Dive Deeper with Scoir: Creating Connections through a Student-Centered Approach

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Welcome folks. We'll get started here very shortly. I'm just going to give a few minutes for more people to join us and then we will dive into our content.

Hello Jonathan, good to see you. I saw you a few minutes ago.

And for those of us just joining us.

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We are just waiting, giving a couple more minutes for folks to trickle in and join us. I think we'll get started at 1102. Hello, Catherine Springfield, IL beautiful city.

Moved out here to Portland from Illinois myself.

Hello, Brian love, Saint Louis. Thank you for joining us.

All right. We've got lots of folks coming in from all over. We love to see it. It is 1102. I think we've got just about everybody in. So we're going to go on ahead and get started. My name is Bruce Rash. I work here at technicians and I am currently based out of our Portland, OR office. Joining me today is Megan Kaufman, Mccorkle.

And Ashley Smith from score.

We today are going to be diving deeper into creating connections through a student centered approach.

I am just going to be moderating today before turning the show over to Megan and Ashley.

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Say again?

Fantastic. Thanks so much for that introduction Bruce and thank you everyone for joining us today. Today we're going to be talking about really how you can build a connections with students by using a student centered approach in in your admissions, marketing and communications.

In terms of our agenda today, we're first going to look at like what do we mean by student center? There's a lot written on that. But in terms of today's presentation, what do we mean? Then we'll look at ways to understand your audience using your data gold mine that you already have in Slate and then some tips to get started and kind of ways to learn more. And 1st want to start by introducing score. If you haven't heard of us before, we are a college admissions network really focused on bringing.

All of the players together into one space. We started about 10 years ago with college search and application planning for students and parents, as well as a college guidance management system for high schools and districts. Roughly 2 years ago, we launched our offering for colleges. That's what you're all here today, our enrollment marketing solutions. And then we also have a community based organization CEO platform coming very soon.

So really students and all of their support system together with colleges to help create the best possible college admissions journey. In terms of our footprint, right now we're in one in every 10 high schools in the US, growing about 37% year over year, which is fantastic to see, adding on average about 2000 students per day. I know last week we had a day where we added 5000.

Students, so we're constantly growing. We're split pretty evenly between private and public high schools. Five of the top 10 Best college prep schools in America, 40% of the top 1000 best prep schools, and then looking more on the public end, seven of the top 20 largest districts in seven states. So now you know a little bit about where our expertise comes from. Let's dive into the content for today.

So let's first look at defining student centered. So really, it's about shifting from what you want students to know about your institution to what students want to know. So really putting students at the core of all of your messaging. It's something that you're already doing across your campus. But really in that messaging piece, shifting to answering the questions students want to know, whether explicitly stated or implied through your actions.

Through their actions. So how can you understand your audience really, before you dive into creating any of your communications or marketing, really taking your student audience into perspective, and that's going to be different for for each institution. So what matters to your audience? What are students, your current students and your prospective students? What matters to them? What are, what are their priorities? What do they think about?

Day-to-day, as they're thinking about their college search journey, what concerns are your problems? Does your audience have? What are the things going on at home that may not be?

Expressed in your forms, what kind of challenges are they facing in the broader economic sense? Next, here's what does your audience want to know? So have they indicated an interest in a particular major? Have they indicated interest in a particular sport? Really. You know, so much of that information is already captured in your forms. Take that into account when you're thinking through.

What your audience wants to know about you. And the last piece here is what actions did they take immediately preceding your communication? So so many of us have these automated communications that you know as soon as a student fills out an RFI were we're knocking out an e-mail.

So if the initial action is a request for information form, and say they're a junior, does the next sense? Does the next step make sense to tell them about your application deadlines?

Probably not. So what action did they take and how do you respond to that action?

Overall, looking at Gen Z, what? What do we know? The biggest thing that we talk about a lot is this eight second attention span. But more concretely, what are the things they're looking for? What are the common values across the generation, which is the one looking for colleges now #1. Very socially justice minded. They're more concerned about the environment, so that social activism piece is critical for this generation.

