When thinking of portals, the most standard examples may be interactive applicant status or campus event portals—but Slate’s capabilities can go way beyond the standard. While there are many external options for campaign engagement landing pages, here are a few examples to create in-house portals and make them work seamlessly within your own systems.
There are plenty of reasons why you might want to engage different demographics through a portal. Maybe you’re aiming to create a one-stop-shop where applicants can view everything from their enrollment progress to any missing materials.
Or perhaps you’re looking to control what data your end-users can access, preferring a portal that only displays the information they need. Portals can be powerful tools to streamline communication, manage access, and most importantly, keep as many functions within one system as possible.
Engage and Inform Parents
Parents play a significant role in a student’s decision-making process. However, they can be just as confused and unsure about the admissions journey as their students.
With so many steps and details to keep track of, it’s easy for parents to feel lost in the process too. Providing them with clear, accessible information can help ease the confusion and keep them engaged in their student’s journey.
A portal is an excellent tool for keeping this demographic informed and engaged. With services out there acting as parent engagement portals, what is the benefit of utilizing Slate for this function?
Slate’s personalization features are unparalleled, offering an engaging parent portal that aligns with your institution’s branding and vision.
With FERPA laws in place, sharing personal student information can be tricky, which is why a parent portal can be so valuable. By offering high-level information on the outset, you can provide parents with the information they need without compromising privacy.
This approach allows you to create a portal that serves the needs of all parents while using tabs to tailor the user experience to fit each family’s specific needs. It’s a smart, efficient way to keep everyone informed while maintaining privacy and compliance.
Tabs are a fantastic option if you want to provide more specific information to parents based on their student’s position in the admissions funnel. By organizing content into clear and easy-to-navigate sections, you can ensure that parents can navigate to the most relevant updates and tasks that align with their student’s place in the process.
Keep Counselors on Track
While external-user portals are a great way to leverage your Slate capacity, internal processes can benefit just as much from using Slate portals. By creating internal portals for staff, faculty, or departments, you can streamline processes while keeping data clean.
For example, a dedicated portal for admissions staff can provide quick access to student data, track progress, and manage tasks more efficiently. Creating custom portals for your admissions team allows for easier collaboration, secure document handling, and better project tracking. A well-designed counselor portal can offer a range of useful functions and data to make their job more efficient.
For example, easy access to queries and reports related to student communications can be incredibly valuable. Counselors could quickly view which students need follow-up communication, helping them stay organized and on top of important tasks.
The benefit of placing this functionality within a portal, rather than as a standalone query, is that it’s all-in-one for counselors to handle a variety of tasks.
Instead of having to navigate through multiple areas of Slate to access different pieces of information, everything they need is consolidated in one place. This saves time, reduces frustration, and makes it easier for counselors to manage their workload efficiently—whether it’s running reports, checking follow-ups, or accessing student data.
This streamlined access ensures that no student falls through the cracks, and ultimately enhances the overall support provided to students throughout the admissions process.
Overall, Slate portals can help optimize internal processes, making them more efficient, transparent, and connected.
Streamline Communication and Boost Engagement with Custom Alerts
One of the most powerful yet often underutilized features of a portal is the ability to set up automated alerts and notifications. Whether you’re working with prospective students, applicants, parents, or internal staff, communication is key to maintaining momentum and ensuring that no one misses important deadlines or updates.
With Slate’s advanced communication tools, you can create custom alerts and notifications tailored to the specific needs of your users. For instance, if a student is missing critical application documents, an automatic notification can be sent to both the student and their assigned counselor.
For parents, you can set reminders about upcoming decision dates, application milestones, or financial aid requirements—keeping them engaged without overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
The ability to personalize communications allows you to send the right message to the right audience at the right time. This not only ensures that your users stay informed but also fosters a sense of proactive engagement. Parents feel more involved, students stay on track, and internal staff can focus their energy on higher-priority tasks, all while the system handles routine communication.
Examples of Automated Communications in Slate:
- For Applicants: Reminders about incomplete applications, missing documents, or upcoming deadlines.
- For Parents: Notifications about decision release dates, financial aid status updates, or orientation details.
- For Counselors/Staff: Alerts for follow-ups, task completions, or updated student statuses within the system.
By consolidating communication efforts through a central portal, Slate ensures that messages reach the right audience and avoids the potential confusion of using disparate platforms for emails, texts, and updates. It’s a simple yet powerful way to increase engagement, reduce friction, and enhance the user experience.
Why Slate?
So, the big question is: why not use an external service that might be easier to set up on the front end? While external services may offer a quicker setup, they often come with limitations when it comes to customization, integration, and long-term scalability.
By using Slate, you not only get a more tailored experience for both your institution and your portal users, but you also benefit from seamless integration with your existing instance, giving you more control over the flow of information.
Plus, Slate’s flexibility allows you to adapt as your needs evolve, ensuring you don’t outgrow your solution as your institution grows.
Slate Gold Support with The Parish Group
Whether you’re considering switching to Slate or wanting to enhance your instance, The Parish Group is at your service.
We are a Slate Gold Partner and can help you implement, audit, and optimize your instance. Our Slate team uses their enrollment management background to ensure your institution gets the most out of your CRM.
Reach out at parishgroup.com or call us at 828.505.3000 for more information.
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