How 3 universities of different sizes streamline promotion and registration to hit Family Weekend goals
Family Weekend provides a unique opportunity for families to visit campus and fosters engagement, connection, and belonging with their student’s college or university. According to our study of over 21,000 parents of college students, 48% of their families attended Family Weekend last year. Because of this opportunity for thoughtful family engagement and participation, many institutions prioritize an organized registration process and effective communication strategy for Family Weekend.
CampusESP’s Event Management module makes it easy to promote Family Weekend, register families and sell tickets, and get families excited ahead of the event – all from the same platform. Schools like Georgia State University, Muhlenberg College, and University of North Carolina at Charlotte have turned to CampusESP for Event Management. How did it go?
eCommerce integration with your payment provider streamlines the buying experience for families, allowing them to easily purchase Family Weekend tickets and any add-ons.
Georgia State exceeds Family Weekend registration goal by 10% (their largest turnout yet!)
Georgia State was 50% below their goal for Family Weekend 10 days before registration closed. With just a few last minute announcement reminders sent to families through CampusESP, Georgia State not only met their goal, but they ended up exceeding their goal by 10% by selling over 1,100 tickets – making it the largest Family Weekend turnout in Georgia State history!
“CampusESP was able to help us blow our goal out of the water in such a short amount of time,” said Destiny Hand, Interim Assistant Director of Student Orientation and Family Engagement at Georgia State.
Muhlenberg boosts Family Weekend registrations by over 50% (with only 1 text to families!)
Muhlenberg also needed a way to grow their number of registrations quickly as their Family Weekend registration deadline approached. They decided to create an SMS campaign to help nudge families to register. By simply sending one text message to families, they saw a huge increase in registrations within the same day and registered over 460 families in total.
“We saw a 51% increase in Family Weekend registration in less than 24 hours by sending one SMS. I’m very pleased with the results!” said Tim Black, Director of Student Transitions and Family Programs at Muhlenberg.
UNC Charlotte: “I view the platform as a staff member in the office.”
Form builders allow you to collect information from parents that you might not already have such as T-shirt sizes, special accommodations, and dietary restrictions. You can also ask families questions in the form to grow lists such as parents interested in volunteering or giving.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte has managed several events using CampusESP, from New Family Receptions, to Virtual Lunch & Learns, to Fall and Spring Family Weekends. The first time UNC Charlotte promoted Family Weekend in CampusESP, they sold out their 2,100+ Family Weekend tickets in the first four hours.
“It was the first time that happened. We don’t have to advertise as much in other ways because most families use CampusESP,” said Nassim Nozartash, Associate Director of Orientation and Enrollment Programs at UNC Charlotte.
Family Weekend the following year looked a little different. UNC Charlotte sold out yet again. However, due to Hurricane Ian, UNC Charlotte made the tough decision to reschedule Family Weekend just days before the big event.
“Making sure our communication plan was top notch was really important,” said Shane Reilly, Assistant Director of Family Events and Engagement at UNC Charlotte.
UNC Charlotte sent an announcement to families to update them on the schedule changes and what they needed to know. They were able to roll over all ticket and event registrations to the new date and process refunds directly on the platform. UNC Charlotte reissued a small number of tickets that became available based on refunds and sold out again – twice in one season!
“I view the platform as a staff member in the office. The platform was there to run itself as refunds happened and new orders were made. Using CampusESP was absolutely essential in the rescheduling process,” said Reilly.
Want to learn more about how CampusESP can help you reach your event goals?
If you’re a CampusESP customer, reach out to our Account Management team HERE!
If you’re not a CampusESP customer, reach out HERE and a team member will be in touch.
(P.S. Want to hear more from Nassim? She shares her CampusESP experience HERE!)