Our alma maters give us the tangibles like degrees and certificates that alter the course of our careers. They also give us human connections, friends, and mentors that alter the course of our lives.
And, sometimes – for those of us who are extra lucky – they give us love.
Here’s a step-by-step guide for how you can engage alumni by tapping into the stories of relationships built on campus to strengthen ties to your institutions. We’ll talk about how to source, celebrate, and steward your alumni love stories through social listening, smart segmentation, meaningful mail pieces, and personalized video.
Read on for a step-by-step guide that will heat up your outreach to some of your most loyal supporters including:
- Story sourcing on social media
- Building dynamic lists to monitor engagement
- Sending amazing direct mail on anniversaries
- Sending love-themed personalized videos
- SWAG, events, and other great ideas
- Cadenced outreach to deepen relationships
Step 1: Source alumni love stories on social media
We can all agree that you’ve got to meet your alums where they’re at: online.
We mined the social troves in search of institutions that are taking to Facebook to source tales of amazing connections throughout the years.
UMass Amherst
Their yearly #WeMetAtUMass campaign generates great traction on social, and allows them to curate incredible stories of how couples met, the families they’ve built, and anniversaries celebrated. Check out more on their alumni Facebook page!
UConn
Our friends at UConn also do an incredible job of sourcing and celebrating alumni love stories on social. They source #UConnValentine stories every year, so it’s a recognized part of their social media strategy.
They keep it inclusive by sourcing #UConnLove and #UConnFriendship stories, plus they pair the annual story sourcing with a UConn sweatshirt giveaway (everyone loves swag!).
After they collect stories of love from the Husky community, the UConn team shares them across their social platforms, uses them in annual appeals, and they highlight the best stories in their alumni magazine.
Step 2: Building dynamic lists to monitor engagement
After getting your alumni love stories buzzing on social, you have to do something with all that amazing engagement. How? By building dynamic lists and monitoring social engagement alongside giving information.
Pro Tip:
You can search Facebook posts by keyword (that way, your Valentine’s hashtags can live on forever!) or search past contact reports by words like “couple,” “spouse,” or “partner.”
Step 3: Send amazing direct mail
So, you’ve created amazing content on social to capture the attention of your alums. And you’re monitoring digital engagers and comparing them alongside other data points. Now, you’ve got to celebrate these love stories.
An important note here: There are lots of opportunities to celebrate alumni couples aside from Valentine’s Day. Think gift anniversaries, Commencement weekend, Pride month, move-in weekend—the ideas are endless.
Just like people have different love languages, different alumni prefer to hear from their alma maters via different channels. Some want to engage with you on social. Some want to get the alumni magazine. Some want to see video updates from campus. And some alumni want to receive direct mail.
Check out some of these amazing direct mail campaigns that schools have sent to celebrate love…
The Alpha Chi Omega Sorority Foundation sent an amazing Galentine’s Day appeal: “Real, strong women supporting real, strong women.”
Western Carolina University held a month-long celebration of “I Love WCU.” If 1,000 people donated in the month of February, the board chair and three previous board chairs would donate an additional $100,000. So, they’re building legacy giving traditions with their leaders, running a micro-campaign and building a community around love. Check, check, check!
Pro Tip: Direct mail is a great way to collect more valid email addresses. Try this!
- Identify some alumni couples you don’t have a valid email or phone number for, but who’s mailing address you DO have.
- Send them a direct mail piece with a QR code to sign up for a giveaway by driving them to an email sign-up form.
- Boom! More contactable emails in your database.
Step 4: Send a personalized video
After you engage more alumni couples into the fold with direct mail, well, you’ve just got to send them a video.
Did you know our brains process images 60,000x faster than text? And the average person spends 100 minutes per day watching video content?
Videos matter. AND they work. Check out some of our favorites.
University School of Milwaukee (filmed on their iPhone and put together in about a day) Watch!
University of Lynchburg (Celebrating love, all year round!) Watch!
Drake University (featuring a very cute bulldog) Watch Below!
Feeling inspired? Get a demo of ThankView today!
Step 5: Send swag
Step 6: Track engagement and deepen relationships
Across our customer base, we found that about ~9% of engaged alumni are ONLY interacting digitally.
Those 9% of digital engagers on social are raising their hands to tell you that they love you!
So, how do you follow up with them? Polite persistence. Signal makes polite persistence easier than ever with cadence-based outreach. And the numbers show it’s working.
The work done by Signal users targeting mid-pipeline prospects in 2024 contributing to generating more than $30M from 41,000 gifts!
The philanthropic power of your alumni couples is strong, you’ve just got to find them and reach out to deepen engagement!