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Table of Contents
1. Management
Summary
2. Increasing
Visibility
Updating
web content ... to keep prospects coming back
eMail newsletters
... to educate and remind prospects
Extensive content ... to
involve prospects
3. Information
Requests ... handling catalog requests automatically
Extensive
validations & calculations ... insure clean useful data
Internal
use
Handling
special shipping charges
4. Personalized
communications ... quick, appropriate responses
5. Generating
Sales Leads
Catalog
requests
Sales
lead generation
6. Sales Recruiting
Tools
Handling
geographical dispersement
Custom
interface for prospective students
Custom
schools interface
Group
emails
7. Administrative
Support
Security
Help
system
Mainframe
interface
Database
maintenance interfaces
8. Maximizing Public Web Site Impact
PDF
server
Image
server
Searching
the site
e-Commerce
9. Technical Notes
Web
sites
Data
tables
Servers
Application
software
10. Contact Us
... for more details and a demonstration
1. Management
Summary
top
Because the San
Francisco Art Institute (SFAI)
wished to dramatically improve recruiting efforts it looked to the
Internet as a possible solution. The result was a set of software
tools
developed in conjunction with GoTools.com. This tool set aptly
exploits the power of Internet communications and interactive web
databases and has proved extremely successful in the
recruiting of new students.
Using these "sales" tools over the past year has given
some very clear results: more visibility,
greater
responsiveness, and more
quality applicants. In addition, many of the
administrative processes have been automated greatly improving
their efficiency and effectiveness. This case
study briefly describes these tools and some of the many ways they
have been applied by SFAI to recruiting tasks and issues. It should
provide a feel for practical ways by which the Internet's
power can be applied to challenges faced during school recruiting
or any other sales process. Please contact Gotools
for more information.
2. Increasing
Visibility top
Updating Web Content ... to keep visitors coming back
Quality content is obviously vital. But, many websites which make
a great initial impression eventually fail by letting their quality
content become stale. Keeping a stream of excellent content
moving into the web site is critical if visitors are to have a good
reason to return to the site.
SFAI solved this attrition challenge by developing several on-line
databases that dynamically populate interesting pages like What's
Hot and This
Week's Events. Numerous departments share the load
of adding to and modifying the underlying data tables. And, to
insure quality remains high, the SFAI communications department
is automatically notified and must approve before any such changes
are made visible to the web public. Examples are the
events,
news,
people,
affiliates,
and publications data tables.
Email Newsletters ... to keep reminding and educating prospects
Custom opt-in email newsletters have proven to be one of the most
effective yet inexpensive ways to maintain prospect interest.
SFAI offers two different newsletter
subscriptions to its publics: late breaking art news
and a weekly overview of events. In the case of prospects requesting
catalogs they are automatically led to the newsletter signup form
that has already been populated with their personal information.
And, as a result, a very large percentage sign up. This means these
prospects receive regular weekly SFAI newsletters unless they
cancel their subscription.
To aid in the weekly creation and distribution of email newsletters
a custom newsletter publisher's form allows automatic generation
of copy from the events and news data tables. It also provides for
the selection of a distribution list by list subscribed to (e.g.,
news or events) and by subscriber type (e.g., student, alumnus,
etc.).
Extensive Content
As is apparent from exploring SFAI's search
page, the site is very extensive and impressive, providing
ready access to much detailed information of interest to prospective
students. This approach takes advantage of the Web's ability to
inexpensively deliver massive amounts of up-to-date information
without overloading either the communications budget or
the target recipient. By referring to appropriate web pages
in a variety of coordinated ways -- e.g., via custom emails, newsletters,
catalogs, direct mail, advertising, verbal or email communications
from recruiters -- maximum breadth and depth of marketing exposure
is created. This approach also has the valuable side effect of
keeping recruiters up-to-date on current versions of various
offerings and background materials.
3. Information
Requests top
...handling catalog requests automatically and appropriately
Catalogs are a key part of SFAI's recruiting efforts. The more prospects
that read SFAI's impressive catalog the more quality applications
are ultimately received. The Web has proven to be one of SFAI's
most effective and cost efficient means to get prospective students
to request a free program catalog. Once an information
request form is completed the prospect is led through a
personalized process which makes several helpful options available
-- such as faster express shipping, the ability to immediately
download a PDF version of the catalog, and signup for SFAI's eMail
newsletters.
Validations & Calculations
Hidden behind the information request form are very detailed validations
to insure that any data saved is consistent, complete, and accurate
... and thus useful. For example, if the prospect's most recent
school attended (used to track such things as affiliate scholarships
available) cannot be found in the School's data table then the prospect
is taken to a secondary page showing all the schools of the type
and in the city initially entered.
Useful calculations such as geodemographic cluster information and
quality measures of the prospect's potential (e.g., GPS) are also
done before data is added to the Prospects data table.
Internal Use
Recruiters and administrative staff use a similar internal catalog
request form when receiving phone or mail requests. It has a few
minor changes to facilitate internal use but is connected to the
same real time web database. Thus all catalog requests, either from
the web site or from internal users, are delivered via the
same efficient process which eventually leads to an email to the catalog
bulk shipper.
Special shipping charges
SFAI ships a large numbers of catalogs so bulk mail is normally
used to hold down costs. However, those prospects who prefer faster
service can request this and pay a small charge on-line for express
shipment.
