With spring visits, spring break, decision letter prep and releases, and the ever-present pressure of May 1 looming, March is anything but calm in the world of admissions. That’s why it’s so important that your events are properly set up and organized, payments are being collected, academic advisor calendar integrations are functioning, and checklists are being implemented. Whew, that’s a long list.

Thankfully, we know your pain points and are here to help with tips and tricks to set your office up for success in the coming weeks — no special luck required! 🍀

Oh, decision releases… Few things are more stressful or take more time to get right. Whether it’s striking the precise note of empathy in denial or waitlist messages, or putting together a celebratory admit package, it takes a whole lot of work. To help ensure you’re getting the reactions you’re hoping for, leverage personalization at every step! Tailor your messages to reflect each student’s journey and achievements. Little details like including their intended major, calling out their interests, or noting something from their application essay that stood out to you, can go such a long way.

Carry that personalization through customized checklists and utilize segmentation to make sure students are only receiving information relevant to them (events included!).

With spring and summer comes the natural influx of on-campus visitors! Are you ready? Make sure your events are updated and all associated communications (invitations, reminders, instructions, confirmations, etc.) are crafted and automated to perfection.

How? Start with—you guessed it—personalization! Use your CRM to track student interests and tailor their visit experience accordingly. If a student is interested in a particular major, arrange for them to meet with faculty or attend a class. Did they list specific clubs or activities they want to pursue? Show them those meeting spaces and introduce them to current members! Also, don’t overlook the importance of following up with students and families after their visit. Setting up your CRM to automatically send out post-visit surveys not only provides another touch point, but the feedback you’ll gather will also be critical for refining and enhancing future events. Surveys can be built in your CRM or in other platforms like Qualtrics. If you don’t know where to start, ask us how! Remember, the hard work you put in now leads to stellar anti-melt initiatives later.

Last but certainly not least, try rethinking how you and your team interact with students and families. Instead of asking generic questions, inquire about the students’ interests, career goals, or what they’re most looking forward to about college. Doing so not only helps foster more meaningful connections, but it will also help you stand out in their memory.

Let’s be real—getting students to confirm their enrollment and pay their deposits can take some serious work. Help ease the burden on your team by keeping the following in mind:

1. It’s easy to forget that not everyone knows what we mean when we say “enrollment deposit.” Let’s make sure it’s clear from the get-go by using plain language to explain what it is and why it’s important.
2. Make sure you provide easy, step-by-step instructions on how and where to submit deposits and required paperwork.
3. Take an omnichannel approach to May 1 reminders and leverage key dates as the deadline approaches. Think countdown emails and texts, phone calls, or even IG Live Q&A sessions!

The month of February is synonymous with love, so what better way to spend the coming weeks than leveraging your CRM to help your admitted students fall in love with your college and say “yes!” to joining you this fall.

With application reading complete, it’s time to gear up for admitted student events! 🎉 We all know how critical getting students on campus is to securing deposits, so you’ll want to pull out all the stops when planning your admitted student days — including in your communications! Show your students that you care (and are paying attention!) by creating hyper-personalized messages leveraging dynamic content and/or Liquid markup. By utilizing dynamic content, you can create a single mailing that displays different, personalized information for each student on everything from their major and athletic interests to their advisor and academic school.

It can easily be argued that nothing is more important to students and their families than the financial aid package. In addition to sending packages digitally (more on that here), consider importing key financial aid information to display on student records. Doing so will allow your admission counselors to have more meaningful conversations with students and further solidify the relationships they’ve been building.

Make life easier for yourself, your counselors, and your admitted students by taking full advantage of your CRM’s workflow automations. Whether it’s on-campus orientation, program-specific visit days, or new student arrival, set up your events to send triggered reminders and follow-up communications. Your counselors will love having one less thing on their to-do lists, and students and their families will appreciate being kept in the loop as their event approaches.

Do you know what’s just as important as getting current admitted students to fall in love with campus? Planting the seeds for future classes. If your campus hosts summer camps (or any camps for that matter), you have a prime opportunity to get new names into your system! Include opt-in language on registration forms or try to work an admissions presentation into the camps’ schedules. No matter how you go about it, make sure those names end up in your database and added to your nurture campaigns.

