A while back I said that “email is for old people.” Karen Bannen from B to B Magazine would beg to differ. In a feature post yesterday, she cites a study from the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business that concluded nearly a third of Millennials responded to relevant email.
Ah, relevancy. The study stressed that Millennials want more control over what and how much email they receive. What this means as a recruiter is that you need, at least, to segment your email.
The good news is you’re probably already doing this. Your mass emails are probably tailored toward different recipients based on region, possible academic major, grad or undergrad, and maybe even personal data such as ethnic background, family income level, or parents’ occupation.
If you’re really good, you might have some software that tracks response and eventual matriculation by category as described above.
Now here’s a free business idea. Pandora lets you give each song a thumbs up, thumbs down, or re-categorize it. FaceBook lets you ‘like’ a post. There are online programs such as StumbleUpon that let you rate and review a website.
What I’d like to see is a widget you can install at the end of your email that lets recipients approve or disapprove in the same way, and software that could tabulate the results and help you spot patterns.
If this has already been invented, let me know (leave a comment). If not, maybe someone who is reading this post could create it. I don’t ask for any royalties, just let me be one of your first customers.
This would be an invaluable tool for making email more relevant. Any takers?
