Dive Deeper with Waybetter Marketing: Three Things You Should Do with Seniors Right Now

Hello everyone thanks so much for joining us today and our dive deeper series with way better marketing. We'll get started in just a few seconds. We're going to wait for a few more of our registrants to join us.

But thank you so much for coming.

I hope everybody is enjoying this beautiful day. At least it is up here in the Northeast.

Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah everyone feel free to type in the chat where you're coming from and love to hear from you. And what institution? Or you're here from?

Absolutely.

OK, so thanks everyone again for joining us today. We are having our last series of the fall with our dive deeper with our preferred partners today. We have way better marketing and their web and R is three things you should do with your seniors right now. So before we get started with Allison and Kitchen, a couple of housekeeping notes.

And for those of you who have attended, several of these are probably very familiar to you, but just as a reminder, this webinar is being recorded, so it will be made available probably tomorrow on your home Slate page and our website. You can enable your closed captioning by clicking the CC button at the top right of the corner in your share window and for any reason, if you need to re sync your audio or your video, you can do so by refreshing your share window and that should.

Pop you right back into sync and of course our friends at way better marketing will be monitoring your questions in the chat. So as Allison and Kitchen are presenting, feel free to ask your question when they wanna make sure we answer all your questions. And of course for some reason if you want to disable the chat or turn that off, you could do so as well by clicking that that chat button. So without further ado I'm gonna.

To kick it off to Allison and passion.

Thanks so much Tom. Beyond excited to be back on this late stage once again and be speaking on a topic. Frankly, that's so relevant to where we are in the enrollment cycle. But first one to introduce a long time kind of way. Better partner and Friend, Kitchen super and allow her to give an introduction.

Nothing.

Hi good afternoon everyone. I'm happy to be here. I'm kitchens, Uber or the vice president of enrollment management and marketing at Wilkes University. I've been at Wilkes just over two years and a way better partner for many years. Wilkes University is a nationally ranked research private institution in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We educate approximately 2500 undergraduate students in liberal arts sciences and professional studies, but we also have a large online graduate student population of about 3000 nursing education.

MBA students and so I'll be speaking today from that smaller private institution perspective.

Great, thanks so much kitchen. I'm equally obviously excited to be talking with you all today. My name is Ali Schreiner. I then weekly better marketing just over four years. One of the directors of Slate here at way better and really just helped. Dedicated to helping institutions make the most of their slate instances. Prior to that I was with the Chronicle of Higher Education for five years and they're obviously became very aware of the challenges that.

Everyone on campuses face on a day to day basis and now you know find it really rewarding to be able to help tackle those challenges kind of head on, you know directly within you know institutions here around.

And lucky for me, you know, at way better. I have a an entire team behind me to support in these initiatives, so it's with this team and our extensive you know background that makes all the great work we do in fleet possible. But also all the great work we do with our way better hosted on campaigns as well. And really it allows us with this background and expertise to present to you on a topic such as you know, the things you should be doing with seniors today. Richmond, he founded way better 15 years ago.

And since that time has helped more than 100 institutions across the country and frankly, across the world really to drive enrollment, you know, without learning we have developed an expertise, of course, but we're constantly developing that expertise. We have 7.2 million students in campaigns today, and we know what works. We know what it takes to drive enrollment, and we take this learning and we apply it to slate. And while it's a great tool, obviously we're all here today. We have done work and have been exposed to many.

Any you know different automation platforms and that's why in 2016 Rich reach out to alexandira technicians probably heard of him, you know we had an immediate need. Way better. As I mentioned we have our own kind of hosted campaigns, very top funnel where we have responders were building inquiry polls and were then passing those students back to slate instances and that messaging oftentimes lacked consistency and personalization. So like I said.

Rich, I reached out to technicians to see how see how we could help here and then. We were very happy to hear back from technicians about a year and a half ago. They inserted a new preferred partners program and we jumped all over it. Of course we've really been here since the beginning and today there really isn't a part of this late instance that we don't touch or, you know, work to kind of configure or optimize. But today obviously our hope and you know that when you get out of it is how can you make it impact with seniors? How can you make it?

Impact on today's class because there's still time, there's still time to effect change with the 2022 class.

So here's what we plan to cover and first I want to say I know it's a busy time of year. So thank you so much again for making the time to be here today, you know visits or back you're planning your know your events, calendars. You're looking to drive apps. You're pushing students to complete those apps and provide documentation and you're releasing decisions. Your focus is on seniors at every point of the funnel. So now we're going to talk about the four things that you should do with seniors to drive activity. And I know, I know, you thought you were going to get three things today.

The bonus you're actually going to get for because while we're going to get into some specifics in your tactics as you see here, it really all starts with data and having a proper data foundation like anything with like, really any CRM, you need to start with data. It's the most important. It's the bedrock to all things. If you get this wrong, you're going to have to go back and then mind it, which we know can be very difficult, especially once things are alive. So really, take the time to to get it right.

