Research tells us time and again that students are craving connection and looking for a sense of belonging at their institution, and a sense of community with each other. Students are looking for a safe space where they can connect with one another, so you'll generally find that they're excited to join your Community without much prompting!
Some ideas for promotion that we've seen work really well across our university and higher education partners are as follows;
📬 Invite students more than once. Their email inboxes are busy, and they likely receive a lot of communication from institutions they are replying to; cut through the noise and invite them multiple ways, multiple times.
💌 The Community dashboard has its own built-in nurture invite campaign - doing the heavy lifting for you! If you use Unibuddy's email invite, students who haven't yet joined will receive automated reminders 2 days and 4 days later.
We are seeing our highest sign up rates with this invite method.
👩🏽💻 Use your unique invite link and QR code. You can embed your unique Community link or downloadable QR code into any touch points you have with your student audience;
Posters, flyers, cards, or a pull-up banners at open days/open houses/taster events
Webinar and presentation slides
Marketing and communications to your student audience
Offer holder portals and offer holder letters/packs
Accepted student event invites
We have also created customisable marketing resources, so you can add your institution's name and logo, and your unique Community QR code to our purpose-built poster, postcard, and pull-up banner templates - offering you an invaluable resource to promote your Community at open events, around campus, and at student touch-points.
🙋🏽♀️ Use your ambassadors. Your ambassadors are an invaluable resource in driving more sign-ups to your Community
Via Unibuddy Chat. If student buddies have queries from offer holders / accepted students, they can direct to relevant groups, i.e. subject-specific, housing, finance, etc; within the Community
Unibuddy ambassador-generated content. Ambassadors can mention Community, or even make content specifically about the Community, in blogs and vlogs that they create
An introductory video. Many of our partners have seen increased sign up rates after creating a short, 1-minute-long video; in which an ambassador introduces the Community and concisely explains how and why students should join it
Social media - reels showing a Day in the Life of an Ambassador, etc
📣 Spread the word among other teams and your colleagues. Which other teams and colleagues have direct touch points with your student audience?
Ensure that other teams/colleagues who have contact with your student audience know about the Community, what it is, how to direct to it, and why students should join it. You could consider;
Asking your comms team to include your Community as an item in internal memos and/or newsletters
Offering brief training / information sessions for staff about Community
Creating a slide for other teams to use in webinars and presentations, and at accepted student events, promoting your Community
🛜 Use your social media presence. If you're engaging with students on social platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc; mention your Community across these mediums, further establishing it as an integral element of the student journey with your institution.