5 Ways to Maximize Your Lists Online

Carnegie Higher Ed Mar 03, 2017 Carnegie Higher Ed Persona The Visionary Frontrunner

In a few weeks Carnegie will be on our second annual road show with Google, offering free one-day workshops on all things digital! We will be presenting on everything from Paid Search and Display to SEO, social media, and more. I will be giving a session about maximizing your lists online, so in case you can’t join us, I have boiled down that 45-minute presentation to the following 500-word blog on five ways you can do just that.  

1. Start with a good list

Sounds simple enough, but I am frequently surprised to hear from colleges how this step is rushed and not thought through—their lists are poorly procured with a rinse-and-repeat strategy of the names ordered the year before. But as the goals of your institution change over the years, shouldn’t your list buy align with your new goals? A “copy save as” of last year’s strategy just won’t work. So take the time to buy the right names, lead score your inquiries, and nurture your best prospects. Data is not one size fits all, and if you want to fill your funnel with the right students, it starts with the right lists.

2. Use your lists to expand your reach beyond the mailbox and inbox

Here’s how:

  • IP Targeting: IP Targeting matches a physical mailing address to its IP address and delivers display advertising directly into the home, across any and all devices running off the home IP.
  • Facebook list match: Use those same lists and match their e-mail address to their Facebook and Instagram accounts to deliver in-feed advertisements directly to them.
  • Google Customer Match: Use any first-party offline list and match that data online to reach your students on any device and across Google Search, YouTube, and through Gmail sponsored ads.

3. Use lists of locations for targeting

With strategies like Mobile Location Targeting, geofencing, and Mobile Footprints, you can target buildings and locations based on the audiences that dwell inside. Trying to recruit for your MBA program? Think about targeting specific businesses from which you draw MBA candidates. Looking for transfer students? Target feeder community colleges with transfer messages. If you have targets you want to market, it is possible to reach these audiences where they visit, work, or study through these location-based strategies.

4. Use your best lists to find similar audiences

With look-alike modeling, you can use your most proven lists (think enrollment lists, best applicant lists, most qualified inquiries) to build a new audience that looks similar to the demographics and characteristics of your best lists. Find those look-alike prospects across social media, display advertising, RLSA, and more!

5. Retargeting is a list too

While it may not fit into the traditional sense of a list of identified names, Retargeting is a list of people who have a high level of interest and intent. While you may not know exactly what their name is, you do know they are interested based on the fact they’ve been to key pages of your site, making them as valuable (or arguably more valuable) than some traditional lists.

Lists provide a powerful way to reach your best prospects both offline and online. The tips above are just a few things to consider. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more!

You can follow me on Twitter @adpoulin.

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