Student retention solutions that keep students registered.
Outreach that keeps continuing students enrolled term to term and on to graduation, with new campaigns measured against a holdout.
A missed step is how a stop-out starts.
We mapped 22 target actions in the first year and 21 in the second, from orientation to the career center.
- Cost
- Confidence
- Belonging
- Logistics
Students aware of five or more support services are 13 points more likely to say they’ll persist.
Tyton Partners, Listening to Learners, 2024of students have considered dropping out because of financial stress.
Ellucian national student survey, 2024Retention
Keep continuing students registered term to term.
Continuing students stall on small things: an advisor meeting, a registration window, a balance. We reach them before a missed step becomes a stop-out, with messages built on belonging and self-efficacy.
- 1Meet with an advisor
- 2Use campus support: tutoring, career center, wellness
- 3Get involved on campus
- 4Sort out aid and payment
- 5Register for next termGoal
Average conversion rate across our retention campaigns, from meeting with an advisor to registering for the next term.
Counts campaign actions such as advisor meetings and registration. Term-over-term retention is a separate measure.
Every term, all the way to graduation.
Retention is about term-to-term persistence: keeping continuing students enrolled each term until they graduate. We reach them at the small steps that decide whether they come back.
First-year students
Orientation, belonging and the campus support that keeps a first year on track.
Continuing students, every term
Advising, registration windows, balances and holds, before the deadline passes.
Students your team flags
A focused push when it matters most, like UW-Whitewater’s fall registration campaign for at-risk students.
- 1
Send us a list
Continuing students, a first-year class or the students your team flags as at risk, and the goal: next-term registration.
- 2
We map where students stall
The target actions between that list and next-term registration, and why students stop at each one: cost, confidence, belonging, logistics.
- 3
We build the GuidePosts
Creative for each step, made for your students in your brand and your institution’s voice.
- 4
We reach students across five channels
Social media, streaming TV, email, SMS and direct mail, timed to the step each student is on and to your deadlines.
- 5
We measure against a holdout
5% of the list hears nothing from us. You see conversion and engagement as it runs, and the lift once it reaches significance.
Continuing students missing registration?
Start with one list of continuing students. We’ll reach them before a missed step becomes a stop-out, and show you what moved.
One playbook across every stage.
Motimatic powers marketing across the entire student journey, from first impression to graduation. One platform, one strategy: behavioral science-driven messaging, delivered at the right moment to move each student forward, with impact measured through rigorous holdout testing.
- Streaming TV
- Social media
- Display
- Social media
- Paid search
- Display
- Remarketing
- Social media
- Streaming TV
- SMS
- Direct mail
Some students step off the path. Stop-out recovery brings them back to it.
- Before the list New audiences
- AwarenessImpressions, video views and interest
- Streaming TV
- Social media
- Display
- RFI generationNew lead form fills
- Social media
- Paid search
- Display
- Remarketing
- On your list Through the Motimatic platform
- Every student can be reached across five channels
- Social media
- Streaming TV
- SMS
- Direct mail
- YieldApplications, deposits and day one
- 4You’re hereRetentionAdvisor meetings and next-term registration
Some students step off the path. Stop-out recovery brings them back to it.
- Stop-out recoveryRe-applications and re-enrollment
- Graduation
- Social mediaReminders and encouragement in the feeds continuing students scroll.
- Streaming TVSpots served to the households on your list, timed to your registration calendar.
- EmailRegistration reminders and advising nudges, in the same voice as every other channel.
- SMSShort texts timed to registration windows and payment deadlines.
- Direct mailPostcards to the addresses on your list, timed to your registration calendar.
Finished freshman year. Spring registration closes Friday, and Jordan hasn’t signed up.
Spring registration closes Friday. Take five minutes to pick your classes now: school.edu/register
What retention campaigns have done.
Results from partner retention campaigns. Each links to its case study.
Continuing students the university saw as at risk of not returning registered within weeks, at 20x ROI.
Read the case studyContinuing and stopped-out students, Fall 2023 through Spring 2024. Estimated 10x ROI, assuming 8 credit hours per student at in-state tuition.
Read the case study121 continuing students met with an advisor, and 149 registered for classes.
Read the case studyWe don’t guarantee results. How we measure
Questions about student retention
What do retention campaigns ask students to do?
The steps that keep a student enrolled: meet with an advisor, use tutoring, the career center or wellness services, sort out aid and payment, and register for next term. More in our guide to student retention strategies.
Which students do you reach?
Any list you give us. Amarillo College sent continuing students at risk of missing registration and advising deadlines. UW-Whitewater sent the students it saw as at risk of not returning.
Which channels do you use for retention?
Social media, streaming TV, email, SMS and direct mail. Every continuing student on your list can be reached across five channels, timed to the step they’ve missed.
Does this replace our advisors or early-alert system?
No. We send students to the people and services you already have, and we time the message to the step they’ve missed.
How do you measure retention?
New campaigns hold out a random 5% of your list, and the same students stay out the whole time. When the result reaches significance, you see the lift against your own holdout. How we measure.
Keep reading on retention
All resources
White paperStart with one list.
Pick one list of continuing students and one goal: next-term registration. We run it against a 5% holdout and show you the lift.