Today's potentials students glasses are all half full, in fact lots are over flowing, they are a generation that are incredibly positive, for them the future is full of promise.  So how do we communicate with these students?  How can we make content relate to their thinking by making it positive.

1. We are in the top 50 Universities in the World

2. 500 of our students had degree related jobs secured prior to graduating

Whereas both statements are positive, the difference is that the second statement relates to the student in a positive and personal way.  The first statement does not mention students at all.

The rules are simple:

• Positive  
• Personal
• Relevant 
• Concise

But to put the simple formula into play we have to understand the market. The decision making process for university starts at around the 16 year old mark,  their is  approximately a two year decision making process.

The decision is influenced by parents but the choice is made by students.  Do we understand what information the students require to make an informed choice? what is important? just like any other market there are different segments that require different information.  Researching the market will tell you how your institution fits the market, this ensures that you are able to provide the right information for your market.

The research is key it ensures we can provide relevant and valuable content to potential students, this along side an overtone of optimism will attract students to your institution.  Stories that reflect how your institution contributes to students defying the odds to achieve incredible outcomes will engage the attention of potential students and bring in students.

Joanna Turner This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  www.hecoms.co.uk

1.  Millennials insist on NOW, if they can’t access what they want they are off! The average attention span of a Millennial is 8 Seconds

2.  Millennials are socially liberal, tech savvy, educated and excited for the future…… they expect the same from YOU

3.  Millenniums are driven by the need to be connected and when connected to share.

4.  Millennials care about political and ethical issues and this is a powerful motivating source - universities need to ensure they communicate and illustrate their ethical behaviour.

5.  Understand them….Information they engage with needs to reinforce their image of who they are and what they want

6.  They want content that is demand driven, original and serves a purpose in a succinct and precise way.

7.



8.   Millennials want you to be upfront when it comes to answering questions, practicing what you preach and building trusted relationships


This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.    www.hecoms.co.uk

1. Little and Often…..Students will not read long monthly newsletters, they will however read a paragraph a week                
2. Subject lines that stimulate rather than ignore…November Newsletter is hardly enticing, subject lines are key in getting emails opened                                                                                                                                                                           
3. Make sure you use text snippets to reinforce your subject line                                                                                      
4. Are you making your potential students feel wanted?  The use of personal words and student names will make students feel that the institution is interested in them as a person.                                                                                                   
5.  Is the content relevant?  Post graduate scholarship information to undergraduates is not relevant…we see lots of irrelevant content going to students.  Segmentation of enquiries into specific groups can avoid this.                                                        
6. Are you providing links back to your site to provide further relevant information on you email content?                              
7. Call to Actions (CTA)  need to be clear and accessible, your students have made an enquiry and the next step is for them to apply.  Make sure you are providing students with access to application information                                                          
8. Understand your student market and make sure you are providing them with the information they require

We are all guilty of scanning our inbox subject lines and opening the emails with subject lines that interest us.  The increased in use of mobile devices has made subject lines shorter, this makes the enticing statement more challenging with fewer words to make an impact.

When we look at emails in our inbox on mobile devices and desktops we see the subject line (in bold) followed by a line of text:



Many of us assume that this is the first line of the email , however in other cases the text following the subject line  will provide irrelevant information for example:



The text that follows is called snippet text and can be controlled by the email composer.  We know that the subject line is important for getting emails opened and snippet text is equally important.  Snippet text needs to work with the subject line, in the  first J Garner email above, the snippet text is used to reinforce the subject line, the subject line and snippet text prove a powerful reason to open the email.

Research shows that under 50% of email senders for business to customer use snippet text, those that do, have the competitive advantage 

HE Coms works with universities to increase email opening rates, a recent survey of incoming universities emails saw only a small percentage using snippet text.  We have seen over 50% increase in opening rates by using carefully selected subject lines and snippet text.

For further information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.      www.hecoms.co.uk