from the “blatantly borrowed” file: video chat invite
Posted by Andrew in Recruitment on Nov 24th, 2008 | 4 commentsI’m always looking for new ways to use my MacBook Pro! I love this computer, mostly because it makes so much of my job really easy. Redesign is hot on our radar right now, and in the midst of rummaging through highly touted sites on eduStyle, I came across Biola University, located in La Mirada, CA. While taking a look at the undergrad site, I was this posted in the lower right:
Being that my MBP is outfitted with a built-in iSight, I’m [of course] thinking, “why didn’t I think of that before?”. So I decided to put together an email campaign to prospective students in my territory inviting them to set up a “video appointment” with me. Here’s the body of the email:
It’s been about three or four days since the email was sent, and here are the stats:
622 students received
85 (13.7%) viewed
8 (1.3%) clicked on a link in the email
So far no students have taken the opportunity to chat with me via video, and I have to say I’m not all that surprised. Built-in video cameras aren’t all that prominent just yet (although Apple is surely working on it), and the group of students who received the email was relatively small.
So what might I have done differently? Could I have made any minor changes in the email text to influence the message and more successfully encourage students to action?
I’ll keep thinking on those points, but in the meantime, I think I did accomplish something with this message: my prospects know me a little bit more than they did before. Maybe they saw the human side of this admissions counselor!
NOTE: A special thanks to the counselors at Biola for the idea!
4 Responses to “from the “blatantly borrowed” file: video chat invite”
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GREAT post Andrew. Great idea, too. So what if it’s a little ahead of it’s time? I’m betting this is a surefire coming thing. Thanks – I’m passing this along in our U.
Andrew that really is a cool idea, but as you noticed those prospective students just aren’t as tech savy yet or they just don’t feel as comfortable. I really liked the personal touch of the email though really felt like someone could connect with you and you weren’t selling them just wanted to help.
Lesson learned… didn’t work this year, but maybe next. Thanks for sharing!
Great idea. I’d say you might have better luck if you put the call to action on the website instead of an email.
The way I see it, this isn’t very different than “Click to chat” which works best when it’s available for those people with a burning question. Since burning questions arise while browsing the website more often (I’m guessing) than while reading emails, I think you’d get more takers if you put that link on the site directly.
One other thing you might consider: It’s generally bad form to say “Click Here” for a link. Why? Because the link is the most prominent part of your sentence (owing to its nice underline and call-out-color). If I glace quickly at your email the most prominent word is “here” (and your email… which is good). The best way to link text is to set up your sentence to have the call to action be the link. For example, I would have phrased that sentence so that the linked text was something like “…schedule a video chat with me.” Then that would be the most prominent text on the page.
Great idea. I’d be interested to see how re-wording the email changed your results and/or how placing the image increased the total number of video chats you ran.
I think video cameras are more prevelant that you think… they’re not just being used for chatting with Admissions reps.
@Suydam Thanks for your thoughts on link text — I’ll definitely keep that in mind for future campaigns.
I think one of the main goals here is to provide as many options for the student to use the counselor as a resource; the premise being that great customer service translates to great ROI.