University of California – Davis

Situation

The challenge was finding a way to take UC Davis’ high enrollment numbers and create a diverse campus by extending enrollment outreach to several critical student segments underrepresented in the past. These students included low-income, minorities, international, and out-of-state students. Ahead of Fall 2021 enrollment, UC Davis wanted to increase yield through consistent communication with admits who aligned with the university’s criteria of best-fit students. 

Our discovery work revealed that UC Davis was doing most of their communication manually, completely underutilizing their CRM. Previously, outreach for UC Davis only consisted of engaging with prospective students before the application process. UC Davis was hesitant to engage students between receiving the application and notifying students of their admissions decision. They feared that consistent communication would imply that all students targeted during the application process were guaranteed an acceptance to the university.

Approach

To better engage applied and accepted students, VisionPoint created an automated, nine-month CRM-driven communication plan. The goal was to connect with students from the moment they apply to acceptance. We are currently working alongside the UC Davis team to create content through email and text with various messages tailored to specific student segments. New messaging strategies involved engaging with university stakeholders and departments that were historically siloed. Our integrated communications workflows helped bridge gaps and unify outreach efforts across disparate campus groups, as well as establish an overarching tone for the university. With this collaboration, UC Davis is able to grant a single line of communication directly from the university as a whole to the student. 

Results

While our campaign with UC Davis is still in the early stages, their call center has seen a fivefold increase in calls from applied students between the applied and accepted window compared to previous years, proving our strategy has been effective in increasing prospective student engagement. Our work drove unprecedented yield outcomes with seamless, segmented outreach including 3,200+ students over enrollment projections.