Developing Your 'Every-6-to-9-Day' Recruiting Message Plan
We always get questions wanting more definition on our 'send recruits an outbound message every 6 to 9 days' mantra. Here's a more detailed explanation...
After doing this for nearly 20 years, I forget sometimes that not every coach has been around since the beginning of our work - nor have they had the chance to fully learn, step-by-step, what we’ve learned in researching today’s student-athlete prospect and their decision making process.
My bad.
I was reminded of this when I got an email the other day from a coach who’s been learning our techniques through the Tudor University online academy we’ve set up for recruiters…he had this question:
Hi Dan,
I hope this message finds you well. I've been avidly following your content and recently enrolled in Tudor University. Among the numerous valuable insights, I noticed your recommendation to maintain contact within a 6-9 day timeframe.
I was wondering if you could provide an example of email content specific to your program. In one of your podcasts, you mentioned that sending the same email repeatedly is not advisable. I want to ensure I'm following the best practices outlined in your program.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your guidance.
Let the guidance begin!
What is this rule all about, and why is it a big key in maximizing your recruiting effort? First, a quick refresher on what we’d define as the rule is all about from an article we published in an article a few years ago, Why the Every 6 to 9 Day Rule is So Vital:
Your core recruiting message that tells a prospect, in writing, why they should attend your college and compete for you, and how you are going to be better than their other choices in the end.
This is your written message. Emails and letters. Some of you think that kids don’t read them, or don’t value their content, but you’re wrong…without them, it’s incredibly difficult for them to make the logical justification to come to your campus.
We are not talking about your text messages, phone calls or in-person contact. Those can happen as often as needed, in whatever time span works for you and your prospect. Every day, every week, once every few months…that’s up to you. But your written message needs to stay consistent.
It almost helps to think of the every 6 to 9 day rule as an added ‘layer’ in your communication with your recruits. If we were to narrow down the types of messaging into three layers, this is what it would look like:
The every 6 to 9 day rule is in the Foundational Message block. What is that layer all about? Establishing a foundation. In other words, defining who you are, and why that athlete should want to commit to you. It’s the layer of communication that most college coaches ignore on a regular basis (because it’s hard, and it takes time).
And like the name indicates, it is the foundation for everything else:
Your interpersonal message is what most coaches love doing, and are very good at: Phone calls, texting, note cards, congratulatory messages…that kind of stuff. It builds the relationship and connects with the heart. But, it doesn’t focus on the logical reason they should commit to you. That’s the job of the foundational message. And, you need that…getting them to feel like they’ve fallen in love with you without justifying why that makes sense almost always results in random, erratic recruiting results.
Your closing message is what every coach wants to be good at, and needs to be good at. Without it, you won’t get many recruits to commit to your program, obviously. And, without a good foundation and good interpersonal messaging, jumping straight to closing a recruit doesn’t make sense. They aren’t going to commit if they don’t have a logical or emotional tie to you.
Without the foundational message - the “every 6 to 9 day message” - you’re in trouble.
So with all that in mind, here are some important points in building out an effective 6 to 9 day messaging plan:
Every 6 to 9 days does NOT mean talking to them every 6 to 9 days.
This isn’t reaching out and making interpersonal contact with them in that time interval; it’s putting out a written message about why they should choose you, and how you and your college are going to be better than their other options.
Interpersonal messaging and communication (talking, texting, in-person contact) should happen as a separate layer beyond the foundational messaging, and you can do that whenever it feels natural for the recruit: Some will want contact every week if possible, and others are fine with every few weeks to once a month or so…that aspect of communication should be natural, not forced.
Why every 6 to 9 days for foundational messaging?
Because the majority of prospects tell us that’s what has the right feel:
If it were more frequent (daily or 3-4 times a week) it’s too hard to keep up with, and they get overrun with communication. And when that happens, they never tend to catch up. Interestingly, they just stop engaging. That’s not what we want, obviously.
If it were less frequent (every few weeks, once every month or two, or never) when it comes to foundational written messaging, it seems inconsistent and gives off the impression that they aren’t important to you. Why? Because in their world, real relationships have regular written contact. Not achieving that is also something we don’t want, obviously.
You writing them and telling them your story consistently, over a long period of time, every 6 to 9 days is what they identify as optimal. So, let’s do that for them, Coach.
Why the written message is so critical:
This generation communicates through written messaging - even though studies show they don’t consider a lot of their texting as ‘writing’.
What’s important to correlate is this: They read written words, and absorb them as communication. That’s true when they’re reading a text message or social media post, and it’s true when you send them a printed hard-copy letter or email. If you’re not using those methods to communicate, you’re creating a huge gap in the way you can connect with your prospects.
Why do we focus so heavily on printed hard-copy letters and emails? Because when it comes to ‘selling’ you and your program, today’s prospects tell us that those two methods of communication are the two that you are allowed to ‘sell’ them through. Not so for texting and phone calls, which fit squarely in that middle Interpersonal Communication layer. If you try to overtly sell them through phone calls and text messages, they usually have the same reaction as we do when we receive a spam call or get an unwanted sales text on our phone: We’re annoyed.
Written messaging is powerful when it’s used correctly, and effectively mixed with the other two layers of communication in the recruiting process.
How to deliver effective, ongoing Foundational Messaging
Focus on a selling point of your school for an extended period of time (4-6 weeks).
Thin slice your approach with that topic during that extended period. In other words, go into deep detail about each subheading under that particular topic.
Example: If you want to sell a prospect on the location of your campus, going into ‘deep detail’ might mean you cover not just what town you’re in, but also talk about why your team likes it there, what they do for fun, internship opportunities, the advantages of the weather for their sport, and make the point that it’s safe. Those six topics (as a random example) would be six separate written messages - 5 emails and a printed letter, ideally - sent every six to nine days, as the athletes have outlined in our focus group studies.
Don’t spend a lot of time writing your messages. Give yourself a time limit of 10-15 minutes, and then stop when the time is up. Shorter and more bullet points win over long, flowing, detailed paragraphs that use up every inch of space on a piece of paper or screen.
Ask a question at the end of the message - remember, the reason you’re sending it is because you want a response and a conversation, right? If so, open the door for them to reply. And note that by following the rule I listed right before this one, your message out to them isn’t going to be so long and information-packed that they don’t need to follow up with you and ask questions. In other words, you want to leave details out so they have to come back to you to ask questions. Do NOT answer all their questions for them in a written message.
Last tip: Each message should build on the previous one and preview the next one. Don’t make them standalone pieces that have no rhyme, reason or context to what they have been receiving so far. This is where storytelling comes in…you’re a movie script writer, not a Google search result. Tell a story in your own casual voice (here’s a link to a bunch of good, research-based articles on creating a good story we’ve done for our clients in the past few years).
This is a simpler, more effective approach to foundational recruiting messaging than most coaching staffs are following, but if you’re one of them it’s easy to start. Just begin to tell a consistent story…you don’t need a big launch, there’s no right or wrong time to initiate it. Just do it.
Trust me, it works.
If you need more detailed one-on-one help with this, we work with more than 700 programs around the country - all sports, all division levels - helping them create and manage this kind of plan. It’s highly effective, and extremely cost efficient. If you’d like to talk about how that would look for you and what we would do to create a unique plan for your unique program, email us at dan@dantudor.com or click here to read more details.