10 Principles for texting students through COVID-19

Tactical ways to improve student engagement are even more important in times of crisis and change.

Developed by Mainstay’s research and conversational UX design team and based on over 4 million real student interactions at colleges and universities across the country, this guide compiles 10 principles for developing novel, engaging, and meaningful experiences for students through proactive SMS messaging.

Utilizing these principles, our partner schools have seen remarkable response rates and engagement from students. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts sent a timely, thoughtful reminder about financial aid, and within one week of sending the campaign, they saw a 28% increase in completion of financial aid documents.

Considerations like when to use an emoji or making sure the intention of your message is clear can make a huge difference. This guide takes you through each of the 10 principles, complete with examples of how to put it all into practice.

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SMS campaign best practices for students

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Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

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Get a guided tour of Mainstay’s Engagement Platform

Mainstay’s Engagement Platform uses Behavioral Intelligence to help schools and businesses build meaningful relationships, optimize insights, and drive action.

Sign up for your personalized demo to find out how Mainstay makes it easy to spark conversations with your students or employees and guide them toward positive results.

Channels

Instant support — anytime, anywhere

Mainstay’s behaviorally intelligent chatbots make it easy to engage with students and employees on the channels they prefer to use:

SMS text messaging
Live chat
Web chat
Social media

Let's talk