You know, then we'll go into the, you know, the different tactics. How do you make sense of this data via key reports and queries? Next, we'll talk about how you use this data for your ought to automate status based communication. Prospect inquiry, applicant, awaiting submission, awaiting materials. We're going to talk about it all, all those statuses.

And finally, the most important, but sometimes the most overlooked aspect of your senior journey is your applicant Intimit portal and status page.

But first, as I said, it all starts with data. Everything we're going to discuss today relies on a sound data strategy and data governance, and your CRM is is just as powerful as the data that you put into it to have sound data practices, we need to continually ask yourself these two very important questions. It's obviously critical and implementation, but it's also for those of you that are multi cycles in. You need to have a keen awareness of the data you have and manage today, and you know for the data you don't have.

You need to review all entry points into the instance.

Of those entry points, obviously forms forms is the data collection points that you have ultimate control over, so this needs to be. You know what you're looking at first.

Uhm, you know external forms to students like your RFI and event forms and then internal ones that the counselor admissions teams you know fill out. Then review your source formats, your data integrations and you might think there's little work to be done here after you set up your source formats. But I'm going to give you a common use case that we've seen amongst our partners in their instances that might make you think twice and to go back a lot of times when you get licensed data from nacua or niche and others, they'll return multiple majors of interest in.

One field, comma delimited and many then choose to map this comma delimited data back to a single field in sleep. But this is a mistake because it makes building out liquid markup and snippet logic nearly impossible and they export is not field merge friendly. Like think about if I was a student I had art. You know comma biology, comma, psychology. That's not something you want to drop in a subject line. Instead choose to map these this data back to separate discrete fields.

So when it comes to forms integrations, you know. Obviously these are two things. Two places that data flows from, but they can be very much intertwined as well. You know Kitchen has you know a great example of this when it relates to her integration with front rust and some recent changes that had to be made.

Yeah, thanks Sally. I mean The thing is, maybe you're collecting the right info on your prospect and applicants on these forms. But are you asking the right question? Because how do you want to use that data later? And what we found out? So we integrate slate data with front rush so our coaches only have one system to work from, so I know it can be annoying to sign into two, so we wanted that integration.

And in a recent meeting with them, we realized that the data we were sending them wasn't really as useful as we thought it could, as maybe they thought it could be. We had two fields for athletics in the sense that a student could express interest in this particular sport, and then they could also.

Identify the sport that they wanted to participate in, but because of the way we were asking that on the application in particular, and sometimes in inquiry forms, the coaches just weren't sure of the level of interest because you can like basketball. But whether you're going to play in Division Three, competitive team is a whole other story. So we were at we were collecting the data and we were sending it to coaches, but they were like what does this actually mean? So we actually have to go back in our application and ask the question better.

Will collect athletic interests you're interested in that sport. We're also going to ask. More specifically, do you intend to play competitive collegiate athletics or participate in and then that other field will be much more meaningful for ARCO Kids, so that's a way to say, you know, yeah, I have the data, but maybe we need to be collecting it, or even asking the question differently.

Absolutely, and I think you bring up a great point about that. About that data data collection and just seeing what data and what data date that you have. Another important source is from pain. This is D. Anonymized website analytics data. Obviously it's homegrown within slate. That's not just information that's available on your student timeline and record after a foursome match event occurs. You need to use this data using data to drive insights.

Into Dr automated outreach.

But at the end of the day, with data really consistency is key. You need to build consistent profiles with your senior population so that when it comes time to deploy an audit, many campaign like will talk about or a portal page. You have all the necessary data points. So if consider if major of interest is required on your RFI, it should be required on your event registration forms. Again, those are both entry points into the system. If you plan on incorporating SMS text efforts into your campaigns, ensure collecting mobile numbers at every.

Entry point, a common use case if you're planning on sending a text as a part of a reminder series for an event, which is, you know, a great idea. Of course, you need to make sure mobile is required and that you're collecting it.

And this is of course paramount in terms of consistency with the most important form that a senior you know inquiry will hopefully complete. And that is your application because at the end of the day, that's what the app it's it's. It's a form, and whether you have a slate app or if your common app exclusive, you need to be revisit this data that you are collecting every cycle you know across application sources you need to ensure that the questions are mapped, that the fields are consistent and above all else to just plan ahead. You know, kitchen I think is a great example of this.

As well, kind of rolled out a new initiative recently.

Yeah, thanks Sally, you know I, I think we all want to be plan ahead and be proactive, but sometimes our work just isn't that way you last year mid cycle we were able to be part of the Bonner leaders program and that meant that we had to start figuring out how to recruit a cohort mid cycle in January. And so we did the best.

You could come this is a program that has certain eligibility requirements and so we wanted to really target to the group we were recruiting. But what we realized is that we didn't necessarily have enough data to target that particular population and promote the program. Community service is a really big piece of this particular program and we just weren't collecting that, and that was some of someone intentional. We didn't want to have a lot of friction on our application. We you know, applying should be easy. Studying here should be hard.

