Every school’s admissions and enrollment team dreams of a streamlined and efficient admission process, an easier way to engage and convert prospective families, save time, and collect powerful analytics to drive strategic enrollment decisions.

What may have once been an ambitious goal is now more of a reality than ever before.

The integration of Finalsite’s enrollment management system with award-winning websites powered by Finalsite’s Composer CMS and marketing and communications tools not only gives schools an easier way to manage enrollment — it also provides a seamless enrollment process for prospective families from inquiry to application to tuition payment and beyond.

Let’s take a closer look at the integration and how using the products together can help your school thrive.

How Does Data Flow From Finalsite Enrollment?

Using the Finalsite CMS and EMS integration, schools of all sizes can leverage the individual strengths of both platforms to guide families through the admissions process. Finalsite’s robust website CMS and communications tools provide valuable resources and engaging content for the right fit families, converting visits to inquiries and nurturing families through the admissions process. Finalsite Enrollment is designed to manage the inquiry to the application process and manage enrollment.

When a family takes action and submits an inquiry through a Finalsite Enrollment form on your Finalsite website, that data is picked up by the Finalsite Enrollment platform and recorded for use in the admissions process. The integration then moves that same data in a one-way flow from Finalsite Enrollment to the Finalsite CMS, pulling in key demographic data like name, email, address, phone, and school year, among other household information.

Using that same information collected in the Enrollment platform, communications created with Finalsite Messages and Workflows can pull in personalized data from Finalsite Enrollment like names, school year, and more, to personalize each email and increase its effectiveness through higher open rates, click-through rates, and other actions.

Benefits of the Finalsite Enrollment Integration

The Finalsite Enrollment integration provides several universal benefits for schools of all sizes, including:

Automatic Data Flow

Data flows automatically from Finalsite Enrollment into the CMS, saving your admissions and enrollment teams valuable time, eliminating redundancies, and removing the need for manual datasheet uploads into both systems. No need to comb through expansive spreadsheets looking for data across multiple systems — your data is now easily accessible on one platform.

The automatic syncing of data between the Finalsite CMS and the EMS also reduces the number of duplicate data entries and the total data errors in both systems. Cleaner data makes for reliable delivery and a more efficient process.

Operational Efficiencies

The integration eliminates the need for manually updating data each time you want to send marketing communications using Finalsite Messages or Workflows. This streamlined process also means your team doesn't rely on one person for all data management. Instead, you can divide and conquer, accessing the same enrollment data points within one system to support your enrollment strategy.

Powerful Data

The Finalsite CMS and EMS integration gives you the ability to maximize your enrollment data during all phases of the marketing funnel. Whether you want to survey a wider pool of applicants for key admissions and enrollment data, or hone in on individual applicant stats — it’s now easy to refine and filter lists, and segment data for marketing and communications, giving you greater flexibility in how you work with your admissions data.

Personalization

Data points that move from Finalsite Enrollment to the Finalsite CMS are fully customizable. Your team decides what data is collected, how it’s used, and what data points you want to be mapped for your school’s needs. With customized form fields, Finalsite Enrollment collects applicant data about personal interests, grade levels, hobbies, and more, allowing your teams to use that information to create personalized and targeted communications.

Using the Finalsite Enrollment Integration — Best Practices

From driving prospects to your website and engaging families with inspiring content, let’s talk about how schools of all sizes can use this new integration to meet your school’s admission and retention goals.

Starting the Admissions Journey on the Right Track

Finalsite’s websites showcase your school and strengthen your online presence. Use your school’s website to draw in families with unique content offerings and covert families during the first step in the admissions process.

Once families have inquired, using Finalsite Enrollment Communication Plans, you can keep families updated throughout the admissions process and keep staff informed on important “to-do’s” at each milestone. Communication Plans boost your funnel conversions by personalizing the communications with all of your families at the right time in the right way, all automatically. For each plan, you can create triggers to automate system actions based on parent behavior or admin actions. 

Automated Email Workflows

Make use of Finalsite Workflows to nurture prospects and retain their interest. Automated email workflows with reporting allow you to track the effectiveness of your marketing emails, what content families have interacted with, and see where families might have lost interest. You can leverage these analytics to improve on and build even more effective email nurture campaigns.

Once a prospect has submitted an inquiry form or school application, follow-up emails and activities are created and tracked using Finalsite Enrollment admissions tools: create targeted, personalized communications and build campaigns for families at different steps in their enrollment journey. Through branching paths, move people into different follow-up workflows or emails depending on their engagement, interests, or point in the enrollment process — such as prospects, applicants, or those who did not take any actions on previous emails. 

Moving from Admissions to Enrollment, and Beyond

Once a family has made it all the way through the admissions process and joined your school community, you want to continue to engage! It’s much easier to retain an existing family than to enroll a new one — so you can also use Finalsite Messages and Workflows to retain families as active, involved participants in your school community.

Re-enrollment is also quick and easy using Finalsite Enrollment! Families can easily access tuition and billing information throughout the year, streamlining the re-enrollment process and saving your team time, year after year.

Enrollment planning and strategy are enhanced with in-depth data-driven reports within the Finalsite Enrollment platform. Robust reports help clarify how your school is performing year over year, or within specific segments of students, to help you make more informed decisions for the future. The dashboard gives you a bird's-eye view of your admissions funnel with key admission statistics and customizable reports: inquiry-to-application conversion, selectivity, yield, and more. 

When paired with Finalsite Messages and Workflows, you’ll see the important breakdowns on a per-email basis for email deliveries, opens, and clicks to create more effective email marketing campaigns for higher enrollment and yield.

Key Takeaway

The thoughtful use of Finalsite CMS and Finalsite Enrollment together enables your school to provide families with a seamless journey from their first website visit to graduation day. Whether you’re a small admissions and communications office, or have large enrollment and marketing teams, the integration of Finalsite website tools and Finalsite Enrollment management system offers resources to save you time and give you powerful insight into your enrollment efforts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Finalsite’s Product Marketing Specialist, Andrew writes blogs and creates videos to share information about all the latest and greatest Finalsite products. Andrew has more than 10 years of video production experience and a journalism education from the University of South Carolina. He is excited about bringing his experience and expertise to Finalsite.