There are many benefits to segmenting your data if you are trying to attract new students to your school. Segmentation allows for personalisation – and the more personalised your email content is, the more successful it will be in terms of generating interest, real leads and admissions. Segmentation can lead to the following improvements:
- Higher open rates
- Lower unsubscribe rates
- Increased deliverability
- New leads
- More admissions
In this blog, we round up our top tips on data segmentation to help you reap these benefits.
Prospective student segments
If you are focusing your marketing efforts on increasing the number of new student admissions, here are are some suggested segments to consider:
- Local prospects – an email list with prospects in the surrounding towns of your school. This is important as questions and concerns for local prospects will be very different to those outside of your local area. You can tailor content to this segment for those that already know about the local area.
- Domestic, non-local students – if you are a boarding school, it’s important to create this list to encourage national students to enrol at your school. This list will be less familiar with the local area, so you can send them content about commuting and highlight any benefits and attractions of the school’s area. You can also send virtual tour videos to those who may find it difficult to visit the school.
- International students – again the concerns of this group will be completely different. For example, your school may provide different qualifications to those in their home countries, so you can send them course guide information as well as tips on moving to the area. You can also invite them to join you on a virtual tour or virtual open day.
- Prospects with special interests – if your school specialises in a particular area such as sport, drama or music, group any interested parties in this category. Simply asking contacts from the above lists what they are interested in can help you further sort them into more specific interest categories. Depending on their interests, you can then send them appropriate content about their subjects of interest.
- Transfer pupils – is one of your target personas the same as a rival school? Try to segment any emails in this category to its own list. Your efforts should then be to convince them why your school is better. To get data for this list, simply ask email contacts from previous lists if they are attending another school. You can then send them information such as your schools exam results, alumni achievements and unique programmes which the other school may not have.
By segmenting your data in this way, you will be able to meet the needs of everyone on your email list, providing them with the information they need to make the decision to move to your school.
If you would like more professional tips on marketing your schools do get in touch with the Digithrive For School’s team who are always happy to help. contact us here