Is there a shortcut to student engagement?

Simple Steps to Unlock Student Success
Jeff May

May 19, 2021

Henry Kissinger once said, “If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.”

Any higher education institution striving to evolve its communications strategy with technology would be wise to heed this advice. Taking a hard look at your approach to pinpoint your current areas of strength and opportunity can be an incredibly valuable step — especially as you chart an actionable path toward optimizing your student outcomes.

Yet, this is often easier said than done. What are the parameters for assessing your existing communications strategy? What should you use as a baseline to measure your improvement? How can you benchmark your progress in relation to other institutions — and does that really matter?

A Quick Guide to Student Engagement Success 

Thankfully, AdmitHub created a detailed, proven framework to eliminate the guesswork and fast-track your strategic planning. It’s based on our team’s extensive work with partner institutions, industry research, and a thorough examination of tried-and-true techniques.

There really are no shortcuts on the road to student engagement, but our new resource, “A Practical Guide to Next-Level Student Engagement” may save you some time getting there. This quick read lays out the immediate steps your institution can take right now to start enhancing your student engagement strategy, today. 

Your GPS on the Road to Student Engagement Maturity

Knowing where your student engagement strategy stands right now enables you to align your next steps with your institutional goals and long-term student success. To get started, consider which of the five stages of student engagement maturity sounds most like your university or college today:

  • Unstructured Student Engagement Strategy: Do you currently engage students through mass communications issued by individual contributors or departments? If this sounds familiar, your institution may be operating with an unstructured student engagement strategy.
  • Aware Student Engagement Strategy: Your current student engagement strategy is defined, you’ve got the foundational elements in place, and things are functioning fairly smoothly. However, your institution tends to focus on individual projects. Do you ever feel like you’re missing the bigger picture?
  • Proactive Student Engagement Strategy: You’re taking a comprehensive approach, tracking student success metrics, and applying insights to drive positive outcomes throughout the student lifecycle. Yet, attention is fleeting — you have just seconds to capture interest, engage students, and spark an action. Is your strategy moving fast enough?
  • Consistent Student Engagement Strategy: Your students are benefitting from your engagement strategy, which comprises highly effective communication processes executed by qualified, cross-functional teams using technology to measure insights and drive positive outcomes. Innovation is woven into your institution’s culture, so you won’t stop evolving with automation, personalization, and deeper collaboration until your strategy reaches the highest level of maturity. 
  • Inspiring Student Engagement Strategy: Your ideal state of student engagement is characterized by a centralized student advocacy and communications function that enables your institution to maximize predictive analytics and interventions to drive student success. You won’t rest until your institution is entirely driven by — and aligned with — your student’s needs.

Take Your Student Engagement Strategy to the Next Level

Simple Steps to Enhance Your Student Engagement Strategy

Download “A Practical Guide to Next-Level Student Engagement” for free to explore the stages within our proven framework, assess your existing strategy’s maturity level, and identify your next steps to achieve your student engagement goals.

GET MY FREE GUIDE

Share on social

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Subscribe for free

Sign up to receive Mainstay's latest insights on engagement trends and Behavioral Intelligence — right in your inbox.

Book a call with us:

Get a guided tour of Mainstay’s Engagement Platform

Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

Let's talk

Get a guided tour of Mainstay’s Engagement Platform

Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help schools and businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your students or employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with students and employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

Let's talk