Print & Web Communications for Education
Break-Out Recruiting Campaigns
for Targeted Audiences
Michigan State University MBA Program
To encourage application by select target groups, Zehno often recommends break-out cross-media communication plans to touch an audience more specifically, and more frequently. The best of these plans touch prospects through multiple channels.
For the MBA program at Michigan State University, Zehno produced campaigns targeted specifically at women and underrepresented minority groups. The school hosted recruiting events for each of these audiences, and wanted the campaigns to drive interest and attendance at the events.
With these goals in mind, Zehno crafted cross-media plans that would fit within the allocated budget.
“We saw immediate results,” said Assistant Director of Admissions Joe Ford. “These pieces were critical to our overall numbers.” After the campaigns, the diversity conference tripled its registration requests as compared to the previous year. The women’s conference registration doubled and inquiries from women are at their highest levels ever.
Both campaigns were based on the same structural model, and included
- additional factual content within the admissions Web site template pages on program benefits and recruiting events to interest first-time visitors and “unknown” prospects
- targeted microsites with enhanced graphics and messages, with repeated promotion of the recruiting events
- large-format postcard brochures to drive previously identified prospects back to the Web site to view the enhanced content and register for the event
- e-card reminders on the upcoming events to all identified prospects
- e-mail links to the current MBA students featured so that prospects could talk directly with them