7 Ways to Promote Your Program On-Campus

You’ve picked your destination, wahoo! Now you’re ready to start spreading the word about your program and get your travelers excited to adventure. We’ve outlined some helpful hints to help you recruit students as well as encourage the buzz to spread on campus about your trip!

Unsplash / @alexisrbrown

1. Host Informational Meetings

The first step in gathering interested travelers is planning an informational meeting that they can look forward to and depend on to gather more information about the program. They will want to know where your program is headed, what sites they will get to explore, and many more details.

Read our 8 Ways to Ensure Success at Your Informational Meetings article for more info!

A great way to spread news of upcoming informational meetings is to hang posters in high traffic areas on-campus. This may include outside the dining hall, the hallways of academic centers, student community areas, the gym or athletic complexes. Students will be able to gather the information from the posters, encouraging them to check out the link for your EF program web page and RSVP for your meetings on the site!

2. Pitch Your Program to your Campus Newspaper, Radio, TV Station or Student Activity Email Updates

Does your campus have a student run newspaper, radio station or TV channel? These are perfect media outlets to promote your program. Share information regarding your program such as where you’re headed, the sites you will see, when the next informational meeting is, your program website and more! If possible, see if they can include images of your destination to further entice students into signing up.

Does your campus have an email that is shared weekly with students regarding activities and club meetings? This is a great place to see if you can include details about your upcoming informational meetings as well as a possible spotlight on your travel opportunity! Very similar to the campus newspaper, radio, or TV piece you can share where your program is traveling to and what your travelers will do once they arrive, and much more.

Unsplash / @romankraft

3. Chat with Fellow Colleagues

Another opportunity to share your program with students would be to speak with your colleagues and see if they have any specific students whom they believe would be interested in signing-up for your program. Making sure to share with them the educational outcomes of a EF short-term study abroad program, certain students may jump out in their mind. You can then reach out to these students and share information with them, encouraging them to attend your next meeting.

You can also ask the professor if they would mind if you shared the study-abroad opportunity with their students at the beginning of their class. This creates a great opportunity for you to get in front of students and answer on the spot questions that they may have. You can also pass around a paper sign-up sheet for students who are interested and want more information. This allows you to reach out directly to these students and invite them to your next meeting.

4. Student Travel Ambassadors

You’ve successfully had your first few travelers sign up and they’re ready to go, yay! These first students are ecstatic for our program, if not they wouldn’t have signed up. This is a great opportunity for you to empower your students by selecting them to be Student Travel Ambassadors to represent your program. These students may oversee brainstorming fundraising ideas, reaching out to their classmates, or sharing information about the program on their social media accounts, and more. The possibilities of responsibilities for your student travel ambassadors are endless, it’s totally up to you!

Being able to give your program a student voice is important to reach a large audience of other students. If you want to incentivize your student travel ambassadors you could offer a small prize for whoever enrolls the highest number of students, or which fundraiser raised the most money, or many other challenges.

Unsplash / @brookecagle

5. Social Media Posts

Social media is a very powerful tool to share news or upcoming events, and what a perfect place to advertise your program. By creating a public Facebook page, you will be able to post updates about upcoming meetings, invite students to join the page, share sign-up and discount deadlines, and post photos of what your travelers will experience when exploring their destination. By creating your own Facebook page, you will also be able to publish posts that link to your EF program website, where travelers can find all the itinerary details, and RSVP for upcoming meetings.

If you’re looking to explore other social media platforms to promote your program Instagram can be a great option as it allows you to post image and video posts. This is a creative way for your students to be able to re-share the content that you’re posting to their own page for their followers to see.

Consider creating you own hashtag, specific to your program to link all your posts together. Some examples may include: #UNHtoCostaRica2020 or #UCLAinGreece2020. Think of something that is unique to your college and will be remembered for years to come!

Unsplash / @willfrancis

6. Reach out to Clubs and On-Campus Organizations

Reaching out to certain clubs and organizations on-campus that share a common interest with a topic that is involved on your program is a great way to reach a larger portion of the student community. For example, if you are leading a Business and Culture in London & Paris program, reach out to any business clubs or business honor societies. Or if you’re traveling with your students to Education in Finland & Sweden see if you can speak at one of the education or rising teacher organization meetings.

Share with the students how your program will relate back to their specific areas of interest and what they will experience while they’re traveling. And of course, don’t forget your interested traveler sign-up sheet! 

7. Be Passionate about Your Destination!

Most importantly, don’t forget to share your excitement about your program! Let your passion shine through when you talk about your program to colleagues, students, and administration. They will instantly be interested and will share in the excitement with you!

Unsplash / @verstuyftj

By utilizing different techniques to promote your program on your campus you are sure to reach the student community in an unexpected way that will catch their attention.

Looking for another resource? Check out our page Promoting Your Program & Building Your Group.

Find more “How To’s” and resources here.