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Leveling up your campus visit with VizVid!
- 2. JESSICA SHASSERRE Director of Higher Education Marketing PRESENTERS BOBBY DUEBELBEIS Director of User Experience
- 3. The Pre-Visit Experience The Visit Experience The Post-Visit Experience The Ultimate Post-Visit Product TODAY WE’LL DISCUSS… THE CAMPUS VISIT IS ONE OF THE BEST SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS AT EACH PHASE OF THE COLLEGE SEARCH PROCESS. 42% consider it the best source of information as they begin their college search process. 63% rely on the campus visit experience to make their final enrollment choice. 49% believe it is the best source of information as they narrow their application list. Source: Eduventures Student Sentiment Survey 2018 © ACT | NRCCUA
- 4. 9 7 % 87 % 4 8 Of admissions and recruitment administrators agree that students who have a more personalized recruitment process are more likely to enroll. Of students agree that receiving personalized communications during their application process played an important factor in their college choice. Of students who applied to multiple colleges decided against attending a school because of poor communication. Source: Students, alumni and administrators agree: Data-driven communications make a difference. © Ellucian 2018
- 5. THE PRE-VISIT EXPERIENCE What barriers do you have in front of students wanting to visit? 1 . How can you level-up campus visit promotions, and better track your efforts?
- 6. THE PRE-VISIT EXPERIENCE Think like a tourism manager Get creative with campus visit mailers Tracking visitor campaigns with the use of conversion zones
- 7. THE VISIT EXPERIENCE2 . The Ahh Effect The A-ha! Effect The Haha Effect Source: http://jem.pb.edu.pl/data/magazine/article/561/en/swacha_ittermann.pdf
- 8. THE VISIT EXPERIENCE Outsider Industry Practices Journey Mapping Gamifying the Experience Infusing Social Media/Tech Sample Journey Map Template https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customer-journey-mapping/ Learn more about journey mapping:
- 9. THE VISIT EXPERIENCE Parent ad campaigns Parent schedules Parent giveaways FOR THE PARENTS, TOO.
- 10. THE POST-VISIT EXPERIENCE What’s next? Apply and deposit, of course. 3 .
- 11. THE POST-VISIT EXPERIENCE What if… You reallocated your viewbook budget to a new, interactive campus visitor takeaway?
- 12. THE POST-VISIT EXPERIENCE What if… Along with your visit experience survey, you included 5 personality-trait questions that led students to receive a designed-for-them personalized poster?
- 13. Whatever you do, you’ve now gathered more information on a prospective student than you’ve ever had before. USE IT TO SPEAK TO THEM
- 17. WPU CAMPUS TOUR EXPERIENCE Student-ambassadors lead tours Tour experience as a main differentiator Personalized for each student Photos in front of historic buildings and landmarks
- 21. BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE. No VizVid template is alike In-house team of animators, video producers, and engineers Highly collaborative creation process Motion graphics and live action videos can be personalized
- 32. THANKS FOR JOINING US TODAY! Jessica Shasserre jessicas@mediacross.com Bobby Duebelbeis bobbyd@mediacross.com
Editor's Notes
- Hello everyone, and thanks visiting our slideshow, Leveling Up Your Campus Visit Experience. If you’re joining us from a place affected by the polar vortexes like we are, we hope that you’re bundled up with a cup of coffee while you click on! And if not, well…we’re jealous. If you have questions for us, please feel free to contact us using the inf at the end of the slideshow.
- I’m Jessica Shasserre, Director of Higher Education Marketing. I’ve been on the MediaCross team for a bit over three years, but have about 13 years experience in higher ed, working on both the college and marketing partner side. And I am Bobby Duebelbeis, Director of User Experience at MediaCross. I have over a decade of experience creating usable and delightful experiences for Fortune 100 companies, the Federal Government, Healthcare organizations. Higher Education organizations, and Software start-ups with a focus on inclusive design. It is a great pleasure to have your attention today.
- We really couldn’t be more excited to share our thoughts with you on ways to increase the effectiveness of your campus visit experience, from soup to nuts, today. We’ll cover ideas for the pre-visit experience, because you can’t wow your prospective students with an experience if you’re not getting them there. We’ll highlight some thoughts for how to approach and improve your campus visit for individual or group visitors, and then we’ll help you think of ways to follow through with those top-tier prospective students – those who have experienced your campus. And, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the unveiling of MediaCross’ newest product, VizVid.
