Higher Education – Perk Practical

Overview

A local university approached us with a unique challenge: they needed to recruit participants for a research study but had exhausted traditional outreach methods with limited success. Time was of the essence, and the university needed a scalable way to generate consistent, qualified leads for their academic project.

The existing outreach methods—flyers, university announcements, and local postings—were only bringing in a handful of responses per week, many of which didn’t meet the study’s eligibility criteria.

SEO Tools & Software

Goals

Challenges

Academic research recruitment requires sensitivity and professionalism, especially when the subject matter is niche or personal.
The university had no existing email list or cold outreach infrastructure in place.
Compliance and ethics were critical, requiring carefully worded communication and opt-out mechanisms.

Our Strategy

We partnered directly with the professor leading the study to fully understand the participant profile and the study’s value proposition. From there, we:

Built a highly targeted cold email list based on publicly available demographic and interest data.
Created a three-step email sequence designed to inform, engage, and pre-qualify recipients.
Used clear, non-pushy language to explain the study’s goals, the benefit of participation, and eligibility requirements.
Implemented email tracking, A/B tested subject lines and calls-to-action, and monitored response rates for continuous optimization.

The Results

Within the first two weeks, the campaign was already outperforming expectations:

Average Qualified Leads/Week

35%

Open Rate

12%

Reply Rate

Results

They began receiving an average of 10 qualified leads per week, a significant increase compared to previous methods.

The email sequence maintained a 35% open rate and a 12% reply rate, signaling strong engagement.

Most importantly, the university was able to meet its participant recruitment goals on schedule and with minimal administrative burden.

This project demonstrated how cold email—when done strategically and ethically—can be a powerful tool for even non-commercial, academic use cases.

Time to Recruitment Goal

Met within project timeline