What's in a name?

I'd like to talk about the importance of naming conventions for emails. I can talk about this now because I've finished being mad at myself for making a silly mistake at work. You know the old adage"to assume makes an ass out of you and me." Well that's exactly what I did in this situation. I foolishly assumed that an email that was named Enquiry Welcome email 2016 entry was only being sent to enquirers who were interested in beginning their studies in 2016. However, upon closer inspection of the filter attached to said email, I discovered that the email has, in fact, been going out to enquirers who are  interested in 2016 and 2017 entry.

So I hold my hand up and say that I should have checked the filter thoroughly to make sure it was going out to the correct recipients. But equally a lot of time could have been saved and a lot of frantic unapproving of emails and drafting of apologies, if the correct naming convention had been followed in the email title.

So not only are naming conventions useful when searching through a long list of emails, you can also use them to make sure you are crystal clear who the email is aimed at in order to differentiate it from similar emails.

In short email titles should include WHO, WHAT and WHEN. Who the email is aimed at, what the email is about, when it is being sent out.

What else should you include when choosing a title for your emails?

• Keep names short, but meaningful. - To easily identify which emails are for different customer segments, use acronyms or abbreviations at the front of your titles, e.g. UG, PGT, ENQ (for enquirers), APP (for applicants).
• Avoid unnecessary repetition and redundancy in file names and file paths. - If an email is intended for enquirers, you can use the acronyms above at the front of your title and then there's no need to mention it elsewhere in the title.
• If using a date in the email title always state the date ‘back to front’, and use four digit years, two digit months and two digit days: YYYYMMDD or YYYYMM or YYYY or YYYY-YYYY. - I would say it is not necessary to go as far as a four digit year but this is personal preference. It can also be useful to mention the period your email is dealing with, e.g. 2016 entry, August, 21 day follow up
• Avoid using common words such as ‘draft’ or ‘letter’ in the title, unless doing so will make it easier to retrieve the record. - In addition to this, there is no need to include that it is an email when it will be found in a list of emails.
• Order the elements in a title in the most appropriate way to retrieve the record. - Put the most important information about the email at the beginning by using the acronyms and abbreviations in the first point.
• The file names of records relating to recurring events should include the date and a description of the event. - As an example, emails relating to open days should include which open day they refer to as there are bound to be multiple events throughout the year or across different customer segments. Also if the type of email is a common element of your communications plan like a welcome email or monthly email, it is useful to include any subject or theme variation, e.g. May Monthly (Accommodation), Media Studies Welcome.

The above is based on work done by the University of Edinburgh on file naming conventions.

The most important thing to remember is that having a naming convention is important not only to make your life easier but also to help others so it's important to come up with your own rules in conjunction  with others and stick to it.

Something I must try harder to do in future.

That's all for now.

Liz

Some positively negative marketing

Maybe this is a bit negative for a first blogging topic but as soon as I saw this blog post on HubSpot about negative marketing it got me thinking about how this would translate to the work I do in the Higher Education sector.

I'll take each idea in turn and see how far we get.

1) Create Negative, or Exclusionary Personas

Sure there are people in our database receiving our emails who absolutely will not apply to study at this university and that's fine. They might be members of staff who want to be kept informed of the communications that prospective students receive, they might be teachers who have signed up to find out more. Since most of the prospects on our database have a shelf-life (i.e. once the year of entry they are interested in has passed whether they went on to study with us or not) there are surely going to be "exclusionary personas" in our database.

So what can we do about them? Well, teachers can be prompted to sign up for our dedicated newsletter and anyone who expressed an interest in studying in a previous year will not meet the filter requirements used when segmenting the database. Anyone else (University staff from here or elsewhere) can just enjoy being communicated with since we don't have to worry about sales teams and wasted resources chasing leads.

2) Leverage Exclusivity

The higher education market has seen some massive changes in the last few years meaning more universities are competing for fewer students who are paying higher fees. Where price is not a measure of quality something else is needed and maybe exclusivity is the answer. We state in our prospectus how many places there are on each course and how many applications are received each year. This gives the student an idea of how competitive the course is and for subjects like Medicine only 6% of applicants actually get a place.

In terms of promoting open days, I know of some universities that restrict places on the day and thereby increase the exclusivity of gaining a place on these events. Whether these are actual restrictions or a marketing tactic I do not know but I would feel uncomfortable lying about something like this. That's not to say that you can't leverage exclusivity by offering something to the first 100 bookers.

