While the university unveiled its new brand earlier this year, the Marketing and Communication Department continues to look at new opportunities and effective ways to showcase our brand and get it in front of as many of our audiences as possible, with a particular eye on prospective students. This work includes radio spots, digital advertising, new billboards, and continued branding efforts on the web.
“We are in a highly competitive market and prospective students have many choices for quality education,” said Kelly Shannon, vice president for marketing and communication. “Saint Mary’s strong brand visuals and messages create visibility, awareness and, if compelling and relevant to people, engagement and interest to find out more. We simply want to be a solid consideration when a prospective student is researching the best options for them.”
Billboards
In December, the university was offered a deep discount in the Twin Cities for 60 billboards in the market for the entire month of December, a heavy travel time for families with holiday activities and errands. The billboards target various prospective student groups with branded messages like “Meet life’s demands while meeting your goals” and “Our mission: Helping you find yours.” We have heard from colleagues that they are excited to see billboards around town.
Website update
With our new website, we have also experienced an increase in prospective students. Since the new website went live this fall, there have been more than 75,000 new visits to the website, with a 7% increase in returning visitors. This is a good indication of engagement, as it refers to new visitors who have viewed our website on more than one occasion. The website has also experienced an 80% increase in visitors who clicked to apply, which amounts to over 4,000 clicks to apply. Marketing and Communication will continue to monitor and analyze traffic to the website and make improvements to ensure a visitor has the best customer journey possible. The department is working closely with enrollment management to better track a prospect from the very first visit.
