‘Email’ – The Most Effective Marketing Channel for Educational Institutions
The act of sending a commercial message via email, usually to a group of people, is known as email marketing. Email marketing, in its broadest sense, refers to any email sent to a potential or current consumer. It entails sending advertisements, soliciting business, or asking for sales or donations by email. One or more of three primary objectives are often pursued by email marketing strategies: to establish loyalty, trust, or brand exposure. Sending email messages with the goal of improving a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty, acquiring new customers or persuading current customers to make an immediate purchase, and sharing third-party ads are all examples of the term.
To some extent, the time of organisation cloud technology was set in 1996, when the first business owners began using Hotmail to control company’s email. Mobile company owners enjoyed the ability to discover and send emails directly from web browsers, rather than having to install and configure paste-mail clients like Eudora or Outlook. That doesn't suggest that email isn't useful; it is, but it is a more passive link because target markets are challenging to define, measuring the effectiveness of marketing initiatives has been challenging in the past. Email marketing allows marketers to see real-time consumer feedback and track how effective their campaign is at reaching market penetration, demonstrating the communication channel's scope. However, this also implies that the more personal quality of some advertising strategies, such as television commercials, cannot be captured. Email marketing is substantially less expensive and faster than traditional mail because the recipient bears most of the expense. Businesses and organisations that send a large number of emails can utilise an ESP to collect data on their recipients' behaviour. Consumer responses to emails provide information that helps businesses and organisations better understand consumer behaviour and leverage it to boost sales. On a typical day, about half of all Internet users in the United States check or send an email, with emails transmitted between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. local time surpassing those sent at other times in terms of open and click rates.
Email marketing for educational institutions are mostly used for developing strategies and sending emails to inform and engage students at universities and colleges. Higher education email marketing can be a fun job, but it's also something that education marketing managers should be familiar with. Setting up email strategies and sending focused and tailored emails to your university students, prospective students, alumni, and partners is what email marketing for educational institutions entails. Email marketing enables educational institutions to tailor student experiences based on their preferences, data, and interactions with the institution. A 'why' is the starting point for any marketing project. Universities use email marketing for several purposes. Here are a few of the most popular:
1. A low-cost communication channel
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective communication method. It offers educational institutions several benefits including:
- Increased number of students enrolment
- Improved student retention
- Enhanced student engagement
2. Exceptional return on investment
As students extensively use emails for communication purposes, email as a marketing channel, gives educational marketers a considerably higher return on investment. It is best for:
- Making communication more personal
- Keeping track of how effective the campaign is
- Deriving information that impacts decisions
- Creating scalable campaigns
3. An effective way to attract students
Students from all over the world are applying to colleges and universities that provide on-campus programmes, distance learning, online learning, and other options. However, you aren't the only one who provides educational opportunities. Universities and colleges compete for market share regularly. Email marketing helps you in attracting stutents while they compare multiple programmes to determine which is the best for them. It allows you to:
- Make your educational programmes more visible
- Showcase the advantages of your institution
- Provide prospective students with online counseling
- Propose your academic programmes
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, half of all college students will graduate with a degree or credential within six years of enrolling. This means that if one student's enrollment is missed, it will be lost for six years. Increasing the number of student enrolment is easier with email marketing. With the correct approach and tools, you can turn a 60-word email into thousands of dollars.
4. Opportunity to promote the institution
Email marketing for universities aids in the promoting the institution. It contains promotional material that covers the following topics:
- General information about the educational institution.
- Information on admissions and the application procedure.
- Relationships and community among alumni
- Extracurricular and athletic activities
And, email marketing automation is what makes the delivery, information collection and tracking the effectiveness of these emails seemless while saving time, costs and efforts to the marketers.
5. A medium to encourage students to participate in after-school activities
You don't send emails to university students to convert them, as you would in the public sector, rather to:
- Notify them of any new announcements
- Participate in university activities with them
- Increase their participation by informing them about important issues such as health and security
Email aids in the development of student connections, the onboarding of new students, and effective
communication. Just that
- Contacts should be segmented.
- Content should be customised.
- Topic line should be chosen carefully.
- Send out responsive emails.
- Perform a test and keep track of your results.
Prof. Annie Jose
I have been in the Educational Service Sector for over thirty years. I completed my M.Sc. B.Ed. From DG Ruparel College, Mumbai. After which, I pursued my M.Sc. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University Department of Chemistry, Kalina, Mumbai. B.Ed. From Government College of Education, CST, Mumbai. I have my expertise ranging in Curriculum Design, Mentoring, Parents and Students Counseling, Programme Co-ordination Management, Cocurricular activities in a literature circle, science circle and cultural programme and Monitoring & Management of Scholarship for students.