In an era where digital platforms shape countless decisions, TikTok remains a dominant force, captivating millions worldwide. While a U.S. ban loomed — and the app even went dark overnight for 14 hours on January 18th — sending shockwaves and outcry from millions, an executive order has postponed any restrictions for 75 days, granting higher education institutions more time to leverage the platform’s marketing potential. The show of support and fevered loyalty toward the app shows how influential TikTok is as a tool in higher education marketing. 

For now, TikTok offers a valuable opportunity to connect with prospective students from Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Here’s how colleges and universities can maximize TikTok’s influence to enhance recruitment and engagement efforts during this extended window.

TikTok’s rapid growth, particularly among younger audiences in the U.S. — 41% of its users are aged 16 to 24 — makes it an excellent marketing platform for colleges and universities. But it’s not just about the numbers; TikTok thrives on vibrant, immersive content that fosters deep engagement. Prospective students from Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t merely passive viewers, they’re active participants spending an average of 9.31 hours per week on the platform. This makes TikTok a prime tool for driving event registrations, generating leads, and building meaningful connections.

Showcasing campus life, academic programs, and student experiences helps colleges attract a broad range of prospective applicants. To create standout content on TikTok, a mix of creativity, strategy, and execution is key. Here are some effective strategies:

1. Day-in-the-Life Videos: TikTok thrives on creativity and authenticity, urging educational marketers to craft campaigns that connect with students. Our partners stand out by using TikTok to share real student stories, campus events, and daily college life. These videos offer genuine snapshots into student life, helping prospective students connect emotionally with the institution and envision themselves as part of the community.
2. Highlight Unique Aspects: Showcase the elements that make a campus unique—renowned faculty, cutting-edge research facilities, or dynamic student life activities—to differentiate the institution.
3. Leverage Challenges and Trends: Participating in challenges or trends can boost visibility, especially when tailored to educational themes or campus life. TikTok’s algorithm amplifies engaging content, increasing the likelihood of ads going viral and expanding reach for branding campaigns.
4. Collaborate with Influencers: Student influencers and alumni lend credibility and authenticity. Influencers viewed as peers can more effectively persuade and engage prospective students from both generations.
5. Optimize Calls-to-Action: Strong, clear calls-to-action are essential for encouraging prospective students to explore the institution, visit virtually or in person, or apply. Investing in TikTok reaches a highly engaged audience, driving recruitment and event results. TikTok’s analytics offer key insights into performance, helping marketers refine strategies, optimize resources, and adapt to audience preferences in real time.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future, it remains a goldmine of opportunities for higher education marketers. The unwavering support and dedication from TikTok’s loyal user base reinforce its undeniable value as a platform for meaningful engagement in higher education marketing. Its unparalleled reach, vibrant content culture, and robust analytics tools provide a proven blueprint for engaging Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The 75-day postponement offers a chance to double down on your TikTok strategy. By crafting compelling narratives that resonate with prospective students, institutions can maximize visibility and build lasting connections. 

As the future of TikTok in the U.S. remains uncertain, now is the time to make the most of its marketing potential. The digital media strategists at Spark451 are here to help you navigate this dynamic platform, refine your tactics and approach, and achieve your goals. With a forward-thinking approach, we’ll ensure your institution stands out and remains competitive in the evolving digital landscape. Reach out today to get started.

Welcome back! January is a busy month, but luckily, we get to stay indoors with fewer on-campus events and visits this time of year. So, sit back, get cozy, warm up a beverage of your choice, fire up your CRM, and crank through the work ahead.

To get you started, we’ve outlined a few actionable tips to help you streamline your processes, personalize your outreach, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Something tells us this will be your best year yet!

