How all those college mailings are generated...

[carolyn]

<p>Here is a fascinating article on the computer relationship management (CRM) databases being used by most colleges these days to pinpoint who to send mailings to and to track student responses. Requires Adobe Acrobat.</p>

<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;

[hazmat]

<p>A Hoosier…</p>

[SV2]

<p>Carolyn,</p>

<p>Very interesting. </p>

<p>

Thinking through the various decision responses a person might have to that initial
campaign allows enrollment organizations to capture new information. Once the new
information-- such as an actual web site visit–has been captured, it can propel
respondents into another level of the overall campaign. For example, males from the
Pacific Northwest and high scorers on the math section of the PSAT may trigger an email
campaign that invites them to explore your math, physics, and engineering departments.
Through tracking of students who explore the recommended campus web site, it is
possible to capture information that results in an automated invitation to a college fair
hosted by a group of alums with similar interests. It is feasible to then follow up with a
print piece to those who met the alums that show student photo shots engaging in careerrelated
activities. For prospects that do not visit one of the web sites within two weeks, a
CRM can automatically schedule another email communication that is based on a current
student’s perspective on the transition from the Pacific Northwest to your school. The
decision tree could be expanded from there, while others are established for different
target audiences.

</p>

<p>The college spam has been arriving full force in this household, and I’ve been wondering if they tracked whether the student clicks on the various links they embed in their messages (other than the links that specify a yeah or nay response to further communication which I assume they do pay attention to).</p>

<p>Amherst’s email has a link to click on for further information that turns out to be a link to the main Microsoft Corporation webpage. Have to wonder if this is a test to see if we are paying attention rather than a mistake on the part of Amherst’s email creator!</p>

[Sugaree67]

<p>It depends on how they send the email, sv.</p>

<p>Some schools do it themselves and don’t imbed tracking in their emails. Other outsource their bulk emailing and get summary reports that tell them how many emails were read and how many clicked through.</p>

<p>I worked at one college that did both…we had good feedback regardless.</p>