But uhm.

We still need the information. It's a. It's an important program and so we did the best we could last cycle and then this summer we said what were we missing? We have to find a way to collect this. And how do we do it with the least amount of friction or causing the most work for the students? So I think we came up with a great good solution, but now I am able to identify whether or not student has any kind of community service background and then we can specifically add that to other data variables and then recruit to that population so.

You know you can. You can do something for now and it's cycle, and then in the summer plan a little bit better.

Absolutely, yeah. Whenever possible, plan ahead. Obviously things things happen, you know, but when it comes with to your applications in this spring, you should really be talking about any upcoming changes to especially loud enough enough lead time with common app and you actually have much more control over over your sleep app. So before we move on I see Glenn had a question here from Drake about, you know.

The Nice to have data. How do you keep it short? Preventing abandonment? It's a great question frankly, as we get asked all the time and we always say don't ask one question. Too many. Collect exactly what you need. Don't collect anything that you're not going to use or that's not going to build that key. Data profile would also suggest that you don't have to do it all at once. Question, I actually spoke about this recently on another web and are about kind of a two step uniform process. Having a short firm and collecting at the absolute key necessary contact information in that case.

And then building the profile overtime. You don't have to necessarily all have to do it at at one at one kind of go. You can look to build this incrementally, but.

Great question.

So now how do you surface all of these key data points across your application sources in origin sources? You need sound you know reports and queries that you referenced every single day, so here's your teache. These are the things that we find that are critical to seniors. First, you need to consider your reporting audience. What is a VP of enrollment like Kitchen? Need to see versus what a counselor needs to see. Utilize that valuable real estate on the home dashboard in Taylor these views.

When it comes to reports, you also need to be paying attention to visits. If there's trouble brewing, this is often going to be the first red flag, and it will give you enough time to react. So generator reports of visits broken down by entry term, you don't want the successes or failures of the single class kind of clouding the results for others. The more you can parse out here really, the better weekly visits daily visits this report, as I said, will be your first indicator of when you lose a student and you have to question is it at the.

Is it come next? We have the obvious of funnel report. You know, I'm sure you will have a working final report today, but be sure it's broken down by territory and make sure it offers at least a three year view. You know we're living through a multiyear pandemic. Enrollment cycles have been like no other, and it's critical to be able to see this information across those cycles. But also in I would say more more normal times as well. So occasion as a VP, what are you looking for? You know across these different types of reports.

Yeah, for me it's like when do we need to take action? You know are there any red flags here? So I'm looking at it every week, sometimes more often than that, but at least once a week you have very small windows to actually take action and do something, because really the planning you know happens 18 months ago we we have a strategic plan in place and we're doing all of those things and so.

The big changes were supposed to happen then, but everything is unpredictable, especially now after COVID and behaviors change. And so I want to always have a pulse on kind of the major funnel pieces. Are we down in apps year over year where it's going on with admits? You know? What are the key? Also enrollment drivers. So Allie mentioned visits, fast filers if those. If we're seeing significant changes there, then we've got a very small window to take action and do something about it.

Because before you know application season will be gone, and then I'll only have admits to work with and yield right. And so I wanted to maximize this time in the fall to get as many apps as I can. If I'm having an application problem and this just allows me to take a quick look and if I am having an issue, I can dig it deeper and really understand what is actually going on, but it gives me a glance, you know, right away each week. How are we doing?

Absolutely. I think it as kitchen mentioned. I think it all comes back to to KP eyes. What are those like key indicators that you're looking for? She mentioned fast filers. I know Christian believes in it. 'cause I get a weekly report from her which mentions fast filers and it should be something that's on your radar as well. For those in the audience, you should ask yourself the question. What percentage of the enrolled class the 2020 ones that are sitting you know in classes today? What percentage of them submitted?

Fasfa the answer I'm sure is is high, so again this can be an indicator of success, especially of course when it comes to yield.

Finally, be sure you're looking at applications across different programs. Let's face it, all programs aren't created equal. There are programs that are going to fill up and others that are going to struggle. How will this dictate your enrollment and marketing strategy? Along with that, be sure your flagging athletes athletes are often critical to making a class, but they can also cloud reports, so be sure you have views that that include them and that don't include them.

So now for some examples. So for the three year fund over report you can see it's broken down by application round and you can also see it has views for the percent change, but it also has it versus unit numbers and both are really contextually important and I wouldn't ask yourself this. You should ask yourself this question about your final report 'cause I got. I know most of you probably have a working final report today. This is a report that you should be looking at on a very regular basis if not every day. And the question is, are you able to consume it quickly?

Uhm, you know. Again, this report because you are looking at it so regularly, you should be able to get the data you need in a very short period of time. If you have one today, just make sure it's very scannable and you can get that information. You know that that you need.

So we talked a little bit about programs and programs Report Kitchen is an example of your program report. What are you looking for here? On a on a consistent basis?

