INDIANAPOLIS (Jan. 20, 2010) – An automated multi-channel marketing effort is boosting efficiency and customer service at Ivy Tech Community College, the nation's largest statewide community college with single accreditation.
 
Powered by email marketing firm ExactTarget and Indianapolis-based The Jackson Group, the multichannel campaign triggers personalized emails, direct mail and phone calls featuring requested materials or updates on enrollment status to prospective and returning students.
 
“As one of the nation’s fastest growing colleges, Ivy Tech needed a way to streamline its communications to prospective and returning students and fulfill the thousands of requests for print and electronic materials received monthly,” said Dean Weathers, chief information officer at The Jackson Group, a marketing communications company that designed the Web-based solution for the college. “Using a single database linked to our fulfillment center, call center and ExactTarget’s email engine, we created an enterprise solution that allows the college to manage all communications from a single application.”
 
The automated system known as JUMP, or the Jackson Ultimate Marketing Platform, assigns prospective students a media code based on how they first interacted with the college – whether at a high school visit, online or on campus. Using that code, the system begins an automated lead nurturing campaign triggering emails, direct mail and even personal phone calls to prospective students based on their completion of admission requirements. As the student provides additional information on educational interests, degree goals and location, the system automatically refines the marketing campaign and tailors messages to the student’s unique educational goals and geographic location.
 
The system also triggers ExactTarget-powered emails to students upon completion of the enrollment process and if the student fails to enroll in an up-coming semester.
 
“Jackson Group and ExactTarget took the time to understand our unique requirements and developed an application that allows us to spend more time serving the student and less time worrying about the logistics of fulfilling requests for marketing materials and information,” said Jeff Fanter, Ivy Tech’s vice president for communications and marketing. “By centralizing and automating our communications, we’ve improved our response times to students, realized a tremendous amount of efficiency, cost savings and increased brand and messaging consistency.”
 
In addition to the automated campaigns, the system also enables administrators at each of the college’s campuses to power unique, one-time email or print On Demand communications such as open house or student orientation invitations. Administrators can segment and filter lists of current or prospective students by a myriad of attributes including enrollment status, major, geographic location or preferred campus.
 
The college system, which spans 23 campuses across Indiana, saw enrollment grow 32.9 percent this spring to nearly 120,000 students statewide. In December Community College Week listed the college’s Indianapolis campus as the second fastest-growing community college campus in the nation.
 
“Harnessing data and customer preferences is essential to building an effective campaign,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “By centralizing online and offline communications through the Jackson Group and ExactTarget, Ivy Tech has created an efficient and effective platform that is improving customer service for students statewide.”
 
The news of Ivy Tech’s success with multichannel marketing follows Forrester Research naming ExactTarget a “leader” in email marketing and awarding the company a perfect 5 of 5 in the Customer Category of the “Forrester WaveTM: Email Marketing Service Providers Q4 2009” (December 2009) report. The independent research firm found ExactTarget to be the only email service provider to score a perfect score in the Customers Category, noting “with high satisfaction scores and online community, ExactTarget can successfully meet marketers’ complex business needs.” To download the report, visit www.ExactTarget.com/Wave09.
 
About The Jackson Group
 
Founded in 1961, The Jackson Group is one of the largest and most unique integrated marketing communications firms in the Midwest, combining advertising, database/direct marketing, ecommerce, website, inbound/outbound call center, order processing/fulfillment, mailing, high-end commercial printing and full color variable data/variable image digital printing. TJG serves both consumer/retail and business-to-business clients on a local, regional and national level—offering a wide range of marketing solutions to various industries, but with a strong focus on agricultural, financial, equipment manufacturing, education, pharmaceutical, medical and health care clients. Clients include: Cargill Animal Nutrition, Eli Lilly and Company, Grainger Integrated Supply, Firestone Specialty Products, Henny-Penny Corporation, Indiana Credit Union League and Ivy Tech Community College.
 
About Ivy Tech Community College
 
Ivy Tech Community College is the state’s largest public post-secondary institution and the nation’s largest, singly-accredited statewide community college system with more than 130,000 students enrolled annually. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state's engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association.
 
About ExactTarget
 
ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and one-to-one marketing solutions. The company’s software as a service technology provides organizations a single platform to connect with customers via triggered and transactional email, integrated text messaging, voice messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based multi-channel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.