Arizona State University

After leveraging Salesforce in areas such as Student Success and Recruiting and Enrollment, Arizona State University (ASU) had an abundance of data flowing into Salesforce. It began using Marketing Cloud to personalize the experience for prospective students and engage prospective students based on their individual areas of interest. However, in other areas of the campus, much of the communications activities remained siloed and inefficient.

As ASU implemented a unified marketing strategy across the enterprise, Marketing Cloud became an important tool to better engage and personalize the experience for constituents while delivering new efficiencies, capabilities, and insights for administrators.

With a large and diverse audience, ASU struggled to ensure its communications were engaging and working at scale to create a superior, individualized experience for learners. Using Salesforce and Marketing Cloud, ASU consolidated 13 mass email systems and created – what is now known as Enterprise Brand Strategy and Management – the unity responsible for shepherding ASU’s brand and governing all mediums of communications and marketing.

ASU leveraged the 360-degree view it had gained with Salesforce to to develop highly personalized journeys for its constituents and identify what types of content best aligns with their needs and interests. These data-fueled journeys are then used to segment and target communications across the university to serve audiences with the right message at the right time — and not bombard them with blanketed emails.

“We want to put our audiences first and we really want to dive into the data that guides our decisions,” said Jill Andrews, ASU’s Chief Brand Officer. “So that we’re really using the data as a way to be a voice of our audiences and creating our communications to respond to their needs.”

With detailed journeys, ASU was able to focus on building relationships, addressing constituent needs on a personal level, and sharing relevant information about the ASU community, opportunities, and programs.

Today, ASU has multiple instances of Marketing Cloud across the enterprise and ASU Academic Enterprise Communications connects about 1,500 different communicators on campus. Marketing Cloud is used for 83% of its communications, including all emails to prospective, incoming and current students as well as parents, staff and other ASU stakeholders.

ASU has not only been able to amplify the reach of its communications efforts but has also been able to gain a better understanding of its audiences and the types of messages being sent and received.

“Using Marketing Cloud, our team has the capability to continue expanding the audiences we serve and to provide only the most relevant and personalized communications to our users.” said Kerstin Gallardo, Manager of Email Analytics and Strategy Development at ASU.

“It really has been a game changer for the university and by moving to the Marketing Cloud, it’s enabled us to really understand what the constituent is receiving, what’s performing and how we might be able to serve that audience better,” said Andrews.

Topping the U.S. News & World Report’s list of “most innovative schools” for consecutive years, ASU exemplifies a new prototype for the American public research university. With four campuses in the Phoenix area, an online learning program, and an expanding global presence, the number of ASU’s constituents has been growing at an exponential rate. ASU, however, remains committed to its charter — measuring itself by those it includes rather than excludes; and how they succeed — and continues to devote its energy towards the design of a uniquely adaptive and transdisciplinary university committed to producing master learners.