Nexford University Adopts HubSpot SMS Workflows to Boost Lead Conversions

Nexford University is an American University licensed in Washington, DC, offering next generation experiences, all 100% online. The university’s goal is to positively impact the lives of millions around the world through education and provide individuals with a mission-driven, learner-centric community.

Barney Woodbridge, the Head of Growth at Nexford University, shares how the marketing team has transformed their internal processes by utilizing the Sakari and HubSpot SMS integration and in turn, attracting and converting more leads at a faster scale.

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Industry

Education

Integration

Sakari + Hubspot

Company

Located in Washington, DC, Nexford University offers online learning with globally-recognized accredited degree programs.

Obstacles

  • Heavy focus on emails and phone calls
  • Couldn't reach leads immediately to convert
  • Large amount of time spent on manual outreach

Results

  • Multiple hours a week saved for advisory team
  • 5% uplift in lead conversion rate
  • Increased ROI due to automated processes
  • Improved lead responses

The Challenge

Prior to integrating Sakari with HubSpot, the marketing team was using a multi-touch, multi-channel approach for communication, heavily focusing on emails and outbound phone calls. The university also has an in-house advisory team dedicated to contact outreach and strategically transitioning leads down the pipeline.

However, one of the biggest challenges the organization experienced was the lack of ability to target prospective learners directly on their mobile phone at critical stages of the customer journey.

“We continuously want to be top of mind for our potential students,” said Barney. “By relying too heavily on only emails and phone calls for outbound communication—some which never received a response—we were missing certain opportunities to reach leads on a more direct level.”

Nexford-students

The Solution

Because timely follow-up significantly impacts the customer journey, the marketing and advisory teams believed that adding instant messaging like SMS would strengthen communicative outreach and validate higher response rates from their prospective learners.

After extensive research and comparing multiple solutions, Nexford University selected Sakari because of its direct integration with HubSpot, their existing CRM.

By implementing SMS functionalities within HubSpot, the university would not only be able to automate all of its text messaging, but could build and manage workflows based on different marketing funnel stages. Furthermore, the Sakari integration would allow the organization’s teams to view all lead data in one unified system and in real-time.

“Sakari is by far the most user-friendly SMS solution we've come across at Nexford! With its direct HubSpot integration and seamless addition into our existing workflows, we've been able to increase ROI across the entire organization and save a large amount of time for our advisory team.”

Barney

Barney Woodbridge

Head of Growth, Nexford University

The opportunity to reach potential students directly on their mobile phones has drastically improved overall inbound communication. With Sakari’s messaging platform, the internal teams have discovered a high increase in leads taking action at critical stages of the SMS sales funnel.

By leveraging SMS messaging in Nexford’s multi-channel marketing strategy, the university has succeeded in a 5% uplift in its lead to learner conversion rate.

“We’re seeing a high number of leads actually replying back to messages because we’re reaching them instantaneously via SMS. If you’re looking for a direct integration for text messaging with your existing CRM system, look no further than Sakari!”

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