Yeah, sure. Well, it's always kind of year over year. How are we performing? But I'm we need to be making sure that our largest enrolling programs are going to continue to be our largest enrolling programs. You know, they're the meat and potatoes of what makes up our final class. And so if we've got an issue in a large program, then I would definitely need to know that quickly. And then how do we do segmented communications or other type of marketing?

To that program and try to move the needle. The other thing I'm looking for two is though emerging programs, so our psychology program last year really blew up, and again, it's doubling this year, and so what's happening there? I need to. I want to dig into that now that I'm seeing that trend. Is that an opportunity that I could maybe seazon or understand and make sure that we're ready then to yield all of those students so it's making sure there's no issues with major programs and then looking for emerging?

Opportunities as well.

Yeah, that's a good point. The emerging program system is definitely really insightful.

OK, and we've talked a lot about reports, but of course it's important to have this information, not just siloed to the reports themselves, but also on the organization record. You know, the high school counselor information should be updated here. We're going to talk about that more in just a bit, but counselors and I need your admissions counselors should be able to easily keep an eye on their feeder schools and keep an eye on activity reviewing that funnel activity right from here, right from the organization record again, this allows them to spot any trends.

Or any warning signs that they can able you know to adapt too quickly?

Because at the end of the day, you know data should inform decisions. It should drive strategy, but it really should drive action. So now let's talk about the queries. What are the queries that are critical to driving that action with your fault 2022 students? So here are some examples.

Students that have visited campus that haven't applied students that have sent their test scores and haven't applied. They've submitted a fast foot and haven't applied. They've applied, but they haven't created a password. Lathan had set up their login credentials. Students have received a decision, but they haven't viewed their letter or logged into the portal. Students have walked into the portal and accent there times. You can take like three times, but an application or decision status hasn't changed.

At the end of the day, what do all of these queries have in common? They can trigger action, the action, of course, speed can be external to the student, or they can trigger initial alert to the Counselor kitchen. How would your team use data like this and how do they use it today?

Yeah, these are really crucial action items. I think for us and what I really like about the nuances of it. Like if you visited campus but you haven't applied because we know campus visits are driver. This this helps us prioritize our work like what students should we be going after first. Well, the ones that have already moved a little bit farther down the pipeline that you can just nudge a little further to get and the next step I also think.

That works great. About this is that they're conversation starters for your counselors, so if your counselors are calling and they should because it works and it's effective, you know there's nothing worse than just calling somebody and saying, hey, you should apply it looks you know. Thanks for your interest. That's not a conversation, but if I know they already came to visit and that they've seen campus, I now as a counselor, has something I can talk to them about. How was your visit? What's going on? Tell me what you thought.

Trump.

Are you thinking about applying next? You know, here's your next step and now it's a much more meaningful conversation, or even amid much more meaning for voicemail, 'cause I know sometimes we get put right to voicemail, but still it gives you cancer. Something to talk about, and a reason to call. It motivates the student, but also motivates your staff, 'cause sometimes it's hard to just call for no reason and say, you know, please apply.

Yeah, absolutely.

Totally hear you about the voicemail, but at least it gives you a very something specific to talk about in that voicemail. So with this data you can obviously deliver very personal his voice mails, but you're really now ready to get dangerous. Insulate your ready to build automated status based on communications you know true to your senior population. But first, let's talk about that funnel. We've talked about it a bit with the final report on it's a term referred to so often in enrollment marketing. But let's flip the idea on its head literally, because in reality.

This is not reality. A student does not just magically fall through the funnel and take all the necessary steps and then all of them, you know, imagine you know end up in class. The funnel is actually upside down. You have to pull a student through through all the objections you have to cut through all the noise until they are sitting in class in the fall because even after a student deposits, your job isn't done. The ultimate KPI to your work to our work here at way better to kitchens were our students in seats.

So how do you do this? How do you build a great class? Well, again comes back to data that data profile. What data do you have to talk to the student in a meaningful way? And don't forget, these are sears, some of whom you've probably been talking to since their sophomore year. So you have data on them. So how can you use it to personalize that outrage, aside from demographic data and students applied information, you also have digital behavior. What status is do you have to work with? You know for seniors, status is everything.

Inquiry applicant awaiting submission. Awaiting materials relating decision admitted, student deposit and mittsu no deposit. These are all statuses you can and should use.

You next need to focus on leader of interest. How is your program better than your competitors? Because a student ultimately selects his goal for any number of reasons, but obviously a critical one is are they going to be able to study, graduate and get a job in their career field of choice? Paint this picture and show them this outcome.

You also need to account for every application source. You know this data, so acknowledge it to the student when appropriate, and this goes without saying. But you also need to use every channel. Seniors are busy so capture their attention. You need to be pervasive in your marketing approach and when they're ready to pay attention, you need to be there. You know with the right call to action that is status based.

So to build this out, you first need to define status and lucky for you with this late app. A lot of this work is pretty much done for you. A student who starts this late app can easily be coded as awaiting submission.

