Case Study #1: Boise State University College - Writing Sample

© 2008 PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative www.podi.org Best Practices in Digital Print Case Study

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Boise State University College Increases Enrollment with Personalized Communications

Best Practices in Digital Print Case Study www.podi.org © 2008 PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative

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Project: Boise State University College Increases Enrollment with Personalized Communications

Vertical Market: Education

Business Application: Direct Marketing/Lead Generation

Faced with increasing competition, and a very limited marketing budget, the Larry Selland College—a professional technical college on the campus of Boise State University—was experiencing ongoing declines in enrollment. After hiring an enrollment consultant to evaluate the situation, the college decided to invest the time and money required to follow up with each person who inquired about a program at the college. The personalized program—titled “Yes. You Can.” —is a multiple-piece mailing that is timed and sequenced with various messages designed to convince prospective students that they can get into college, succeed, and get a job.

Program Objectives

• Reverse the trend of declining enrollment in college

• Increase enrollments

• Respond in a timely manner to requests for information and build a relationship with multiple hits

• Target prospective students with a strong, empowering, and cohesive message

• Accomplish all of this within a very limited budget

Significant Results Reported by User

• Increased enrollment by almost 15%

• The first of five promotional pieces mailed within 72 hours of an inquiry or customer contact, with other materials mailed to prospective students every 10 days until all five pieces have been sent

• Cost for the entire series of communication pieces is less than $10

• Marketing budget has been increased because of proven success

Description

As a small, two-year college within Boise State University, the Larry Selland College was facing ongoing declines in its enrollment rate despite the use of traditional radio, television, and newspaper advertising. As with most colleges, it faced growing competition, a narrowing field of prospective


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students, and a limited budget with which to solve the problems. It also had some unique challenges to deal with. Idaho is still in many ways a rural state where traditional trades, such as agriculture and logging, are a major part of the economy. Many residents in the rural communities still hold the belief that a high school education is all that is needed to get a job, and hard work is more important than knowledge when it comes to promotions and salary increases in the future. In fact, most students who attend the College are the first in their families to go to college. Overcoming the belief barrier of adults was a challenge. In addition, the College was struggling to get students because unemployment was the lowest in the nation. Desperate to find employees, local companies began offering free training in many of the areas that in the past had only been offered at the College. The College faced prospective students asking, “Why pay for a college education when I can get hired and learn while I earn a paycheck?” Since no one wanted to enroll in the programs offered at the College, it seemed as if the next step would be to create new programs that could generate interest. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. The state requires all professional or technical colleges to offer certain programs. Changing class schedules to accommodate those who wanted to learn at night was also an idea that surfaced, as a way to generate new enrollments. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option, either, because the College lacked funding to hire teachers for evening and weekend courses. The only choice for classes was to attend full-time during the day. In addition, the most difficult challenge faced by the College was internal competition from the University. Boise State had launched its own campaign with messages on television, on radio, and in print that showcased



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the University’s desire to recruit the brightest and the best—a metropolitan university of distinction. The showcase of research and graduate degrees in various media pieces completely discounted the role of Selland College. Selland College, like other professional technical colleges in the state, serves the role and function of a community college and offers programs that include basic reading, writing, and math; GED preparation; and other programs to help students get ready for college. Many who enroll in the College’s professional technical education programs are those who have struggled with education in the past, who need a second chance, or who may have dropped out of high school or had financial hardships. These prospective students were extremely nervous about coming to a college to learn about programs. Overcoming the barrier of fear of failing that these students faced was difficult, especially when the University marquee stated, “Boise State has the highest admission standards in the state.” The “high standards” message was great for the University in terms of finding donors and raising funds, but those interested in Selland College felt there was no place for them at Boise State. The University’s message was turning away the students that Selland College was trying to attract. Ted Bailey, Director of Boise State’s Printing and Graphic Services Department, sized up the situation. The College had already tried everything—except direct mail. It had always considered direct mail to be too expensive and the results risky. But Ted knew that other educational institu-tions had been having great success with personalized 1-to-1 marketing. “We used PODi case studies to help prove it could work for us,” he says. “If other colleges were having success with it, we knew we could too.”


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Armed with documented success stories from other schools, a solid concept designed in cooperation with enrollment management consultants, and a desire by the Dean to do whatever it took to try to increase enrollments, the College and the print shop embarked on a plan to design and test a new communication followup program. The most time-consuming part of the process was creating personalized designs that met the needs of the College. Presenting the case for funding was also time-consuming in the beginning. The goals of the program were as follows:

1. Build a relationship with each student 2. Convince them that they can succeed in college at Selland 3. Motivate them to talk to Selland enrollment specialists

before enrolling elsewhere 4. Show why paying for college is a better choice than getting free, on-

the job training 5. Inspire prospective students to make significant life changes that

allow them to attend full-time programs during the day Because of the long review process for the five-piece brochure campaign, the College started with a personalized series of three postcards. This allowed the College to begin working with its new theme (“Yes. You Can.”) and communicate short messages about quality, success, and financial aid, starting right away.

