Marketing Report January 2016

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.

Traditional Admissions Recruitment Events During the month of January 2016, traditional admissions representatives prepared for and led the second visitation day for Fall 2016 new freshmen and their parents. Over 100 students and their parents attended. The agenda included information sessions about admissions and financial aid, an academic fair, meetings with athletic coaches, and campus tours. It was a great day of cooperation on the part of all areas of the University. Church night, which was held at the end of January to encourage OFWB and other churches to bring their youth to UMO, brought an arena full of fans to the UMO basketball games which were televised nationally. The Make a Wish Foundation also granted a wish that evening. It was a great night for recruiting new students, with cooperation with athletic, admissions and other divisions of the University.

Cappex Outreach to Traditional Students The Cappex campaign, which is an outreach online program that messages traditional students to introduce them to UMO, reached out to over 122,700 new prospects in January 2016. During this month, 225 prospects became inquiries to UMO via this messaging format.

1st Time Contacts to Traditional Admissions: Jan 2016 There were 851 first time contacts made to traditional admissions in January 2016. The majority of these high school students are undecided about a major, so many (642) are listed as undeclared. The chart below demonstrates the large categories of academic preferences in the inquiry pool, excluding the 209 undeclared prospects. CJ, business management, biology, and psychology had the most mentions.

How Trad Admissions Prospects Learned about UMO: Jan 2016 There are many ways traditional high school students learn about UMO. In January 2016, there were 851 unique first time contacts who learned about UMO via the Cappex website, Ag fest (high school freshmen just being added to database), word of mouth, college fairs, billboards, mailed info and various others. At UMO, we track multiple sources, so the chart below includes all sources mentioned.

Jan 2016 1st Time Traditional Contacts by Type of Communication Traditional high school students made contact with the Admissions office via application, campus visitation day, submission of standardized test scores, athletic questionnaires and email messages. See the chart below for details.

Nontraditional Recruitment Activities Admissions representatives and other location staff complete recruitment activities in their communities to help generate leads for enrollment. These visits include presentations to employee groups, table presence at career fairs and expos, chamber of commerce events, board memberships, community college transfer fairs and classroom presentations, parades and festival presence and many others depending on the region of location. See graph on next page for this activity for January 2016

Nontrad Recruitment Activities at Locations

Nontrad Recruitment Activities from Wilmington Location: Jan 2016 The Wilmington location completed 104 recruitment activities in January. These activities included 87 drop in visits where recruitment materials were left. See the graph for more details.

Hobson’s Nontrad Marketing Program The Hobson’s nontrad marketing campaign is a strong tool for recruiting adult students. The graph below shows the success over time this program has for generating leads for the nontraditional programs.

1st Time Contacts to Nontrad Locations by Curriculum Interest: Jan 2016 There were 442 first time contacts to the nontrad locations in December, with the greatest interest being in early childhood, healthcare management, criminal justice and business management.

Top Information Sources for Nontraditional Prospects: Evening College There were 114 unique 1st time contacts to Evening College in January 2016, with the majority coming from Hobson’s Nontrad as the source of information. We track multiple source mentions. Prospects made contact via the online application for the most part.

Source Information for Jacksonville: Jan 2016 The Jacksonville location received multiple source contacts with Hobson’s Nontrad being the greatest source mention. The most frequently used form of contact was the online application.

Source Info for New Bern Programs: Jan 2016 Source information for the New Bern location in January included word of mouth, TV, radio as well as other sources.

Source Info for 1st Time Contacts to Online Programs: Jan 2016 Online program prospects got their information from radio, TV ads, billboards and other sources. The most often used contact method was the online application.

Source Info for 1st Time Contacts to RTP: Jan 2016 RTP 1st time contacts got their info about UMO via Hobson’s nontrad, TV and radio ads and admissions presentations. The most often used method of first time contact was the online application.

Source Info to SJ Location: Jan 2016 The Seymour Johnson AFB location receives a lot of walk in traffic, and word of mouth is a strong source of info also.

Sources of Info for 1st Time Contacts to Washington: Jan 2016 The Washington location received the most of its first time contacts via WOM, Hobson’s and various other sources. The most prevalent mode of contact was the online application, followed by email and walk in meetings.

Info Sources of 1st Time Contacts to Wilmington: Jan 2016 The Wilmington location received 1st time contacts from many sources: Hobson’s Nontrad was the source of the greatest number of 1st time contacts.

Applications to UMO Locations: January 2016 There were 567 applications to all UMO locations during January 2016. Traditional admissions received 205, Evening College received 79, RTP received 42, and Wilmington received 40. The chart below shows the full distribution.

Apps Received at Nontrad Locations: January 2016 The nontrad locations received 261 (46%) of the apps in January.

Apps Received for Online Programs: Jan 2016 Online programs received 101 (18%) of UMO’s apps in January.

Apps to Traditional Admissions: Jan 2016 The traditional admissions office received 205 online applications in January 2016. Twenty-eight applicants are interested in education, and at least 30 are undeclared or UMO does not have their desired program. Criminal justice was mentioned by 24 applicants, and business management was noted by 23 applicants. Seventeen applicants are interested in biology as a major.

Traditional Applicant Profile: January 2016 N = 205 The profile of the January traditional applicants is similar to profiles in previous months: Sixty percent (122) are female, 40% are male; Sixty-one percent (126) plan to be residential students; and Sixty-eight percent (140) are from NC, 60 are from out of state and 5 are from out of country.

UMO Phone Calls There were 273 unique callers to the switchboard and admissions offices in January 2016. The majority of the calls (245) came to the receptionists, who then forwarded them to the appropriate location.

Web Analytics Traffic to umo.edu via search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others help visitors to get connected to UMO. Google continues to drive the most traffic to umo.edu. The average visit length was just over 2 minutes in January 2016, and the average number of pages visited was 2. About 1/3 of the visitors were newcomers to the site.

Calendar Year 2015 review: Nontrad 1st Time Contacts and Applications While the nontrad recruitment cycle is not an annual one like trad admissions, the graph below is a snapshot of leads (1st time contacts) to applications for calendar year 2015 (excludes online programs). The conversion of leads to applications is a very important piece in the recruitment of students. For most months, leads and apps follow a similar track, but there are some deviations. In February 2015 (a short month), apps received were at the lowest in the year. And in March, they spiked to highest in the year. We will be watching the Feb-March time frame for 2016 to see if this pattern is repeated. There were 4,226 1st time contacts received for nontrad locations vs. 3,670 apps received in CY 2015.

The January 2016 marketing information demonstrates that interest and applications are tracking similarly compared to January of 2015. The total applications received at all locations in January 2016 slightly exceeded the number received in January 2015 (567 vs. 522). Hobson’s Nontrad marketing campaign continues to be a strong generator for leads in the nontraditional program. The Cappex marketing program continues to convert traditional interest to leads and applications. Graduate and online programs have brought more interest, applications and enrollment to UMO. Recruitment events in both traditional and nontraditional forms, help to increase name recognition of UMO. January was a very good month, with national TV, and the launch of a radio campaign for a nontrad scholarship.

Thanks to Jennifer Merritt, Georgette Prichard, Ken Davis and UMO admissions representatives for their help in compiling the information for this report. Thanks to all employees for making UMO a friendly, caring place for students and employees.