Placement and Promotion

    EAB's 2022 Wisr Virtual Communities Report data supports that students who joined Wisr before depositing were 3.5x more likely to deposit than students who did not join Wisr. That's why it's important that you ensure you maximize the visibility of your Wisr communities to increase the likelihood that a student joins your university-branded network. 
    There are several important factors to help keep your virtual community top-of-mind and increase the chances that a student will join your university-branded network. Some of these factors include conveying the value of joining, proactively inviting students to join, and consistently promoting your network (inclusive of making it easily available).

    Convey Value: 

    Ensure your team has the resources and training to clearly explain the value of connecting with future classmates, meeting current student ambassadors, and staying up to date on enrollment events and milestones to your incoming students. Your Wisr community is a one-stop shop for all of those important activities.

    Additionally, clearly outline the steps a student will need to take in order to take advantage of your Wisr communities. 

    For example: 

    Proactively Invite Students: 

    Invite students to your Wisr communities as early and as often as possible. Here are some best practices other universities have incorporated into their strategies:
    • Send invites through a drip marketing campaign, as it's likely that students will need to be invited several times before joining. 
    • In addition to regularly scheduled invitations, we recommend sending invitations that capitalize on moments of excitement like right after submitting an application, being accepted, and/or depositing. 
    • In addition to email, use other channels to amplify messaging and reach audiences that may be less likely to engage via email. For example, you might follow your email campaigns with SMS messages that include links to your website outlining steps on how to join your community.
    To help put in place a nurture stream for your Wisr invitations, here is a reminder of the invitation templates our partners have seen success with.

    Promote Consistently: 

    Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure Wisr is included within your various student touch points. Depending on what you know about your student population, promotion can range from simply getting students in the door to your network to inviting them to join niche communities, discussions, and events on topics you know matter to them.

    • Include a Wisr login on your .edu and display on pages relevant to where a student is at in their journey.

    Tip: We recommend establishing a Wisr communities landing page relevant to your target audience (e.g., for admitted students, promote joining your university-branded network on your admitted student page).

    • Integrate a reminder to "join Wisr" into your CRM checklists, such as Slate. 

    Tip: Normalize joining Wisr by promoting it at the same level of importance as other enrollment steps such as depositing, signing up for orientation, or completing financial aid.  

    • Include your Wisr communities in marketing channels such as:  
      • Email marketing campaigns: When applicable, get specific on the communities you promote to reflect important moments at each stage of the college search process (e.g., "Join the Financial Aid community to get answers to important questions as you navigate your FAFSA.") 

      Tip: Consider personalizing the content whenever possible through strategies as complex as incorporating dynamic content to your messages from your CRM to simple strategies like sending a one-time email from staff to students within specific affinity groups (e.g., sending a message from an Honors student promoting your Honors community to new high-achieving students).

      • Flyers/student brochures: We recommend using QR codes, personalized messaging, and timing mailings to coincide with messages on other channels (e.g., sending a postcard between invitation emails).

      Tip: Whenever possible, we recommend customizing the messaging on promotions, such as emails and flyers, to be personalized to what you know about your student population and what they are most interested in (e.g., for out of state students, promote joining Wisr to meet other admitted students from out of state).

      • Social media networks: Drive to your Wisr communities and upcoming events through your social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook. Social channels are also great places to show off some of your best student engagements within your Wisr community to demonstrate the value of joining.

      • SMS text outreach
      • In-person engagement: Be sure to emphasize the importance of joining the Wisr community during regular tours and events. Not only will you capitalize on the excitement of your in-person engagement, but there may be other influencers - such as parents, family members, friends, or counselors - that will hear your message and help encourage your students to join.
    • Continue to promote the importance of "not missing out" by joining a specific community. Being a community member ensures a student stays up to date on trending topics and new activity via digest emails and other automatic communications.
    • Encourage your admin staff and/or student ambassadors to invite students to join specific communities directly through Wisr.

    Partner Spotlight: 

    A look into how Colorado State University is promoting their Admitted Rams Community!
     
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