Despite all the hype around the latest social media, email is still a highly effective way of nurturing and converting leads to applications, offers and enrolments, often delivering the highest ROI of all channels in the conversion journey.
But everyone receives too many emails every day, (including prospective international students), some from friends and family, but most is spam.
So how do prospective students filter their inbox and decide which emails to open and which to trash without even taking a glance? Put another way, how do you ensure they open your email and take action?
The answer is (obviously) by providing them with content they want to read, and that's what these 11 steps are all about. Creating emails that prospective students want to read.
PLANNING
Define the target market
Firstly we need to recognise that prospective students from different countries, studying different courses are interested in different things. What stage in the enrolment journey is the target market in? Again, this changes the information they are interested in.
It might sound obvious, but you need to avoid the temptation to send an email to all international students with the hope that it will be relevant and influential to such a heterogenous cohort with diverse needs.
Identifying the exact target audience is imperative: the more segmented the audience, the more relevant and engaging it is possible to make the content. Ensuring the right language, tone of voice, and relevant stories are used in your communication is important if you want them to read your communication rather then divert it straight to Trash.
It is essential to define their aspirations, their dreams, their priorities: what are they hoping to achieve by spending $100,000 on an international education? It's a large amount of money so they'll have a clear objective in mind. From gaining a university degree they can't get at home, to a better job, study holiday, family honour, global connections and even migrating to a new country to live, the ultimate goals for prospective students are many and varied.
What currency will they use to measure their success? This one is not quite so straight forward, but again, $100,000 is a lot of money so they will have a clear outcome in mind when choosing where to study overseas. Is it a greta experience, bragging rights, a job with a great company, or permanent residency?
What pain points are they experiencing, what's stopping them from achieving their aspirations? It could be money, a part-time job while studying, family support, lifestyle, safety, visa, or post-graduation career concerns. Again, the better the understanding of what's important to the target market, the more relevant and influential it is possible to make the email and the better it will convert.
If you don't know the answers to some of the questions above, review the research you do have, or start a new voice-of-the-student feedback program to enable the content of your emails to be student-driven.
Purpose
Before starting writing it's vital to be clear on what you want the prospective student to do once they have finished reading the email? That way, the student can be incentivised to take the next step with a compelling call to action at the end of the email.
Consider the timing of your content from the prospective student's point of view, what's going on in their lives and what stage of the process they are at with you?
WRITING
Now you are all set to start writing the email. We use a simple 1 page template to help plan and maximise the effectiveness of student email content. If you'd like a copy, please let me know and I'll send it over.
Headline
It's not the only thing that drives open rates (so does who the email is from, and your relationship with the reader), but the headline is critically important - if your email isn't opened then all the time and effort you went to in the copy (and possibly a landing page) will have been wasted.
The subject line needs to make the reader want to read your email. The key is getting to know your audience and talking to them about how you can help them achieve their priorities, (rather than the mechanics of what you do or need them to do).
"You're one click away from starting your new life as a nurse", is far more engaging than "Offer acceptance deadline closes 19 November".
There are lots of hacks to writing headlines with high open rates, but all are designed to engage the audience in the issues they care about the most.
Personal connection - send the email from an individuals email account (not a generic account) to demonstrate that you are interested in the student as an individual. Personal plain text emails often have a higher delivery rate and open rate than HTML and are certainly better suited to certain purposes, for example inviting a student to a 1:1 call later in the conversion process.
Lists - (like this email), can provide valued content if they are designed to address the audiences interests. E.g., how to, 5 ways to, 25 hacks to, etc.
Freebie - from cheat sheets to checklists, and insider guides, everyone loves a helpful freebie, that saves them time and increases their chances of success.
Social proof - advocacy and referral from the right person can be so much more powerful than a message from an institution or it's staff, simply because they are trusted to be more impartial and have the target audiences interests (rather than the institutions interests) at heart.
What if - grab the reader's attention with a challenging statement, "what if I told you, you could become be working as an engineer at Google in 2 years?
Keep the headline aligned with their priorities, not your processes to write a headline that your target audience wants to open and read.
Personalise
It seems obvious to address the email with the prospect's first name, but ideally the personalisation would go far deeper than that. By ensuring that the entire email content is tailored to the country, subject and journey stage of the prospect, enables it to be rich and engaging versus a generic email.
Sending thank you emails, follow up emails (when they take too long to take the next step), update emails (when they are waiting to hear back), make the reader feel important to the institution.
Problem
It might sound counter intuitive, but start your body copy by dramatising the problem your target audience is experiencing, (that you are going to go on and help them solve).
Empathise with how it effects them and how they feel about the problem, reinforce that this is a real issue that needs to be addressed, now!
By reminding them about the important problem they face, we refresh their desire to address it, building their interest in our solution and their motivation to take action.
Promise
Successful institutions don't sell courses, they sell their students better version of themselves. Focus on their aspirations, their priorities, what they ultimately want to achieve and promise to show them how to make that happen.
Most students don't want to study engineering, they want to be an engineer, at a tech unicorn, living the life, travelling the world, working on their own business idea to launch their own unicorn one day.
Talk to their dreams and aspirations, before you talk to them about the course, fees and entry requirements. Show them you understand their desires so they believe you can help them achieve them.
Solution
Once you have them excited about achieving their dreams and aspirations you need to let them know a few details about how you're going to help get them there. What is it that you'll do or use to help them achieve their dreams?
Consider their likely objections and pro-actively offer your counter, up front. This can be especially important if you aren't their natural first choice.
Authority
Establish why should they trust you, what's your track record of success with students like them, public recognition, awards and relevant rankings. Don't lead with generic rankings, wait until you've established which ones are important in this instance, and then share those towards the end of the email to reinforce why you are best placed to help the student achieve their dreams.
Social proof
In a world increasingly driven by social media and the views of previously unrecognised influencers, it's important not to ignore the influence they have. We all look for the reviews on Amazon before buying and so it is that students increasingly look to strangers on social media for guidance.
Sharing the stories of current students and alumni can play a role here, either as individuals or as a group.
Call to action
The prospective student has opened and read the email, now what? You need to close with a clear call to action, preferably with an offer to incentivise them to take the next step and take it now. The offer might be tips on how to improve their application success, or a limited "scarcity" offer to drive action.
Image
Visual optimisation is important, but it doesn't have to be too slick. Ensuring the target market can see themselves achieving their dreams at your institution is the key. Culturally appropriate images are critically important for international recruitment.
Ensure that the HTML design you use is mobile optimised and highly deliverable, as the majority of the emails will be viewed on a mobile device (these aren't business customers in their offices).
It may well be that a plain text email is more engaging and effective, as it can demonstrate a personal interest rather than a generic mail out.
We use global best practice frameworks and our cross-industry experience to bring fresh thinking to increase higher education conversion and enrolments.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can help you to better understand your target audiences and develop more higher converting emails.
After all, there is no point in writing emails if no-one ever clicks on them. Thanks for reading this one. I hope it was helpful.
John Chatterton
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