the future of print publications in a world increasingly shaped by electronic recruitment steps.

Universities leading the print revolution

I'll be speaking about why the traditional viewbook designed to introduce people to a college or university late in their junior year or just before their senior year is increasingly irrelevant. Using material sent by friends at Furman University, LeTourneau University, and Seattle Pacific University who have dared to break with the traditional viewbook, we'll review the future of print in the Internet era.

It all started with sophomore just a few years ago when many of them started becoming inquiries at colleges and universities a year or so earlier than they were supposed to do that. Send them a viewbook? Then what do we do with them after that? And so most places sent little or nothing at all and that's still a common pattern. Along came the viewbook about a year after the inquiry.

How often do people tell me the yield from sophomore inquiries is poor? Do they know the value of a good first impression? Or the consequences of a bad one?

The communication challenge increased as more and more people starting sending applications for admission without ever identifying themselves as an inquiry. Websites provide all the information needed to select a list of applicant schools. Send these people a viewbook designed to introduce them to your school after you already have the application? Does that really make sense?

Magazines are hot. Viewbooks are not.

A few smart marketers have invented a new solution. For some, like Furman and Seattle Pacific, the answer is a new magazine format publication that focuses on life at the shool rather than facts and figures that are better left for the website. Done several times a year, the magazine "subscription" can begin whenever a prospect is identified. And then you have something to continue sending right through to the end of the recruitment cycle. The magazine isn't the same print quality as a view book, but it sure trumps the letter or postcard that most sophomores are likely to receive today. If they receive anything at all.

Colgate University's Photo Book

Colgate University has taken a different approach. Inquire as a sophomore and you'll receive a very high production quality photo book that takes you through life over several days at the Colgate campus. Almost no text, almost no facts and figures. Just the one thing you can do better in print than you can do on the web... use the power of great photography to engage an audience. What's the ongoing follow-up for Colgate? Since May, a well-done monthly email newsletter and a plethora of postcards.

First impressions created by first response to an inquiry are critical. How strong is yours?

More on the Recruiting Revolution

To explore more on the "new" print in student recruitment and other elements of the "Recruiting Revolution," come along to the TargetX event on September 21. Details and registraton are at http://www.targetx.com/workshops/index.html

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