By Jeremy Tiers, Senior Director of Admissions Services
2 minute read
As adults we often feel like we need to go into as much detail as possible when we’re communicating with someone, mainly because we usually prefer more information and context sooner rather than later, right?
Unfortunately that approach doesn’t work with most of Gen Z.
The more information you share, the more links you include, and the more calls to action you have in your email, the less likely you’re going to get a student to take any sort of action.
With this generation, shorter and less is what they’re used to.
On top of that, longer messages tend to feel more salesy, they can be confusing, plus you risk looking like every other college and university that is reaching out.
When you make your emails shorter rather than longer, here’s what else happens:
- You eliminate the likelihood of boring students with a long message. Especially at the start of the process, telling them every single detail about your school and campus is the absolute wrong thing to do. They’re not ready for that yet…in time they might be, but not yet.
- You make it easier to actually absorb your information. Consistently writing less means you’re only giving students a few key facts each time, which in turn makes them easier to remember. You want them to absorb and remember what you’re telling them, right?
- You create curiosity. Leaving out certain details gives a student an excuse to either go and search for more information, or to follow up and actually ask a question.
- You increase the permission they need to reply back when you tell them to reply back. “Feel free to contact me” or “Reach out if you have any questions” are too open ended and sound like a courtesy tagline that you probably don’t really mean. When you ask a direct question as your call to action and then end your email with “Reply back and let me know your thoughts on that”, or “I’m looking forward to hearing back and reading your answer”, you give them permission to reply back and make them feel like their opinion and thoughts are valued. And by making your message shorter, you increase the chances they’ll actually get to the end.
- You make it more likely they will read your future messages. Consistently giving students less to read increases the chances they will engage with future messages because you’re building a communication brand that promises shorter, more to-the-point text. That actually draws more students towards you as being someone who is easy to talk to.
Don’t be like everyone else and give them more, give them less, especially at the beginning of their college search process.
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