Increasing Enrollment with Intelligent Names and an Intelligent Campaign

Kalamazoo Valley Community College (Kalamazoo Valley) engaged Liaison for the Intelligent Names Explore solution. This solution provides the names of individuals who, through proprietary data science techniques, are believed to have high intent for new or continuing education. Kalamazoo Valley, a longstanding Liaison TargetX client, partnered with Liaison for this initiative through a grant received to target outreach and support for adult learners.

In addition to this grant, Kalamazoo Valley also promoted the Michigan Reconnect initiative, which is a last-dollar scholarship program that pays for State of Michigan adult residents who do not yet hold an associate degree or higher to attend their in-district community college tuitionfree. Kalamazoo Valley’s strategy revolves around community partnership and training to integrate service offerings with partner organizations around Kalamazoo County.

In Fall 2022, Kalamazoo Valley received a curated list targeting over 15,000 individuals with corresponding contact information (e.g., address, email, phone) and limited to those with the highest educational intent classification. The Liaison Data Science team’s intent scoring is developed using a proprietary blend of national surveys, consumer data, and AI models to measure individuals’ intent for education.

The key to success with this initiative would hinge on three key pillars:

• Identifying the right audience (Liaison Intelligent Names)
• Determining the right outreach and engagement plan (Kalamazoo Valley’s marketing)
• Providing a compelling message to the audience (prospective Michigan Reconnect recipients)

With the names in hand, Kalamazoo Valley set out to engage the individuals through outbound marketing efforts using texts, emails, and postcards. The aim of the campaign was to encourage new and reenrollment activities during 2023 start terms by directly promoting the Michigan Reconnect program and encouraging those targeted to complete credits at the college.

“In the past, we lacked the ability to identify prospects, as really everyone is a prospect with open admission available to all,” said Evan Pauken, Kalamazoo Valley’s Director of Institutional Effectiveness. “Having a solution to narrow the pool down—without targeting only past applicants to Kalamazoo Valley—was the key to being more pointed in our marketing efforts. Intelligent Names helped us identify the right population.”

Following several months of outreach and list cultivation, Kalamazoo Valley achieved positive outcomes with this campaign, generating nearly 450 applications and 165 enrollments including 18 individuals who had no prior enrollment history with the college. While most enrollments were among those previously known to the college, Intelligent Names was an important catalyst, informing the enrollment team of who among their dormant student list was a high priority for re-engagement. Taken together, the 165 enrolled students generated approximately $87,000 in tuition revenue resulting in ROI of nearly 3X.

Note that only 1,250 of the names provided were previously enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley. This could highlight a small overlap (~8%) with the right individuals to target, but more importantly, ~92% of the names provided were a new population to engage who were not previously enrolled. While these results were extremely positive to see within the first couple terms for enrollment, the intent scores provided for Intelligent Names are focused on a 12-24 month enrollment horizon. This could be a positive opportunity to gain additional enrollment in future semesters, as long as additional outreach and engagement continue.

As a calculated estimate for the return-oninvestment that Kalamazoo Valley attained, the following input and assumptions were used:

• Cost per contact hour per semester: $124
• Cost per semester fee: $158
• Minimum cost per enrolled individual per semester: $530 (assuming a 3-hour course)

Accounting for the success of gaining enrollment from both new and returning individuals, Kalamazoo Valley achieved 165 enrolled students at an estimated revenue per student of $530. For the overall engagement, this contributes to $87,450 in total revenue from the Intelligent Names population when combined with the right outreach and compelling message.

Based on the cost for the Intelligent Names subscription, and excluding minimal costs in email and post card communication outreach, an ROI of 2.94x was already achieved, with an opportunity for more to come through continued nurturing of the Intelligent Names population.

“The timing of this is really great, as Michigan Reconnect just launched an expansion to include 21- to 24-year-old residents through Fall 2024,” said Pauken. “We really appreciate the ability to gain access to additional names through this Intelligent Names collaboration with Liaison.”

Kalamazoo Valley Community College was established in 1966 by the overwhelming approval of voters in nine local school districts. It is a comprehensive, fully accredited, public, two-year college with enrollment of about 10,000 students.

Kalamazoo Valley offers 50 certificate programs and associate degrees in 60 areas of study. In addition to associate degree and certificate programs in business, health care, human and public services, technical and industrial occupations, the college also provides a quality experience for students preparing to transfer to four-year institutions following graduation.

The college provides educational and support services on four Kalamazoo-area campus locations:

• Texas Township
• Arcadia Commons
• The Groves
• Bronson Healthy Living Campus