But what about your other application sources? Let's talk about common app. You of course will bring the end completed common applications. But what about suspects and prospects? And before we get to that, we're going to do a quick poll to ask are you bringing in suspects and prospects from common app today? So go ahead and answer that here. And just as a reminder, for in case everyone. So I always get these definitions mixed up in my head, prospects are those that have started a common app.

And suspects are those that have just added you to their college list.

Self let answers come in here a bit.

Alright great well thanks so much for responding. Looks like many of you are bringing in common at suspects and prospects. You know, these students are oftentimes more qualified than those in your inquiry pole, so it's critical that you're bringing these into the instance. And the great news is their source format. So if you aren't doing it today, you can easily make that update. Now. The second question is how are you coding these records? Suspects are classified as increased as as they should, but prospects have started that common app.

If you're asleep app, they would be in awaiting submission applicant. So why would common app students be any different? You have the data now you just need to harness it.

So the same goes for your incomplete app messaging. You the next steps for an awaiting submission student are very different from those innovating materials. So talk to them differently. Be sure to have dedicated messaging for each of these defined statuses, because really, that's the reason why we have statuses to begin with. You're constantly pushing a student to advance to the next status.

And why is this important to talk to these students differently? Well, I went to think go back to give your reader bins or workflow how many students are sitting in your waiting submission bin right now.

The reality is this number should be very small, but students often get stuck at this first step. You just need to stay top of mind. Need to push them to complete, because remember at the end of the day, your application is just another form kitchen. I know we talked about it a lot. How do you keep an eye on this number? How do you look at that awaiting submission bin?

Yeah, thanks Sally, I I actually just put it right in my weekly report so when I'm filling out that report like it just did, it actually two hours ago every Tuesday I'm I'm checking how many are in awaiting submission because if apps are down one week over the next or consistently down that route to me is a conversion opportunity that's right there. It's a group. We know how to prioritize the work. When your counselor you have 4000 prospects you don't know where to start.

These types of areas are places where you can pinpoint and say we need to be calling those people right now or interacting with them through various channels to move them along. They're right there, you know you're never going to get them all, but if you can help your conversion rate from increase to ask by 1% depending on your numbers, that could be a big increase.

Absolutely yeah. At this point when you have them in there, just yours to lose again, you're not going to convert them all, but so ways to convert them. You have some examples here of awaiting submission email This is for mobile campaign. I'm pushing them to complete their application, of course, and then the one here on the right from another partner on where we are.

For waiting materials we are using that the missing admission checklist item so you can see the student here is missing her transcript. She's then given explicit instructions, go uploaded at the portal, and again, you're immediately making the aware of to the student what is their next step and then pushing them to take that next step.

I remember we talked about collecting mobile at every step and why it's important. Well, now you can use it in the funnel you know and where it makes sense because let's face it, you know you're not going to be texting prospects and increase in in mass. So here this is much more transactional in in nature and at this point you have a relationship with the students. So maximize this channel. Don't let it go underutilized in the instance.

And finally, here's another example of an awaiting materials example from Wilkes. We're letting the student know not only exactly what they need to provide with that checklist, but we're also showing them what they provided to date thus far. They can see the percent to complete, you know, and and again, what steps they have left to take.

The more simplified you can make this process for the student, the higher likelihood is that they will complete their app and they will provide the docs. I think we can never forget that these are 16 and you know 17 year olds, so this is the more simplified. We can make it and the more explicit we can be in our directions. You know the higher likelihood of conversion.

So application statuses are important, but so our decision status is most of you. I'm sure using system emails to trigger your decision release, but expand on this effort and stand out from your competitors, because I'm sure many of them are doing this today. And remember those queries we were looking at earlier. Assuming that's viewed, their E letter is seemingly further along in the process than someone who hasn't so nudged the student. Remind the student that there's important information they need to see regarding their application. Convert these decision released, you know, two decision.

Received

true.

Yeah again Ali. I think thinking about this is some low hanging fruit like you know where can we? What data do we have that we can maximize and use that's right in front of us and we're maybe not fully leveraging our their backlogs in different areas of the funnel. So just a reminder that you have data you can use right now that you're probably not leveraging at every stage even.

At the decision stage.

Absolutely.

And finally, when it comes to outrage, don't forget the saying goes. It takes a village. Seniors aren't doing this alone, so don't forget about these important kind of spheres of influence. You know the parents and guardians and high school counselors, just like you're talking to seniors across all those very important statuses, you need to be doing the same with these populations, you know, encourage. They can encourage the counselors, the parents. They can encourage the next steps. They can encourage the actions on your behalf.

Uhm, so first I promise. We come back to this high school counselors. This is why it's so important to make sure that information is updated on the organization record. It's really, I know, a tedious job, but one that will be worthwhile. Because now if you have it, you can initiate meaningful touchpoints like this to the high school counselors. They are truly your boots on the ground, so give them the information they need in kitchen obviously does this at Wilkes really well through this monthly newsletter, and I know you must be thinking this takes a lot of time and resources to to pull off.

