A few years ago, I received a postcard from the College of St. Joseph in Vermont encouraging me to
explore the Graduate Programs offered
Let’s take a look at said collateral and offer up some suggestions for improving their conversion rate and overall marketing spend.
Postcard Front
Patrick Coen, a graduate student in business administration, offers this testimony:
[The professors at the College of St. Joseph] have expanded my intellect by helping me to think more critically and look more broadly at issues. This is what college is about.
Sounds great! Except, I already went to college, and the largest words on the front of the postcard are the words Graduate School.
Here are three suggestions for making this side work harder:
- Invest in a better campus photograph. The white vinyl siding and sporadic shrubbery are doing nothing for you.
- Invest in a better student photograph. The two Dell machines atop a laminate-top desk are, again, doing nothing for you.
- Solicit a stronger testimonial. Your testimonial should be related to that which you are selling, and college and grad school are not the same thing.
Postcard Back
My guess is that I ended up on their mailing list because I took the GRE. Given this, then, why are they including
GRE not required for admission
as a selling point? I’ve obviously already taken the test so this isn’t likely to encourage me. In fact, it may discourage me, because someone like me is going to think, “Um, then how will I know if my classmates are going to challenge me?” Because, along those lines, not only did I take it, but I scored 1500 — and I’m guessing that schools can buy score range lists at a price premium from the GRE (though this may not be true; does anyone know?). So why on earth advertise the fact that any yahoo can get in sans standardized test score to someone who just did pretty-okay-alright on said standardized test? (Aisde: note how conveniently I’ve created a blog post in which I could drop in my GRE score?)
Also, the grammatical gaffes are not a strong signal about this institution’s quality. Why capitalize “Graduate Programs” in the first sentence? Why call them “Grad students”? What’s with the extra space in between “blended online/ on-campus classes”?
Finally, am I the only one who walks into a standardized test having already come up with my short list of schools to which I plan on applying? Is post-testing really the best time to try and convince someone to apply to your school, or should you consider trying to get in front of prospective graduate applicants before they’ve already taken a test?
Here are three suggestions based on these findings:
- Be mindful of your mailing list. If you must use a list purchased from recent standardized test takers, do not list the lack of standardized test requirements in the marketing copy.
- Be mindful of your mailing list. If you are mailing standardized test takers, run your copy by an English professor, a proofreader, or any kind of editor you can get in front of.
- Actually, stop it with the direct mail. Or soften your geo footprint. Unless you have a ton of success convincing residents of New York City to hike it up to Vermont to attend grad school at a place whose logo contains four evergreens?
Okay, sorry, that last part got a little snarky. But geez.
Here, to make up for it:
- Graduate Degrees in Business at the College of St. Joseph
- Graduate Degrees in Education at the College of St. Joseph
- Ditto, Psychology & Human Services
Got any add’l marketing tips for one Kieran Keefe, Graduate Admissions Counselor up in Rutland, Vermont?
