Many small colleges in Nashville – or anywhere, for that matter – find it difficult to keep in touch with their alumni. In fact, 44% of non-donor alumni claim that they have not received any communications from their alma mater about current programs. While most colleges have online alumni directories, it’s not always easy to track down people who have moved or changed their contact information. For this reason, you may want to consider using an alumni finder service to discover new leads and generate more donations.
These services compile extensive data on alumni from your college so you can easily locate contacts for your next fundraising campaign or class reunion. So if you’re looking for a more effective way to reach out to potential donors, consider using an alumni finder service to develop targeted alumni lead lists.
What are alumni lead lists?
Alumni lead lists are key for any college or university looking to stay connected with its alumni base. These lists provide up-to-date contact information of alumni members along with more detailed data on their jobs and interests. The data from these lists makes them a necessary tool for coordinating events and generating donations for your school.
In today’s competitive landscape, it’s more important than ever to keep alumni engaged and invested in the success of their alma mater. Alumni lead lists are essential for achieving this goal. By using these lists to reach out to alumni through email, social media, or even phone calls, colleges and universities can stay connected with their most loyal supporters.
Why should I use alumni lead gen services?
Alumni lead gen services can help you build stronger relationships with your alumni. By maintaining regular contact and providing them with valuable information through targeted marketing, you can create a sense of loyalty and connection that will last for years and encourage more donations. Here’s how alumni lead gen services can help you achieve that outcome.
Find leads faster
The internet has made it possible to find almost anyone, and that includes alumni from your college or university. In the past, finding alumni could be a time-consuming and frustrating process. But today, there are a number of online resources that collect data and make it easy to track down former students. For example, Facebook, LinkedIn, and online alumni directories.
An alumni finder service can help speed up the process even more. At Take the Stairs, we can find your targeted alumni and provide you with an alumni lead list within a week of beginning a search.
Pre-qualify leads
If you’re trying to raise money from your alumni network, the last thing you want to do is waste effort and resources on the people who are least likely to donate. So how can you tell who’s most likely to give and focus your efforts on them?
That’s where alumni lead gen services come in. Companies, like Take the Stairs, can do all the hard work of pre-qualifying your leads. They do this by taking into account factors like their previous giving history, their relationship to the school, and their current financial situation. Through this vetting process, you can be sure you’re only reaching out to the people who are most likely to give, which means more money for your campaign.
Create custom lead lists
An alumni finder service company can offer a lot more than just contact information for your college’s alumni. By gathering data on things like job title, professional group affiliations, and geographic location, they can create custom lead lists that are tailored to the specific needs of your campaigns. As a result, you’ll reach the alumni who are most likely to be interested in a specific fundraiser or event.
Benefits of high-quality alumni lists
When it comes to alumni lead lists, quality is key. After all, you want to make sure you’re reaching the right people with your message – those most likely to donate. That’s why it’s important to work with a company that specializes in providing high-quality alumni leads. By doing so, you can be sure your lead gen marketing strategy will be successful. Here are the most common benefits of using high-quality alumni lead lists.
Access to hyper-targeted leads more likely to respond
As you probably know, sending the same generic message to all of your alumni is not likely to result in much engagement. Alumni are far more likely to respond to targeted outreach that is relevant to their interests and needs. In a recent study by SEO company Backlinko, emails with personalized messaging were found to be 32.7% more likely to receive a response.
So how can you apply this to your alumni marketing? For example, say you have an upcoming sports fundraiser event. The event might be of interest to alumni who are still involved in sports today, so you could reach out to them directly and let them know about it because they are the most likely to respond.
Or, if you know that a particular group of alumni musicians is involved in the Nashville music scene, you could send them information about how they can get involved with a new music program. Taking the time to personalize your outreach will show your alumni that you value their engagement. As a result, you’re much more likely to generate a positive response.
Continually updated with accurate information
As anyone who’s ever tried to keep track of their contacts knows, information changes constantly. Email addresses expire, phone numbers are disconnected, and people move all the time. This can make it very difficult to stay in touch with your friends and family, let alone your alumni network.
That’s why it’s so important to keep your alumni contact information up to date. By refreshing your list every few years, you can be sure you’re reaching the right people with your emails and other messages. Since having an email bounce rate higher than 5% can negatively impact your deliverability, it’s especially important to ensure you have the correct email address for each alum. Too many bounced emails from invalid addresses will ultimately send your emails to good addresses into the spam folder.
To avoid this scenario, hire an alumni lead gen services company like Take the Stairs. A professional lead gen company can help keep your alumni lists updated and accurate by removing incorrect information. That way, you can focus your time and effort on staying connected with the alumni who matter most.
Increase fundraising results and boost donations
You’ve probably heard that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. The same is true for alumni outreach. Your student connectors and email marketing specialists have probably been reaching out to the same lists for years and years.
Isn’t it about time to find all those alumni who’ve slipped through the cracks? You actually have a better chance of getting donations from those alumni rather than the ones who’ve gotten the same general emails from your college for years.
It’s time to try something new. Experiment with different ways of reaching out to alumni. Focus on finding the ones who haven’t been reached before. You might be surprised at the results you get.
Take advantage of our alumni finder services to find leads for your college
There’s a better way to do alumni marketing. Consider working with an alumni lead gen service company like Take the Stairs in Nashville. We can help you find more alumni, keep your contact information up to date, and target all your leads effectively for the greatest results. Contact us to discuss how we can enhance your alumni lead gen marketing strategy.
