University Relations Case Studies

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2 College of Education Problem Enrollment in the College of Education graduate programs had collectively declined for the past three years prior to the school year. Budget Initially, the College of Education budgeted $8,000 but increased it to $36,000 with assistance from the School of Graduate and Extended Studies after receiving recommendations from the media agency that assists University Relations with media buys. Recommendations The College of Education elected to initially focus on two specific graduate programs: Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Science in Education. The two programs have distinctly different target audiences. The MAT is a two-year, graduate-level program that enables professionals with their bachelor s degrees to become certified teachers. The MSE program is geared toward those who are already in the teaching profession and looking to advance their careers. The college was able to develop a direct mail and list of all certified teachers in Missouri who did not have their master s degrees. A timeline for the direct-mail postcards was recommended, with postcards sent in May and July 2012 and again between February and April University Relations analyzed current and past student data and determined that UCM s MSE program primarily draws on-campus students from a service area of 21 counties. Direct mail postcards were sent to approximately 5,000 teachers in those 21 counties twice during a six-month period, encouraging them to visit the college website where they could easily find more information. University Relations created a matching poster to be displayed in the teacher lounges within the 21-county radius between November 2012 and January For those teachers living outside the 21-county radius, University Relations recommended a series of postcards to promote the college s online degree programs. These postcards were sent to approximately 20,000 teachers from the direct-mail list who were unlikely to come to campus for classes. Promoting the MAT required a different approach because of the different demographic. Students in this program are typically older, may already have started a family and/or

3 career, but have decided they would like to become teachers. No direct-mail database was available for this group. After discussions with the Ruth Burke and Associates media agency, who assists with University Relations media buys, University Relations agreed a television commercial, aired during morning news would be the most effective media to reach the target audience. The School of Graduate and Extended Studies provided the additional funding necessary to pursue this approach. In addition to these steps, college staff sent more than 30,000 s to prospective students. Results Data provided by Dean Michael Wright indicate significant increases in new enrollment between 2010 and Overall, the enrollment in the targeted College of Education graduate programs increased by 38 percent. The individual program data are summarized in the chart below (+136%) (+49%) (+127%) 24 (-27%) (-22%) (+433%) 7 11 (+57%) 14 MAY MAY MAY MAY MAY (-57%) MAY MAY MAY MAY MAY MAY MAY K - 12 SECONDARY ED LITERACY ED MAT MSE TOTALS MAY : 148 MAY : 141 (-5%) MAY : 205 (+45%)

4 Fuel for Finals Problem As part of the kickoff of the Learning to a Greater Degree Contract, the library and Einstein Bros. Bagels extended their hours the week before and during finals for the spring 2013 semester. This was the first time students were introduced to the extended hours. It was important to President Ambrose that this week was visible to campus and students used the services provided. Budget The budget for this project was limited to printing costs for on-campus fliers and posters. In order to share the costs across the entire university, office sponsorships were acquired for the event marketing portion of the promotions. Office sponsorships were $200 per hour after 9 p.m. during seven of the longer hour days. Recommendations The longer hours for the library and Einstein s were going to be introduced for the first time, and the timeline to promote the change was less than one month. It was important to get the word out to as many current students as possible ahead of time while creating excitement for the longer hours throughout the week before and during finals. Event marketing in collaboration with the Office of Student Experience and Engagement was used to drive traffic and reward the desired behavior of studying in the library during the later hours. The two-week event was named Fuel for Finals. Campus offices were invited to sponsor free coffee coupons good for any medium drink at Einstein s and hand them out to students caught studying in the library from 9 p.m. to midnight. This drove traffic to Einstein s and reinforced the importance of going to the library to study. On the Sunday before finals, a Kickoff Breakfast with President Ambrose and Provost Curtis was held to reward people who went to the library before noon on Sunday. For this event, a Facebook event was created, as well as posters, Web spotlights, UCM Weekly entries and a Facebook cover. A multimedia approach with an emphasis on web and digital media was recommended to publicize the free coffee and longer hours to current undergraduate and graduate students. A Web page within the UCM site was created to list library and Einstein s hours in one convenient location. Web spotlights highlighting the hours of the library and Einstein s were posted on several landing pages aimed at current students, graduate students and faculty/ staff, driving traffic to the Web page. Additionally, there were several posts to UCM Daily and UCM Weekly, as well as Facebook and Twitter, with a student-established hashtag incorporated into the posts. Posters were also printed and posted on campus bulletin boards.

5 Results Overall, traffic in the library after 10 p.m. increased by 117 percent from spring 2012 to spring 2013, with traffic on some nights increasing by more than 250 percent. For the week before and during finals, 4,410 library visitors were recorded between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Interactions and coupon redemptions: 1,575 Einstein s coupons were handed out to students with 1,022 redeemed (65 percent). The 19 offices that sponsored Fuel for Finals provided nearly $3,700 worth of coffees and lattes for students. There were 704 unique page views of the Web page set up for the extended hours, with significant time spent on the page by students. 75 students attended the Sunday Kickoff Breakfast. There were 15 student uses of the #fuelforfinals hashtag, and the related Facebook posts garnered 203 likes.

