One of the first posts announcing the multi-university partnership at RELLIS.
To deliver some social proof, we teamed up with the Community College partner to feature their students who have been accepted to the programs at RELLIS.
A sample post talking about the people and showing the faces of those teaching at RELLIS.
Since Blinn College, the community college partner, was already a household name, I created messaging leveraging their regional brand name.
I helped conceptualize the first RELLIS Transfer Fairs. We executed three the first summer.
To help with brand awareness, we produced displays to showcase each university involved at RELLIS.
A snapshot of tabling at a recruitment fair.
An early view of the RFI form on the homepage.
A sample email shortly after requesting for more information.
The grand opening of the first education building at RELLIS was well attended.
Another opportunity to spotlight the uniqueness of RELLIS through messaging.
Ex 1: Early on, we had to use stock photography for all visual assets. Promo packages were created for each inaugural degree.
Ex 2: Early on, we had to use stock photography for all visual assets. Promo packages were created for each inaugural degree.
I created a campaign to promote the attendance for orientation for admitted students.
This screenshot is another example of the orientation campaign using the coordinated photoshoot with current Blinn students.
This photo and angle was the primary image for many advertisements and news coverage until other traditional images became available.
The benchmark enrollment funnel for RELLIS' inaugural semester.
A page from the enrollment report for the inaugural semester. I had the ability to track and connect the majority of our enrolled students to our touchpoints.
Client: RELLIS Academic Alliance
Role(S): Project Lead; Research, Strategist, Analyst, Project Manager, Program Developer, Advertiser, COnsultant
Opportunity
Due to enrollment capacities, the Texas A&M System Chancellor knew Texas A&M had to deny an average of 10K students annually. These highly qualified students would end up attending other universities.
To accommodate this staggering number, John Sharp envisioned the RELLIS Campus as a home for over 40 degree programs in partnership with 12 universities and the local community college, Blinn College to offer bachelor programs at a very low tuition rate.
Problem
- Avoid positioning RELLIS as illegitimate
- Brand new product offering in a saturated market, in an area with a Tier 1 Research Institution
- Possibility of being labeled as Aggies-Wanna-Be's (There is a similar stigma with local community college.)
- Rely on stock photos and shared photos from partner institutions
- No systems or workflows existed
- Challenge: Sell an idea while the products, people, and places were being approved, hired, and built.
- Challenge: Leadership wanted 100 students minimum for their first student class; a nice whole number to tout within the media
solution
- Continue to have Chancellor and RELLIS leaders on camera and in interviews talking about the vision, investment, and return to stay in the area to earn a quality degree
- Positioned RELLIS' tuition as a unique price where 'all of the fluff' was removed from the bottom line
- Built assets that coordinated with the institution's themes, spirit, and heritage
- Coordinated with Blinn College to identify early applicants to RELLIS to create 'Future RELLIS' student profiles, including interview, media outreach, and photoshoot
- Conceptualized in-person recruitment events where students can apply on the spot for free
- Challenge Solution: Offered generous scholarships and Texas A&M Sports Pass for first accepted students
- Challenge: I selectively used the 25th percentile of Transfer Rates from the 2016 Ruffalo Noel Levitz research. With this broad guidance, I created a projection funnel that provided goals for each stage in the prospect journey.
Tactics
- In-person recruitment events
- Media outreach
- Streaming Radio
- Loca and regional newspaper print ads and inserts
- Display ads
- Remarketing efforts
results
- One hundred was the enrollment goal, and 102 students ultimately opened the doors to the first semester at RELLIS.
- Through our data, Blinn College, our community college partner, was our largest referral of traffic, and email was our second highest referral tactic.
- Through our data, Blinn College, our community college partner, was our largest referral of traffic, and email was our second highest referral tactic.
- Less than 25% of those enrolled had no data points, which was an impressively low number.
- Marketing touchpoints contributed to 75% of those enrolled
- Aside from paid media, local news coverage caused website traffic spikes
observations
When enrollment and marketing work intimately together, accurate data and analysis are possible.
Also, two incentivized surveys were created; one for currently enrolled students and one for accepted students who declined admissions.
Valuable first-hand feedback was gathered from the survey, and I shared those findings and recommendations.