University of Idaho has put more efforts toward marketing online since the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year.
John Barnhart, the interim director of marketing at UI, said the team’s focus has been on telling students’ stories. What’s different this year is the amount of new content online, such as the online UI Bound, YouTube videos and a viewbook which gives a more personalized look at UI.
UI connects with potential students by spreading the stories of current students through vignettes featuring the college experiences of current students and alumni.
“What we’re hoping is when we tell (a student’s) story, that it resonates with prospective students, and they say ‘I want to be a part of that,’” Barnhart said. “We don’t want to tell a story that doesn’t exist on this campus. We’re pretty proud of what we have to offer.”
Using online methods for recruiting and retention allows for a much faster, more personalized experience for the students compared to getting a postcard in the mail, and videos play a large role in that.
In March, UI’s marketing team created 17 videos in one week after COVID-19 became more serious in Idaho, according to Bob Johnson’s blog on Higher Education Marketing.
The UI marketing department also uses text messaging, phone calls, emails and social media to get their messages out to the public. Director of Enrollment Marketing Adam Stoltz said his team recorded over 51,000 outbound calls made from the call center, 193,000 text messages and over two million emails last year.
“We pivoted essentially just about a week after COVID-19 was a real big thing,” Stoltz said. “So, that’s the way our team has been operating, and we’ll continue to do as much as we can in person and personalize as much as we can. I think that is the big thing that we’re trying to put our focus on.”
Stoltz said marketing is hard, but marketing in the middle of a pandemic is even harder. He said the lack of in-person events has made it difficult to get people on campus to see the university, and Idaho, for themselves.
The department’s solution was to boost the 360 virtual tour on the UI website, where students can get a feel for what campus looks like. Stoltz said the virtual tour has had more than 11,000 visitors who spend an average of nearly eight minutes on the webpage.
According to Tony Haile, chief executive officer of Chartbeat, people typically spend about 15 seconds on a webpage before leaving.
“To have a student or future student or family member checking (the university) out online, getting interested in us and spending that amount of time to check us out, that’s really huge,” Stoltz said.
After going through the virtual tour, potential students can decide to take the plunge to visit campus in person for a Envision Idaho session, one of UI’s few still-scheduled in-person recruitment events.
“I’m proud of the work we’re doing, so I’d put us up against what everybody else is doing and say ‘Try to match it,’” Barnhart said. “It’s pretty fantastic, not because we are marketing geniuses, but because we have these great stories to tell.”
Anteia McCollum can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @antxiam5.