NAGAP Presentation - Holly Acito Sara Langston (FINAL FINAL)
1. Increasing Applicant Engagement and
Yield Through Email Communication
2015 NAGAP Annual Conference
Presented By: Holly Acito & Sara Langston
2. ● AAU
● Carnegie Classification: Comprehensive
Doctoral
● Public Research University
● 13 Schools, 3 Campuses
● Population: 30,000 (10,000 graduate students)
3. Graduate Enrollment
Management Services (GEMS)
● Central enrollment support office in a decentralized
admissions environment
● Interacts with administration, faculty, staff and students
● Staff dedicated to internal communications,
coordination of external communications, data analytics
and reporting, event coordination, record cleanup and
maintenance
● Over 300 post-baccalaureate level degree programs
● Current Graduate Enrollment: ~10,000
4. Graduate School of Education (GSE)
● Centralized Admissions
● 4 academic departments
● Interactions with students, faculty, staff
● Staff dedicated to application processing,
recruitment & student services, data analytics,
enrollment management
● Clearinghouse for enrollment reporting and data
● Over 60 programs (Adv. Certs, Master’s, Doctoral)
● 12 Online programs
● Current Enrollment: ~1,500
5. Learning Objectives:
● Identify critical touch points between acceptance
and enrollment
● Utilize internal resources to increase engagement
and yield
● Learn how to write engaging email content
● Identify key performance indicators for email
communication
6. Situation Analysis
● No central CRM system within UB
● Central graduate application system (homegrown system
for UB)
● Manual follow up - very time extensive
● Used Excel files to manage lists
● Difficult to keep track of communications (specifically
because of rolling deadlines)
How could we be more timely in messaging?
How could we create a communication plan that would be
applicable to so many different programs?
How could we be more efficient?
7. Objectives:
1. Reach an acceptance confirmation rate of 95% by
Fall 2016
2. Increase accept-to-enroll yield by 4% by Fall 2016
Improve email performance
Increase the number of people who confirm acceptance
Increase yield
8. Why create an email
communications plan?
“Where do you tell people to send important calendar items,
documents, or discussions about important topics, either for work or
home? Our guess is that ‘Facebook’ wasn’t your answer. It was
probably email.”
– Jason Falls, Digital Strategist and Co-author of “The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing”
14. Email is not dead.
Of Americans age 12 and over who are active online, 94% cite
email as one of their regular activities. (Source: Pew Internet and
American Life Project’s Generations 2010 report)
Jay Baer, Social Media Speaker, Author and Coach, says that
58% percent of adult Americans check email first thing in the
morning. (Source: MarketingSherpa 2013 Email Summit)
Email generates nearly a 2X return compared to other
channels. For every dollar spent on email marketing in 2011,
there was a $40.56 return. Compare that to other channels,
such as search engine marketing, which is the next closest at
$22.44. (Source: Direct Marketing Association and Smart Data Collective)
15. Email Construction
Key Attributes of Engaging Email
Trustworthy
RELEVANT
Gather
Information
Identify Calls
to Action
Choose a
Channel
Write Content
Set Timing
& Frequency
Launch &
Measure!
16. Email Construction
Key Attributes of Engaging Email
Trustworthy
RELEVANT
COORDINATED
Strategic
Gather
Information
Identify Calls
to Action
Choose a
Channel
Write Content
Set Timing
& Frequency
Launch &
Measure!
Conversational
19. Keeping accepted students
engaged without being
overbearing!
What is the secret formula?
There isn’t one.
Gather
Information
Identify Calls
to Action
Choose a
Channel
Write Content
Set Timing
& Frequency
Launch &
Measure!
20. What do I measure?
What is “good”
performance?
• Open Rate
• Click Through
• Bounce Rate
• Surveys
• Email Responses
Gather
Information
Identify Calls
to Action
Choose a
Channel
Write Content
Set Timing
& Frequency
Launch &
Measure!
Quantitative
Qualitative
Source: Metric: Industry Average:
Mailchimp Open Rate 23.15%
Click Through 3.11%
Bounce Rate 0.71%
Constant Contact Open Rate 26.30%
Click Through 8.22%
Bounce Rate 8.16%
Silverpop Open Rate 26.2%
Click Through 5.8%
Bounce Rate 3.7%
Hobsons Open Rate 12.55% - 30.90%
Click Through 2.33% - 4.08%
Bounce Rate Unknown
Smart Insights (UK) Open Rate 19.26%
Click Through 2.26%
Bounce Rate Unknown
