January 29, 2013

The Importance of Personalization with Robin Long

Jan. 29, 2013 at 10:30 AM | By Marlysa Connolly | Comment Count

Whether at Hobsons University or Naviance Summer Institute, time and time again our clients have praised the passion, responsiveness, and dedication of Hobsons staff.

This month’s People Behind Hobsons caught up with Senior Account Executive, Robin Long, to get the scoop on what it’s like to work on the Hobsons Higher Ed Media Services team.

Hobsons: Robin, you’ve been with Hobsons for more than three years working out of the Cincinnati office. Have you always been a member of the Media Services team?

Robin: Well, I actually just joined Media Services servicing clients from the Southeast region but I came to Hobsons as an account manager with Core Marketing.

Hobsons: What was your day-to-day like in Core Marketing? How is Media Services different?

Robin: In Media Services, I now focus on new business. I work with admissions teams who want to develop digital marketing strategies to target non-traditional students. For example, I help schools create performance-based paid search campaigns that provide real-time lead generation.

As an account manager in Core Marketing, I helped schools secure advertising on our College Connections sites, like College Confidential. I also helped schools personalize messaging to students through offerings like Facebook microsites and iPhone Apps.

Personalization is really important for schools because it not only fosters relationships with students that will continue from inquiry to graduation but also because it offers competitive advantage: 90% of institutions compete for less than 50% of all prospective students.

Hobsons: Personalized communications are a great way to build lasting connections. You mentioned microsites and smartphone apps, what is another method schools can use to convey a personal touch to student recruitment?

Robin: When I was six months into working at Hobsons, I started working with a university that wanted to remain competitive with Ivy League schools. They forwarded their communication plan to my team to review. We noticed that they had been using viewbooks as a primary source of recruitment materials. The viewbooks were full of all these beautiful pictures of the campus but the institution wasn't communicating to students with anything personalized.

This is where Hobsons came into the picture. We helped create a personalized postcard that was centered around the prospect’s name on the front and had an oversized QR code on the back to help with tracking the campaign’s success.

Hobsons was able to track how often the code was scanned and the institution tracked when the postcard was mentioned on their Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler pages. Students responded by saying "every year they get better and better". Current student's stated, "I really wish they'd sent us these. I wonder if I can sign up to keep getting recruitment mail" and "I envy this class. So jealous!"

Along with other new initiatives, this aided in the school experiencing dramatic spikes in their student inquiry and application numbers.

There are three things that schools need to consider in their recruitment projects:

Integrated marketing – Have a mixture of higher education digital marketing and print campaigns.
Smart Recruitment – Create smart marketing pieces that are targeted to the right audience.
Communicate Value – student outcomes, resources, job placement, research, etc.

Hobsons: Final question, what is the best part of your job?

Robin: Definitely the relationships I’ve created with my clients. Since I started at Hobsons, I have strived to make sure I am in front of my clients as much as possible. By doing so, I can ensure clients receive the right mix of Hobsons solutions and produce successful results. My success comes from when a client hits their goals.

Robin is a senior account executive at Hobsons Higher Education. Connect with Robin on Linkedin and Twitter.