Campaigns
Higher education marketing automation: email, SMS and WhatsApp
Invite prospects to open houses, remind admitted students about deposit deadlines and promote graduate webinars by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Pick a segment and a template, schedule the send inside the hours you set, and see what was delivered, opened and clicked, in the same CRM for colleges and universities your counselors use.
- New campaign: Email as the channel
- Audience: a saved segment, 2,480 leads match
- Content: the Open house invite email template
- Send window 9 AM to 6 PM, in the campaign's time zone
- Review the campaign
- Schedule: the campaign is scheduled for Sep 18
- After the send: 2,431 delivered and 1,196 opened
Recruitment campaigns, built on your admissions data.
Your enrollment marketing team works on the same records as admissions. Audiences come from live lead stages, sources and activity, sends go out from the CRM, and opens and clicks are recorded against each lead, where workflow automation can act on them. No list gets exported and goes stale before it sends.
Lists and dynamic segments
Fixed lists, or segments whose members update as leads change stage and activity.
Three channels
One wizard for email, SMS and WhatsApp sends.
A/B variants
A weighted split between versions of an email or SMS, with sent, open and click rates per variant.
Scheduling
Send now, or set the date and time, such as the morning after an open house.
Recurrence
Repeat every so many days, weeks or months for reminders that run through the admissions cycle.
Send windows
Messages outside the hours you set wait for the window, in the campaign's time zone.
Tracking and analytics
Email opens and clicks, plus sent, delivered and failed totals across channels.
Email designer
Drag-and-drop blocks for emails in your university's brand, with no HTML.
Audiences
Segments that follow applicants through the funnel.
- Rules on stage, source, medium, campaign, counselor, score and dates
- Dynamic or static
- Matching count as you edit
- Match ALL conditionsStage, campaign and last-activity rules together.
- 342 matching leadsRecomputed as you edit the rules.
Build the email, set the timing, let the schedule run.
The campaign wizard asks for audience, channel, content, A/B variants and timing in the same order, whether central admissions is sending a fall open house invitation or a graduate program is promoting its next webinar.
Drag-and-drop email designer
Branded emails without waiting on a web team.
- Headings, text, images, buttons and columns
- Settings for each block
- No HTML needed
Timing
Deposit reminders that go out on schedule, week after week.
- Scheduled and recurring sends
- Send windows in the campaign's time zone
- A/B variants for email and SMS
- Overnight windows supported
Campaigns and workflows
Turn a click into a counselor follow-up.
When an admitted student clicks the link in the deposit reminder or a graduate prospect opens a webinar invitation, a workflow can take the next step.
An open, a click or a bounce can start a workflow.
- Opened, clicked and bounced triggers
- Send campaign as a workflow action
- Conditions, waits and branches
A yield campaign to admitted students, step by step.
- 1
Pick the audience
A dynamic segment of leads at your admitted application stage, or a static list you already keep.
- 2
Write for the channel
An email from the designer, or an SMS or WhatsApp template, with A/B variants on email and SMS to compare two versions.
- 3
Set the timing
Send now or schedule it, set it to repeat every few days or weeks, and keep delivery inside a send window.
- 4
Read the results
Delivered, opened, clicked and failed, with an engagement funnel and the leads each campaign touched and converted.
Good to know for marketers: A/B variants cover email and SMS, and your team picks the winner from the results card. Email and SMS merge tags come from a fixed list, such as the lead’s first name, course and counselor, while WhatsApp templates can also use custom fields. Segments don’t filter on UTM values, country or custom fields.
What each campaign connects to.
- Apply, enroll & measure
Workflow automation
Triggers, conditions and actions in a visual builder
Explore Workflow automation - Manage & counsel
Conversations inbox
Two-way WhatsApp and Messenger, email and SMS history
Explore Conversations inbox - Apply, enroll & measure
Dashboards & analytics
Funnels, channels and team performance
Explore Dashboards & analytics
FAQ
Recruitment campaign questions
How would we run a yield campaign to admitted students?
