Bethan Owen, Author at R&Y Network

Surveys

What Makes a Good Survey? Sampling Sample, sample, sample. The goal of any good survey is to find out what people think to inform a decision or many future decisions. For that reason, you should plan to talk to a lot of people and a diverse range of people. A healthy sample size is critical to getting usable information. If you do not get many opinions, one person (or a few people) can skew your results. So what is a healthy sample? Refer to the chart in Survey Monkey's article on sampling. As a rule of thumb, if your target population [...]

Bethan Owen2023-11-06T10:43:49-06:00Analysis|

Calling & Texting

Top Priorities for Calling & Texting Encourage action. Calling and texting should be restricted to campaigns. In other words, you should have a specific reason for calling or texting, encouraging action. Avoid marketing messages. Any calls or texts should be helpful, timely, and relevant. These are not appropriate channels for general marketing messages. Again, focus on a call to action. Target specific populations. If you have an audience segment that you wish to target, calling and texting could be ideal. For example, you may be trying to increase enrollment from a particular group. A call or text may be perfect to [...]

Bethan Owen2023-05-24T13:52:36-05:00Communications|

Email

Top Priorities for Email Focus on your email strategy. Email is one of the most direct methods of communicating with our audience, and in-house surveys show it's the number one way students wish to be contacted by us—so you'll want to make your emails count. Know who you can communicate with. Review our audience policy for more information. Follow our email best practices. Review our email policy for more information. Encourage action. It's important for your emails to have a strong call to action, whether that action is big, like signing up to attend an event, or small, like exploring a page [...]

Bethan Owen2023-05-23T16:27:24-05:00Communications|

Virtual Events

Planning & Training All prospective student events are coordinated with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA) and centralized through our CRM, Slate. Review our event planning and training to know what steps you need to take to properly coordinate your events and enter them into Slate. Planning Considerations Virtual visits are valuable. Time and again, OUA surveys show that students want to hear directly about academics within their intended college. Students don't have to come to campus to do this, which lowers barriers. What's more, much less planning is required for virtual events than in-person events. Virtual events can usually accommodate [...]

Bethan Owen2022-03-29T15:59:45-05:00Visits|

Off-Campus Events

Planning Process If you're interested in holding or attending an off-campus event, make sure to contact us so we're aware of your plans and can assist if necessary. Individual colleges and units should not plan high school visits without first reaching out to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA). OUA's Strategy In addition to on-campus efforts, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions conducts a wide range of outreach, recruitment, and yield activities throughout the state of Illinois and beyond. The majority of these events occur in the fall and spring. Different types of OUA off-campus events include: High school visits College fairs [...]

Bethan Owen2022-03-10T14:49:19-06:00Visits|

On-Campus Events

Planning & Training All prospective student events are coordinated with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA) and centralized through our CRM, Slate. Review our event planning and training to know what steps you need to take to properly coordinate your events and enter them into Slate. OUA's Strategy Visiting campus can be one of the most important factors when making a college choice. It gives students and parents the opportunity to observe the intangible factors of a college campus. Engaging with families—especially those of first-generation college students—during the campus visit experience is extremely important. OUA's on-campus visit options include: Smaller, shorter [...]

Bethan Owen2022-03-29T16:01:10-05:00Visits|

How-Tos

CommunicationsHow to Create a Communications PlanHow to Define Your AudienceDataHow to Add a Mailing, Data or Report Request in BasecampEmailHow to Add an Email Request to BasecampHow to Add an Email to SlateEventsHow to Coordinate Your EventHow to Create a Slate EventHow to Create a Special Slate EventMajorsHow To Edit Major Information on the Admissions WebsiteTextingHow to Add a Text Message Request to BasecampHow to Send Text Messages from Slate

Bethan Owen2022-03-29T16:10:31-05:00Training|

Evaluation

How to Evaluate Communications & Marketing Success There are many ways to evaluate success, and you should always keep your campaign goals in mind. Preferably, you and your team should make a plan to evaluate success prior to the launch of a campaign in order to then tailor the campaign to succeed on your key metrics. Remember, some evaluation is certainly better than none. If you have limited time to evaluate, that's OK. Pick an evaluation method you can achieve or ask for help. Contact OUA if you're evaluating your admissions marketing success or making a plan to do so in [...]

Bethan Owen2022-04-20T11:33:06-05:00Analysis|

Advertising

Top Priorities for Advertising Build and strengthen brand awareness. As with any advertising, building and/or strengthening brand awareness is a top goal. That's why it's important to brand your ads appropriately and target the right audiences. Generate new leads. Ads are a great way to reach prospects. Planting a seed is great, but if you can also provide an easy conversion method such as an email form for more information, we can use ads to build our inquiry pool. Target specific demographics. Increasing exposure can happen through organic methods, but advertising allows us to target specific demographics. It's a great way [...]

Bethan Owen2022-04-20T10:01:53-05:00Communications|

Websites

Top Priorities for Your Website Make your inquiry form easy to find. Ultimately, you want to convert your prospective student traffic into inquiries. This means your inquiry form should be front and center on all pages. The best way to do this is to incorporate it into your navigation. Focus on relevant, engaging content. What do prospective students want to know? What will get them interested in your programs? Videos, student stories, and outcomes information are all great for engagement. Integrate this content into your pages. You goal is to keep students on your site and convert them into inquiries. Optimize [...]

Bethan Owen2023-05-24T15:57:05-05:00Communications|

About Bethan Owen