The previous systems for communicating with and engaging with prospective students and applicants (i.e. MS Dynamics CRM, Mailchimp, EventBrite, Excel & email) were disjointed and not integrated. So, the processes for communicating with prospective students and applicants were largely manual. Therefore, this was time-consuming for staff and thus not as effective as it could be. Nor was our ability to report on engagement activities and applications.
Hence, the aim of this project was to implement a new (enhanced) system to enable the Marketing, UK/EU Recruitment and International teams to better target prospective students with appropriate content to their position as a new enquirer, to drive engagement and eventually application and to deliver tailored content once the student has entered the application process.
The project explored options and identified the best solution(s) for St Mary's as follows:
- CRM/ClickDimensions - An improved CRM (MS Dynamics 365) which is enhanced by the addition of an extension called ClickDimensions which provides improved workflow and email template capability. These will send emails to prospective students / applicants in response to certain activities or around certain events.
- QuickTapSurvey - This is a mobile app which is used by the UK/EU Recruitment & International teams to capture prospective students' details at recruitment fairs etc. The app can be used offline (i.e. then there is no viable internet connection). The details captured are automatically uploaded to the CRM (via Zapier) once an internet connection becomes available.
- Eventbrite - This web hosted application which was formerly used in standalone mode to manage bookings & check-in for our Experience Days has been linked to our CRM so that details of users who register for or check-in for these events are automatically uploaded into the CRM.
- Student Records (QL) to CRM link - Data regarding applicants in our student records system (QL) are transferred to the CRM (via a Scribe script).
The solution was installed, configured and implemented in April 2019.
The Marketing team will use the system to create the workflows (business rules) and email templates required to automate our communications to prospective students & applicants as necessary.