How to boost admissions online like a pro?

Students' email boxes and social networks are glutted with information, news and contents of all kinds. When recruiting them, schools and universities thus need to catch their attention as early as possible in the application process. And instant messaging is the most efficient way to do this. Students use their texting apps all the time, and texting's response rate is a lot higher than any other channel's.

Current college students are digital natives. They spend more than 3.5 hours online per day on their mobile devices — almost 50 minutes longer than the average internet user. Yet, they don’t typically use their phones to read emails. Nowadays, students want personalized, easily accessible, and instantaneous information. Mass emails or SMS alerts can't handle this! In order to boost your organization's admissions, you need to speak with them about where they are and use technology that will bolster your process.

So, how can you effectively capture students’ attention and boost admissions? Messaging apps speak for themselves when it comes to engagement:

• 98% of mobile phone owners read every text they receive.
• 90% of students read their texts within just three minutes of receiving them.
• The response rates are 4 times higher with texting than with email.
• 85% of students reported that the text messages they received informed them of something they hadn’t realized they needed to do.
• 83% of students use social networks to choose their future school.

Why use messaging apps to boost admissions?

1. To follow up on individual conversations with students:

Every student comes from a different background and will experience different obstacles when starting the admission process. Some need more support than others, and communication is the most effective way to check in with students. Help them by answering their questions within 5 minutes with instant messaging!

With messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram, it's easier for students to stay in touch with academic institutions. The intimacy and security of IM make it the preferred method for sharing personal information, including applications, letters of recommendation, or transcripts by attachment.

2. To organize virtual and in-person open days:

When organizing your open day event, you can post the information on social media, hand out flyers all over the campus, but still, many students are going to have lots of questions. How to handle them? The solution is to create a QR code that links directly to your Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp Business account. This will let potential students reach you and get all of their questions answered.

3. To arrange conversations between prospective students, current students, alumni, teachers and more!

When new students are about to sign up or join your school, they're going to have lots of questions. They will want to know how life is on campus, the classes, the requirements to enter the program, and more! And sometimes, you can't just solve all questions! This is when you connect future students with current students via messaging.

The good thing about messaging apps is that everybody uses them. You will be able to arrange conversations with eager prospective students that want to know more about your university and current students that can share all of their experiences! This is when messaging apps come to the picture. Connect them via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Current students will be able to send them voice notes or videos of life on campus, send them files, or even make video calls. They will sure connect easily!

4. To engage international students

A setback most of the international students have is that at the moment of admissions, campus tours, and open days, they can't go because they are far away. Don't let this be a disadvantage. You can let them have the full experience just on their phones. Send videos of campus life, voice notes where you explain the admission process, and answer all of their questions, just on their favorite messaging app.

With WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Telegram, and iMessage, you can reach a broader audience and talk to students from all over the world. Allow prospective students to instantly correspond with your college or university while receiving links and files to help the decision-making process.

Manage conversations and automate responses with ChayAll

This is where you take into account what starting a strategy with instant messaging requires. After the decision of one of the students, they would still need guidance, and when they start, sometimes they will have many more questions. You'll need to organize your messaging channels and automate most of the conversations (with a chatbot!).

That's when we come of use! Here at Chayall, we created a very easy to use texting platform which enables you to create, manage and automate all your organization’s student interactions:

• If you’re in charge of admissions, bring together WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Apple in one unique inbox where you can monitor all your activity and improve performance;
• Once they’re enrolled, it’s easy to use the same channel and conversation to manage all interactions with any one of them.

Use our chat platform to improve every aspect of student interactions. Find out more about how higher education professionals can take advantage of our simple chat inbox and the way we help you manage and automate all individual student conversations.

Join us Thursday, January, 20^th at 12 PM (EST) for our special student admissions webinar.