Texting has opened more doors for engaging with students than any other channel we've used. Being able to communicate with students in their preferred form of communication is a huge advantage.
About Southwestern Michigan College
Southwestern Michigan College (SMC) is a dual-campus community college that enrolls approximately 2,500 students. The admissions department began using Modern Campus Signal Vine in 2017, aiming to increase student engagement throughout the admissions cycle.
Challenges
Like many other community colleges, SMC was looking for an effective communication channel that would streamline their conversations with applicants and increase their yield and retention rates on campus.
Prior to using Signal Vine, SMC already knew that texting was the most effective way to reach their students and had been using another texting platform. However, after facing limitations, they decided to look into other providers that would allow them to use their student data more effectively to increase the relevance and personalization of their messages. They found that sending mass, unpersonalized messages led to students feeling disengaged and disconnected from the institution, and it was too time-consuming for staff to do the work of targeting messages that a more advanced platform would be able to do for them.
Implementation
SMC made the switch to Signal Vine so that they could better personalize and target their text messages at scale.
Prospective students provide a mobile number on their application and choose to opt in to receive texts throughout the admissions cycle. Students can also find their recruiters’ Signal Vine texting number on recruiters’ business cards or on the admissions website. Through these channels, SMC has increased the number of students they communicate with throughout the admissions cycle.
Students receive texts once they’ve submitted their application and are provided with an outlet where they can ask questions throughout the admissions process. SMC sends texts reminding students of upcoming deadlines and informing students of where they can find the proper resources to complete their tasks.
SMC also uses student data to target the right messages to the right students. For example, recruiters will use the platform’s advanced search capability to reach out to students from certain high schools when they’ll be visiting their school.
Results
At the start of the 2018 fall semester, Southwestern Michigan College was able to see measurable results from their texting program. Admissions leaders measured a 6% increase in admissions yield for students who were in the texting program powered by Modern Campus Signal Vine.
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About Modern Campus
Modern Campus is obsessed with empowering its nearly 2,000 higher education customers to thrive when radical transformation is required to respond to lower student enrollments and revenue, rising costs, crushing student debt, and administrative complexity.
The Modern Campus engagement platform powers solutions for non-traditional student management, web content management, catalog and curriculum management, student engagement and development, conversational text messaging, career pathways, and campus maps and virtual tours. The result: innovative institutions can create a learner-to-earner lifecycle that engages modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency.
Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner engagement movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn.