With school starting back it is that time of year again where Admission offices fire up their recruitment season. You can find no lack of blog articles on this site arguing the value of the interactive campus map to the recruitment process, but in this article we are going to pose five ways that you can better utilize your interactive map for recruitment season.

Call To Actions Around Map

Do you have prominent calls to action placed on your map page that direct visitors to specific actions that you want them to take? This idea is pivotal to the success and impact of the rest of this list. Basically if you want to engage prospective students through your map page then you need to offer them options to build a deeper relationship. Specifically I’m talking about things like “Schedule a Visit” (of campus), “Request More Information” (about your school),  or “Talk to an (Admission) Counselor.” If you are feeling especially bold why not the golden offer to “Apply Now”?

Call to Action Button Examples

Examples of Call To Action graphics on various maps.

As you think about how you are going to more deeply engage with prospective students and offer them more information about your campus it is also important to begin the conversation and start to learn about them. The only way to do this is to ask them to engage with you by converting.

Now that your campus map page is ready to convert visitors all of these other ideas are about sharing this compelling piece of content that is now optimized to turn those visitors into inquiries and applicants!

Email Marketing

Practically every school uses email marketing to reach out to possible students. Many schools buy lists of SAT and ACT test takers. One of the biggest challenges with this “cold” email marketing is you must provide prospective students with something engaging, and that should always be some fantastic piece of content. A link back to the school’s website where an interactive map or virtual tour of campus is waiting is one of those great engaging things that you can offer! Now that you have gotten them to click through to your site hopefully some percent of these visitors will click on one of those calls to action we included on the page and engage back with you.

Postcard Marketing

Sending snail mail to prospective students has gotten a little bit of a bad rap with the recent wave of online marketing initiatives, but the truth is mailing something to a prospective student is still very effective. We have reached a point where because it’s so cheap to send email everyone does it, and your message can get lost in the shuffle or dumped into the spam folder. Getting something in the mail, although more expensive, is actually exciting for prospective students. Prospective students today grew up in a world where they never got physical mail, so this is an opportunity to really catch their undivided attention because there isn’t the competition.

One of the biggest challenges with this medium is it is extremely hard to track. But what if you can take this opportunity to drive them to your website and an engaging experience like an interactive map? This is done through a unique tracking URL that can be tracked and monitored to actually project an ROI of a campaign. If you are going to spend real money on physical mailings you absolutely want to know that it was worth the spend.

The Viewbook

The college viewbook continues to remain popular. Many schools have gotten away from physically printing the viewbook and just offering an online or printable (.pdf) version. The viewbook is a great way to control your message and the look of your brand, but once again it must have engaging and exciting content. Having a gorgeous map illustration in your viewbook is one step, but why not have a link at the bottom of that page to drive readers to see an interactive version on your website?

The Print Map

Every campus has a printable version of their map that is available on their website in a .pdf format or printed copies in a welcome/visitors center. You can also use this printable map in mailings. On this print (.pdf) version why not include a short URL to the map on your website? This also might be an actual good use case for a QR Code! Why not have a QR code on the printable map that opens a mobile version of your interactive campus map right on the user’s smart phone?

Belmont University QR Code Example

Belmont University offers a QR code that takes visitors directly to their mobile map right on the print map.

Closing

These are just a handful of ideas on how you can use your map for recruitment marketing. What other ideas do you have? Feel free to leave a comment below.