- Those of you joining us today are no strangers to the data available on campus visitor yield. You know that if you’re able to share the authentic experience of what it’s like to study and live on your campus, students are able to get the feeling of “the fit” – and if we could bottle up the feeling of “fit” and sell it, well…we’d be rich. According to last year’s Eduventure study on student sentiment, the campus visit is one of the most effective ways students gather information and make decisions – no matter where they are in their college search process. But there’s even more data to back up the case for investing in the holistic quality of your campus visit experience. And since the campus visit is the linchpin in the funnel, it is imperative that you focus on your campus visit experience this year.
- So, let’s talk the pre-visit experience. Students are led to visit your campus maybe by their guidance counselors, maybe by your mailings, emails or website. But, what barriers do you, subconsciously or accidentally of course, have in between the prospective student or family and your visit experience? And, are your campus visit promotions basic? How can you level-up the promotions and even do some better tracking of your campaigns?
- We all know that the 900 pound gorilla in the visit experience room… Disney. But you don’t have to have a Disney budget to think like a tourism manager as you entice people to make their visit. Some quick, low hanging fruit to remove barriers to visiting is taking a look at your website, which more likely than not, is the gateway to most scheduled visits. Think back to the last time you took a vacation and had a destination in mind – Disney, a local water or amusement park, even a camping trip to a remote location. Most tourist attractions offer to help you “plan your visit” – not just how to park when you get there, but how to make the most out of your time at the destination. Point out things to do when they’re NOT on your campus, to explore the community. Include “top 5 favorite off-campus spots of our students”. Hotel, restaurant, and other attractions should be listed – not just how to arrive and when. We have lots of clients who will push back on us when we say…”can you make your visit request form shorter than 75 fields?” say that they need that information in order to personalize the visit. I’m here to tell you that you don’t. First of all, you likely have a lot of the information you’re asking for – how can you reduce the times you ask a student for the same information? Either by integrating your landing pages and forms with your CRMs or setting up workflows to match entries up on the back end. But, keeping your form short, and building in follow up communications is a great way to remove a barrier and still get the same information. For instance, you can gather minimal information from a student just wanting a tour, and then the next page offers the option to customize the visit. It’s a two-step form, but you’re more likely to get additional tour requests just by cutting the number of fields someone needs to fill out to request a simple visit. Campus visit dates are usually listed in a bunch of places – travel pieces, viewbook, the website. But it’s also a really great idea to send a well-crafted invitation to students at strategic times in the funnel. This might be sophomores / juniors in the spring as they plan for their first visits, or you might spend some time and resources creating something specific for those who have applied, but not yet visited – something interesting, interactive or exciting that will stand out in the mail. For instance, for one of our clients, Park University, whose mascot is the Pirates, were ready to go all-in on the pirate theme. With the help of our talented illustrator and designer Natalie, we created a truly hand-drawn pirate map with notes from those who had explored the campus before, prompting students to go to a dedicated visit landing page. It was mailed in a clear poly envelope with a bottle imprinted on the side, since mailing these in actual bottles (it was discussed, believe me) was cost prohibitive. Creating quick and easy dedicated landing pages for specific mailers and campaigns for visitors is one way to measure the effectiveness of your visit promotion efforts. To those of you who are actively promoting campus visits with digital marketing, you should also consider using conversion zones. Using geolocation technology, we can geotarget a location for ad delivery, while at the same time, geofence your campus as a conversion zone. In this use case, just as an example, a university had a goal to increase attendance at college sporting events by serving ads to faculty, staff and students on their own campus. The blue outline represents here where ads were served on mobile devices, while the orange shaded building is the arena. Any person who was served and/or interacted with an ad served here, and then entered here on a designated date is counted as a conversion. You’re likely in talks with your digital partner about conversions on inquiries, visit requests, apps and more, but you can also view the success of visit-themed digital campaigns by keeping track of those who physically walk on your campus. If you’d like more information on digital marketing tactics like this, definitely send me an email after the webinar!
