Marketing Report March 2016

Purpose The purpose of this report is to show trend information for recruitment and marketing programs at all University of Mount Olive locations. Where possible, comparisons over time are shown. Marketing and recruitment activities differ for traditional and nontraditional programs, so some comparisons are not appropriate. This is not an enrollment report.

Introduction The following data is gathered from inquiry calls/visits, contact forms, applications, and SSRS reports. Recruitment activities, purchased media, website traffic, and other promotional and marketing efforts help drive students to our website and other points of contact. Information is used to track what kinds of advertising prompts action for various audiences.

1 st Time Contacts to Traditional Admissions: March 2016 There were 613 unique first time contacts to traditional admissions in March Their primary means of contact was via an application; however, some first time contacts used , reply cards, private visits, athletic questionnaires and standardized test score reports to make contact.

Traditional Admissions Recruitment Activities: March 2016 The traditional admissions team visited many high schools, talking with guidance counselors and individual applicants to prepare for Fall Other March activities included phone calls, texts and blasts to connect with students planning to attend the admitted student days scheduled starting in April. Students must be accepted and pay their deposit in order to attend ASD.

Source Information for Traditional Admissions Prospective students mentioned multiple sources of information to connect them with UMO. The graph below demonstrates source info to include Cappex website, ag fest, word of mouth, college fairs, mail and radio ads. The Cappex campaign, which sent over 126,000 messages on behalf of UMO, was mentioned by 220 inquiries.

1 st Time Contacts to Trad Admissions by Curriculum Preference There were st time contacts to traditional admissions in March 2016 who are undecided about their academic major in college; 151 prospects provided their curriculum preferences. Business management, CJC, biology, psychology, agriculture, and accounting had frequent mentions.

Applications to Traditional Admissions: March 2016 There were 185 applications to traditional admissions during March Applicants who have already decided what to study chose business management, psychology, biology, CJC, others shown on the graph below.

Nontrad Recruitment Activities: March 2016 The nontrad location admissions representatives and their directors conducted over 300 recruitment activities to bring the message of UMO to their communities. blasts, mass mailings, visits to local businesses and agencies, admissions presentations, and tables/booths at career expos and fairs helped them to get the word out.

1 st Time Contacts to Nontraditional Programs During the month of March 2016, there were 396 first time contacts to nontraditional locations. The graph below notes preferences in HCM, general studies, nursing, management, CJC, ECE and others.

Hobson’s Nontrad Marketing Program: July 2015 to March 2016 The Hobson’s Nontrad Marketing program continues to drive new leads to UMO’s locations and online programs. This month there were 142 leads. Over the last 9 months, Hobson’s has generated 1,194 leads to nontrad programs.

Hobson’s Nontrad Marketing Program: Two Year Review The Hobson’s nontrad marketing program generated over 2700 leads since March 2014, with January 2016 being the month with the largest number of leads.

Nontrad Scholarship Promotion: March 2016 Viamark, the advertising agency UMO has partnered with for many years, worked with UMO on a recent scholarship campaign for a deserving nontrad student. The winner, Susan Herring, and her family are featured on UMO’s Facebook page and on UMO’s website new stories at %E2%80%98next-great-story%E2%80%99-scholarship %E2%80%98next-great-story%E2%80%99-scholarship The scholarship runner ups will be invited to special global open house events at all the locations as a part of the promotion.

Susan Herring, UMO’s “Next Great Story” Scholarship Winner

1 st Time Contacts and Apps to Evening College: March 2016 The most popular source of info for Evening College 1 st time contacts was Hobson’s nontrad (46), followed by word of mouth at 16 mentions. The curriculum preferences for these prospects included ECE, HCM and business management, as well as others. There were 58 applications received during March, with accounting, general studies, HRM, and HCM being the top choices. See graphs on following pages

Applications to Evening College March 2016

Jacksonville Contacts and Applications Hobson’s Nontrad and Word of Mouth were the primary sources of info for new prospects seeking info about UMO in Jacksonville. There were 32 applications received in March 2016; the highest number of apps received were for ECE, management, CJC, general studies and HCM. (see graph on next page)

Applications Received at Jacksonville: March 2016

Contacts and Applications for New Bern: March 2016 The New Bern Location received 13 first time contacts in March. The most often mentioned sources were word of mouth and TV ads. There were 13 applications received at New Bern in March: general studies, management, CJC, ECE and accounting were popular.

Contacts to Online Programs: March 2016 First time contacts to the online programs (MBA, CJC, general studies, RN to BSN) came from word of mouth, Hobson’s nontrad and other sources.

Apps Received for Online Programs: March 2016 Online programs received 111 applications in March The MBA program received 34 applications, followed by 33 for the nursing program. There were also 7 applications received for graduate programs not yet approved: education = 3, nursing = 4. These apps are not reflected on the graph below.

Contacts and Applications to RTP: March 2016 Multiple information sources were mentioned, with Hobson’s nontrad marketing program being mentioned most often, followed by word of mouth, radio and tv ads, and other marketing programs. There were 43 applications received during March at RTP, with HCM, business management, general studies, HRM and ECE being the most frequent preferred programs. (see following page for graph with details)

Applications to RTP: March 2016

Contacts and Applications to Seymour Johnson: March 2016 The most often cited source of info for SJ prospects was word of mouth during the month of March There were 14 applicants, with undeclared being the most frequently chosen preference.

Contacts and Applications to Washington: March 2016 The info source mentioned most often was Hobson’s Nontrad marketing program, followed by word of mouth, billboards, radio, and website. Washington received 29 applications in March with HCM showing the most (11). (see graph on following page for details)

Applications Received at Washington: March 2016

Contacts and Applications to Wilmington: March 2016 The most frequently noted sources of information for 1 st time contacts were word of mouth, radio ads, Hobson’s nontrad marketing program and TV ads. HCM was the most popular program among the 14 applicants to Wilmington in March (see following page for details)

Applications Received at Wilmington: March 2016

Phone Calls to UMO In March 2016 UMO received 392 phone calls related to recruitment from 190 unique callers. Over 80% of the calls were received at the reception area and sent to the appropriate extension. Top Ring To Numbers March 2016 unique callerstotal calls duration in minutes% of calls Switchboar d % All admissions locations % Total %

Traffic to umo.edu Search engines, direct traffic and referrals from other websites bring many visitors to UMO’s website. The average visit is about 2.3 minutes, the average pages viewed = 2 and about 30% of the visitors coming to the site are first timers.

Web Analytics: March 2016 Google continues to push the most traffic to umo.edu with Bing, Yahoo and others also contributing.

Conclusions and Observations: March 2016 Interest in traditional programs continues to grow. Facilities, infrastructure and academic programs will continue to be called to step up as this traffic continues. Interest in online programs, including first time contacts and applications, continues to grow. As two more graduate programs come online in Fall 2016, the future looks good in this area. Hobson’s nontrad lead generation continues to increase, with the March 2016 leads exceeding those received in March Google pushed over 30,500 visits to umo.edu, much higher than March of 2015, and site visits, page averages and first time visits continue to be positive. The nontrad scholarship advertising program attracted much media attention, and will hopefully drive more new students to the locations. Nontrad programs received a slight uptick in first time contacts, but this did not carry over to a large increase in applications for all sites.

Thanks Thanks to Jennifer Merritt, Georgette Prichard, Ken Davis and UMO admissions representatives for their help in compiling the information for this report.