Universities and Colleges: Staying in Contact With Students Over Semester Break
Many universities and colleges know just how important it is to keep students engaged over the semester break. Beyond helping them feel connected, informed and supported, staying in contact is a way to show that your institution cares. Most students are from Generation Z and younger, so you must keep this generation’s communication preferences in mind.
Gen Z tends to prefer texting over phone calls and often doesn’t like using email, so SMS is the perfect channel. Also known as blast messaging, mass texting allows you to instantly send a single message to a large number of recipients. Whether you need to share a crucial update to your entire student body or remind those who applied for financial aid of an upcoming deadline, bulk short message service (SMS) is the way to go.
Why Mass Text Messaging Is Ideal for Semester Break Communication
Mass texting for universities and colleges is ideal for communicating with students over break for the following reasons:
- High open rates and engagement: SMS boasts an open rate of 98%, whereas email only has an open rate of 20%. As a result, students are much more likely to read texts, especially during a break. This is because they’re already using this channel over the holiday period to chat with friends and family, but they may only check their email inbox once the new semester begins.
- Immediacy and convenience: With Gen Z’s screen time averaging over seven hours a day, receiving communications directly on their phones is convenient for them. As 90% of texts are opened within 15 minutes, you’ll almost instantly get important information in front of your university’s or college’s students.
- Personalization and relevance: Bulk texts are excellent for sending out a large number of personalized messages. With SMS, you can ensure the content you send is relevant to recipients, offering them real value.
- Cost-effectiveness and efficiency: Crafting engaging and perfectly designed emails can be time-consuming. Considering that students likely won’t see them over break, this can be a waste of resources. Due to the short and sweet nature of SMS, text blasts are quicker to write. SMS marketing also tends to be more cost-effective than other channels.
Strategic Uses of Mass Text Messaging During Semester Break
Here are five uses of mass text messaging that universities and colleges can implement to stay in contact with students during the break:
1. Important Reminders and Deadlines
For many students, holiday break is a time to catch up on sleep, binge-watch series and spend time with family and friends. However, it’s vital that they are prepared for the new semester, with all their affairs in order once classes start.
A great use of blast messages for colleges and universities is to send crucial reminders and deadlines via text. Since SMS messages have such a high open rate, you can ensure students are aware of:
- Outstanding tuition fees
- Upcoming meetings with advisors or tutors
- Class registration and enrollment deadlines
- Financial aid deadlines and updates
- Housing application deadlines
2. Academic Support and Resources
A lot of students also use this time to ensure they’ve fulfilled all their major, minor and general education requirements, especially if graduation is around the corner. Bulk texting is excellent for sharing academic support and resources to help your students achieve their goals.
Via SMS, you could redirect them to a portal to view online tutoring availability and make a booking. You could also share links to provide access to online library resources, academic articles or videos based on students’ academic programs. Only include branded URLs to avoid being blocked.
3. Campus News and Updates
Whether your campus is hosting a career or pop culture trivia night at the start of the semester, share the details via bulk texts. Letting students know about these events over the break can help create a buzz.
Blast messaging for universities and colleges also lets you share updates that your student body needs to know before they return, such as important policy changes, new campus facilities or any construction that will potentially cause disruptions.
4. Engagement and Community Building
Semester break coincides with several different holidays. While sending bulk texts to wish your students a happy festive period is perfect for maintaining relationships, it’s crucial to remember that the holidays can be a challenging time for many.
In fact, one survey revealed that over half of college students feel stressed about heading home. SMS for colleges and universities can be a powerful tool to offer mental health support. Checking in and offering the necessary resources through text can go a long way in letting students know they aren’t alone.
Extracurricular activities are great for community building, encouraging students to make friends and develop skills. Though they can’t partake during the break, you use this time to promote clubs and organizations, encouraging sign-ups when the semester begins.
5. Emergency Notifications
Weather can be ruthless; in Australia the holiday break is relatively mild, heavy and sudden rainfall often causes large floods in certain parts of the country, while in America, many states experience snow storms in the winter months.
So, in the event that your university or college is unable to resume classes on the intended date due to severe weather, bulk texts are a quick way to let both students and staff know about delays and closures. For academic institutions offering break housing, texting can warn students staying on campus for the holidays to stay inside. Thanks to the immediacy of SMS, recipients will be alerted almost instantly.
Best Practices for College and University Mass Communication via Text
Follow these best practices for mass texting to help enhance student communication and engagement:
- Obtain consent: The United State’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Australia’s Spam Act of 2003 require that recipients give explicit permission to be contacted via SMS. Students must opt-in to receive communications from their college or university.
- Learn about compliance: In addition to opt-in laws, there are many other regulations of the TCPA and the Spam Act that your institution must abide by to stay compliant. Noncompliance could result in unintentional spamming, with mobile carriers potentially blocking your texts.
- Craft effective texts: Using clear and engaging language is a must, allowing students to understand the essential information at a glance. Each message should also be concise—aim for no more than 160 characters to avoid texts being split up.
- Use personalization: Always include personalized information such as students’ names. You could also customize your sender ID. This way, recipients will see the name of your institution in their inbox, making them more likely to engage with the message.
- Segment and target: There are instances where you’d send university-wide messages or contact every student at your college, such as when sending updates about weather-related closures affecting the start of the semester. However, you also want to tailor texts to specific groups for maximum relevance. Segment your students based on things like their year, major and interests to send more targeted content via bulk texts, such as specific events for those about to graduate.
- Consider timing and frequency: Respect students’ boundaries by messaging them at appropriate times and be aware of the fact that their hometown might be in a different time zone. You should also limit your sending frequency to only once or twice a week—you want to support students rather than overwhelm them. Plus, over-texting could lead to a violation with carriers.
Software Solutions for University and College Blast Messaging
So, you know how your university or college can use blast messaging to stay in contact with students over the break and are aware of the best practices. What next? You’ll need a bulk SMS software solution to streamline your messaging, saving your institution time and money.
When choosing a provider, keep an eye out for the following features:
- Scalability to handle large student populations
- Integration with existing student information systems
- Compliance guidance on your country’s texting regulations
- Robust personalization capabilities
At CompleteSMS, we provide software for university text messages. With our solutions, you can effortlessly send text blasts both to your entire student body and segmented groups. Thanks to our easy-to-integrate API, you can send SMS messages straight from your student database. Or, opt for our mass texting software to import students’ data from spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets.
Request a Demo With CompleteSMS
With more than 20 years of experience, CompleteSMS has helped over 300,000 users communicate with their most vital stakeholders via SMS. We’d love to do the same for your university or college. Our solutions are the easiest way to send bulk texts from a computer. Regardless of which option works best for your needs, you’ll have access to personalization features, compliance guidance and 24/7 support.
Request a demo with CompleteSMS and start texting your students today!