- Now, let’s move into the actual visit experience. You know, we were talking about getting rich off of bottling that “best-fit” feeling, but I think I could also be pretty rich if I had a dollar for every time bringing a WOW factor to a campus visit experience has been discussed in my career. It’s tough, right? Especially when you sort of live and breathe your campus, it can be a little hard to seek out the WOW yourself. So, brainstorm! With those outside your campus like colleagues, marketing partners like us, it’ll help to define the three things that we break out the WOW into: The Ahh Effect – this is when you bring the surprise and delight – what is unexpected on your campus or tour route? The Aha Effect – Understanding something they didn’t before – maybe that’s something about your institution itself, the college admission process or some other tidbit. Maybe this is accomplished through pulling parents and guardians away for coffee with the financial aid director for a 20 minute chat. Maybe it’s having a chemistry professor invite students in to view a lab. The Haha Effect – a sense of humor can be an unexpected delight during a visit experience. Laughter keeps people engaged and relaxes them. There’s, I’m sure, a goldmine of funny student stories that involve faculty or student life events, etc. Make sure your storytelling includes some silliness.
- At MediaCross, we work with colleges and universities, but we also work with other industries, like government, healthcare, and business-to-business. And, we are always looking at other industry work and success to guide what we do with higher education. If you’re truly ready to take 10 big steps back from your current campus visit experience and rework this year, we recommend starting with a Journey Mapping Exercise. Journey mapping is used for everything from museum installations to shopping malls and more. It compiles user goals and actions into a timeline skeleton. Next, that skeleton is fleshed out with thoughts and emotions in order to create a narrative. Then, that narrative is condensed into visualization used to communicate with visitors. Bobby and I could probably spend an entire webinar talking through the journey mapping process, but this template and the article sourced here is a great place to start. You’d use Zone A to assign your personas and your visit experience, Zone B to chunk out phases of the experience on your campus, as well as the actions, thoughts and emotional experiences you’d like them to have along the way. And finally, your output describes insights and pain points discovered in this process, as well as opportunities for the future and internal ownership. It’s a great tool for really taking a close look at what you do, and optimizing your experience. While there are resources and technology to be considered, another way to keep folks engaged in the campus visit is to gamify the experience – this could mean gamify the visit itself, or earning “points” toward a reward for visiting as part of their college search process. Or, what if you rewarded students and parents for “checking in” or for tagging you in an Instagram story, Snapchat or other social media platform?
- Let us not forget, though, the power of the influencer. Not all of the time, but a lot of the time, you have at least one parent joining the student on your campus. But you can also inspire campus visits by targeting the parents. One thing we should all know by now is that PARENTS ARE ON FACEBOOK. Instead of running campus visit promotions to students, why not try one targeting the parents of your local market? Or by targeting a list of parent contacts? Lots of open house type of events have a parent schedule, but consider also the option for parents to seek out information they’d like about a school during an individual visit. Financial aid, student life, student services, or an opportunity to connect with a current parent might be options to infuse into your individual campus visit. If you have an active parent community and parent Facebook page, make sure you tell your prospective parents about this, too. Students do love to walk away with something from a campus visit…but parents do too! I like the idea of giving something special to the parents – who maybe took time off of work, paid for a flight, or just made sure their kid got to your campus – for being part of the process. One idea could be a branded journal with tips and tricks on the college search process printed on the interior panels. Or car chargers or power banks – things that you know parents will use and appreciate – even if it does end up in the student’s hands, the sentiment will be appreciated. We’ve got lots more ideas on the campus visit experience, and would be happy to brainstorm to help tease out your Ahhh – Aha and HAHA effects from your college, too.
- Once a student has left your campus, you can’t just rely on the super awesome experience you just provided them.
- You need to remind them of that awesome experience and keep that affinity strong. We, of course, believe that what we’ll show you next – VizVid – is one of the most powerful ways to do this. The sample video you’ll see, a collaboration with our friends at William Peace University, goes along with their campus visitor takeaway – William Peace decided to funnel their previous viewbook resources into this custom game for prospective students. It features die-cut pop-up buildings with facts and figures, personalization to each student, William Peace trivia cards, a keychain game piece and multi-player instructions and stickers for game play. Let’s be honest – the coffee table book sentiment of the university viewbook is antiquated – but handing your most-likely-to enroll families a piece that they can engage with when they get home is a great option.
- Another way to amp up the personalization of a campus visitor is to infuse your visit survey with a few personality questions that create a persona – and attach those personas to a piece of creative, such as these Spelman College posters – well-designed personalized posters featuring empowering quotes from Spelman Alumni.
- Whatever you do, you’ve now gathered more information on a prospective student than you’ve ever had before. Use it to speak to them with highly personalized messaging and creative. Now I’m going to hand it off to my partner, Bobby.
