How Proactive Holistic Support Helped Digitally Transform University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Providing higher education to more than 12,000 students, the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS), a public research university, is one of four satellite campuses in the larger University of Colorado system. In search of an effective way to send bulk and one-to-one SMS messages to prospects, inquiries, and applicants, UCCS enlisted the strategic support of Attain Partners to address their needs while simultaneously implementing Salesforce Customer 360 solutions for marketing and engagement.

The Attain Partners Salesforce Innovation team leveraged their expertise from 950+ Salesforce.org projects and implemented a Salesforce CRM solution for UCCS, including Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and Marketing Cloud.

“The Salesforce team had already done some great work on the ground to analyze the current state of the UCCS digital engagement tools. Our primary focus was to ensure that we started with optimizing the experience of the UCCS teams that would be using these tools first and foremost — and then working backward to the technology,” said Aaron Beatty, director of digital engagement service delivery at Attain Partners.

“To that end, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement powered by Marketing Cloud was an ideal tool for most of their digital outreach and engagement, with Marketing Cloud Engagement used for some more complex automations and dynamic content,” Beatty explained. “All systems were tied back into Salesforce CRM as the source of truth for prospects and students. In order to provide the ability to send and receive SMS messages, we looked at a variety of platforms and applications. Using the end-user experience as our lens to find the best solution, we landed on Mogli.”

Mogli SMS, a native Salesforce text messaging application that provides institutions in the higher education space with a way to improve engagement with current students, prospective students, and alumni, joined the project to address UCCS’ need for both one-to-one and bulk SMS messages.

“With a 98% open rate and 45% response rate, text messaging is the most efficient and cost effective channel for communicating with students. Institutions will generally see the best engagement rates when they connect on the students’ preferred channel — SMS”, said Rob Blatchley, chief revenue officer at Mogli.

An example of SMS communication on the Mogli platform.

The Mogli team worked to ensure their application was integrated with the new Salesforce CRM, configured on relevant page layouts and custom objects, and that the UCCS staff who would be using the product were well-trained. The two teams worked together to implement the application into the new system.

Mogli allows UCCS to automate engagement with prospective students and applicants throughout their admissions journey, providing targeted communications across a broad spectrum of activities, including events and key enrollment dates. Integrating Mogli with event management data allows UCCS to send automated event reminders, directions to venues, and post-event surveys using Mogli branching SMS surveys.

The combination of Mogli’s text messaging features, Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Account Engagement and Marketing Cloud capabilities, and the seamless implementation by Attain Partners allows the UCCS admissions staff to drive engagement with prospective students and applicants and foster deeper interpersonal bonds between faculty and students, all while saving time. UCCS can now send bulk and one-to-one SMS messages to prospects, inquiries, and applicants easily and efficiently leveraging Mogli and their new Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement instances set up by Attain Partners.

“Having all of these tools, specifically Mogli, within our Salesforce product is exciting for us,” said Chris Beiswanger, director of admissions at UCCS. “As a result of Attain Partners’ implementation expertise when it comes to these tools, we are now able to see all the various SMS messages and email communications that we’ve had with each student, giving us a clear picture of our engagement with students during their time at UCCS. Having this data in one place is going to be a huge time saver for my team and I’m really excited to see how we can use it to enhance the student experience.”

About the Authors

Maureen Goldman is the associate director of marketing and communications at Attain Partners. Maureen stewards the firm’s digital brand, leading its social media presence, website, digital content strategy, and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) campaigns. Maureen partners closely with the Attain Partners Salesforce Innovation Group to share client success stories and thought leadership from its team of experts with 160+ Salesforce certifications and 950+ Salesforce.org projects.

 

 

 

Christina Marmor is the vice president of marketing at Mogli Technologies, where she is focused on helping organizations do more of what matters through the power of Salesforce and Mogli SMS Messaging. As a tenacious marketing leader focused on evolving mindsets through creativity and technical focus, Christina is passionate about amplifying client success and innovation.