Just how bad was this email? Pretty bad. Click on the icon to view the entire example. What you’ll see is that this institution completely missed the mark. Here are a few the problems we found:
- The
subject line sets expectations that the message doesn’t deliver on (i.e.
supposed to be about application deadlines; as you’ll see, it is about every
other item the Admission office could think of!
- Even
though the Admission office has the student’s name, the message is not
personalized at all.
- A
“catch-all” approach to content leads to this student (who has already begun an
application) to being given instructions on what to do if they are either a
transfer or freshman applicant. Shouldn’t the Admission office already know
that?
-
The
message failed to follow basic CAN SPAM regulations (i.e. there is no
opt-out/unsubscribe opportunity).
These
are just a few of the low points. Check out the graphic to see all of the
details.
Unfortunately, this was just one of many
examples we received. In our assessment of over 300
promotional messages from 180 institutions, ranging from elite research
universities to small, four-year private colleges, enrollment managers and
marketers receive a failing grade. Overwhelmingly, higher education
institutions disregard email best practices and simply ignore the basic tenets
of CAN-SPAM, a federal act governing the use of commercial email.
No strategy and using the
medium as a low cost way to broadcast or blast messages to students are the
underlying culprits. Approaching email marketing as a ‘cheap and easy’ method
to communication has hidden costs to colleges and universities including damage
to the institutional brand, a lowered reputation score from Internet Service
Providers (ISPs), and lost enrollments. The end result? E-communication
torture for students.
Learn
how to avoid the fate of many of your colleagues in our report, Death by a
Thousand Cut- Email Marketing Practices of Undergraduate Admission Offices.
Request your copy.
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