CHALLENGE

With a heavy shift to digital mediums during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a clear need to deliver a unique admissions experience for prospective students and families in a time where in-person events were not possible. Elsewhere, competitors opted to move all admission events, including Open House, tours, and other events, to an online meeting format.

Social media is an essential factor in the Admissions & Enrollment Management marketing strategy. In addition to the general need to share events on social media for prospective families, there was an additional emphasis to reshare important announcements made earlier that summer, including no entrance exams required, changes to honors at entrance, and letter of recommendation adjustments. Social Media posts were at least once a week between September 2020 through December 2020, leading up to our application due date in early January. Scheduled posts established our social media platforms as an important communication channel for prospective families to receive news on admissions and a way to stay engaged with our community.

With this method, the Admissions & Enrollment Office would continue online meetings for tours and panels while offering a distinct differentiator. A passive Open House would allow prospective families to learn about our academic departments, program offerings, and community while navigating at their own pace with the ability to revisit throughout the admissions cycle.

Within a week of launch, Google Analytics reported that the Virtual Open House page received 640 total views, 379 unique views, and an average time spent of 2 minutes and 28 seconds, a 102.8% increase from our website in total. Our page jumped to 1,121 total views in a month, 698 unique views, and an average time spent of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

With the information provided by the Admissions & Enrollment Management Office, an email communication strategy was established in order to maintain communication with prospective families that have declared interest by attending a tour, starting an application, or participating in an online admissions event. A bi-weekly newsletter-style email was sent to prospective families to maintain communication between their initial point of contact, through the winter holidays, leading up to our application due date in early January. The newsletter focused on important admissions application due dates, events, spotlights on students and faculty, and school-wide events.

These newsletters saw a 70.6% average open rate and a 21.2% click rate over the 6 emails sent between September and December.

Acceptance packages are unboxing of sorts where presentation and branding must be just as important as the information provided and can heavily impact a prospective student's experience with the school. A contracted graphic designer provided the initial assets where I then edited them to fit our branding standards.