Chicago-Kent College of Law Admitted Students Yield Campaign - PODi Case Study

Vertical Market: Education
Business Application: Direct Marketing/Lead Generation

Business Objectives:
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, is nationally recognized for the scholarship and accomplishments of its faculty and student body. The second oldest law school in the state of Illinois, Chicago-Kent has a history marked by innovation and excellence.

Despite its illustrious reputation the school was challenged with a low yield rate—the percentage of admitted students that ultimately enrolled. Chicago-Kent also faced a nationwide trend of declining numbers of applicants.

Chicago-Kent hosted various events and visit days throughout the spring to invite admitted students to get a better feel for the school. However, they did not have a strong program in place to stay in touch with admitted students between February and June.

Working with their service provider, Rider Dickerson, a multi-phase communication program was developed with the following objectives:

• Keep Chicago-Kent College of Law top of mind with admitted students.
• Increase attendance at admitted student visit days.
• Encourage admitted students to enroll and make their tuition deposits.

Results

• Friday visit days in March and April saw a 178.3 percent increase in attendance over the previous year.
• The Admitted Student Weekend in April had an 83.6 percent increase in attendance over the previous year.
• The number of tuition deposits through April 15th increased 52.4 percent. Interestingly the May Deans programs saw a decrease in attendance but this was attributed to the fact that Chicago-Kent had more visitors at the beginning events of the campaign and already had 52.4 percent more tuition deposits.

• The overall deposit rate for students who completed both of their deposits by June 15th was up 18.2 percent.

Target Audience and Messaging
The targeted audience for this campaign was admitted students. The primary message of the communications was encouraging students to visit the campus. This call to action was important because once a student visited the likelihood that he or she would enroll increased substantially.

Campaign Architecture
A multi-phase communication program was developed to keep students thinking about Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Encouraging Campus Visits
Chicago-Kent hosted various events and visit days throughout the spring to invite admitted students to get a better feel for the school. The events included Friday visit days, Admitted Students Weekend and two Dean's Programs.

The Friday visit days and Admitted Students Weekend were promoted with a personalized postcard. Students who did not respond to the initial postcard received a follow-up e-mail and 10 days later a letter. Admitted students were informed about the May Dean’s Programs through personalized letters and e-mails. In each case the call to action was to visit a Personalized URL to RSVP for the events.

Once on their personalized site students had the opportunity to register for an event, request to be contacted by current students, alumni or faculty and share information about their interests. The microsite also provided links to Chicago-Kent’s admitted students Website, student Facebook group, current student profiles and additional information about the school. Rider Dickerson and Chicago-Kent were able to track all of the campaign traffic with real time reporting and analytics.

Communicating the Value of Chicago-Kent
A series of static brochures focusing on different values of the Chicago-Kent school of Law were sent to admitted students to keep the school top of mind while they were making their enrollment decision.

Encouraging Tuition Deposits
A series of e-mail messages and text messages were sent to students to remind them to make their tuition deposits.

Creative
A consistent look and feel was developed for all the communication touch points—direct mail, e-mail, and microsite pages—to ensure a seamless experience for prospective students. Bold colors were used to attract attention and also matched the color scheme of Chicago-Kent’s existing Website.

Reasons for Success
The Chicago-Kent College of Law was so pleased with the results of this campaign that they decided to expand this integrated marketing strategy to their communications with prospective students.

One of the key factors in the success of this campaign was the effort that was put in upfront to map the communication process with the goal of staying in continuous contact with admitted students. With the multiple, cross-channel touch points admitted students received consistent messages about the value of Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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Source: PODi.

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