I want to thank all my partner admissions counselors and enrollment advisors for leaning into Capture’s behavioral data! I’ve had some great feedback lately on successes you’ve seen by utilizing our tools. THANK YOU! With that, I’ve gotten requests on how to be sly when trying to broach the information you see in the “Visit History”. I am here for it!
First tip, I try to always communicate information or resources that are not easily available or found on the website and give maybe one but no more than two action items to the individual to complete after. Giving too much information can create overload and too general information won’t drive interest in further communication with you. Too many action items create burnout while giving one to two actions allows you to see engagement and opens the channels of trust and communication with the prospective student.
Second, at the base of communicating, I always use the steps to enrollment to help steer me through:
Inquiries: Goal = Application. What helps decisions at your institution, and what can you provide to help? Ex. Campus visit, virtual visits, clubs/sports, talking to student ambassadors, etc.
Generally, for prospects in an “inquiry” stage, I open the conversation with a short intro to myself as their contact person. Without addressing the exact clicks you’ve seen them make, you can allude to how to move forward with your school. If you notice specific pages they are visiting, make those your “helpful tips”. For example, an inquiry who spends a lot of time on financial aid pages.
Hi, I’m Cat, a counselor at Capture U. I’m here as your go-to for questions and assistance as you check out Capture.
Capture U has a lively campus full of events. I’d love to invite you to campus as many of our prospective students love experiencing our campus culture, especially as all first-year students live on campus. (link to setup visit)
Additionally, as you research schools, tuition is something to think about. Here at Capture U aside from the FAFSA, we offer over 100 different scholarships! Make sure to check out the following link to learn more and how to apply: scholarship link.
Again, I’m here for you! Let me know what questions you have, I look forward to helping you along your college search journey!
Application Started/Applicants: Goal = Submission, Missing items, Filing FAFSA or Scholarships, essays, references, etc.
At this stage, you won’t have to be as careful addressing the fact you know about their movement. They know they created a login or record by starting their application. While I still wouldn’t say, “I see you were spending a lot of time this morning on our career center page,” I may say something like:
“Congratulations on starting your application!” Or, “Congratulations on applying to Capture University!” Followed by addressing where the person is at and what they need to do next. Examples:
- “In order to be considered for admission, you’ll need to submit your application.”
- Generic: “Are you having difficulty with any of the prompts?”
- In visit history, you see they’re on a mobile phone (this was an issue at my last school): “I noticed your application is showing ‘in progress.’ If you are not on a desktop computer, that is often why we see the application not submitting.”
- Career Page Ex: “A lot of students get stuck when needing to choose a program of interest. If this might pertain to you, I like to let my students know, this can be changed and updated as you grow in your educational career! For now, here are some resources to help you choose, or, let’s schedule some time to chat and I can help!”
Admitted: Goal = drive to deposit/enroll.
Some carrots I like to dangle at this point is scheduling! The sooner you are able to register, the better the pick of classes. If in the visit history, you’re seeing specific areas of the website an admitted student is continuing to visit (like learning resources, housing, tuition, similar to the above) I like to open a conversation like:
“Congratulations on your acceptance. I’m excited to get you started! You’re now able to register for classes, and the sooner you do, the better you can build your perfect schedule.” Going on to detail how to do so.
Enrolled/Deposited: Goal = keeping them engaged through class start, stop the melt!
For some teams, this is the end status. You’ve made it! For others, you may need to continue to engage this population of students until X date, first day of class, etc. It’s always good to continue to engage these students with upcoming events if you see their engagement waning or you’re seeing red flags (like visits to financial aid pages) when you see these students on your Daily Visitor Reports. At this stage, you can use the same tactics as above like, “I like to let my future students know about upcoming events as you await move in!”
I’ve gone on long enough, but I hope this gets the communication juices flowing! I’d love to hear more of your successes and your questions! I’m here for you at chollands@capturehighered.com.
By Jacqui Weishaar, Senior Director of Client Success, Capture Higher Ed
