When was the last time that you had a truly personalized and amazing experience? Several weeks ago I was visiting clients in Chicago and stayed at one of my favorite hotels. The hotel is my favorite because they go above and beyond to recognize that I am an individual and they truly value my repeat business. The service starts with the valet as they open my car door and say “Welcome Back! How long are you staying for and is there anything we can do to make your trip more enjoyable this time?” The experience is consistent from the entry of the hotel throughout. Not only do you feel special, as if your experience is personalized, they smile while doing it.
Over the past few weeks I have run across several examples of truly engaging, personalized and empowering examples in Higher Education that I feel have impact in large ways because of the personalized nature of the communication/message.
Michigan State
While traveling through O’Hare International Airport in Chicago my eyes had the privilege of viewing this ad “Spartans are Working to Ensure A Healthy Ecosystem for All. What’s Good For You is Good For Her.”
Wow! I stopped and looked for a moment. Not only did Michigan State do a fabulous job of taking a message to engage their alumni but they made the work that they are doing memorable and personal to me. Michigan State went the extra mile to connect the dots of taking features and benefits of the school and connecting them to personal outcomes that people care about. See more of the campaign here.
Creighton University
While conducting a high school focus group last week I had the chance to interview a number of students regarding the college choice process. My favorite comment was from a young man who is attending Creighton’s Business School in the fall.
“The Dean of the Business school at Creighton called me, like before I had decided. Once I had been accepted he called me twice to discuss how my life was going, normal conversations, some big uppity guy who has so much pull. I was so surprised that he took the time to talk to me personally on the phone and the last call we talked about the Dean’s Fellows program. Phone calls work.”
DePauw University
DePauw does a fantastic job with personalized social media. During another focus group I asked a number of prospective students about social media. The expectation is that a college is on Facebook. However, the comments coming from the group were even more enthusiastic about Twitter.
“The Admissions Counselors having Twitter accounts made all the difference and allowing prospects to follow them took the relationship with the school to a personal level. The fact that my tweets in relation to being accepted at DePauw were responded to with such enthusiasm and a tweet out to ‘come sit by me at the basketball game’ were personal was so cool. The interest in me personally made this decision and experience a done deal,” said one prospective student.
Personalization, whether it be via compelling message or engagement in a personal message through a specific channel, is not dead. The impact of handwritten notes, personal cards, a simple mention of something unique about the individual goes a very long way in impacting the end result of memorable and impactful marketing. As you craft future communications is there a way in which to make it even more personal?
