Northumbria University leveraged Gecko's SMS capabilities to boost event attendance, email open rates, and application conversions by up to 10%, sending over 300,000 texts to enhance their marketing strategies.
From generating leads to handling applications, the whole user journey has evolved in recent years at Northumbria University. Today, a key tool is the humble text message – with more than 300,000 texts augmenting the marketing team’s engagement strategies to impressive effect.
We sat down with Phil Smith, CRM Manager and Michael Towsey, CRM Systems Specialist at Northumbria to learn how they’ve leveraged SMS to enhance student engagement across various touchpoints. Their insights reveal a strategic approach that combines the power of timely reminders with data-driven decision-making.
After the pandemic-prompted boom in virtual events, a return to strong turnout at on-campus events was crucial. In an attempt to boost attendance at in-person events the team found that a little reminder makes a big difference. Rather than relying on an email the week before, a text on the morning of an open day (or even an hour before a webinar) will lift attendance by up to 10%. It’s a similar story for email campaigns – used as a follow up to unopened emails after 24 hours, the team has seen increasing engagement success in their CTAs, including simplifying the application process for current students.
But it doesn’t always have to play a back-up role as a reminder: the Northumbria team have even generated applications directly from text messages. In a campaign simplifying the application process for current undergraduate students applying for postgraduate study, an SMS with a link to a pre-populated form, backed up with a message saying they could apply in under a minute, followed an initial email. Not only did this increase the open rate of the email, but the SMS generated two additional applications by itself – a real ROI success!
There’s still room for improvement, too. The team have been sharing best practice with Gecko users across the University on timing and message length. And, with split testing in the pipeline, there are opportunities to hone techniques and refine their messaging, making best practice even better.
Ready to supercharge your student engagement with SMS? Book a demo with Gecko today and discover how our platform can transform your communication strategy.