- Before I can show you VizVid, I need to talk a bit more about William Peace University AKA the city of Raleigh, NC.
- They have a gorgeous campus. They’re suuuper proud of it. It’s one of America’s best places to live and attend college.
- It’s even a great place for a wedding! As our first customer, VizVid would not be possible without WPU.
- Student ambassadors lead campus tours. They treat the tour as a main differentiator in campus experience. They take great care to personalize the experience by stopping at historic buildings and campus landmarks to take photos—AKA selfies taken by someone else.
- These photos of students in front of these beautiful landmarks to remind students of their special visit to this special campus. They’re mementos. WPU already uses them to extend the tour experience.
- MediaCross knew we had to do something special with these photos. So not only did we create a fun board game for students to play with their influencers, we built an entire software platform around the photos. We used the art direction from the board game to build a video template. Then we build a web app to personalize the video template with photos and text. Think of how many people get a kick out of the Facebook friendaversary videos, and you’ll understand why we were so excited to build VizVid. Wanna watch a WPU VizVid? Here’s a demo of the WPU template with personalized photos and text.
- But wait. There’s more. No VizVid template is alike. Each one of the video template in VizVid is uniquely created for you by our professional in-house team—specializing in animation, video production, and software engineering. Creation of each video template is a highly collaborative process that involves scripting, storyboarding, and developing an art direction… Or in my next sample, casting and shooting live video on location. Pay attention to the name we added into the diploma and the beginning, and into the campaign slogan in the final screen.
- This small tweak makes the video personal, but the original video can still air anywhere without being personalized. I’m telling you the creative we produce has legs beyond VizVid. You’re probably wondering, Why Higher Ed? As you can see, you can use VizVid to help you personalize any video, for any campaign, and any audience. But because MediaCross brought it to life, we’re developing features that are focusing on the success of higher ed marketers. Now for a tour of VizVid’s main features: Our first customers are already using VizVid. Like all startups, our first customers have completely shaped our features. What you’re about to see is 100% new. Be excited. I mean, we are—and we hope you feel the same because... you’re about to stare into the future - of VizVid. (Dramatic, I know)
- Dashboard Because it’s probably suuuper important to know how your marketing investment is performing, our new dashboard offers Real-time engagement metrics as soon as you log in. You’re probably thinking, “charts and numbers are cool and all, but how does it work?”
- Here goes: Once you have your first video template created, there’s a simple three-step process to to create and send personalized videos to your audiences. To get started, WPU student ambassadors enter their visitor’s information and select the video template they’d like to personalize.
- To personalize each, WPU student ambassadors upload the photos they’ve taken of the student, and VizVid automatically places them in the right spot in each the video.
- After processing the personalized images and text, the video is created. With the click of a button, each student receives a link to a video landing page where they can watch, interact, and share.
- Even the design landing page is a collaborative process. Our team builds a landing template to accompany each video template with your main CTA, links to additional resources, and social sharing.
- VizVid allows you to run multiple campaigns in accordance with your marketing calendar. Each campaign can have its own video template, or use the same one. VizVid tracks visits to landing pages, video views, clicks on landing page links, and social sharing. If you ever need a fresh campaign, our creative team is ready to help at the click of a button—just click ”Add Campaign” to get in touch. So, if we click into the campaign named, “Enrollment starting,” we’ll see…
- A detailed campaign report. Here you can drill-down to monitor the engagement of specific audience members, landing page link, and social sharing performance.
- Data in marketing is extremely important. It influences our budgets and all of our associated decision-making. It didn’t always used to be this way, but CRMs and Marketing Automation platforms are just starting to play well together in regards to sharing data with all of your digital channels—like your websites, your emails, your ad networks, and etc. In order to meet the demands on modern marketers, VizVid integrates with two leading CRMs in Higher-Education. And as long as the APIs are well-documented, our engineering team can and will build custom integrations with your platform of choice as part of an initial engagement.
- By now we’re hoping you’re asking, “When can I get it?” You’ll be some of our first customers. If we start working together today (Jan 2019), you can expect to start launching your fall 2020 recruitment campaigns later this year. Early access to the roadmap gives us time to plan ahead what will work best for our clients, so we can get them prepared to start using these tools as soon as they’re available. Thank you for clicking through our slideshow today, and don’t hesitate to contact us regarding pricing for your first campaign.