Does print have a future? Yes, for universities that dare to be different
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