Electronic communications make reaching potential students and their families as simple as pressing the “send” button. To do that, however, you need email addresses, which can be nerve wracking to collect when you have an enrollment event next week to advertise. The temptation to purchase the emails of likely local prospects is like a siren call, luring you to trade your budget dollars for easy access to information—but they’re not worth your time or money. Why? Well, we’ve got a few reasons for you.
- Email address lists are quickly out of date. People’s contact information changes all the time. Up to a third of email addresses in a mailing list database are outdated within a year in a process known as “list churn." You have no way of verifying when the emails were collected on your purchased list, so it’s possible—even likely—that the list is hopelessly outdated before you get to use it.
- Other people will be using the same list, and sending commercial messages to the same contacts you’re trying to reach. Recipients can throw the baby out with the bathwater, causing your innocent invitation to an open house to be angrily relegated to the “marketers clogging my inbox with spam” category. Speaking of which…
- Messages sent to bought email addresses can get you blacklisted. While sending an unsolicited message to an email address from a purchased list isn’t technically illegal—assuming you follow the CAN-SPAM guidelines laid out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) here—the recipient can still label your message as spam. If enough recipients indicate to their service providers that your communication is unwelcome, you can find future emails barred from entering the inbox. (Blacklisting includes all communications sent from your school’s IP address, not just unsolicited messages—even to those who might’ve opted in to receive email from your school.)
- You might fight a lawsuit to defend your messages. Even if your messages are legal and by-the-book, you may find yourself facing substantial fines from the FTC for sending alleged spam, should enough people complain. Even if you’re found innocent of wrongdoing in the end, the time, stress, and lawyer’s bills spent defending yourself and your campaign might have been better spent on the slow-but-steady process of constructing your own opt-in mailing list.
- Unsolicited emails can damage a budding relationship. Emails designed to go to the broadest number of people possible can degrade the intimate, personal connection you need to cultivate with prospective families. Such messages can easily feel impersonal, sterile, and not resonate with those who might need your school for their children.
So if buying or renting email addresses from a vendor isn't worth an investment of your time or your school’s money, how can you spend that money in productive ways?
- Send “snail mail” postcard invitations to targeted neighborhoods with large percentages of families who match your desired demographics. While some recipients may consider it “junk mail,” such postcards are considered less invasive and will cost infinitely less than legal fees.
- Purchase retargeting ad space that shows your school to those who have clicked on a page on your website, but didn’t fill out a prospect contact form. It’s like the “forgotten cart” emails you’ll get from online shopping websites: Gentle reminders of tasks left unfinished to keep your school top-of-mind.
- Create shareable content to distribute to your current school community. By creating something that parents and grandparents can share with their personal online connections, you can facilitate word-of-mouth marketing opportunities that will bring interested people to your door.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Admission Directors Vol. 13 No. 8 Newsletters: Important to Prospective, Current, and Past Parents
The Source for Admission Directors Vol. 10 No. 1 Crafting Your School's Newsletter
The Source for Admission Directors Vol. 13 No. 6 Re-enrollment Communication 101
The Source for Admission Directors Vol. 12 No. 7 “Welcome!" Now What?—What You Send to Accepted Students
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 39 No. 13 Capitalizing on Word-of-Mouth Marketing
I&P Vol. 25 No. 15 Defining Your School's 'Competitive Advantage'
I&P Vol. 27 No. 11 Cyber News: Designing Your Online Newsletter