3) Craft Negative Titles and Headlines

Now this is where I could really get creative. As mentioned in the HubSpot blog, though, it's important to back these up with solid content and not be negative just to court controversy but here are few ideas I had:

• Top 10 things you can get up to at uni (that you wouldn't want your mum to find out about)
• Do local residents hate our students?
• Is it possible to live solely off baked beans and instant noodles?

The thing to remember with these is that if all you're doing is trying to get people to click on your email or Facebook link fair enough but, as with #7 below, there has to be some positive to offset the negative.

I don't think I'll be using these any time soon but it's fun to think what I would write.

4) Create a Bond Over a Shared Negative Experience and 5) Cast Some Villains

I'm combining these two because I think they're very similar and both equally hard to equate to the Higher Education sector. Since our student body is so diverse it's difficult to come up with a shared experience without alienating large groups of people. Who's the enemy of the prospective student? Someone lazy who doesn't put the effort in at school or who can't be bothered to attend open days and do their best? We need to be careful to avoid seeming superior. 

I think universities are just too nice to point the finger and so our prospectuses are always full of happy smiling students. It never rains when you're at uni. Now there's a shared negative experience - the weather. Maybe we should have some fun and bright rainy day pictures in the prospectus.

6) Stir Up Some Controversy

This is not my particular area of expertise but I think it's already something that universities have to deal with, especially regarding controversial research or even justifying research in general. No matter what you do there will always be groups of people who do not agree.

7) Use Data to Build a Case Around Why Something Stinks

This is like that interview question that I hate "What are your weaknesses?" and the answer that you're not supposed to give "oh, I'm such a perfectionist, I just have to do a job to the best of my ability..."

But in all seriousness this is underpins most of the points above - be negative but make sure you leave the student with a positive impression of the university.

So an email about the top 5 complaints that people have about our open days would look at the issues that we've encountered in the past and talk about how we've improved things and how we're continually working to ensure the experience received at our open days and throughout their time here as a students is the best that it can be.

8) Make Fun of Yourself

Again, this one perhaps doesn't translate well for the Higher Education sector. Regardless of the age of the student recruitment staff, the university still has to retain a certain amount of dignity. There's a fine line between being down with the kids and being the sad unfunny uncle. So for us "Make Fun of Yourself" should be restricted to highlighting what our students have been up to and not us. Like this video of the student  body taking part in their own Harlem Shake (although I realise that is now soooo  a few months ago!)

The HubSpot blog has certainly given me something to think about. perhaps it's time to start thinking a little negatively albeit for a positive result.

That's all for now.

Liz

A bird analogy - be like a robin not a wood pigeon

So I thought I'd start off my new Higher Education CRM blog with a bird analogy.

It's time for me to be more like a robin and less like a wood pigeon and this is what I mean.

I've been putting off writing a CRM blog for a few months because of a couple of reasons. Do I have enough to write about? Do I have enough time to do this? Do I have enough authority to talk about CRM? Does anyone actually care what I have to say about CRM in Higher Education?

But this morning I saw a little robin in a tree, tweeting away. Well, I say saw, but I actually heard it first as it was so loud.

Here is the little robin:

You probably can't see from this image but he's on the top most branch of this tree and its waving about because it's quite windy. But he's still singing away at the top of his voice, despite the wind, because he wants to be heard and he has something to tweet about.

The other bird I want to talk about is the wood pigeon. We get quite a few of these in our garden. They stand on our fence and wait and wait and wait until they're absolutely certain that nothing is going to attack them before landing on our bird table. Then peck nervously at the food, looking around all the time to check for predators, only to be scared away by the slightest noise or movement.

So where am I going with this. Well, I decided this morning that I should be more like that robin and less like the wood pigeon and not worry about the concerns I have about writing a Higher Education CRM blog and just go for it.

Do I have enough to write about? There's plenty of good content out there and although most of it is not concentrated on UK Higher Education in particular therein lies the challenge to make it relevant to what I do.

Do I have enough time to do this? Only time will tell, I guess.

Do I have enough authority to talk about CRM? Dictionary.com defines an expert as "a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field". Well I've been working for the University of Leicester as a CRM Office for the last 5 years and as a Marketing Officer for 4 years prior to that so I deal with this kind of stuff on a daily basis. I guess that sort of makes me an expert.

Does anyone actually care what I have to say about CRM in Higher Education? Who knows, but it's time to start thinking like a robin and get on with it.

That's all for now

Liz