When it comes to high-touch enrollment marketing to Generation Z, there are few products better than BombBomb. See what it can do for you in today’s post!
[Full Disclosure: I’m a BombBomb affiliate, and the links below are affiliate links. While I do get a little something out of it if you decide to use BombBomb, the real reason I’m writing this post is because I’ve enjoyed the results of using BombBomb for my own marketing and sales. It works, and I think you should know about this really cool marketing tool.]
Generation Z is unlike any generation before it. But like previous generations, it’s difficult to understand their preferences and motivations while they’re still so young.
This quality of unknowns creates a challenge for enrollment marketers in every kind of private college, university, or independent school.
However, there are some things that we do know about Generation Z.
They’re real digital technology natives.
While many Millennials remember a time when digital technology was not integral to daily life, no one in Generation Z has any memory of life without a screen.
They’re independent.
It seems this new generation is reluctant to trust their careers to corporations, wanting more of a stake in their future than any preceding generation. In fact, up to 72% of high schoolers say they want to start a business someday.
They’re global minded.
Past generations have been globally aware, but Generation Z is globally minded. Their digitally integrated world isn’t hindered by geographic or political barriers as they converse with friends and followers from around the world on social media.
They’re realistic.
They are the only generation not to know what the world was like before 9/11. They’ve never known a day without a 24-hour news cycle. They can’t imagine a world without social media. They’re also growing up in homes that were significantly affected by the Great Recession that started in 2008.
Mix terrorism, violence, and economic distress with 24/7 access to an Internet that will show you the gruesome details of it all, and it produces a harshly realistic view of the world.
They’re individuals.
Another interesting quality of this generation is that although they’re tightly connected to their world, young people desire to be unique, to make a distinct impression. They want to make a change that uniquely reflects their individuality.
Time for a Different Approach
For some time now, marketers in every field have become enamored with the ability of technologies to create personalized experiences with education brands.
But even with the latest innovations like messaging apps that respond to prospective student’s queries, nothing can beat the unique feeling for a member of Generation Z than getting a truly unique message.
High-touch enrollment marketing resonates more deeply with Generation Z than previous generations because they have a realistic view on how technology can mimic human interaction.
This partly explains the frustration admissions officers are feeling with the limited ways to reach Generation Z. Many of them lament how prospective students don’t read email, respond to texts — let alone answer a phone!
Generation Z students’ strong individualism also plays a role.
This individualism (which translates into entrepreneurialism for many of them) might come from a feeling of responsibility to put the world back together.
“They have this self-awareness that systems have been broken. But they can’t be the generation that says we’ll break it even more.” – MTV president Sean Atkins to TIME magazine
The TIME magazine article suggests that Generation Z believes that the institutions that make society have been “disrupted.”
This means that many of them feel they have a part to play as an individual in rebuilding our world.
More than a Number
With this incredibly personal call to change the world and a realistic view on technology, prospective students respond very well to high-touch interactions.
They want to be more than a number. They want to be an individual.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m an advocate for using automation like the messaging apps I mentioned above and tools like these.
But these automations should be used strategically to free up your time to implement high-touch tactics with prospective students who are highly likely to enroll at your school.
While BombBomb is a modern marketing technology, it’s a tool I’d put in a little different category.
Email Meets Video Marketing Meets FaceTime
BombBomb is a video email marketing software that lets you create quick, personal video email messages that you can send through your Gmail or Outlook email.
Science Is on Its Side
BombBomb is a communication medium that enhances the unique personal qualities of your message.
With video email, prospective students not only get your message, they see your gestures, hear your voice, and watch the visual clues your body is giving them.
This leverages the science we have which says that up to 93% of all communication is nonverbal.
No matter how good your copy, design, or messaging, nothing comes close to the power of communicating your message in person.
It Can’t Be Faked
Chatbots may be able to mimic human interaction, but we all know they’re not real humans.
Really good copywriting with personalization techniques can create incredibly personal emails and direct mail pieces.
But there is still that doubt that it was meant specifically for me.
Only high-touch enrollment marketing techniques send genuinely one-to-one human communications that can’t be faked.
When you get a handwritten note that asks how your last music rehearsal went, you know it came from the enrollment officer directly to you.
Likewise, when you get a video email, you know it wasn’t faked.
Watching your enrollment officer’s personal video message is almost like being on a FaceTime call with them.
It Is Scalable (Kind of)
One of the problems with high-touch enrollment marketing is that it doesn’t scale well.
You can’t possibly have high-touch interactions with all of the prospective students you’re responsible for. You can only reach the ones most likely to enroll.
But with BombBomb, you can get more high-touch messages in a day than ever before.
It’s way faster to push the record button, give your message, and push send than it is to sit down and write out a letter.
With that kind of speed, you get much more scale out of video email marketing than you would out of other high-touch strategies.
Go Ahead and Try it Out
You can start a 14 day trial here to see if BombBomb is right for you and your enrollment team.
I hope this little product review has been helpful. Keep looking for new tools to come in the future to help you boost your enrollment numbers this year!
And, if you need help with any aspect of your marketing endeavors, feel free to reach out. We’re here with proven results.
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Featured image by Djile via Adobe Stock