4. Personalized
Communications top
... quick, appropriate responses makes good things happen
In the information request form prospects are asked if they wish
to be contacted and how and when. If an email address is provided
then an email is automatically sent to the prospect from SFAI's
Vice President of Enrollment. This letter is highly customized,
based on the form's answers, to give extensive information that
is precisely relevant to the particular prospect. It includes items such as a description of the
department of interest, a list of web links to the department's
staff, detailed scholarship information, and many links to relevant
pages within the SFAI website.
5. Generating
Sales Leads top
Sales Lead Generation
In return for a free catalog prospects willingly provide a variety
of useful information. This information is saved in the Prospects
data table for its primary use as sales leads. Later this data table
will be extensively analyzed for ideas on how to better focus recruitment
strategy the upcoming year.
6. Sales Recruiting
Tools
top
Handling Geographical Dispersement
Recruiters are usually located off-campus so keeping them up-to-date
has historically been difficult. These new web tools have completely
solved the problem by making all information available real
time everywhere. For example, recruiters are notified immediately
by email whenever a new sales lead is posted to the Prospect table
within their area of responsibility. This gives them immediate
access to all available lead information and fosters immediate
follow up.
Custom Prospects Interface
A special recruiter's user interface to the Prospects data table
has been carefully designed to maximize recruiter efficiency.
It contains many features such as background information on a prospect's
last school, buttons to directly look at the prospect's URL or a
map of his area, an email button to quickly email the student, and
the ability to directly update the prospect's art portfolio ranking.
Custom Schools Interface
Similarly, a special recruiters' interface has been designed to
the Schools data table that contains information about schools whose
graduates SFAI is recruiting. This interface includes a variety
of useful capabilities such as finding all of the schools of a certain
type within a certain geographical area, showing all the prospects
from a particular school, and providing affiliate details should
the prospect's school have a special affiliate relationship with
SFAI.
Group Emails
Recruiters can filter out and sort relevant prospects based on a
wide variety of criteria thus making it simple to scan related groups
of prospects. These tools make it easy to create a group email (e.g.,
to notify prospects of an event in their area or at their school)
or to create a text file to be input to a word processor printing
"personalized" communications.
7. Administrative
Support
top
Security
The "private" side of SFAI's website is protected by a
multi-level security password
system to make certain that only properly authorized persons can
see and use particular resources. For example, many departments
have the authority to enter data for use on the public web
but only the communications department can approve that data for
actual public viewing.
Help System
Two help systems are available to assist with training new users.
One describes how the internal database maintenance application
works. The other is a series of screen shots and step-by-step directions
that show recruiters how to perform key tasks.
Mainframe Interface
Most schools use mainframe back ends to assist with administrative
functions. Integrating these with the web front end can be difficult.
Custom tools have been created to properly import and export data
from the Datatel mainframe back end used by SFAI.
Database Maintenance Interfaces
SFAI personnel with proper passwords are provided a Web interface
that allows them to directly add, delete, find, filter,
and sort the information contained within most data tables. Knowledgeable
technical staff are also allowed access to these tables via Microsoft Access
or SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
8. Maximizing
Public Web Site Impact
top
Several features have been developed to enhance the ongoing value
of SFAI's public web site. These include the following:
PDF Server
Web users can download Adobe PDF files containing catalogs and a
variety of other SFAI publications. The requester can download the
entire PDF document or, if his Internet connection is slow, can
look at the document one page at a time.
Image Server
A stand-alone image server application is being developed to provide
highly refined access to SFAI's large library of images.
Searching the Site
SFAI has located a simple, effective, and inexpensive way to search
the entire site. This method will find any file for which there
is a link within the web site including PDF files and Active Server
Page files.
E-commerce Capability
A secure e-commerce capability has been developed, initially to
allow credit card payment for special catalog shipping charges.
This functionality can be substantially expanded to handle future
needs such as extension course payments or the sale of special items.
9. Technical Notes
top
Web sites:
* A public web site is used to provide public information and input
forms. This site calls upon several database tables to provide up-to-date
interactive information.
* A private web site, protected by user name and passwords, is used
to maintain and use the database tables. It also provides recruiting
staff tools.
Data tables
* Prospects table: This important table holds prospect information
and is extensively used by recruiters to interact with and track
leads.
* Newsletter Subscriber table: Used to send regular email newsletters
to subscribers.
* Events table: Used to hold SFAI events and is called from several
public web pages.
* People table: Holds information about SFAI staff and students.
* Schools table: Holds a variety of information about the schools
prospects last attended.
* Other tables: Several other tables are also used to hold relevant
information.
Servers
* Microsoft
Internet Information Server (IIS 5.0) to support the web sites.
* Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 to hold data tables.
* PDF Server to supply Adobe PDF files such brochures and other
large documents.
* A MicroSoft Exchange Server application is under development.
Application Software
* A large number of sophisticated interactive web pages have been developed
using Microsoft Active Server Page technology running on Internet
Application Server. This extensive code will be converted to Microsoft
.NET technology in 2002.
* The image data tables are driven by a specialized indexing and
maintenance application.
10. Contact Us
... for more details and a demonstration top
This case study only begins to describe the tools mentioned above
and their benefits. If you are interested in more details and costs,
or would like a live demonstration please contact Sales
Tools (650-574-3390) at GoTools.com.
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