Success Stories
UB uses Blackthorn Events across departments to enhance student communications and keep data centralized in Salesforce.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Using Splashthat, limited Salesforce integration
- Needed flexible registration options across departments
- Needed paid events to use their current payment provider, TouchNet
- Couldn’t easily see in Salesforce or action on events prospects attended
SOLUTIONS:
- Use a native-to-Salesforce event app
- Tie prospective student tour registrations automatically to existing records
- Incorporate event invites and other email communications into Marketing Cloud journeys
- Mobile check-in app that updates attendance real-time in Salesforce
TMU's use of multiple apps for event management led to scattered registrant data over 3+ apps. Their manual setup and paper check-in processes created significant challenges.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Needed robust waitlist for high volumes of interested students
- Data transfers created duplicates, requiring manual cleanup
- No view into which events invitees had already attended
- Paper check-in = manual attendee data entry post-event
- Outdated event experience for students
SOLUTIONS:
- Built within Salesforce; no data transfers needed
- Recurring events to increase efficiency
- Previously attended events viewable directly on student records
- Mobile check-in direct to Salesforce
- Modern digital experience for students
“ “With Blackthorn Events built on Salesforce we are finally able to capture our full event management outreach across multiple departments” ”
When COVID-19 forced Hogeschool University to cancel their popular on-campus events, they needed to pivot to a virtual format while retaining engagement and connections.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Recreate the same in-person experience in a new virtual format
- Still needed to meet enrollment quotas
- Host multilingual events
- Needed hundreds of virtual info/Q&A sessions
SOLUTIONS:
- Over 400 small and personalized virtual admissions events
- Connections through chats with professors, students, and alumni
- Recurring/Clone virtual sessions over Zoom
- Continue the conversation with attendees post-event using their marketing automation platform
“ “We’re pleased to see that the numbers of people signing up for these events are similar to what we saw in-person before COVID-19.” ”
Monash University was using multiple event platforms to do what ONE events app—Blackthorn Events—could do.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Using multiple event apps across the institution
- Costly due to tall app stacks
- Limited-to-no visibility by marketing & events teams
- Unscalable logistics
- Difficult to create events
- Couldn’t easily invite “right fit” students to events
SOLUTIONS:
- One event management platform
- Standardize and simplify the event creation process
- Use the existing Marketing Cloud system to add event communications to student journeys
- Dramatically reduce event creation time while increasing communication capabilities
Different departments across campus had isolated event data, each using separate event apps like Cvent, EventBrite, or eMarketing tools like Constant Contact.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Costly: multiple, basic event apps
- Unscalable event planning logistics
- Missing important attendee insights
- Disjointed efforts between events & marketing/communications
SOLUTIONS:
- One event management platform for all events (in Salesforce!)
- Less time spent on event logistics; more time creating engaging events
- Holistic view of attendee data
- Incorporate their existing Marketing Cloud to add event communications to student journeys
USC Marshall holds various events annually, targeting a diverse pool of prospective students with features tailored to traditional students, pre-career individuals, and early to mid-career professionals.
Products
Adopted:
CHALLENGES:
- Limited customization for event pages and registration forms
- Cumbersome registration process for prospective students
- Planning inefficiencies for the admissions team
- Challenges in exchanging information with prospective students
- Time-intensive, repetitive data-entry tasks for paper check-in forms
SOLUTIONS:
- Customizable, USC Marshall-branded event pages and forms
- Scalability for admissions events with event cloning and multiple sessions
- Automated event attendee check-in process
- Simplified event success analysis within existing Salesforce platform
