5 Easy Steps for Driving More Leads and Increasing Admission Applications through Email Marketing

Email marketing still remains to be one of the important tools of integrated marketing communication in modern times. It strongly supplements all other forms of inbound marketing and ensures need base marketing messages to reach a sizeable audience. If interestingly designed, it can be very useful to generate immediate call to action for driving leads and producing final admission conversions.

In this article, we will understand some of the key aspects of email marketing for admissions.

First and foremost, there is no denial of the fact that millennial generation is extremely proficient in the use of modern technology, especially computers and mobile phones. Smart phones have further brought a new revolution in dissemination of Information Communication Technology (ICT) giving high access to all sorts of useful information being delivered at your doorstep in real-time.  Widespread popularity of smart phone technology has also brought familiarity, comfort and convenience of accessing emails at the touch of a button thereby making it a universal marketing medium.

Here are a few simple steps through which Universities and Colleges can use email marketing for generating leads and driving admissions.

1. Define objective of lead generation: Before we start our email campaign it is crucial to define who is a lead for us. It could be someone who fills out a form on our website, someone who downloads our brochure, or maybe someone who is interested to attend a webinar session with admission head. Defining the lead will help admission marketing team to set the email marketing campaign into right perspective by clearly aligning it with the pre-identified objectives of the campaign.
2. Database of Genuine Mailing Subscribers: Social media properties such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter etc. can be used for creating subscribers for your mailing list. Avoid sending unsolicited emails. In fact these days advance email filtering mechanism can block your IP and prohibit you from sending bulk emails. Instead, admission marketers need to think of innovative ways for building a database of genuine opt-in email list of leads and prospective applicants.
3. Nurture Leads: I have always believed that what gets followed up gets done. Admission marketing team should hence maintain a regular relationship and follow up with their prospects until it arouses strong interest in your brand. This also helps in brand recall at the time of making a purchase decision which could be either while filling admission form or during accepting admission offer. Email marketing is a useful way to attract attention and continuously remain in the consideration set of your customers. This consistent and highly relevant email communication helps you build credibility and trust with leads. Additionally it keeps your brand top-of-mind for when decision makers are ready to choose an option.
4. Designing Email Content: Designing and copywriting for the email campaign is the most crucial stage of the campaign cycle. There are a few elements that should be kept in mind while drafting email content copy.
   • Firstly, the subject line should be interesting and relevant to the interest of the target audience. This is very important to get impressive click through rate. One way to write attractive subject lines is to personalize them. Include actionable words. Subject lines should address possible solutions to a specific need of the prospective applicant. So spend time on thinking about ways you can improve your subject line.
   • Secondly, messages to be kept short and simple that are intended to generate curiosity among admission seekers. So keep your email concise and engaging.
   • Ensure that your email communication contains powerful use of infographics and images to build compelling stories around. Attractive visuals will help in reinforcing your promotional content quickly.
   • Increase outreach of the email campaign beyond the subscriber base by adding options/widgets for further sharing it on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.
5. Email Automation Software: Now the question is about sending emails and monitoring campaign effectiveness. Software such as mailchimp is very useful tool for sending bulk emails. Such software come with advance features to schedule email in advance, track CTR, map demographic profile of customers, track geographies/location etc. All this can help in knowing the user behavior and redesigning campaign as and when required.

Conclusion
Email marketing, if used sensibly with other forms of communication can prove to be very effective for admissions. It can drive traffic to your landing page campaign and help in capturing qualified leads. These leads can be further engaged to create final conversions.

So, implement these simple steps and justify your digital advertising return on investment.