Courtney Skiles, director of recruiting and admissions at Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC), shares how Element451's customized landing pages empowered TVCC to create personalized experiences for students during their admissions process. She also shares how she used text campaigns to increase registration for orientation sessions, using the power of simple interactions to boost attendance.

Trinity Valley Community College's Most Loved Features

• BoltBot AI-powered chatbot
• Conversations module
• Tasks AI project management
• Packs pre-built campaign library

What are your most used features in Element451?

I don't know how I could function in my office without Tasks. They keep us moving forward, but we love our sites, our landing pages. We were at a point where our website was very antiquated, and it was hard for students to find the information they needed. And when you're an 18-year-old or you're 60 years old, coming to college for the first time, a website with an unending array of knowledge (when we weren't doing a great job of keeping up with that tool) is hard and scary.

Having the ability to create custom landing pages for students, whether it's for admissions, talking to a recruiter, or our microsites, everything we've built through those landing pages has truly enhanced our students' experience. It gets them excited from their first touch point with us now.

How has Element451 changed how you engage with your students?

We host two orientation sessions every summer, and I took over orientation just the year before we implemented Element451. Registration wise we were a little bit under where my ideal target would have been. And so I one morning sat down in about ten minutes, had a campaign text campaign ready to go that linked students to the event. I had It segmented to our fall 2023 applicants and I sent it out. And within 30 minutes of me sending that campaign, we had gone from 97 registered attendees to 256. And we are still rising. That number is still growing. Our registration is still open for our orientation events. But I think that just goes to show you the power of one simple interaction and how much that can have an impact on what we're trying to do as institutions and using Element451 has given us that capability.

Our students love the experience that they don't even know is Element451. But when it looks like us and the adaptability that we as employees of TVCC are granted through using the platform, to be able to look at individualized student experiences and what their specific barriers are, is great. And I think that helps us stand out when students are making a choice about college because to them, this is TVCC creating an experience for them. We say their names on their admissions letters. We say their names on their portals. Their checklists are tailored to their specific needs. They can text us; they can chat with us in an instant. And that allows us to be a leader in providing higher education for students who would otherwise not have access to those things, being from a rural area.

What challenges were you trying to solve prior to using the Element451 platform?

We've been a community college in a rural part of East Texas for over 75 years. And when you live in a rural area, there's not a lot of inspiration for development or innovation. We were very industry-based, so we have a big focus on workforce. And I feel like the attitude going into COVID that we had had for 75 years was, "We're the only college here. Why would they go anywhere else?" And then, of course, COVID happened, and it kind of rocked the higher education world on its head. And we all of a sudden found ourselves with no ability to reach out to students outside of if they had been in our hallways.

Since our hallways were no longer an option, we had to think fast, and we had some people who had tossed around the idea of a CRM or texting capabilities primarily was what started our search. We were not looking for an admissions platform at all in our search. We were just looking at what are our options to reach students. And we stumbled upon some other CRMs and started reaching out for demos and trying to talk and see what our options were. And from the beginning, we felt like Element451 was on the same page with the way that we wanted to reach students and all of the added benefits that came with it. And everything we've been able to transform at TVCC since coming on board with Element451 has been mind-blowing.

What would you say to a colleague interested in Element451?

Element451 wants to support their partners. And you'll feel that from the second you meet with them, whether it's a demo or you jump in live chat. They're always following up to make sure that you understand and you're utilizing everything to the best of your abilities. So, I would always say, "Get your hands dirty, go in and do it."

And whenever I get the opportunity to talk to people who are maybe considering Element451, I always tell them that this is a tool that makes the experience better for students above all else. It makes my job so much easier, but that means nothing if it doesn't make the student's life better. And I truly 100% feel like what Element451 does for institutions makes students' experiences better.

To see what Element451 can do for your institution, book a demo today!