The kitchen is going to talk to you a little bit about that. How she's able to make this possible.

Yeah, I think this is besides parents high school counselors are your best friends and they get tired of hearing from us. You know, we want them to come, but they need a trusted source too. And especially now more than ever, we are able to travel back to schools. But we're finding it's harder to meet with high school counselors, let alone students. And so creating this newsletter is a way for us to put Wilkes in front of them. Give them the tibbetts they really need to know if we have major changes to scholarships.

Trap.

If we have a new program, we want to promote or just showing off our students and some of their amazing successes, we try to do this once, once a month. But I'd say at least aim for every quarter. You don't want to inundate them with things, and at first it was literally just Wilkes University at the top. And then we tried to put in some bullet points and then we got a little more sophisticated and built a template for ourselves so we can just kind of plug and play each each quarter or each month. We want to put this out and use content that you already have.

If you're generating news about your students and things that they're doing, plug those into this. You know. Leverage the materials you have and then work your way up. As long as you're putting something out there that is relevant and interesting to the counselors, make sure just put it out and then make it better each time.

Absolutely yeah. In Kitchen mentioned making it, making it relevant you can see here on to the left the dynamic continent play you know, for between first year students and transfer students. This is dynamic, personalized content based on you know student type and it's intentionally at the top. Include that personalized you know relevant information at the top to draw the user in and then you can see the more static information is included is included at the bottom at the end of the day, personalization always wins. It always wins with high school counselors.

And it always wins with parents.

Now the again, you know having this die kind of dynamic approach works best. Tell them exactly what you can offer their student and use the field merges talk to you know specifically here. My mom's name is Sheila, obviously. I'm Allie to use those field merges to make the effort feel very personalized onto the parent.

And really for parent communication, go beyond just seeing parent on communication because it's actually very problematic. You know we do a lot of slate audits here at we better and we see this tactic used a lot and it's problematic because if a parent unsubscribes from from an effort, they're also unsubscribing the student record. So give parents their own dedicated campaigns with the information they care about affordability outcomes. And again using status to encourage their students so they can take.

You know that next step?

And as Kitchen alluded to with the monthly newsletter, like anything, this late just do something and to make it better, start small. Iterate over time. You know Slate is such a powerful platform, but you can often feel behind. You could feel like the implementation process is never ending cycle crap. You're managing things you're you know having new initiatives just do something and and make it better. Truly be iterative in your approach.

So Speaking of making things better, we're now going to talk about your portal pages and in the most simplest of terms were portal pages. There's two types within slate, those that require authentication, like your status applicant and emit pages and those that don't like a visit portal transfer, credit evaluation and travel portal, and the list goes on. These are basically just landing pages that are hosted in Slate, so there's really infinite possibilities in terms of those.

In terms of those use cases.

But when it comes to moving the needle with seniors, this is where you need to invest your time and resources. Your gated applicant and status page. Here you control the narrative. It's your opportunity to tell the student exactly what you need to do. And the great news is you have all the data you want to drive this personalization because at the end of the day, this is not just a trendy marketing tactic, it works. It can really make a big impact.

A portal page like the one you just saw can make a big impact because you're probably coming from this standard out of the box configuration like you see here to the right, but with an upgraded portal that matches your looking feeling brand drives personalization and gives students the information they need that can ultimately, you know make a difference kitchen. Obviously this is your portal here that we're showcasing for Wilkes. What are the positive impacts that this had on the 2021 class?

Why I had to be honest, I would. I don't think we knew for sure. You know what the ROI would be of the dashboard, but we did know that this would. This was an important step in our overall personalization strategy. We wanted to get personal at every level of the recruitment process through every channel, email, phone calls, everything, text messages and so the portal allowed us to kind of bring a lot of that.

Personalization together and more landing space. So for me that was the major goal, but we got some great bonuses out of that too, and we did just start this so we are still learning what the potential outcomes can be, but what we know already is that students are paying attention and they're really engaged with this new portal much more than the old portal. So we're trying to measure, you know, how often do they visit the status page now that it's new and interesting versus when it was just the normal status page and engagement is.

Is way up. Visits to those portal page is also in new season. Last year we put in an intent form so they could tell us yes no maybe we do this through other campaigns thanks to the help of way better but students were finding the portal away to talk to us and tell us this. So maybe they responded to an email or text but then they other students found the portal more interesting to to tell us and that helped us with our work. We also think and I have to say I can't make a direct correlation of this.

But we experience very, very low milk this year.

Average we know pretty small percentages. See we lost only five students from the time classes started until we reported on census and what I really think is that we were helping students manage their enrollment much earlier in the process through the portal. This the checklist was more robust. We were giving them active things. They were more familiar with the institution and and so when they got here they could just focus on transitioning to being a college student.