6 MBA in Ethical Strategic Leadership Problem The new MBA program taught at the Summit Center needed to be positioned and marketed to the Kansas City area to attract a full cohort of qualified graduate students. Students in this program are required to have work experience in addition to educational qualifications. Budget For the launch of the program, there was a budget of $28,000 for TV commercials, plus printing expenses for direct-mail postcards, brochures and ads. Recommendations This new program presented an opportunity to position UCM as a provider of a unique, high-quality, affordable MBA in the Kansas City market. Central Summit Center Site Director Carolyn McKnight and Program Coordinator Mark Fulford approached University Relations for recommendations and assistance in positioning and promoting the new program. Because the target demographic was working adults who had at least three years of work experience, a TV spot during the morning news was recommended in the Kansas City area. University Relations recommended using Program Coordinator Mark Fulford in the commercial and on other advertisements. The advertisements positioned him as a thoughtleader in his field and highlighted the leadership credibility graduates would develop in the program. In addition to the TV commercials, postcards, a website and open houses were used to promote the program to the general public. This integrated approach allowed University Relations to produce consistent and effective messaging and design across all media. Knowing that the target audience was adults who had been in the workplace for three or more years, the website was built to give prospective students easy access to everything from faculty information and admission criteria to program costs and a short information request form. Clear steps on how to qualify and apply to the program were also outlined on the site. In addition to these targets, a speaker seminar at the Summit Center was held. This seminar was specifically targeted to companies identified as employing candidates for the MBA program in the Lee s Summit area. Results There are 19 students enrolled in the preparatory MBA boot camp, and 14 students enrolled in the 2013 cohort (280 percent more than the previous year) with continued growth anticipated.

7 During the past six months, there were 1,663 unique page views within the MBA site, with more than 250 views as a result of typing the advertised unique url. Average time on page was 2:24, longer than the site average, while the bounce rate was lower than the site average. 33 RFIs were received asking for more information about the program for the 2013 cohort. Several specifically referenced the TV commercial.

8 Department of Aviation Problem Enrollment in aviation programs had decreased every year for the past three years, equaling a 17.6 percent decrease in enrollment from 2010 to The department wanted to focus on increasing enrollment in the Professional Pilot program. Budget The budget was limited to printing costs for a new, large-format program booklet and $500 for social media advertising. Recommendations University Relations met with faculty and staff members from the Department of Aviation with the goal of increasing enrollment. Afterwards, University Relations conducted focus groups with current students, researched competitors and compiled a report of all of the students who enrolled in aviation programs in the past three years. The data and budget led to the recommendations to update the website, create a social media campaign and redesign print materials. The website was fast-tracked because the social media campaign and print materials would drive traffic there. From the data, University Relations learned aviation programs had more out-of-state and international students than other UCM programs, and the number of out-of-state aviation students had increased every year for the past three years. Most of the students in the focus groups looked for aviation schools online before deciding on UCM. To cater to their needs, the landing page was shortened to contain the most important information, the other pages were updated with new content, the navigation was redone to make it easier to find information, spotlights with student testimonials were added and a request for information form was created. After the website was finished, a Facebook ad campaign was implemented. The $500 social media budget was used to create two pay-per-click Facebook ads that would run until the budget was exhausted (two months). The data collected was used to create the targeting for the two ads. The first ad targeted year old males who were within a 50-mile radius of Lee s Summit or St. Louis, had a friend at UCM, had an interest in travel or were technology early-adopters. The other ad targeted year old males who were within a 50-mile radius of Lee s Summit or St. Louis and in the military. The department previously distributed several program-specific brochures at various air shows. These brochures were updated and combined into one sleek booklet that could

9 be handed out at air shows, given to students during aviation campus visits and mailed to anyone who completed an RFI on the website. A pull-up banner was created to add visibility and interest to their booth at air shows. Outdoor signage was also developed to increase airport visibility and awareness of the tie between the airport and UCM. Results As of May 2013, there was a 26 percent increase in newly enrolled aviation students. The chart below illustrates the results from the Facebook campaign. The two-month campaign made nearly 2 million impressions and 430 people clicked on the ad to get more information. IMPRESSIONS CLICKS SPENT TOTALS 1,911, $ The chart below shows the increase in Web traffic after implementing the marketing campaign. The first line is the change in the overall aviation site, whereas the bottom line is the change in the landing page (ucmo.edu/aviation). The overall site has increased visitors, average time spent on page, entrances and page value. To date, 97 RFIs were received asking for more information about the program. PAGE PAGE VIEWS UNIQUE PAGE VIEWS AVG. TIME ON PAGE ENTRANCES BOUNCE RATE % EXIT PAGE VALUE TOTAL AVIATION SITE 28,207 VS 24,370 21,537 VS 19,516 00:01:30 VS 00:01: VS % VS 40.81% 21.79% % CHANGE 15.74% 10.36% 12.66% 79.75% 8.22% 21.79% % /AVIATION 8,809 VS 5,931 6,717 VS 4,754 00:01:24 VS 00:00:59 3,507 VS 1, % VS 24.07% 25.00% VS 14.77% % CHANGE 48.52% 41.29% 40.66% 80.77% 42.50% 69.24% %