Create Your Parent Orientation Hub
First, let us introduce you to a new term: Parent Orientation Hub. What is it? It’s not just another pretty term. OK…maybe it is.
The Parent Orientation Hub consolidates all your orientation content in one place for parents. When a parent clicks into your Parent Orientation Hub, the portal will only show orientation content.
It works seamlessly with your Parent Portal, integrating your existing newsletters, announcements and events.
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4.
We know you have a lot to do, so we’ve segmented this guide into four parts to make it easier to follow. We’ve also included links to more detailed “how-to” guides.

1- Create a community structure.
CampusESP includes three options for structuring your Parent Orientation Hub. You’ll need to determine which option is best for you, based on the needs and the size of your college:
Single community
A single community is the easiest implementation and is perfect for smaller schools where all parents receive the same information at the same time.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Community
Multi-community
Multiple communities are best if you segment your parents into multiple orientation sessions, either to:
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Segment parents by college/interest to provide more personalized info
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Schedule parents by time periods in order to not overwhelm your staff with parent questions (usually with larger schools).
Multi-community implementations are more complicated, but CampusESP includes tools, such as the ability to copy communities and their content, to make the process more manageable.
In addition, multiple orientation communities can be grouped together with a community type so that engagement stats for all orientation communities can be viewed together.
CampusESP offers service packages to help schools set up multi-community orientation.
Multi-campus
Multi-campus is the best option for schools that have a completely separate online orientation experience for families. Customized branding, dedicated communities and a whole lot more can be accommodated with a multi-campus setup. This option is best for larger schools with a formal parent orientation program.
This option may require additional CampusESP fees.
2- Connect a campaign.
A campaign makes it easy for parents to access orientation information from their portal and newsletters. Clicking on a campaign will take a parent directly to their Parent Orientation Hub.
Campaigns are usually something visual that consistently occupy the same location in your portal and on your newsletters. CampusESP provides multiple templates for campaigns, including different color and button settings so that parents can easily access their Parent Orientation Hub.

Campaigns can be date-based, meaning that they can appear/disappear for different groups of parents depending on the day. This is useful if you plan to run multiple orientation sessions.
Campaigns have additional reporting capabilities. They can track clicks and impressions to give you a complete view of parent engagement levels in your Parent Orientation Hub.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Campaign
3- Involve your families.
CampusESP makes it easy to get parents signed up. It’s common for schools to use one or more of the option below.
Import Parents
Whether you have a list of parents registered for orientation from your CRM, event management system, or just a spreadsheet, it’s a snap to import them into CampusESP. Remember, each import can:
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Load parents into one or more communities. Communities can be orientation session specific.
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Include custom fields. CampusESP only requires parent email address for each import, however, other information (such as address) may also be included.
Once families are imported, parents will immediately start receiving orientation focused content through newsletters and email announcements.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Import Users
Sign-up parents
CampusESP’s event management functionality supports parent orientation registration, including payment processing. Some of the benefits of event management:
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Register parents outside of CampusESP. Event forms created within CampusESP can be distributed outside of CampusESP. Parents signing up for an event will be asked for their email and a password, which will automatically create a CampusESP account and add them to your parent database.
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Set attendance limits. If you have a multi-community deployment, events can help you manage attendance to ensure that parent orientation session are balanced throughout the summer.
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Raise funds during registration. Whether it’s a sweatshirt or a mug, parents want to be part of the campus experience. And let’s face it: every dollar counts. Sell swag during the registration process to boost your budget and super-charge parent enthusiasm.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Registration Event
Survey parents
Whether you import parents or they sign-up on their own, families will see your regular onboarding survey the first time they login. The onboarding survey is distributed to every new parent automatically. It’s worth taking a fresh look at the survey to see if it’s collecting the information you need.
PRO-TIP: Every answer on your survey can trigger community rules that move parents in or out of communities based on their responses. For example, you can ask parents, “are you an alum of Great Lakes University?” If they answer yes, CampusESP can automatically add them to your alumni community.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Survey
4- Deliver orientation content.
CampusESP provides multiple ways to deliver an engaging and informative online experience:
Scheduled Announcements
Schedule targeted emails to communicate important messages in a matter of minutes to capture parents’ attention.
EXAMPLE: Email reminders such as registering for move-in, completing immunization requirements, finalizing financial aid, etc.
PRO-TIP: Announcements can link directly to posts so that you don’t have to spend time recreating content.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Drip/Scheduled Announcement
Drip Announcements
Automate emails to send based on when a user joins to guarantee evergreen content for parents who join your Parent Orientation Hub.
EXAMPLE: You can create a custom welcome email to that will automatically send to parents once they join your Parent Orientation Hub.
PRO-TIP:Drip announcements will only go to users who join the community AFTER the announcement is created. If a user is already in that respective community, they will not receive the drip announcement.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Drip/Scheduled Announcement
Drip Posts
Automate and schedule parent communication in digestible “sessions” without additional administrative burden.
EXAMPLE: Your orientation agenda can appear in multiple posts “in order” based on your drip feed rules.
PRO-TIP: The same drip post can be added to multiple parent orientation communities. Based on when you import parents into those communities, different sets of parents can receive the same message, just at different times.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Create a Post
Featured Posts
Ensure parents see your content at the top of their portal or newsletter during specific time periods.
EXAMPLE: An FAQ post can always appear at the top of your portal so that parents can easily ask questions (using the comment feature). When FAQ time is “over”, simply un-feature the post. Want to share the FAQ with another segment of parents? Simply add that orientation community to the post and re-feature it.
PRO-TIP: Featuring a post can be turned on and off. Turning off the featured post still keeps the post, it just shows lower in the parents newsfeed, based on the post date.
Linked Resources
Standardize support links and other information that parents need. Links appear on the “right rail” in the portal and can be unique for each community.
EXAMPLE: Links to the landing pages for housing, financial aid, etc. reduce your need to recreate content in the portal.
PRO-TIP: Upload PDF attachments to your posts.
Videos
Deliver YouTube videos directly in the portal. No need to click out of the portal, videos play directly in each parent’s newsfeed.
EXAMPLE: Video each of your sessions into more manageable sessions (15-20 minutes). Encourage parents to share important videos with their students (yes, there is a feature for this in CampusESP as well!)
PRO-TIP: Provide closed captioning options for parents to ensure you are ADA compliant.
Parent Comments
Moderated commenting makes it easy to reply directly to parent questions, reject unwanted comments, and maintain a positive, student-focused tone.
EXAMPLE: Create an “Ask Me Anything” post that is featured at the top of parent newsfeed. Parent comments won’t be posted until you are ready (just in case you need time to research an answer!)
PRO-TIP: As an admin, your comments appear with a “check” badge so that you’re distinguished as an expert.
HOW: ESP Guide: How to Approve/Reject Parent Comments
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