Here is our essential list of marketing automation journeys for any Higher Education marketer that we recommend setting to up to help you boost acquisitions, drive better engagement, and improve retention.
Automated campaigns are great because once set up they can run in the background allowing you to focus on more strategic marketing initiatives.
As automations are either triggered by the individual student’s behaviour or stage of their student lifecycle, they make them very relevant to each individual who receives them.
Successful universities will have a catalogue of personalised automations set up that do the majority of their student communications, with occasional ad hoc broader campaigns that go out to everyone.
So here are 10 ideas for popular automations that enable you to optimise all key stages of the student lifecycle from initial enquiry to being an alumni.
1. Prospective student welcome
This automation is to nurture those who have expressed an interest in your university by signing up to your emails learn more about the university and the courses available.
This is the perfect place to make a good first impression in terms of what your university offers and why it should be part of their selection. Include key pieces of content such as student testimonials or upcoming campus tours.
If you have a generic sign-up form then use this as an opportunity to gain some preference collections along this journey so you can tailor the message to them.
If you have different sign ups at different points on your website such as on different course pages, then make sure you use that website data to drive what is in your prospective welcome campaign.
2. Browse abandonment
Your prospective students will have explored your universities website and browsed a specific, or multiple courses.
They more than likely will be doing the same at a number of other universities therefore take this opportunity to follow up with that student once they have left your website with a browse abandonment campaign.
Remind them of the key selling points of the course they viewed, prospective career paths, or successful stories from other students who have completed that course. This is a great way to keep your universities at the top of them mind while they are also looking elsewhere.
3. Campus events
All of your events such as campus tours can easily be managed through automations. Whether that is promote upcoming events to those who wished to be informed of the next campus tour, reminders to register for those who haven’t yet, as well as thank you automations for post campus visits.
Try and make these emails stand out from other campus tours they might be going to by including small personalised touches. Such as drive time from their home address or what the weather is going to be like the day they visit and if they need to pack an umbrella to explore the grounds!
Managing all the event communications through preset automations can help make sure your time is focused on other areas such as ensuring the event runs smoothly.
4. Parent engagement campaign
Parents are an important stakeholder in the student’s decision making process. Therefore, where possible you should be making sure you also deliver a great experience to them.
Set automation ups to align parallel with the student communications, so they have the opportunity to talk to their child about the university and course information they have both received.
Highlight parent specific content such as how to help their child make the right decision and how best to support them though this big life decision.
5. Application abandonment
An application abandonment campaign can help you overcome application target challenges. Sometimes students will start applications and get distracted or need more information.
Rather than leave to chance, and hope the student returns, have reminder of those who have started but not yet completed.
The automations can include FAQs or tips on commonly asked questions around the application process or key deadline dates approaching.
You can even make the email stand out by having a countdown timer as to when the application deadline closes to create the sense of urgency.
6. Offer accepted
One of the most exciting times for a student is when they hear the news their offer has been accepted for the university of their choice.
So use this an a great example to make sure you have automated campaigns triggered for that exact time to congratulate the student and share your excitement in them attending your university.
Its key to reinforce they have made the right decision and therefore crucial at this stage to make them feel they are not just an admissions number therefore think of ways that you personalise the campaigns based on what data you have on their past interactions, such as content watched, events attended or how they have until they start their university journey.
7. New student welcome
After their offer has been accepted it is crucial to continue building momentum with that student to ensure you don’t get any dropouts before their course starts.
A pre university checklist nurture journey can be great to advise them on all the areas they need to consider and prepare for ahead of starting university.
Also take this as another opportunity to gain preference collections from your new students, if you hadn’t already on what else they might like to do at university such as sports or socials, and use this to personalised their welcome journey.
8. First semester check in
An often overlooked part of the student experience is the universities opportunity to check in with new students. Often there is a lot of focus on how to help them prepare before their arrival but that can stop once their university life begins.
The first semester is a scary time in this new stage of their life therefore having a thoughtful automated check in after their first semester can be an opportunity to see how they student is, remind them of key support services you have on offer, or who they can speak to if they would like to talk.
9. Student retention
In every university they will be a percentage of students who show signs of potentially not engaging with the course of university they have chosen. If these are left unengaged that can lead to university dropouts.
By using data such as on attendance, grades, or other triggers you can identify those students who may be ‘at risk’ of dropping out and disengaging and automate a campaign to those students to help re-engage them before it gets too far.
Where possible keep these personalised so you are showing the student you value them and they are not just an attendance number, so include information on the course they are attending, support options available and exciting projects upcoming.
10. Post university check in
A key stage in the student’s lifecycle is the point not long after they graduate. This is the perfect time to check back in with that student while they will be feeling positive and enthusiastic about what your university has provided them.
These campaigns can be used to help promote relevant networking events, information on how to help new prospective students through being an alumni community and ideas for them to share their story of their university experience.
This helps show the student that you valued their attendance at the university.
Relevant and personalised
A theme highlighted in many of these automations is that they are great to be relevant to the student in that moment, but where possible, help your university stand out from the crowd by making sure even the automation have personalised content within those campaigns.
That will really make sure that student views you as a university that cares – which will go a long way in help them with big decisions they need to make and staying engaged alumni for years to come.
Ready to take your next steps in marketing automation?
Visit our Higher Education Email Marketing page and see how we can help you turn personalisation into increased enrolments and engagement. Or click below to get started and… Talk to one of our experts!
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