The Campaign

To build a relationship with each prospect, the College needed to contact each one quickly—after the first inquiry and multiple times after that—with a strong, flexible, universal message that addressed all goals. The “Yes. You Can.” theme was a strong, positive answer to any fears or concerns prospective students might have about their abilities. That theme works with multiple messages, including, but not limited to, these:

• Yes, you can succeed here • Yes, you can get financial aid • Yes, you can make a difference



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• Yes, you can get a degree no matter what your previous educational experience has been

• Yes, you can enroll here even if you did not graduate from high school

• Yes, you can get a great paying job at graduation

• Yes, you can find caring teachers and small classes

• Yes, you can do something you love • Yes, you can take free basic skills

classes and earn your GED • Yes, you can get an Associates

degree and apply credits earned toward a Bachelor’s degree in the future

• Yes, you can be a role model for your family • Yes, you can stop the cycle of poverty in your family

The planning team decided on five consecutive mailings, spaced at 10-day intervals. The mailing begins within two to four days of a student’s first inquiry. All mailings are delivered in a bold, personalized, digitally printed, 9×12-inch catalogue envelope. Each envelope lists the information that is enclosed. 1. Initial mailing

a. A personalized, eight-page, full-color brochure: easy steps to follow, urging students to push for their dreams and call to find out how the College can help them get there

b. A personalized letter from the Dean (all letters are printed in black-and-white on preprinted shells)

c. Up to three full-color flyers on specific requested programs (out of a possible 28; digitally printed, but static)

d. An application form (static)

2. A view book a. A personalized, eight-page, full-color brochure featuring photos

of students and stories (why students love the College) b. A personalized letter from an enrollment specialist inviting them

to come to campus

3. Financial aid information a. A personalized, four-page, full-color brochure: Don’t let anything

stand in your way—how to apply for financial aid b. A personalized letter from the financial aid director


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4. Graduate success a. A personalized, four-page, full-color brochure: Real success

stories from graduates b. A personalized letter from a local employer endorsing the college

and encouraging the prospect to enroll. (This letter is on employer letterhead shell.)

5. Quality you can trust

a. A personalized, four-page, full-color brochure featuring stories about Selland College instructors

b. A personalized letter and testimonial from a community leader All mailings are sent to every prospective student, unless they respond or request they be stopped. Excel lists for mailing are generated from:

• Incoming calls • A Web-site information request form (www.selland.boisestate.edu) • Events, high school visits: The College’s enrollment team sets up

booths at almost every community event, from fairs and disco nights to rodeos and race tracks. They hand out information and a simple, easy-to-fill-out card—asking only for name, address, and phone number. (The college has discovered that most people will not take the time to fill out more than just basic information at a booth. People say they will mail it back later, but rarely do.)

The lists (usually 15-250 names at a shot) are downloaded twice a week by PGS, cleansed, barcoded, and standardized. They are imported into XMPie uProduce, a database that outputs PDFs for all pieces, which are queued for the EFI Fiery-driven Xerox iGen3 digital production press. (Envelopes are digitally printed with matching codes and then converted.) The pieces are finished, fulfilled, and mailed within 72 hours of being downloaded. The first mailing is sent via first-class mail to help weed out any bad addresses before the process continues.

The Results

After the College had collected six months of data, it was able to see some real results: Enrollments increased by an impressive 14.7%. This is huge, especially considering that enrollment had been steadily decreasing for five years in a row, but also compared to the enrollment rate for Boise State University, which only increased by 3.2% over the same period. This is also significant because direct mail was the only change that was made. All other marketing efforts were the same as prior to the direct mail campaign. A sampling survey of recipients showed that people love the publications.



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Budget

To cover the cost of this campaign, the College supplemented its initial marketing budget of $50,000 with an additional $35,000 to create and launch the campaign. In spite of some trepidation, the Dean of the College, the Associate Dean of Enrollment Management, and the Marketing Director believed in what the Director of the Printing and Graphic Services Department had showed them—that 1-to-1 marketing would pay off, and it did. After the launch, the continuing in-house cost of printing all pieces in the multi-touch campaign is now less than $10 per recipient. The program has been going for about 18 months, and it has proved to be a tremendous success. With the great results the College has been getting, it’s much easier to receive continued funding.

Final Thoughts

The quality of the printing, graphic design, and copywriting is key to the success of the campaign. The collaboration between the variable-print team and the creative team—designing the program to optimize it for digital technology, creating safe areas, building in layers, and writing to fit spaces—

made this project stand out. Although there are further opportunities to customize the pieces even more for each recipient (switching images and content and featuring success stories or instructors specific to a requested field of study), the focus here was to get the campaign created and test its effectiveness. “Creating a library of variable images and content would have required even more approvals and reviews. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to improve the relevance of


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our communications as we continue,” according to Ted Bailey, Director of Boise State’s Printing and Graphic Services Department. The College is already expanding its use of personalized communications in other areas, thanks to this first success. It now uses personalized postcards to invite new students to an orientation registration session. In the past it simply sent out letters from the admissions director. It was rare to have more than 10 individuals actually attend, although the College was sending out more than 500 letters each semester. Now 75% of those who receive a card attend their listed sessions, and of them, 70% actually RSVP to secure their seats!



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Client The Larry Selland College of Applied Technology at Boise State University

www.selland.boisestate.edu

The Larry Selland College (CoAT) is a two-year community college on the campus of Boise State University. It offers 28 full-time career training programs in areas including welding, culinary arts, surgical technology, and automotive technology. The College specializes in education for employment.

Print Provider & Agency

Boise State University Printing and Graphic Services Department

www.boisestate.edu

Printing and Graphic Services (PGS) provides Boise State University and Idaho state agencies with cost-effective graphic communication products and services. Its purpose is to be a major contributor in the dissemination of information—

faster and at lower cost. PGS is a full-service solution provider offering relevant marketing expertise utilizing digital, offset, copying, and wide-format printing capabilities.

Other services are provided by Julie Rybarczyk Concepts, which offers design, copywriting, and related services.

Hardware EFI Fiery-driven Xerox iGen3 digital production press

Software Originally produced with XMPie uDirect. Now using XMPie uProduce. EFI Print MIS solutions, PrintSmith, PrintSmith Site, and EFI prepress workflow

Target Audience Undergraduate students

Distribution 15–250 twice weekly. Cycle runs every 10 days over a three-month period.

Date Launched in June 2006; on-going

Case Study #1: Boise State University College - Writing Sample

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