Automation with Cadence takes texting for higher ed to new heights

Your staff’s time is limited - let the automation features in Cadence do the heavy lifting

When developing a texting campaign for any of your constituents - prospective applicants, current students, alumni, or parents - finding a happy medium between personalization and time management is key. Texting with Cadence makes it easy to do both.

Cadence’s automation features empower your department to build a texting program that works for you. It streamlines processes and gives staff the time to focus on one-to-one questions and concerns, while providing self-service when it makes sense. Not to mention that all of the features below come standard in a Cadence subscription, at no extra charge.

Plan ahead with Scheduled Messages

Our Scheduled Messages feature allows teams to plan texting campaigns up to one year in advance. Why does that matter? Because your staff is busy, and student engagement is a year-round initiative. The calendar view provides transparency across your department to what others have planned, so you don’t have to worry about messages being sent too close together, or even worse, duplicate messages. 

Imagine if your Admissions team could pre-plan its outreach for peak recruitment season - freeing them up to focus on answering specific application questions and helping students enroll when deadlines approach. No more last-minute scrambling to compose a text message and crossing your fingers that it’s engaging and interesting.

Smart Messages puts a self-service spin on texting

Some questions don’t warrant a lengthy response - sometimes a simple yes or no is all you need. That’s where Smart Messages can take the reins. 

Cadence clients are loving the use of Smart Messages when it comes to signing up students for an email list or event, asking if they have questions about enrollment or class registration, or sending communications about giving opportunities. This is a feature any department can take advantage of, and Cadence makes it easy to review and categorize your responses - so you can further segment respondents with additional customized messaging.

Here’s a great example of how your Student Success team can take advantage of Smart Messages:

Hi <FIRST NAME>, it’s <NAME> from Career Services! We’re planning a career fair on campus with over 50 local employers - would you like to receive more information? Please reply Yes or No!

Respond to requests instantly with Auto Reply

Automation can even help with texts that require a bit more detail or a series of messages to accomplish a goal. Auto Reply prompts a specific automated message to trigger when a student replies to a text with a designated keyword. This helps segment your audience into groups for future communication, and provides them the immediate satisfaction that their request was received and acknowledged.

Once you select a keyword, promote it across marketing channels, including your college’s website, social media accounts, emails, and even print materials to help get the word out. It’s a great way to take a coordinated marketing approach for your next campaign - whether it’s focused on enrollment, student activities and retention, or fundraising.

For example, Advancement teams can use Auto Reply when planning for the next Giving Day campaign. It’s an effort that needs to be communicated far and wide, and typically requires a multi-channel approach. Having alumni “raise their hand” as interested donors by texting in a specific keyword will help you identify those that are engaged and ready to give, and for those in your database that don’t respond, you can serve them alternative messaging to engage them in other ways - like volunteer opportunities or attending a virtual event.

Using the automation features available in Cadence doesn’t mean you have to put personalization on the back burner. Automation supplements your communication strategies by helping you better segment audiences, which means more customization with future messaging. And, saving some time in the process doesn’t hurt, right?