College increases prospective student response rates using personalized URLs and customized content.
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A Prospective Student website developed for Houghton College uses personalized URLs, variable data printing and customized web pages to boost direct marketing response rates and drive website traffic (http://explore.houghton.edu/).
Personalized Marketing
A key component of this project is the use of personalized URLs and variable data printing to gain the attention of targeted prospects, create a more effective direct marketing campaign, and increase direct response rates. The college launched the website by sending a series of printed mailers, plus an email blast, to a mailing list of 25,555 high school students, and received 1,575 responses. The message to prospective students included a personalized URL (http://explore.houghton.edu/firstnamelastname) and a unique password. This information was generated by preloading the mailing list into the database, and the system creating a set of unique user names and passwords that could be used with the mailing.
The 6.2% response rate to the initial communication was almost equally split between those who responded via paper (743 or 47%) and those who responded electronically (832 or 53%).
Customized Web Pages
To create a more personalized experience for prospective students, Houghton’s website now invites users to build customized pages that display information about the college tailored to their specific interests. As part of the registration process, users complete both a personal and interest profile which gathers information on their interests from academics (majors, study abroad programs) to extracurricular programs such as athletics, drama or music. After completing the profile, the site generates a set of personalized pages with an overview of each interest area and links to more content on the college website.
Maintaining Visitor Interest
A key goal of the website project was to gain mindshare and invite visitors to browse the site to learn more about the college and its programs. The site uses innovative technology (Flash video, animated slide shows, a Flash document viewer and visitor polls) to create a more interactive user experience.
Results tracked using Google Analytics have been outstanding with good response in terms of pages per visit (4.5), average time on site (2:33) and a very low bounce rate (less than 5% of visitors are viewing only one page, versus 35% for the Admission section of the main website).
Linked to Ongoing Promotional Activities and Google AdWords
The ongoing plan is to use the website as a key marketing vehicle and landing page as key marketing tools to continue building relationships with prospective students entering their college search. Because the website is targeted specifically for prospective students, the website can speak directly to prospective students and highlight news and create an electronic view book of college life. The new content and expanded capabilities also encourages student prospects to engage in a dialogue that helps bond them with the college and voluntarily enroll in a relationship building process that earns loyalty. Use of Google AdWords each month provides an ongoing stream of new prospects, and additional direct mail campaigns and email blasts are being designed to drive traffic to the website.
Highlights of Website Development
The Houghton Prospective Students Website was developed using standards-based HTML and CSS for the interface, with PHP providing the connection to a MySQL database. The slideshows and video players are driven by SlideShowPro for Flash using a server-based software product called SlideShowPro Director. The Flash document viewer is powered by Issuu. Polls are driven by PollDaddy.
