For years, colleges have connected with prospective students via email. While this tactic once proved effective, it’s become outdated. Thankfully for higher education recruitment, the digital age has created new methods of reaching students.

Short message service (SMS) college messaging is a modern way for colleges and universities to make contact with prospective students and their families. For this approach to achieve its intended purpose, it must be carefully developed and implemented. Here, AMNY Education Marketing dives deeper into SMS marketing in higher education recruitment and explains how it can be applied.

What Is SMS Marketing in Higher Education?

SMS, or text messages, allows users to send short messages to mobile devices. It’s a common form of communication that’s utilized by almost everyone every single day. Colleges have adopted this form of communication and applied it to their higher education recruitment efforts.

This convenient form of communication has proven to be successful. Students and their families are more likely to respond to text messages from colleges and universities than other approaches such as email or phone calls.

SMS Applications in Higher Ed Recruitment

Teenage boys ages 14-17 send and receive, on average, 60 text messages per day. That number jumps to over 100 text messages for teenage girls. That equates to over 3,000 texts a month. Higher education institutions can capitalize on this preferred communication channel by applying it to their recruiting strategies.

The various ways colleges and universities can utilize SMS include:

Event Invitations

A great way for colleges to utilize SMS messaging in their marketing efforts is to use it for sending invitations to campus events to prospective students. Learning institutions can entice students by thinking of creative ways to promote campus tours, admissions fairs, family days, and community news. Sending this kind of information directly to students and their families can lead to much higher engagement rates.

Creating Relationships

Following in-person events, college recruiters can use SMS as a way to stay in touch with students and their families. By doing so, colleges can learn how the student’s overall experience was. This step helps to foster stronger and more meaningful relationships between students and colleges.

Typically, students are required to fill out their contact information before attending an event. If recruiters plan to use students’ information to contact them, they must get consent or make certain students understand they’ll be receiving text messages about the college in the future.

Send Reminders

A high school senior’s life can be demanding and complex. Students tend to have busy schedules, juggling academics, extracurricular activities, and their social lives. While performing this balancing act, it’s easy to see how college-aged learners can let important information and tasks fall through the cracks.

Furthermore, students typically have multiple college applications and have more than one enrollment offer at a time. Higher education institutions can use SMS to send students important reminders. This form of motivation can help to improve application and enrollment rates. Sending timely text messages can improve the odds of students moving forward with registering for classes.

Offer Service-Related Chat Features

The proper SMS platform or texting software enables students or their parents to receive pertinent information using their mobile devices. Colleges can deliver a live chat experience through text messaging to address a variety of topics, such as:

• Admissions: Colleges can answer questions related to enrollment, as well as provide important dates and useful links.
• Registration: Students can ask questions pertaining to registration and what courses are available.
• Financial aid: Higher education institutions can provide information about financial aid and direct inquiries to the correct departments.
• Campus life: Students can receive information on campus life and events that are taking place at the college.

Based on preferences and available technology, higher learning institutions can choose to have their SMS platform operated by actual staff members or run automatically using an artificial intelligence chatbot. No matter which approach colleges choose, they must always prioritize user experience.

Learn More About SMS Messaging

Direct forms of communication have proven to be among the most effective marketing approaches in higher education recruitment. SMS messaging allows colleges and universities to reach prospective students and provide them with critical information to help improve enrollment rates.

AMNY Education Marketing serves higher learning institutions across the U.S. Our team uses a variety of innovative marketing techniques to enhance marketing strategies, with the goal of reaching a broader range of prospective students. All of the marketing tactics we use involve the most up-to-date trends, including SMS messaging in higher education recruitment. For more information regarding our professional offerings, contact us today.