Marketing Report August 2015

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 August, the traditional admissions team wrapped up the start of fall term with check in day. This event involved nearly every campus office, and was marked by an amazingly smooth kick off to fall term! As soon as the term was underway, our admissions team started their travel season for Fall 2016 recruitment.

1st Time Contacts to Traditional Admissions: August 2015 N = 727 Unique Curriculum Interest Contacts There were 727 unique students who contacted traditional admissions in August; the majority of them were undecided in their academic interest.

Sources of Information and Unique Applications to Traditional Admissions: August 2015 The Cappex website was the most often cited source of information for traditional admissions (214) in August. Other sources of info included word of mouth, college fairs, admissions presentations, billboards and the campus explorer website. There were 126 unique applications received in August; other ways that prospects made contact with traditional admissions included SAT/ACT score reports, athletic questionnaires, email messages and private visits to campus.

Nontraditional Recruitment Activities The nontraditional admissions teams conducted many information sessions and met their enrollment goal for new and continuing students in August; however, they were also able to carry out a total of 97 recruitment activities during the month.

1st Time Nontrad Contacts There were 450 first time contacts to the nontrad programs in August, with criminal justice, early childhood education, general studies and the MBA getting the largest numbers of interest.

Top information Sources for Nontraditional Prospects: Evening College Evening College Prospects found information about UMO via Hobson’s Nontrad, word of mouth, radio, tv and other sources in August 2015. We track multiple sources, so the graph below depicts all sources mentioned. When these prospects became serious about UMO, 59 of them contacted us with an application.

Source Information and applications for Jacksonville: August 2015 Jacksonville prospects got their info about UMO via Hobson’s Nontrad messages, word of mouth, radio and TV ads primarily. During the same time period, there were 32 applications received.

Source Info and Applications to Online Programs: August 2015 Prospects contacting the online programs for the first time cited word of mouth, radio, tv, and other sources of information. Serious students made applications (104) during the month of August.

Source Info for 1st Time Contacts to New Bern: August 2015 First time contacts to the New Bern location found their info about UMO via Hobson’s Nontrad messages, word of mouth, tv and billboard ads, and other sources. Twenty (20) applications were received in August.

Source Info for 1st Time Contacts to RTP: August 2015 RTP prospects found their info about UMO via Hobson’s Nontrad messages, TV and word of mouth, as well as other sources. During the same month, 39 applications were received.

Source Info and Unique Applications to SJ Location: August 2015 Info Sources for SJ Unique Applications Most SJ prospects received their info about UMO via the base education office; however, radio, tv and magazine ads were also mentioned. There were 17 unique applications to the SJ location in August 2015.

Sources of Info for 1st Time Contacts to Washington: August 2015 The Washington location prospects mentioned word of Mouth, billboards, college fairs and other sources of info about UMO. There were 27 applications received during the month of August.

Info Sources of 1st Time Contacts to Wilmington: August 2015 Prospects contacting the Wilmington location got their information about UMO via Hobson’s Nontrad messages, tv and radio ads, and word of mouth. There were 23 applications to the location in August.

800 UMO Phone Calls In August 2015, there were 299 phone calls received at all the locations phone numbers. There were 239 unique callers, and an average of 3.5 minutes per call. Nearly 60% of the calls were received at the switchboard.

web analytics Traffic to the umo.edu website is driven by various search engines, with Google continuing to push the most visitors to us. Visitors also come to umo.edu via Bing and Yahoo.

Cappex Outreach to Traditional Students The Cappex campaign, which is an outreach online program that messages traditional students, reached out to over 61,000 prospects in August; there were 337 students who expressed an interest in UMO as a result of these messages. Psychology, athletics, art and visual communications, business and scholarships were the campaigns that received the most replies. The graph demonstrates the responses we have received since November 2014.

Hobson’s Nontrad Marketing Program Hobson’s Nontrad messages have been very successful in generating inquiries for the locations. The graph below depicts the results of this online marketing program. The August results show the highest # of monthly inquires since 10/14.

Conclusions 1. Well chosen partnerships, such as the Hobson’s nontrad marketing campaign and the Cappex messaging program for traditional students, are a good investment for UMO. The Hobson’s Nontrad marketing campaign continues to bring in leads for the locations. There were 162 inquiries as a result of this program for the month of August. The Cappex program generated 302 new leads in August, the largest monthly number in any month since November 2014. 2. Completing an application continues to be the most popular way in which nontraditional prospects contact UMO. Traditional students also complete applications (to multiple institutions) but they typically use other modes of contact, such as sending standardized test scores, completing athletic interest questionnaires and campus visits to narrow down their choice despite where they have applied.

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