We'll see, you know. We'll keep monitoring that and understanding how that moved the needle for us. But the more we can give them information upfront and let them manage this themselves and engage their parents in this process to the better it is when you show up here on campus.

Absolutely, yeah, I think just giving, giving them relative information that in times that matter most you can see here too from the screenshots that we are calculating adjusted tuition cost. Right now this is taking into account just merit aid and grants and then if it's when a student has been packaged their you know letter will also appear here so they can reference it. But overtime Wilkes is working on integration. You know with Banner right now and we will come back to this portal again.

We, you know, we definitely listen to our own motto of do something, make it better. So we're going to continue to iterate and that bottom line dollar will include me based aid in the future. So it's just a very quick look for the student to see. Here's exactly what would I expect to pay, which is really powerful. 'cause obviously that's a huge factor in indecision.

So those are gated portals, but we also have navigated portals and you know, the same principles applies. Take what you know about the student and then change what you display to them. The only difference is a non gated portal. You have to ask those questions. You overheated portal student logs in. You know everything about them. For non gated portal asked the student in this example you can see you know we're asking the student type or looking for entry term here. Next we select the mode is it on campus or virtual. So now instead of listing every event.

Option that you have hoping the student can sift through it and find the one they're there eligible for. Now they can easily navigate on these options and you know this was more important than ever during the pandemic. Your virtual offerings tripled overnight and the defined playbook for college visits was really out the door. You know, every school is offering something different and students needed to go seek that information to see you know what what they had to offer. So a portal page like this, you know what's the result? Well, it's a better experience for the end user.

Which translates into increased one conversion.

And an event registration.

And with the example here, today is obviously a visit page, but we've seen this tactic applied to application applied pages. So if you replied, page today serves first year transfer, you know graduate potentially students again, get a little bit of information about the user and then change the data on the page to get them the information that they need. It just will help with with overall conversion.

So those are the those are. Those are the three things. Well again, actually for things. Remember it all starts with that proper data foundation that you'll be doing with seniors right now. We've seen that few questions here in the chat which will get to and will be sure to follow up as Josh has been doing here on the way. Better team will be sure to evolve in the chat so you can always reference them back here once the court recording becomes available. But you know in terms of what's next for us here at we better look for us at the sweet Innovation Festival summit next year. We're already brainstorming our topic ideas.

Feel free to drop some suggestions in the chat. Still ongoing conversations. Happy to hear if you have any ideas and we're just excited to be back on this late this late stage and then connect with you all again, this time in person. So in the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter. If you do, you'll see our weekly tips related to all things enrollment marketing, so we'd love to have you follow.

Uhm, and at the end of the day, please reach out to we love opportunities like this. We love to connect with members of the technology community and we just love to help. So please reach out. You know kitchens and I contact information is included here. We'd love to hear from you and at the end of the day, I promise we're normal people. Kitchen leaves a very much adventurous of life than I do, but we're here for me and we'd love to hear for you and are definitely willing to help.

Your mom Ali? That is an adventurous life.

A constant adventure, just different.

OK, so now for those questions I'm going to go actually for some reference had supplied some ones that were great and super applicable to what we're talking about. So the question was, any advice on how to best convert senior prospects? What are the strong costs action I can share? You know any suggestions with this prospect audience? Kitchen? Do you want to take this first? What are your thoughts regarding prospects?

So you know, I mean, I think that the earlier you can start, so if you can plan ahead, the earlier you can get to know the students, the better it'll be when you have to ask them to apply, you know. And if you have a little bit more information about them, again, it makes that conversation a little bit easier. And now you and now they know a little bit about you and you can say yes, it's time to apply. So start in their sophomore or junior year. Make sure you're building relationships and collecting some data on that. That would be.

You know the the proactive way to do conversions. I also think there's not really necessarily a secret sauce to conversions, but I think being relevant, giving them information that matters to them at that point, that's going to help them move the needle. You gotta work harder. You got to leverage every channel you have, and all the data that you have as much as possible to try to ask that question and and move them along. But I would say personalized start early and work hard. And then I know, Ali. I don't know if you have some other.

Advice from but.

Yeah, I mean this is what we better does mean. We deal with top funnel so it's a with with prospects. I always equated to the acronym, you know, on a first date. You would never ask someone to marry you on a first date. So you know with prospects, do not ask too much too soon. The first touch with them shouldn't be to apply. Make sure you're nurturing them. You know you're telling your institution story and what you can.

Offer them in as much of as much personalization as possible, given what you have on the contact.

And I would say to track all this information. You know Kitchen mentioned you have to be pervasive. You know, in all those channels you have to be greeted. Emails, print texting. You have to have an awesome visit experience. You really have to be good at all at all. So track this information. Learn how to optimize to make it better and you know I would say along the way. Just never forget. You know way better. We always say that yield begins with first touch so you know it's a great question related to prospects and you know, definitely don't overlook them in terms of your.

Your outrage strategy.

