THE BOX MODEL

Because we had never run our own search campaign, all the reasons for striking out on our own were based on the negatives in the relationship.  (Check out part 1 for details.)

It wasn’t until we finished our first in-house search campaign that we finally understood all the benefits that came from running things ourselves…

The 3 Components of Search

There are 3 components to every search campaign:

1. data acquisition and import
2. communication
3. processing and fulfillment

Here’s what you gain from running each component on your own:

Data Acquisition and Import

If your search vendor acts as your liaison to the major list sources (PSAT/SSS, ACTPLAN, CBSS, and NRCCUA), then you were probably led to believe that setting effective purchase criteria is a very complicated process.  And certainly, handing this off to an "expert" will make your life easier.

But here’s what you gain from doing it yourself:

direct control over list criteria

Some search vendors want to determine which names should be purchased "in order to achieve your institutional goals."  But choosing purchase criteria is not difficult, and most list sources will provide you with access to an expert who will discuss with you the best criteria to select given your long-term goals.  Who would you trust more: someone who thinks you’ll fire them if your long-term goals aren’t met (the list sources), or someone who thinks you’ll fire them if you don’t get high response rates (the search vendors)?

advantages from list competition

The list sources compete with each other directly.  When dealing with list sources, search vendors will have some advantages over you (bulk pricing, multi-year commitments, and credit for duplicate names).  But these benefits will rarely reach your checkbook.  Instead, chances are good your search vendor charges you close to the going rate, no matter what discounts they receive.  But because they’re also purchasing names from every source, there is one advantage you can have over them.  As an institution, if you’re willing to focus your purchases on particular list sources, you can force bidding wars and lock in better values for multi-year commitments.  

importing list purchases

You’ll want to make sure your IT department is involved with the list sources early into the process.  Each list source will provide different fields and in different formats; this makes setting up initial import routines pretty time-consuming.  And because you’re purchasing from multiple list sources, you’re likely to receive duplicates (names that appear in more than one list source, or that already exist in your system from previous imports).  Your IT department will need to merge these duplicates with your existing data during the import process.

They should also mark the original list source for each record.  Not only can you receive credit from some list sources for future purchases, but it also helps you determine how lists overlap and how you can better partition your purchases among the different list providers in the future.

Communication

Traditional search campaigns include both electronic and paper communication streams.  So far, our data show no difference in the "value" of paper versus electronic responders.  We do know that students are much more likely to respond through e-mail than reply cards.  If your search vendor created your paper communications and you can’t do that on your own for any reason, don’t be afraid to switch to e-mail only.

Whichever media you choose, use the Box Model to help develop your message, define satisfaction paths, etc.

Electronic Search Campaigns

Running your own mass e-mail campaigns is just about the easiest thing in the world to do.  You need just 2 things to make it happen:

1. access to a bulk e-mail server
2. bulk e-mail software

Even if your IT department can provide access to a bulk mail server, I suggest you consider outside vendors.  Because mass e-mail is such a competitive arena, you will easily find hundreds of great vendors who provide excellent rates and amazing services.

We dropped our IT department’s mail server in favor of PowerMTA for the increased throughput, integrated authentication mechanisms (for better delivery rates), and ISP-specific throttling capabilities.

As for bulk e-mail software, I highly recommend Campaign Enterprise Manager from Arial.  The tracking reports are fantastic, the integration with our information system is painless, and the community support is very helpful.

Once you have these 2 items in place, you’ll be able to run electronic campaigns year-round, not just during search.

Processing and Fulfillment

The one piece of search I was most worried about was the processing and fulfillment of paper responses.  I wanted to make absolutely certain we could handle the high volume of response cards that might be returned to us, especially during the winter months when we would also be processing application materials.

Accordingly, this past year I contracted with a "local" vendor for data entry and fulfillment.

That turned out to be unnecessary.  Student workers or a single temp could have easily handled the volume of paper reply cards we received.

Conclusion

When looking at the entire search process from beginning to end, you realize just how basic everything really is.  In essence, we had done the same thing hundreds of times before.  That’s because every event we run follows the same basic sequence as a search campaign:

1. Create an incentive (the program, a response piece)
2. Pitch it (e-mails, self-mailers, letters)
3. Process responses (electronic or paper)
4. Fulfill (confirmation e-mail, packet for visitors, etc.)

Finally, even if you have a great relationship with your search vendor, you should consider bringing search in house for the following reasons:

• to gain strategic control over purchase criteria
• to have a proven mass communication infrastructure available for year-round campaigns
• to save money

The decision to fire our search vendor was one of the scariest we ever made.

As it turns out, it was also the best.