52% of GSU's Robinson College Applicants Used Unibuddy to Make Their Decision

Challenge: Engaging with prospective students and increasing yield rates

Like many institutions, Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business faced the challenge of engaging prospective students and increasing yield rates. Their process at the time relied on manually connecting prospective and current students, causing delays that ultimately weakened the student experience. To overcome this, they needed a more seamless way to provide authentic insights into their programs and address the key question: What is life really like as a current graduate student?

The college has students from over 70 countries and a graduate population of approximately 1,700. “Considering our diversity, it’s crucial for us to capture both an international and domestic student perspective to enhance awareness and engagement across the board,” says Richard James, Associate Director of Graduate Recruiting. Ultimately, Robinson sought to create a more engaging, informative, and supportive environment for all prospective students, in hopes of this leading to increased yield.

Solution: Redefining  commitment to student success through digital innovation

James first discovered Unibuddy through a previous advocate and user. After attending the GMAC conference and learning more about the platform’s capabilities, he quickly recognized its potential to address Robinson’s engagement and yield challenges. Armed with this knowledge, James and his team crafted a proposal for senior leadership, emphasizing the long-term benefits and anticipated ROI of Unibuddy. “The leadership team, including our associate dean, immediately recognized Unibuddy’s commitment to innovation and student success, and we were granted the budget to pilot the platform,” James shares.

For the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, the implementation was described as “seamless.” Michelle Reider, a Customer Success Manager at Unibuddy, “was very helpful and took the time to understand our needs as a team so we’d be set up for success,” James notes. Eager to integrate Unibuddy with Slate, their CRM system, James and his team prioritized implementation to begin collecting real-time engagement data on the entire student journey and gain automated insights on prospective students. “Overall, it took about four to six weeks from contract to execution, and full integration with our CRM took a bit longer, but it was a straightforward process, and we had resources and support along the way,” James adds.

Result: “52% of our applicant pool used Unibuddy to help them make a decision”

After implementing Unibuddy, the college saw a substantial increase in student interest and engagement. “Whether it was connecting with one of our ambassadors, interacting with a blog post, or getting their questions answered by staff, over 52% of our applicant pool used Unibuddy to help them make a decision. That’s a significant percentage for us,” says James.

J. Mack Robinson College of Business strategically integrated Unibuddy across all program landing pages, which not only increased visibility but also allowed the marketing team to spotlight the platform and their ambassadors in recruitment campaigns. For example, Unibuddy links were embedded in welcome letters, fostering peer-to-peer connections right from the start by introducing prospective students to someone from their program who would soon be graduating.

This year, the college expanded their use of Unibuddy to include alumni as resources for prospective students. With this expansion, they required deeper insights into prospective student behaviour. By upgrading to advanced analytics, they gained a better understanding of where students were in their journey, the topics they were discussing, the blog posts they engaged with, and their confidence levels. This granular insight enabled the team to predict conversions and engagement more accurately, positioning Unibuddy as a crucial tool for student journey mapping and segmentation efforts.

Liz Rivera, Graduate Recruitment Manager, shares, “Unibuddy has alleviated some of my workload by addressing questions that I, as a recruiter, may not be able to answer directly. It offers prospective students more resources and connects them with current students who have firsthand experience. For me, it’s a valuable tool and a strong selling point—I can confidently say, ‘If you don’t believe me, reach out to a student who will share their own experiences.’

James adds, “In my role, I’m always looking for ways to lighten the load and enhance the prospective student experience. Unibuddy has been able to do that for us by providing real-time insights, so our ambassadors, alumni and staff can connect with them on what matters most.”