It’s application and essay reading time! Get yourself and your team ready for the assortment of deadlines that comes with this time of year. From internal deadlines to the all-important regular decision deadline, does your team have what it needs to tackle the tasks at hand? Here are a few tips that may help:

1. Have you sent reminder emails to students with missing materials? Don’t let missing materials hold up your application review! Even if your campus hasn’t started the spring semester yet, high school students are probably back in school and admissions counselors can follow up with a phone call or text to get those materials in.
2. How does your duplicate record count look? Make sure your team is merging duplicate records, whether they are inquiries or applicants. (Slate users: Visit Consolidate Records. Element451 users: See the Deduplication Module.)
3. Are you following up with students who started an application, but haven’t submitted it? Don’t let your institution fall off their radar!

If your institution conducts student interviews, you know the drill — schedule, interview, repeat! Whether these interviews are in-person or virtual, leverage your CRM to schedule these conversations. In your CRM, log notes on student records and make it so that any admissions counselor can quickly find your notetaking later.

It’s time to start converting admitted students into enrolled students for the fall. Plan how your team will be organizing admitted student events in your CRM. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Do you need any new templates built?
• How are your event communications looking?
• Do you want visit reports that show year-over-year goal progress from this year to last?
• Where is your admitted student checklist?
• Are the forms you’ll be asking students to complete accessible and easy to navigate?
• Do you have a plan in place for recruiting dual enrollment students?

There’s no better time than now to get financial aid packages prepared and proofread. This holds especially true if your institution has early deadlines or priority deadlines for submitting the FAFSA. Get ahead now and enter the spring term with less stress than last year!

No matter how perfect your website, pamphlets, FAQ documents, and information sessions are, students and parents will have many questions. How will you be triaging these types of questions this year?

We have some creative solutions in mind. Let us help you optimize your inbox configurations. Reach out to learn more!

Now that travel season has come to an end, it’s time to turn your focus to the next steps in the admissions cycle. December is a crucial month for setting the stage for a successful spring and beyond, so we’ve put together a list of key tasks and reminders to help keep you — and your CRM — on track:

Sending holiday cards to prospective students and their families is not only thoughtful, but a great way for your school to stay top-of-mind. Use your CRM to curate a list of top-engaged students for your recipient list, then, assign tasks to your counselors (or even print to card using services like Slate Print). This personal touch can make a significant impact and shows that you care about the student’s journey.

Get ready to implement yield campaigns over the coming months to nurture your admitted students. Regular, personalized communications will help keep them engaged and excited about attending your institution, and consistent reminders about next steps will help move your admit pool through the funnel.

Take advantage of portals and microsites by using them to house additional information and action items that future students need to complete in order to deposit and enroll. Then, be sure to link to them in your communications to grow engagement metrics! You can even create reports to help your team visualize metrics and track which campaigns were most successful.

It’s never too early to start developing your spring yield events! Begin by refining your recipient list within your CRM, then, determine how many email and SMS reminders you want to send (don’t forget to preview all of them!). These events are critical for converting admitted students into enrolled students, so be sure to create them ahead of time so they can be reviewed internally before going live. Remember, the more prepared you are, the smoother these events will run.

A new source format for the National Student Clearinghouse was recently released in Slate, so now it’s time to automate the import. Remember, the quicker student’s transcripts are imported to your CRM, the quicker your team can process them.

If you’re a Slate user, a quick check to make sure you’re displaying the correct round and decisions could save your office staff a lot of time. Don’t have Slate.org configured? Reach out to us for help!

Now is the perfect time to test out any new functionalities your institution will be rolling out. Take advantage of your test environment and test records to ensure everything is working as expected. Spending a little more time on testing can save you a lot of headaches later.

In addition to your personal New Year’s resolutions, set some CRM New Year’s resolutions for you and your team. By focusing on these tasks, you’ll be well-prepared for the upcoming months and ready to support your students in making one of the most important decisions of their lives.

Ensuring your workspace is clean and organized is just as important as your CRM being clean and organized! Take some time clearing your desktop, downloads folder, shared cloud storage, and physical workspace. It’ll make coming back to the office in the new year much more enjoyable. Most importantly, remember to take a moment to celebrate your team’s successes this month! Recognizing and appreciating the hard work of your colleagues goes a long way towards fostering a positive and motivated work environment.