microSEARCH™—A Small Solution with Big Wins and How it Can Help You

In 2009, I met with Christoph Guttentag of Duke University. Our conversation covered many topics, including technology. I showed him something that I was working on at the time. It was a card that tied into an early-day version of augmented reality. If a student scanned the card with a downloadable app, they would open the door to new information.  What was even better was that the enrollment director would get an alert telling them that the card had been scanned. 

The card triggered an idea for Christoph. As he thought about how to use it, he told me that he felt students interested in engineering would be more inclined to download the new app and apply it.

That prompted a shift in the conversation, and we ended up partnering to create a mini-campaign aimed at a smaller group of student recruits, exclusively for Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

This single campaign created a breakthrough in my thinking. I realized every school has a BIG IDEA they want to try, academic programs that need more seats filled, and new markets they want to test. This was my aha moment where I realized a mini test campaign would be helpful because: 

• Leaders do not have the luxury of being able to wait for results from a yearlong A/B test
• It is too expensive to test a hunch on the yearlong campaign
• There is great interest in continually developing new markets. A mini-test campaign lets you find the right path in a cost-effective manner

The breakthrough energized me because I could see exciting possibilities for every school I support. I also realized that to be effective in this area required a new mindset along with new techniques, tools, and tactics. 

Over the next five years, my team and I honed our expertise in this area. We are now microSEARCH^TM pioneers and evangelists. 

Our clients are finding success.  Last year, enrollmentFUEL helped Drury University increase enrollment in a new market with a microSEARCH campaign. The micro campaign had all the features of a larger campaign, but was smaller and less costly, which made it a safe platform for testing a new idea. 

Drury’s micro campaign ran in tandem with their traditional search methods, and it featured:

• Geodemographic research
• IP pre-targeting display ads
• Direct mail
• Email
• clickCAPTURING™ and meritBADGING™, two of enrollmentFUEL’s proprietary solutions

The targeted campaign achieved success by opening a significant new market, increasing new student enrollment to an all time high, and remaining cost-effective.

As you plan, think about how you can use microSEARCH to reach a particular goal. It could be increasing a specific group of applicants, expanding in a geographic market or testing a hypothesis. By scaling down, you can pioneer new ideas and achieve new success.