Move-In 2025: Communications Planning

Move-In weekend saw a record number of students moving to Texas State, and marked the third centralized move-in process completed on-campus. Learn about how we developed a marketing and communications plan to reach almost 10,000 students and families. 

student and parents outside of residence hall

Mapping Out Marketing & Communications

Any good marketing or communications campaign starts with a good plan. Beginning the second move-in 2024 ended, we launched into planning for 2025. Below maps out the four months leading up to move-in and important dates, timelines, communications, and deadlines for each step in our process as it was planned.

This template follows the general outline of our HRL operations calendar to create a space for our move-in executive team that felt familiar and was easy to understand.

May Communications Map

Communicating to Students

Students had contact from our team at a variety of touch points from May - August including: 

  • New Student Orientation (NSO) sessions
    • Browse Sessions, Bobcat Essentials Presentation, Housing Tours, Office Hours, Move-In Guides
  • Periodic social media reminders
  • Email process connections
    • Housing Assignments, Move-In Appointments, Reassignment Requests, Move-In Hang Tags
  • Move-In Live 
  • Bobcat Organization Hub & TXST Calendar

Communicating to Families

Families had contact from our team at a variety of touch points from May - August including: 

  • New Student Orientation (NSO) sessions
    • Browse Sessions, Bobcat Essentials Presentation, Housing Tours, Office Hours, Move-In Guides
  • Parent and Family Portal
  • Move-In Live 
  • Home Mailer

Home Mailers

An important impact from the 2023 & 2024 move-in processes that we learned were that families of students wanted to feel like they were move involved in the process. This prompted us to be able to share out more information direct to home like the move-in mailer as a direct response to this request. 

Communicating with Community

Texas State Faculty & Staff as well as the larger San Marcos Community had contact from our team at a variety of touch points from May - August including: 

  • San Marcos Businesses were pulled from a contact at the Chamber of Commerce to let them know that move-in would create an impact around their business. 
  • Emails to faculty and staff reminding them of traffic impacts and requests for volunteers
  • Connecting with San Marcos communications team provided the opportunity to send messaging out to the community in alignment with our move-in messages to families and students. 
  • The Executive Move-In Committee was comprised of shareholders from across the university, and the City of San Marcos to create a shared process and understanding. 

Social Media Reminders / Emails to Faculty & Staff

Other Assets and Developed Tools

Directional Signs and Maps

Each hall is associated with a color coded route through campus. As guests navigate campus, their color coded hang tag will correspond with the route and sign color as they travel campus. Maps were designed in-house as were signs & hang tags.

Move-In Websites

Each area was given a move-in website specific to their hall. When color coded hang tags were scanned, it would direct them to this page and allow them to navigate through campus routes. This information was shared in digital format to students before move-in.

These websites are not hyperlinked as a result of website consolidation for the 2026 year. 

Social Media Highlights

Some highlights from across hall and primary account posts from move-in