For most first-year students, the time between move-in and the first day of classes is a formative experience. When it’s well-organized, Freshman Welcome Week is the perfect time to build on your student orientation. It sets the stage for sustained student success and retention. But getting there is not automatic, and marketing Freshman Welcome Week needs to be a priority.
Benefits like integrating into the community and learning more about mental health and residence life may be vital, but you need to more explicitly ensure strong attendance. That’s where a strategic effort for marketing Freshman Welcome Week enters the equation.
Getting the word out is vital for local and international students alike. You have to make your events sound engaging, even if topics like Title IX may not be inherently attractive to your incoming college students. This guide will help you build the right strategies to make marketing Freshman Welcome Week a success.
1. Develop a Strong Theme and Branding
If your welcome week schedule is like most, you offer your students a wide range of events. From a club fair to academic information sessions, campus units that range from student affairs to academic affairs will likely be involved. That makes it all the more important to build a strong theme that resonates across the entire week for your new students.
Start with a graphic identity. That doesn’t necessarily need to be a logo. But it should include consistent colors, images, and fonts you can use throughout your promotion and communication. For example, you might give away shirts to your incoming class that should reflect the key message you want to get across. Then encourage them to wear the shirts at key events.
But you may also want to go further, creating a unique theme each year. If that theme can carry over into the first week and the school year throughout your residence hall, it will only become more powerful and memorable for students—making them more likely to attend the events and become part of that identity.
2. Engage on Social Media
The research couldn’t be more clear: for modern college student marketing, social media is an absolute must. But you also need to be strategic. Bland, general messages on social media can quickly become lost, preventing you from effectively connecting with your incoming students at a time when that connection is most needed.
Start by running targeted campaigns on networks like Instagram and TikTok that resonate with new and transfer students alike. You might even consider geofenced adverts highlighting individual events, limited only to your campus borders.
Most effective, though, is the ability to leverage student influencers. Identify students who are particularly adept at using social media among your orientation volunteers and your incoming class. Work with them to create content directly connected to your Freshman Welcome Week events. You might even consider designating a staff member specifically to work with your influencers. Staff can ensure they have the information and access required to put out effective student life content.
3. Leverage University Communication Channels
Of course, you’ll also need to leverage your official channels effectively to communicate your key events. Some of the most common and effective channels in this regard include:
- University email, both for sending the schedule ahead of time and to provide critical updates throughout the week
- Your website, including dedicated welcome week pages and individual web events for every key on-campus and off-campus happening
- Newsletters to both students and parents that provide advance invites and after-the-fact recaps of the most important events, like your new student convocation or student organization fair
Don’t think that your official channels limit you in making your communication engaging, either. With personalization being so important among Gen Z audiences, you can create targeted emails for specific student groups like student athletes who might have a particular interest in athletics mixers and socials.
4. Utilize Strategic Marketing Channels
Your official channels and social media should be part of a larger mix that ultimately combines to make marketing your Freshman Welcome Week effective. As research shows, students still prefer multi-channel communication that includes digital, print, and in-person channels to get your message across.
For example, consider providing printed brochures or flyers for key events at check-in during move-in day. Campus life staff (at and after move-in) can also be a great resource for providing further information.
Avoid relying on digital channels—supplement them with every channel possible for marketing Freshman Welcome Week. This will allow you to reach a broader audience and ensure maximum participation in all key activities.
5. Bring Your Campus to Life With An Interactive Map
Do your students know how to find their way around, from move-in tables to the intramural field or ice cream social? Chances are that they don’t. After all, they just moved onto campus. That’s what makes an interactive campus map such an important component of marketing Freshman Welcome Week.
At its foundation, your interactive map is a wayfinding opportunity to find the wellness center, Greek life housing and social areas, and more. But it can also go deeper, providing a roadmap to all of your welcome week activities with walking directions, shuttle service information, and more.
Of course, you’ll need a trusted mapping solution to drive those benefits. Concept3D, thanks to decades of experience in the space, provides an ideal opportunity to help your students find their way and attend more events.
6. Involve Current Students and Alums
Current students and alums can play a key role in marketing Freshman Welcome Week. They’re authentic messengers who get key points across. Ultimately, they can encourage attendance more easily than central messages speaking in an institutional voice.
Use them in your informational sessions, allowing them to speak about their own experiences. Include them in social activities and icebreakers or host panel discussions about careers and internships. At their best, these students and alums act as ambassadors for your school. They also enhance the sense of community new students should feel.
Of course, you can also involve them directly in all of the efforts already mentioned. They can become social media influencers and naturally welcome new residential and commuter students into your campus family.
7. Highlight Key Events and Activities
In many ways, the backbone of marketing Freshman Welcome Week are the events and activities around which the schedule revolves. It’s an opportunity to learn key information while providing opportunities to make new friends and join the community.
That’s why all of your messaging and channels connected to marketing Freshman Welcome Week should revolve around these events. Start with a comprehensive schedule you can send ahead of time and have available as printed handouts. But also break it up into smaller segments, like days or categories, that provide an easier overview.
Finally, pay special attention to the keystone events that all students should attend, like the new student welcome from your President or the club and organizations fair. They likely deserve their own ‘mini’ campaigns, still connected to the larger theme, to maximize awareness and attendance.
8. Collaborate With Local Businesses
In a world where some students make their college decisions based on town-gown relationships, expanding your welcome week beyond campus borders becomes essential. Fortunately, when managed the right way, that expansion can also help you market your welcome week effectively to your students.
For example, you can work with restaurants and shops in the area to offer discounts or special promotions for welcome week attendees. Through coupons at check-in or simply by showing their student IDs, students can learn about and enjoy the greater community that they’ll be a part of for the next four years.
In addition, local businesses that feel included in your welcome week activities will start to promote their involvement. This not only enhances the event experience for the immediate event but also improves town-gown relations in ways that can have effective, long-ranging benefits.
Build an Impactful Freshman Welcome Week With Concept3D
Planning a successful welcome week is only partially about making sure the calendar is right. To truly generate success, you need to encourage and ensure high-level attendance among all of your new students.
Getting there requires strategic marketing efforts. Creating a theme, engaging on social media alongside other channels, and involving your alums and current students are only some of the multiple steps required to get there. But when you get it right, you can maximize your chances of ensuring that you will have consistently strong attendance across the board when the events happen before classes start.
A great welcome week is a core piece of elevating your student experience when members of the new class first step on campus. Campus3D can help, with campus map and calendar solutions that can become the foundation of your welcome week marketing efforts. Our experience in both the technology and higher education space makes us a perfect fit for schools looking to elevate their communication during welcome week and beyond. Learn more about our solutions and how they can help your school succeed.