Quick wins for optimising your Chat platform

Your Unibuddy Chat platform is already helping prospective students connect with the people and stories that will make them feel more committed to - and more confident about - choosing your institution.

If you want to go a step further, here are some simple changes that we have seen improve engagement, help students start to have impactful conversations faster, and give your team better insight into what's working.

Most of these improvements can be implemented in less than an hour!

Here are some of our favourite quick wins...

Animated profile photos immediately make Student Ambassador profiles feel more human and eye-catching. A short wave, smile or movement helps profiles stand out and encourages prospective students to start a conversation - plus it looks like something from a wizarding fantasy film, which makes your Chat platform instantly more engaging!

It's a simple way to convey personality, leading to stronger first impressions and even a higher likelihood of prospects taking the plunge and messaging your Ambassadors.

If prospective students arrive at your Unibuddy Chat platform from email campaigns, paid ads or social media, UTM parameters let you understand exactly where conversations are coming from. Add UTM tracking to every link pointing to your Unibuddy platform, including:

This gives you better campaign reporting, clear attribution, and more informed marketing decisions.

Students are far more likely to engage when they immediately see content relevant to where they're applying from. Consider having your web team build landing pages for key recruitment markets, featuring:

There is a great example from the University of Groningen here.

This offers your international applicants a more relevant experience as they discover and research your institution, providing them with everything they need a click or a tap away.

Many prospect questions are asked repeatedly - there are often parallels to what is on student's minds! Saved Answers allow your Ambassadors to respond consistently while still personalising their replies. Create Saved Answers for common topics like:

You can also encourage Ambassadors to personalise the response before sending - they have the option to edit. For a voluntary Ambassador programme, this is a valuable time-saving hack that respects the resource and commitment of your Ambassador team.

Many students want to speak with someone who shares a similar background or lived experience as themselves. It really leads to more meaningful conversations and helps prospective students feel more confidence that they will belong at your institution.

Create an "I am a..." filter with options such as:

The first step to this should be speaking with your Ambassadors to ask them if there is anything they'd like to share about themselves and speak to prospects about their experiences of. You should only include options where you have enough Ambassadors who are happy to identify themselves.

Here's how to do it: Adding a Custom Filter.

Small updates keep your Ambassador profiles feeling current and authentic - you might even have your Ambassadors adjust for seasonality - their favourite horror film for Halloween, or favourite tradition for a holiday they celebrate!

It makes sense to ask Ambassadors to refresh their profile each academic year, as part of preparation for that year's conversion campaigns.

Ask Ambassadors to periodically update:

This ensures the profiles on your Chat platform remain relevant - and goes a long way towards building trust with prospects. Not only this, it gives prospects natural icebreakers, meaning they can more easily and confidently start conversations.