Build a dynamic segment of leads at your admitted application stage and send deposit deadline reminders by email, SMS or WhatsApp. The segment's rules are re-evaluated automatically, so students your team moves to a deposit-paid stage drop out of later sends and new admits are picked up.
Can open house and campus visit invitations go out by email, SMS and WhatsApp?
Yes. Each channel runs from the same campaign wizard: an email invitation built in the designer, an SMS reminder, or an approved WhatsApp template with the event date filled in from a lead or custom field. Audiences come from your lists and segments, and results for each campaign show who received, opened and clicked it.
Which email, SMS and WhatsApp providers can our university connect?
You can connect your own accounts and pay the providers directly: an email service or any SMTP server for email, an SMS gateway for SMS, and the WhatsApp Business Platform, directly or through a supported provider, for WhatsApp. Accounts you connect stay under your university's own contracts. You can also start with built-in channels and free sign-up credits (see pricing for how credits work).
When do scheduled campaigns reach applicants in other time zones?
Send windows use the campaign's time zone and apply to every recipient in the campaign. Messages that fall outside the window are held until it opens, and windows can run overnight, so for international applicants set the window to hours that suit the region you are writing to. Campaigns can also repeat every so many days, weeks or months.
Can we A/B test a graduate program webinar invitation?
Yes, on email and SMS. Add variants with a weighted split, such as two subject lines for the webinar invitation, and the A/B results card shows sent, open rate and click rate for each. Your team compares them and chooses the version to keep; no winner is picked automatically. WhatsApp campaigns send one approved template.
Can a click on a campaign email alert the student's counselor?
Yes, through a workflow. Opened, clicked and bounced campaign emails can each trigger a workflow, which can notify a counselor or create a follow-up. For example, a click on the link to your deposit instructions page can put a call on the counselor's list, and a bounced invitation can prompt a WhatsApp message.
What results can we share with enrollment leadership after a campaign?
Campaign analytics show recipients, sent, delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, unsubscribed and failed across channels, with an engagement funnel, engagement over time and the top clicked links. Conversion attribution counts the leads each campaign touched and converted, with first-touch and last-touch views, and the organization dashboard compares leads and applications by channel and source. Tag offline events such as fairs as campaigns and they report the same way.
What can a segment filter on?
Stage, application stage, source, medium, campaign, counselor, lead score, lead age, activity counts, email engagement, created date, next follow-up, last contact and last activity, matching all conditions or any. Segments can't filter on UTM values, country or custom fields: UTM values are saved on each lead from web forms, and country filters work in the leads list, workflows and zone routing.
Do campaigns respect opt-outs?
Yes. Every send checks the lead's do-not-contact flag and per-channel opt-outs automatically. Unsubscribes, bounces and complaints update them, and a suppression list covers addresses that should never receive a send.
Can the admissions marketing team build emails without the web office?
Yes. The drag-and-drop designer builds emails from blocks such as headings, text, images, buttons, columns and dividers, with settings for each block and no HTML. Merge tags such as {{lead_first_name}} and {{course_name}} fill in details from each lead record.
Admissions terms on this page
- SegmentA segment is a named group of prospective students, such as admits without a deposit or graduate inquiries from one fair, chosen for a targeted message.
- Drip campaignA drip campaign sends prospective students a timed series of messages that changes with their application, from first inquiry through admission and deposit.
- AttributionAttribution traces each enrolled student back to the campaigns, events and channels behind their inquiry, so a university can credit its recruitment work.
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the percentage of students at one enrollment stage who move on to the following one, such as inquiries who apply or admits who pay a deposit.
See your next recruitment campaign built in higheredcrm.ai.
Bring one of your upcoming sends, such as an open house invitation. We'll build the segment from your stages and sources, design the email, set the send window and show where opens, clicks and conversions land.