Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant
5 minutes
SFMC for Student Retention | Community Building | Parent Engagement | Academic Support Campaigns
Salesforce Marketing Cloud | Institutions | Student recruitment | Digital marketing for education | Alumni Engagement
University admissions teams | Higher education marketing professionals | Student recruitment officers | Education administrators | Marketing automation specialists | Private and public school administrators | School directors
Part 4: Enhancing Student Retention, Building a Strong Community, and Engaging Parents with Salesforce Marketing Cloud
(Missed Part 1? Check it out here)
If you’re looking to improve student retention and build stronger relationships with your college community, here’s how Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) can make that happen.
Student Retention: Keeping Students on Track for Success
Retention isn’t just about keeping students enrolled and preventing dropouts, it’s about understanding their individual needs, challenges, and experiences. Continuously providing ongoing support and addressing individual challenges as they arise. Being able to know these things as soon as you can is a must.
With SFMC, colleges can track student behavior, engagement, and academic performance to create personalized communication campaigns. Again, as always mentioned in the previous articles, Personalization is key here. What’s the biggest reason students fall through the cracks? It’s often because they feel like just another number. Generic emails and mass communications won’t keep students engaged, especially when they need individualized support. SFMC solves this problem by helping you create tailored, data-driven campaigns that speak directly to each student’s needs.
One example would be Academic Support Campaigns.
Identifying students at risk of falling behind is crucial, but the next step is providing the right support. This is where SFMC truly shines.
With SFMC, institutions can deploy automated academic support campaigns that provide struggling students with the resources they need. These campaigns could include tutoring options, academic advising reminders, or information about mental health services. Automation ensures that students receive timely communications when they need it most, without overwhelming administrative staff. This level of personalized outreach can make all the difference in helping students stay engaged and succeed academically.
Events are the heartbeat of a college community.
Retention isn’t just about academics. It’s about creating an environment where students feel like they belong. Events are one of the most effective ways to foster a sense of community on campus, giving students opportunities to connect with peers, faculty, and staff. Whether it’s orientation, career fairs, or social gatherings, events help students feel a sense of belonging. But promoting events and ensuring high attendance can be tricky.
For example, first-year students and their families might receive invitations to welcome events, while seniors and their parents might get reminders about career fairs or graduation preparations. This personalized event promotion increases participation and strengthens the campus community.
SFMC simplifies the entire process. You can promote events through multiple channels like email, SMS, and social media. This ensures no one misses an opportunity to get involved. With SFMC you can setup reminders within the single journey where the recipient did not open the initial email.
The Power of Follow-Up: Keeping the Momentum Going
One of the most overlooked elements of event management is what happens after the event. You’ve hosted a successful career fair or leadership seminar, now what? SFMC allows colleges to automate post-event follow-up, ensuring that students and parents receive additional resources, feedback surveys, or invitations to future events.
After an event, for example, SFMC can automatically send thank-you emails to students and parents, share event highlights, or provide information on upcoming opportunities. For a career fair, this might include links to job postings or employer connections.
Keeping Parents in the Loop
Think about the impact this could have: parents feel more connected to the institution, and they can support their students more effectively. Whether it’s reminding parents about tuition deadlines or giving them a heads-up on support services available for their student, keeping the lines of communication open is a huge asset.
These communications might include academic progress reports, upcoming school events, important deadlines, and even alerts if their child is falling behind. By keeping parents informed, they will feel more connected to the institution and are more likely to encourage their children to seek help when needed.
The ultimate goal of using SFMC for student retention, community building, and parental communication is to create an environment where students feel connected, supported, and engaged throughout their academic journey.
When students feel supported and parents are kept informed, the whole community benefits. As students graduate and become alumni, they will continue to feel invested in their institution, maintaining ties that can lead to lifelong connections and continued support. As mentioned before, alumni are your school’s greatest assets.
Mint Consulting Australia Pty Ltd (ABN: 13 629 524 572) is a Sydney-based CRM and Salesforce Managed Services consultancy specializing in implementations, integrations, and business strategy, supported by a skilled local team of consultants, solution architects, and developers.