They are less concerned about brand than millennials were. They're really looking at more of that value piece in their education as well as the experience. We find that they're more concerned about price, they see everything that's going on in the wider media space about student loan debt etcetera. So they want to make sure they're they're in the best financial position finding that they're often more concerned about price than cost.

So thinking through, you know, they're seeing that initial sticker shock, how do you help navigate those conversations about price versus cost? And lastly here, they're really creating their own path. We're seeing that Gen Z is entering the workforce at a lower rate. They're, they're creating their own path, their own side hustles etcetera.

In terms of top interests looking at here, broken down by region, this is all data we capture in score and share with our college partners in the Northeast. Pretty standard internships, scholarships. What we're seeing is that a lot of creative pursuits are rising in the ranks. So reading, creative writing, video games, art, all of these are shifting up.

In the list in terms of top interest for students, one that's interestingly only recently a broken through the top 10 is shopping, which we see in both at the Northeast and the South Central. This is something to come up in terms of talking about your campus community, your your wider town that may be of interest to students.

In the South, Central scholarships are also a primary interest, and again, we're seeing these creative pursuits.

For example, video games which were much further down the list is becoming a viable interest for these students who spend a lot of time online gaming, Bing on YouTube etcetera, shopping as also as I said there in the in the top six which is pretty incredible as well as animals or veterinary study programs. Lastly in West Plains, art has reached the number one spot.

Seeing again a lot of the same interests they're drawing is one that only recently broke through the top 10, so I encourage you to take a look there.

Next is looking at your colleges specific audience and one of the ways in which you can think about.

Your your audience for your perspective students is taking a look at what your current students are like. What are their interests? What are the things that they enjoy most about your campus? And that's something that you can ask your current students. Perhaps you have admissions ambassadors in your office. What what are those students like and what do they love most about your campus? The next piece here is what is your campus culture like? And this is really a give and take.

Between the the culture the students create and the culture that the institution tries to create, what what are the values across the institution? And the last piece here is really, picture your audience. You know, prospective students can so often be lost in the haze of numbers. So many applications, so many perspective students looking at inquiries, etcetera, really take a step.

Back and picture your audience, your your current audience and in terms of your current students but also your perspective students. What's your ideal audience like? What is your ideal campus makeup?

Now that we've talked a little bit more about really understanding your audience, let's dive into using your data goldmine. So you're all Slate partners, you'll have wonderful tools at your fingertips. Now let's take the step of using that data paired with understanding your audience to really create that student centered messaging.

Don't forget, so much of this is collected through your forms. I know I've seen RFI forms with 20 different fields and at the end of the day the only thing that gets used is name and e-mail. Don't forget about all of that other rich data you're collecting. Use it.

Let's first look the three most common verticals in terms of what I see people collecting in their RFI that can be used to create that student centered approach or academic programs. So what majors are they interested in sports and clubs? What are the extracurriculars either they're currently participating in or that they're interested in participating at your institution? And the last piece is their high schools location.

So diving into academic programs, you know, it's not just stopping at, OK, they're interested in entrepreneurship, so we're going to send them one major related e-mail about entrepreneurship.

Really build that out into a slower drip of information that that student may potentially be interested in. So the example of entrepreneurship, there's this specific degree program and then there are related programs. So perhaps that students interested in entrepreneurship today, but really that falls into broader business category.

So also sharing information about those related business programs, who economics, for example, finance, really continuing to cultivate that relationship even as the students interest may potentially change. There are also related clubs and campus activities. So is there an entrepreneurship club? Is there a VC investing club at your institution? Have there been?

Recent alumni who have started their own companies, all of those. You go from just one single e-mail about what the student has demonstrated. They're interested in entrepreneurship, and you build it out into this broader relationship of sharing about the things they're interested in, in your institution, related to that one single academic program interest for sports.

This is both sports and clubs, um, so think about varsity sports. Perhaps you know from your RFI that they're currently playing football.

