This week, we dive into the work Southern New Hampshire University is doing to better serve incoming students; from redesigning the admissions experience to rethinking which marketing strategies resonate best. SNHU recently won the Salesforce Excellence in Recruiting and Admissions Innovation Award, and here to talk about what changes SNHU has implemented and why is Senior Director of MarTech & Growth Marketing, Timothy Cerato.

Tim is a growth marketer and technologist with 10 plus years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing. He started his career doing work-study at SNHU, left for a time to work at a startup, but found himself called back to education. When he came back to SNHU, they began the process of re-platforming the whole school to a tech stack geared towards online education that has the capacity to double, if not triple, their student body. 

In this episode, Tim walks us through some of his thought processes around how SNHU is working on shifting consumer behavior to further benefit their student and potential student body. Plus, Tim shares some of the ways he’s worked to improve the student experience by  engaging students in new, innovative ways on SNHU’s website.

Key Takeaways:

• Experimenting with ways to grow: SNHU made the move to revamp their admissions procedures, making the process quicker and all online for the first time. The timing of this move was paramount to their success as an organization and has opened the doors of educational opportunity to tens of thousands of new potential students.  
• Communicating in the ways that students need: There has been a lot of research around the quality of communication between students and their universities. Learning what students need - and don’t need - from a university’s website and making the process of enrolling easier have been game-changers for SNHU. 
• Working changes into the organization through experimentation: With Cerato’s help, SNHU has been running a series of smaller experiments that help them test what works and what doesn’t. These micro-experiments provide insights into what initiatives are most beneficial to students and should be expanded on or further invested in.

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If you enjoyed this episode, and want to explore these topics in greater detail, be sure to check out the second edition of Salesforce.org’s Connected Student Report. The survey includes insights from more than 2,000 students and staff across 10 countries about student and staff wellbeing, career readiness, flexible learning options, and so much more! You can find the report at sfdc.co/connectedstudentreport.