How can you draw in top students when they visit your site ? At Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this September, several schools presented the tools they have crafted to solve the recruitment riddle.
Less is More
Duke University, a school of 12,237 students in North Carolina, had a revelation. They were asking prospective students far too many questions. According to the Duke presenter, "Students either wouldn't answer all nine questions or they would give random answers. We narrowed it down to three questions : first name, last name and email. We gather the other information later." As a result, "Our database is less rich but much more reliable. New visitors have increased by 11.4% thanks to this change."
Know Your Customer
Marian University, a school of 2,837 students in Indianapolis, has created a single recruitment platform. Mary Reiman, Director of Integration and Application Architecture, explains, "Now we know the students and their interests better. We've saved so much money on paper mailings that now we send students free t-shirts."
One-Stop Shop
At Ohio University, a school with a student body of 35,000, administrators counted fifteen different sources of information on current and former students. For Jessica Gardner, Director of Marketing and Communications, "Some sources were digital and some were paper. We had to find all the pieces to the puzzle."
Compiling all the data in one centralized platform meant convincing staff and school organizations of its worth. "Today we have a full picture of our students and graduates. Thanks to targeted mailings, we hope to obtain more information and better understand our alumni." In short, these efforts will facilitate fundraising.
Dreamforce attendee Samuel Vinet, Project Director at French business school ESSEC, related to the presenters : "We have the same concerns as American schools. We've already reduced the number of questions on our forms, especially for foreign students."