So they may be interested in playing football for your institution, obviously sharing that information, but maybe they're not prepared to to play college level sports. Maybe the coaches aren't interested. For example, at your institution you can also build out content related to the club sport. So again, do you have varsity football? That's D3 yadda yadda yadda here. All the championships we've won.

And then you can also talk about club sports and how many students at your institution are playing club football or flag football and photos from from those events. And lastly, sometimes when students express that interest in sports, it's not because they're interested in playing the sport, they're interested in really more the the fandom, the spectatorship of the sport and the the high Energy SEC big football.

Colleges sharing about that again, all from one simple capture of an interest.

And the last example I'll run through here is high school location. So typically you're going to collect that in your RFID forms. Then you have a sense of their proximity from home. Are they looking at a school your your institution that is really close to home or are they looking for something that is 2000 miles away, speaking to those as critical in cultivating?

That relationship. So a student who is super close to home already knows about about the town, they they know something about your campus community. But the student coming from far away May need more insights into what it's like in Southern California, what it's like in San Diego, and really helping them dive deeper into understanding.

And the last piece here is campus community as well as the surrounding community. So how are, how does your institution function within the larger town? For example, scores based in Westchester, how, how does the how do the amenities in Westchester complement the amenities on campus? How do students go back and forth? But between the two, is it a gated community? Is it?

Um, that there's there are a lot of volunteerism within the wider community. Again, all of this allows you to take one piece of information and really expand it out into sharing more.

Why is all of this important? So looking at students on score and how they're engaging, we see that they're 94% more likely to engage content when it's personalized to their interests. So again, you're going to see higher open rates, you're going to see higher click through rates and overall higher engagement when with your content, when you're personalizing it to the specific interests of the students. And that's so important it also.

Allows students to really make a decision faster in terms of whether or not they want to continue to cultivate the relationship with you, if the school's going to be a good fit for them, etcetera.

So it also helps that student make a more informed decision, and it also helps you get a better sense of where the student is in their journey.

If you're interested in more data that we talked about in terms of the student interest, their top academics etcetera, encourage you to reach out to our sales team. All of this information is available on the insights dashboard for enrollment marketing solutions, colleges. We also help you identify content and messaging gaps so you can quickly identify what will make the biggest impact. So if.

The bulk of your students are interested in entrepreneurship. Start creating that entrepreneurship focused content first so you reach and have the biggest impact with the most students.

So relying on all of that information, talking about understanding your audience and ways to use your existing data gold mine within Slate.

From a more practical sense, a more tactical sense, how do you get started?

First step is really to inventory the data you currently collect. So take a look at all of your RFI forms. Take a look at your application. What are the data points that you have today already in your CRM that you can begin begin creating personalized content for?

Getting started building out these tailored, personalized communications plans can absolutely be a challenge. I spent about the past 10 years working at higher Ed institutions building outcomes plans, so I know how much of a challenge that can be, especially for small teams. Don't set the target at creating a custom campaign for every single student and every single interest. Really take it slow.

And as I said, start with what will make the biggest impact.

The other piece here is to really think through ways that you can adjust your existing communications to be more student centered. So for example, maybe in one of your early messages you share that you have a 12 to one student to faculty ratio.

That's great. This is something probably that 90% of the other colleges also sending out prospecting emails are going to tell them in terms of what their student to faculty ratio is. Instead, shift from that stat to something that's more meaningful and focused on what the student wants to know. So tell students about your small class sizes where professors know their students by name. The very similar information.

One is just a data point on a list of many data points. One really speaks to the student interest and what's emotionally meaningful for the student.

Lastly here really look at defining your ideal student and build outwards from there. So I know we have our goals change every year in in terms of enrollment targets et cetera.

Really use that information and and picture your ideal student who you want that student profile to be and build outwards from there. So if it's a you know a math student from the Midwest, focus on building out content for that math student in the Midwest.