Uhm, so next question here was again someone from the register list how to schedule status based communications. You know 48 hours after a student has submitted their application. So first kiss and I'll tackle this. When I first I would say it's absolutely doable, you know, via equipped query you can use a date filter or we have population. You can use timestamp days, but I would also ask you know, the question was can I send them a message 48 hours after an application submission?

And I would ask why 48 hours? Is this a strategic initiative or timeline? Or is it artificial? Is this based on like a data integration? You're not getting the data back from someplace, so ideally you wanna let strategy obviously dictate these important touchpoints and really kind of work to streamline those back end processes so that it's not. You know, harboring you know any. Like I said, any defined strategy that you have here.

Kitchen, any other thoughts related to that?

No, I think that's pretty much it. You know, sometimes it's like you hear the story of, well, we can't do that, or the system doesn't let us do that. And and so you really have to push back hard on that. And it's fine, you know. But what do I actually need to accomplish here and get done? And it quickly response time is the major initiative. Then we have to find ways to make the system do that and and that's kind of our approach. Like what's the strategy?

And then how do we get the technology to work with our strategy as opposed to letting things like banner? And you know other SAS systems just say, well, we can't do that. You know, push back a little bit harder on that, but that would be my advice. I we start with the yes, people should start with the yes to me and then we can explore how to how to make it work.

Yeah, that's great advice. Definitely push back when possible. OK, and I have one final question here how does obviously we're talking about seniors first year students, but how does this information relate to transfers?

Uhm S kitchen. Do you want to talk a little bit about transfers? I know we did some work for you for transfers.

Yeah, I think the mechanisms are really very similar, right? You want to be relevant. You want to have the right timing for transfers. The right number of sequencing of messages and that can be very similar to a first year campaign or some of the techniques you're using on first year students. The difference is really in the timing and the actual messaging and the content right? That can be different for a transfer student, so you know they're caring about credit evaluations.

They want, maybe you know you want to get him to campus, but is there something more important? Is there a better converting or higher probability of enrollment key factor that you wanted to kind of target with that particular group you know? So I, I think you can use and copy some of the work you've done on the first year side and then move that over to transfers and just think about what you're saying to them.

Yeah, it's a great point. I would just echo that. Definitely don't reinvent the wheel. A lot of those same principles you know apply so their vision process different. Talk to them differently. So I think the same actually goes for international students. I just saw a question from Chris. Come in, you know, international students should be talked to in a very specific way. They have a different admissions process, you know? So to talk to them differently. You know in terms of our portal. It absolutely does accommodate.

International students you know, like the one for Wilkes, we push a student to submit a FAFSA, for instance, but obviously that's only impossible for domestic students. And those of course, who haven't submitted it. I think that that's our kind of meaning tenant on the portal pages. We never ask the student to do something that they've already done, or that's not applicable to them. So for international students, obviously the checklist is governed by those rules and things on the back end. You can update pictures and photography you know, based on tradition, ship status.

And we have also, you know information related to student quotes. Normally that's related to major of interest, but in some cases that can be related to citizenship or student type. You can talk. You can have a quote from a transfer student. Again, paint that picture you know. Is it easy to transfer to to Wilkes? You know how my credits transfer or what scholarships are available. You can, you know, get all that information from a student who's going through it themselves. And same goes for international student. You know, I think it all like I said.

Comes back to painting that picture, so those are just some of the ways that we're able to accomplish it. Feel portal.

So I think unless any final thoughts, I know we talked a little bit about about parents, so you know, in terms of, you know, parents in that communication. Having that dedicated, you know, campaigning that that lives outside of just your student ones is critical and to use obviously configurable joint base for this, you know via their relations. So that's another important thing we didn't quite touch on, but for parents make sure you're using relationships.

Soaked fields and getting that information back to them so you can use the configurable joints. Don't put them to a custom field if you're collecting it on event or an application you know. Use the relationship Schofields so then they can have their own dedicated campaign using you know the the configurable joins.

Uhm, just seeing this last question. Come in here using separate portals for applicants and emits or is one portal fellowship with widgets. Great question. Obviously can be accomplished either way. We have two separate portal assets with a redirect query in place so the students on the application round. We've set it to the applicant portal and then the redirect query handles that. If a student is admitted, they are then pushed over to the limit or enrollment portal and can see that all that necessary information.

Students that are denied kind of always live on the applicant portal and we have a tailor viewed for them. It's a much more trimmed down version. They're able to see you know if they're unfortunately letter. So. So yes, we have two separate portal assets to accommodate each group.

Yeah.

OK, but then moving here for any questions, but this is not the end. Obviously our contact information is here. Please reach out if any questions come to mind. You know after the session we are happy to follow up and we just look forward to connecting with you all again. So thank you so much for the time today. Thanks so much kitchen for for joining. Share your insight as always.

Thank you go get those seniors.

Yeah.

Yes, go get those seniors. Thanks everyone. Have a great afternoon.

Thank you.