Case Studies
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“I love you guys. I love working with you guys. So I’m super-excited about this.” The conversation with Navia Winderling, Assistant Director of Admissions at UW-Tacoma, was already off to a positive start.
"A lot of people don't want to scroll the website to search for information. People see Halda's Program Plan DLP and say 'Holy cow, I can just get the information I need right now'–that's a big deal." -Navia Winderling, Assistant Director of Admissions
This was probably due, in no small part, to results she was seeing from Halda’s tools.
“Halda has absolutely changed the way we interact with students. I just ran a query on the back end, and found that of our 5,513 total one-time inquiries, 4,368 of them are first-source leads from Halda. That’s 79%!”
She attributes much of this lead capture effectiveness to Halda’s quick and helpful interactions with website visitors.
“Students respond immediately to the idea that this interaction is gonna help them,” she explains. “The website is great, but a lot of people don’t want to scroll the website to search for information. People see Halda’s Program Plan DLP and say ‘Holy cow, I can just get the information I need right now’–that’s a big deal.”
Winderling hypothesizes that Halda’s personalization tools are particularly effective for UW-Tacoma’s student population. “We’re almost at 60% first-generation college students. Students going through the admissions process by themselves for the first time can find it daunting and overwhelming. There’s just so much information. But now Halda pops up and they can get a program plan or find out immediately if they’re eligible for a scholarship.”
In her eyes, Halda does a lot to humanize UW-Tacoma for students who might be intimidated by their process and powerful brand. “We’re part of a tri-campus system, and our oldest institution is the University of Washington in Seattle–which is incredibly competitive. People see that purple W and say ‘I can’t do this’.”
Halda helps to differentiate UW-Tacoma so that their visitors can have a more authentic experience with the university.
“You get a UW degree and the same academics, but the experience at Tacoma is so different,” Winderling elaborates. “So it’s nice to have a Halda DLP that meets prospects where they are and says ‘Hey, connect with someone right now’. Then I can look at people who have interacted with Halda and start to build that connection.”
Building a Connection with First-Generation College Students
This human, personalized touch is a huge part of UW-Tacoma’s overall marketing strategy.
“We always try to work with students from the standpoint of a warm handoff. We’re almost like big brothers and sisters to our students, because so many of them are new to this process. Halda gets them the information to start that process. It’s the first step to saying ‘Let’s create a program plan for you. Let’s find out what you need, what you want to know, and what’s most important to you.’”
Halda has been a valuable partner in creating that experience.
“Everything we do revolves around getting qualified leads,” Winderling explains.
‘We used to spend a lot of money on name-buys, and we weren’t getting qualified leads with that money. Now we’re spending a comparable amount on Halda and getting tangible information that helps us identify exactly what students need. Understanding what they’re interested in allows us to provide huge value to them.”
This value usually takes the form of personalized follow-up, usually by email, that builds a relationship with each prospective student. However, even students who don’t initially submit their information are served a personalized Hub when they return to the site. This provides them with tailored information that picks up the conversation where they left off.
“We have the Hub on every page. I love it because it follows them, and they eventually complete it,” elaborates Winderling. “I think the Hub works so well because we address specific subjects like scholarship eligibility. They have money questions and they want answers, so that’s one of our best performing DLPs.”
These types of interactions enable UW Tacoma to set the tone of communication that’s authentic and relatable. “Our students are comfortable interacting with us when they’re looking for a way to connect.”
Connecting Departments on Campus
“Halda has changed everything about how we talk to our partners on campus and share information with our academic programs.” Winderling explains. Before Halda, it was hard to get everyone on the same page when it came to student outreach.
“Our campus isn’t on a central CRM–and that’s tough. We have all these shadow systems across campus where information lives, but we in Admissions don’t have access to it.” Halda provided a way to get in touch with those students.
“Putting a Halda DLP on individual program pages that caters specifically to those students has allowed us to provide information about those programs while gaining information about those students. Then we put them in our comm flows.”
Of course, being a good neighbor depends on transparency and sharing.
“We give that student information to specific programs. I’ve also built them dashboards so they can see exactly how things are progressing.”
This allows them to build a strategy for student outreach based on trust and cooperation. “It’s huge. Now we, as a campus, are operating as a team. The programs know who’s getting our first-touch emails and other parts of our communication.
Ultimately, Halda has transformed how UW-Tacoma builds relationships with potential students and within its own on-campus community. “It’s really built a new level of trust with our campus partners that we’re really excited about.”
To find out how Halda can help you transform your website experience for potential students, have a conversation with Halda today. Or test out our tools right now in your own personalized demo environment.
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