Another piece here that's critical is really, you know, thinking about your ideal audience is developing your student personas. So this exercise is really key to understanding who you're reaching so your your current students, who your past marketing and communications have worked in recruiting, and who you want to be reaching. So these again are your ideal future students. Limit those number of personas to no more than five you could.

Absolutely have hundreds. Every single one of your students is unique.

But managing any more than five just gets you too far into the weeds.

Make those student personas both personal and actionable. So when you're talking about making it personal, really think about a day in the life of the student, what their priorities and pain points are, what their hesitations might be about your college, and create a specific list of attributes from there. But also on the actionable side, keep them broad enough that all of your prospective students will fill into one.

Fit into one of those personas and that you have the data to be able to build out their personas, that's critical.

We want something that you can actually act on and build on in, in terms of your communications flow.

So here are a few examples. Personas when we do this a lot on the marketing end here at score building out for potential customers. Here are examples for students and student personas. So for example, Cedric the caretaker, he is a first generation student who provides for his family, helps out with his younger siblings, works a part time job.

His major of interest is nursing and he is concerned about application fees and financial aid. So all of this information is something, theoretically you'd collect in as part of your.

RFI form or subsequent event forms and then you could build out targeted communications for each of these. Looking at Anna the achiever. So a student who is academically high achieving. She is interested in political science. She is super active.

Politically active and active in her community debate team, etcetera. And she is committed to going to law school. So she's really concerned about postgraduation outcomes. So this is something you could talk to alumni performance, you could talk about notable admissions in terms of law schools for for your campus.

And lastly, here is Archer the activist. So he is super involved in his community as a as a volunteer, volunteers at every opportunity he has from food drives to.

Environmental cleanups, etc. He is interested in environmental science. His family was able to to save up, so he does not need financial aid. But he's concerned about graduating on time. So there you could talk about how you know 86% of your students graduate in four years, because he's really looking at that next step of of grad school.

Through taking knees, who really, you know, dive deep into your data, pull reports and slate and look at what categories are your students falling into most and that could be majors. That could be the concerns. That could be first generation status. All of these things. Take a look at what data you already have, ranking things where they're going to have the biggest impact, and then really build out your content.

From from there.

In terms of what's next, score is currently working on a student centered marketing certificate, which is really designed to help educate you and your team on taking a student centered approach to your marketing and communications overall. So that goes really in-depth step-by-step how to for example, build out your personas, conduct a student communications inventory on your campus etcetera. So continue to check out the.

Score website for the latest and greatest on that.

Today is really just the beginning of the student centered content, which is something we value so highly at score and really in everything we do, helping colleges, helping high school counselors really put students at the center of everything. And with that, I want to thank you for joining. You can visitscore.com/colleges to learn a bit more about our current offerings for the enrollment marketing solutions.

Um, and thank you for joining us. If you have any questions at all, feel free to drop those in the chat.

Thank you so much. Megan, I don't see any questions coming in from the chat at the moment, but let's go on ahead and keep an eye on that for a few minutes. I just want to say I really appreciate your time again today.

And I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to work together. I am going to go on ahead and once again turn off my broadcast. Just let me know when you are ready to wrap things up. We'll give it 5 minutes or so here I think. And if we don't have any questions come in, then we will go on ahead and and wrap things up. Does that sound good to you?

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Bruce, for our hosts at Slate.

Yeah. Thank you.

Oh, great question from Stacy. We will be sending out a recording of the session, and we will also send out a link where you can sign up if you're interested in learning more about the certificate when it launches.

I will also jump back to the slide where we show top student interests by region. No, this is something that we get a lot of questions about.

Thanks, Stacy. We're glad you were able to make it.

I will go ahead and turn my camera off, but if anyone has additional questions, feel free to drop them in the chat. We're happy to connect.

Alright, thank you again Megan, it looks like that's going to be about it for today. So I'm going to go on ahead and wrap up the event and we hope that everybody who tuned in enjoyed the session today. Again, if you're interested in learning more about upcoming dive deeper.

Sessions. You can find more information about those at technolutions.com.

So then we will see you next time. Bye, bye.