by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
The student-athletes that you are recruiting are currently in a season of receiving a lot of emails from a lot of colleges. But teenagers don’t even use email, right Coach?
In our research at Tudor Collegiate Strategies, players tell us they do want emails from coaches. They want emails because like a text message, they can go back to it a few times before they respond, or they can just not respond at all. And that is comforting to them.
Okay, so say the prospect opens the email you sent, how do you get them to read the whole thing and see value in what you have to say? Try these two tips and see if you start to get more recruits reading and responding to your emails:
1) Make it easy to read
You want your recruit to actually read your whole email. The best way to do this is keep it short and simple. A long, wordy email looks daunting and is likely to be skimmed or not read at all. Use BOLD OR CAPITALIZED WORDS in the middle or near the end. Their eyes are likely to skip to those words first and then they’ll be curious and want to go back to the beginning and read.
2) Give them a call to action
Chances are, your prospects don’t respond to your email because you don’t ask them to. You may be writing, “feel free to give me a call” or “let me know if you have any questions” at the end of your emails. This is too vague. The athlete will get confused or move on because they don’t want to call you and they don’t have any questions.
Ask them to respond in a specific way to a specific question. Make it short and make it clear. Keep your message simple. Leave out your school’s facts and figures. Don’t include your extensive sales pitch. Not giving them all the answers will make them curious and want to reply!
Want more advice and direction on effective communication with your recruits that really matter? Contact the author at danchristensen@dantudor.com.