With delayed release of the new FAFSA, admissions and financial aid teams are rushing to ensure students and families are aware of the release, understand the changes, and have the resources to complete the form in a timely manner. 

Here at CampusESP we’re doing our part by helping our partner colleges and universities get those messages out to families. The sooner data is submitted the sooner your teams are able to roll out financial aid awards — and the more confident students and families can be about accepting, depositing, and enrolling. 

Check out some of the ways other institutions are tackling FAFSA communications this year and getting the word out.

Email announcements

Announcements are probably the best way to get information regarding FAFSA changes and deadlines in front of parents. When the FAFSA finally opened, the team at Lamar University quickly alerted their families using an announcement email, highlighting the timeline and information families may need during the initial weeks of the launch.

You can set up announcements to trigger an email to parents who have not yet submitted, notifying them about important dates/deadlines for reissuing aid to current students or creating financial aid awards for new students. It's the easiest way to reach your parents since most parents are regularly checking email (the average email open rate for CampusESP announcements is more than 50%). Include links in announcements to bring parents back to the related post in the portal where they can find more related information. 

Portal posts

Posts in your CampusESP portal are the place to go more in-depth with FAFSA updates. Tarleton State University published their post to all families to ensure they were not just aware of the soft launch, but understood the next steps that might impact their student’s financial aid awards.

While clear article is always helpful, posts are also places you can embed videos or infographics to give parents different ways to grasp complex information. You can also rely on CampusESPs content specialist team to help share critical information — our  Global Content is available to all customers for use in their portals.

Ad campaigns

Campaigns are a great way to remind parents about FAFSA deadlines every time they open their portal. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is running a campaign in their portal that helpfully elevates their FAFSA code and links out to encourage families to submit.

Campaigns are visible on the parent portal for an extended period of time and can be targeted to specific communities (a feature in CampusESP that allows admins to create groups of parents that can receive targeted information). Set up your campaigns to address where a family in in their submission process, and to remove the ad campaign when the submission has been received.

SMS

Text messages have open rates of up to 98%, which makes SMS one of the best ways to spread the word about important FAFSA information and how it may impact families. St. Mary’s University texted parents to invite them to helpful virtual webinars where they could get information on FAFSA changes, ensuring parents would participate and get their questions answered.

In CampusESP parents can respond to SMS campaigns with questions and concerns — and have real-time conversations with your staff to resolve their issues quickly. If you’re looking for a way to send out automated information about the FAFSA with a high likelihood of it being seen, our SMS module is the way to go. 

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