Spring is one of the busiest time of year for advancement professionals. A combination of events at the end of the school year combined with the close of the fiscal year puts the pressure on the whole office.
But with so much alumni attention focused on their alma mater, this is also a great time to promote your EverTrue Alumni Community before summer hits.
Over the past month, I have had the pleasure of connecting with our customers to hear their stories about building a successful alumni community for their institution. Given this time of year, I thought I would share these seven creative ways to promote the Community based upon their feedback:
1. Create an animated video with different scenarios that could play out in the app
Make a video showcasing searches users can try in the app. Moving to a new city? Looking for an internship in New York? Want to network with alumni who work in finance? All these things and more are possible with the app!
2. Host a “Welcome to the Alumni Community” event for your graduating seniors
Many schools discontinue seniors’ email addresses a month after graduation. In order to gather up-to-date contact information for your newest alumni, host a spring event welcoming them to the Alumni Community. Encourage them to share their updated email address and like you on Facebook. If they complete these tasks, they get a class mug, t-shirt, or yearbook.
Send them an email inviting them to download the Alumni Community the next day to complete the process. Some schools have seen adoption rates in the 65 percent-and-beyond range using this tactic among young alumni.
3. Create a postcard featuring your alumni across the globe
Your alumni are out in the world doing incredible things to represent your institution. This is a great opportunity to highlight some of your superstars in order to encourage adoption of the app. Check out an example of how Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School did this in a recent promotional push.
4. Gather and share testimonials
Do you have an alum who’s found an internship or made meaningful connections through the app? Highlight their story in a promotional email or include it on your website.
5. Host a networking event on campus
Use this networking event as an opportunity to push a marketing campaign surrounding the mentorship features in the Alumni Community.
6. Send a personal letter from your alumni board members to their classmates
Studies show that 92 percent of people trust peer recommendations over marketing (Experticity, 2016). Instead of sending a marketing email from your alumni office, try sending a personal note from a loyal alum to their classmates.
7. Orchestrate regional pushes highlighting the “Search Nearby” feature to drive signups
Utilize the “Search Nearby” to determine how many alumni you have in regions that you do not traditionally visit. Send a targeted email to the constituents who live in the target region with the subject line “Do you know these [X number of alumni] [your school’s name] alumni in [region]?”
Have you recently used a creative marketing tactic to drive adoption rates of your Alumni Community? I’d love to hear about it! Connect with me on LinkedIn or shoot me an email.
Looking for more great ideas on managing your graduate network? Check out the Alumni Community Playbook.