Percept Research Marketing Consultant, Barbara Coward, and Kathy Hagens, MBA Program Director at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, co-presented to an overflow audience at the 2013 Executive MBA Council Conference held October 20-23 in Houston. The session, entitled “Revolutionize Your Recruitment,” shared best practices employed during a successful campaign to generate recruitment leads for the newly-launched Executive MBA program at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh.
Ms. Hagens kicked off the session by describing an assessment of recruitment strengths as well as challenges facing the new program at the time of its launch that led to a decision to partner with Percept Research on the lead generation project. This assessment provided context to other schools in attendance that may be facing similar decisions on how to allocate limited recruiting resources most effectively.
Kathy Hagens (University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh)
Ms. Coward, the lead Percept Research consultant for the project, described how several marketing options were considered and prioritized before settling on an approach that integrated a multi-touch campaign of emails, traditional letters, and social media. The campaign, which included a lead nurturing program, was instrumental in helping the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh Executive MBA program achieve its recruitment goal for the inaugural class, a success that was critical to building momentum for the new program.
Barbara Coward (Percept Research)
The co-presenters stepped the audience through each of the guiding principles and key decisions that shaped the successful campaign. At each step of the campaign story, Ms. Hagens and Ms. Coward shared both theory and practical examples illustrating best practices in the following areas:
- How to define and select a list of target prospects
- How to personalize value proposition and messaging
- How to overcome barriers that prevent EMBA prospects from taking action
- How to build an emotional connection with prospects to gain their attention
- How to structure email subject lines and calls-to-action to achieve results
To learn more about how Percept Research and the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh partnered to achieve remarkable recruitment results, check out our consulting services or contact us for a free initial phone consultation.
