Content Tagging and Interaction Tracking
Objective: Develop and deploy a content tagging solution that categorizes text using keywords aligned with university priorities, enabling automated and batch methods to inform Phase 2 segment development. This system will measure content performance and uncover audience interests beyond giving affinities and academic ties.
Fall 2025 update: Work continues to advance on developing a sustainable tagging and tracking framework – one of the foundational steps toward audience-level insights and personalized engagement.
The team is using uw.edu/boundless as a testing ground for this work. Boundless already has its content tagged, which makes it an ideal first case for implementing a tagging display system. Stage 1 focused on establishing the technical groundwork – connecting to APIs and getting content tagged – while Stage 2, now underway, is centered on displaying those tags to end users and allowing them to potentially filter stories by interest. Having proven the concept, this approach will improve the user experience on Boundless and serve as a prototype for other units. The long-term goal is to make it possible for others across UW to install a plugin, tag their own content and visualize how audiences engage – laying the groundwork for entity-level tracking across the enterprise.
Progress on this objective has been slowed due to resourcing challenges because of the current budget climate, however incremental work continues. The next step will be identifying how this tagging framework can extend to other high-traffic sites such as the UW Homepage, particularly in sections like News and Events, where early tagging can reveal audience behaviors that inform future segmentation.
Ultimately, this work enables a future where if we identify a user is in a certain segment – say, a potential student – we can more easily shift to show them admissions-related content while alumni or donors might see something different.
Objective 2: Segmentation
Objective: Create and begin use of up to six dynamic segments aligned with UA five-year objectives and emerging campaign priorities via UW Current and other available central channels.
Fall 2025 update: Segmentation work is moving from theory to experimentation, with real-world tests and data gathering now underway. The team recently held an initial collaboration with the UW Alumni Association to analyze engagement trends and UMAC digital marketing automation team is continuing with segmented email tests through UW Current. A test in October 2025 targeting graduates of the last decade was designed to observe how this audience interacts with specific types of stories and calls to action intended to spur engagement.
On social media, we’re also conducting targeted tests to understand what types of content resonate most with people our existing follower base – audiences we’ve come to refer to as “hometown strangers.” These are Washingtonians who may not have a direct connection to UW but still benefit from its impact in their communities. By analyzing how different content types perform with non-followers, we’re learning how UW can expand its reach and relevance beyond our traditional audiences.
Early findings show that:
- Research-based content – especially stories with broad, human relevance like medical breakthroughs or environmental innovation – performs exceptionally well and bridges divides across political and geographic lines.
- “Did you know?” facts about UW’s history and contributions and vibrant University photography both drive strong engagement among not just current alums, but social media users outside the UW follower base.
- Posts using authentic, in-the-moment visuals – people in action, candid portraits or organic photography – significantly outperform those built around branded graphics or event logos, often doubling engagement.
Social media serves as our “test bed” for this work: its ephemeral nature lets us experiment continuously, observe what resonates and share those insights quickly with partners across Advancement. Some posts – such as UW’s recognition of Nobel Prize winner Mary Brunkow or Dr. Nora Disis’s cancer vaccine research – have reached more than a million people, with over 80% of engagement coming from non-followers, demonstrating how storytelling can elevate awareness and affinity beyond existing circles.
We’re using these insights to inform how our own content teams plan and produce stories, making a pointed effort to amplify them across social, web and email. The goal is to connect high-performing themes and visual approaches across channels so that each story has the best chance to reach and resonate with its intended audiences.
Objective 3: Automation and Support
Objective: Enhance central Advancement staff’s capacity to focus on advanced campaign execution, strategic planning and enhanced segment engagement strategies.
Fall 2025 update: Work continues to transform the central teams that support Marketo users into a more comprehensive Email Marketing Automation Center. The goal is to preserve existing support for University unit partners while placing greater emphasis on coordination, governance and deliverability management across our shared email ecosystem.
During Phase 2, the teams have spent time evaluating how our tools are used and identifying opportunities to create more self-sufficient and efficient workflows – specifically tools that don’t require users to be coding experts or advanced marketing technicians to run effective campaigns. Our goal is to find solutions that can automate audience development and journey creation, freeing up communicators to focus more on content strategy and storytelling rather than technical configuration. We also want to make sure that there are clearer operating standards and proactive monitoring so that every unit benefits from optimized system performance while maintaining flexibility to execute creative, data-driven campaigns.
While progress in this area has been affected by ongoing resourcing and staffing challenges, the primary focus remains on preparing for a future-state platform (see the next objective) that allows us to design, build and deliver communications that are efficient, accessible and respectful of our audiences’ attention. Ultimately, the goal is to make building emails easier, smarter and more audience-aware – using the right suite of tools to streamline production while ensuring we don’t inundate people with too many messages.
Objective 4: Email Platform Evaluation
Objective: Evaluate automated email marketing tools, policies and staffing with users, and decide on necessary revisions and any related change management.
Fall 2025 update: Over the past several months, we’ve been assessing the long-term viability of our current Marketo deployment – both in terms of functionality and in terms of sustainability from a cost perspective. This assessment has included exploring other software options that offer similar or improved features and performance, or that provide a more intuitive user experience for designing, executing and measuring the efficacy of our campaigns and content.
To support this process, we have committed to renewing the Marketo contract for calendar year 2026, but with some necessary changes that include elimination of the enhanced (aka ‘Ultimate’) Adobe support agreement, sustainable reductions in redundant or excess licensing for users and leads, and reduction of certain Marketo services related to internal communications. Renewing Marketo in this way gives us ample time to fully assess our best options between Marketo and a rapidly evolving landscape of technologies and services that may better support the University’s strategic goals in alignment with the current fiscal constraints. Our goal, as always, will be to deploy best-in-class marketing technology solutions that offer strong automation, smart audience management, effective analytics and reporting tools, and intuitive user experience.
While we explore these options – and over the remainder of FY2026 at minimum – we will continue to ensure that Marketo, Jeto, and related services are fully available to our Advancement and University partners. Over the coming months we will work in partnership with our marketing automation stakeholders to evaluate our long-term options and develop a clear roadmap for FY2027 and beyond. We will of course keep you all informed as that roadmap comes into clearer focus.