When we found out that Texas Christian University used Dasheroo to track their KPIs with our dashboards we couldn’t wait to talk to them to find how how and why. So we reached out to the TCU Assistant Director of Student Activities Brad Thompson. Here’s his story (and it’s probably a lot like yours!)

What’s Their Problem Anyway?

Brad Thompson is responsible for collaborating with the school’s marketing team, along with 30+ student volunteers, to launch more than 600 events per year. And with limited resources, this is a colossal undertaking.

As the Assistant Director of Student Activities, Brad is always looking for ways to build a bigger brand, generate more awareness, and more efficiently communicate with staff, students, and other on campus personnel.

Every week, Brad sends 10k to 20k emails while also managing a robust social media presence. His focus is simple: to increase student involvement.

Show Me The Money!

Within any university environment, there is regular questioning regarding KPIs, marketing efforts, budget, and return on investment (ROI). Brad had no data to back up his hard work. Having access to data helps with the following:

•   Justifying implemented marketing strategies.
•   Introducing new marketing channels.
•   Calculating and communicating return on investment.
•   Forecasting.
•   Bringing credibility to what Brad is working so hard to do!

What Did They Find Out?

Despite his best efforts, Brad was unable to find a solution to his biggest challenges. During the summer of 2015, however, he came across Dasheroo.

He said, “I found Dasheroo over the summer, right after their launch. I had been dreaming of an business analytics dashboard for over three years and had yet to find anything. I had trials with a couple other providers, but ultimately found that Dasheroo offered the features I need and is also the easiest to use.We are now obsessed with Dasheroo!”

After connecting with Dasheroo, Brad soon experienced its true power. Early on, he used a Dasheroo dashboard to learn more about the email marketing service, Emma (an integrated partner of Dasheroo).

From there, the university jumped on board with Emma, thanks in large part to its Dasheroo integration.

Brad noted a variety of other benefits provided by the Dasheroo dashboard:

•   It’s a simple integration, clean, and access to all metrics in one spot.
•   It gives the ability to pull up information anytime, anywhere, with all data continually updated, even on a mobile device.
•   It integrates with their much used applications; Emma, Facebook ads, Google Analytics, and other platforms.

With a focus on email marketing, Brad and his team have found the Emma integration to be a lifesaver.

“For email marketing, the response metrics are huge. Furthermore, we want to grow our site beyond students, and once again, a targeted email marketing strategy can assist with this.”

When asked about his favorite feature, Brad didn’t waste a minute:

“I love that we have all of our data in once place. We really value data collection, but it’s spread across so many platforms that it gets to be overwhelming. Dasheroo puts our data together, making it both intuitive to understand and easy to act on.”

Now What?

Moving forward, the TCU Student Activities department plans on doing more marketing for public events.

While most their current efforts revolve around Facebook, the team wants to expand their approach and touch on other social channels, such as Instagram.

Brad has taken advantage of many features provided by Dasheroo, while also using the dashboard to learn more about Emma. This will lead to the addition of other apps to help with events, surveys, e-commerce and more to have a true marketing dashboard.

“We’ve connected Google Analytics, Facebook, Facebook ads, and Emma. From here, we want to look into a payment integration for paid events, and will consider all Dasheroo integrations that may be able to help.”