SMS Enablement Strategy

The Challenge

As our organization scaled its outreach across three institutions and multiple front-line enrollment roles, the need for a unified, role-specific communication strategy became increasingly critical. Without a standardized approach, prospective students often experienced fragmented or inconsistent communication—undermining trust, professionalism, and conversion efforts.

At a tactical level, staff were using SMS inconsistently, with differences in:

• • Tone, cadence, and timing

  • Logging and follow-up practices

  • Messaging for opt-outs or unresponsive contacts

  • Clarity across touchpoints during the enrollment journey

These gaps not only introduced compliance risk, but also created inefficiencies and uneven prospect experiences. We needed a centralized, scalable solution that could:

• • Align with compliance requirements

  • Support daily workflows

  • Reinforce training objectives

  • Drive more consistent student engagement across all teams

My Role

As the Content Management Analyst within the Training, Development, and Content (TDC) team, I led the strategy, structure, and execution of this enablement initiative with the goal of improving communication consistency, reducing compliance risk, and supporting frontline performance at scale.

My contributions were grounded in identifying root causes, aligning stakeholders, and building content that could drive behavior change—not just deliver information. I approached the project not as a documentation task, but as a content intervention with downstream impact on enrollment engagement, training effectiveness, and operational alignment.

Key responsibilities and decisions included:

• • Assessing content gaps and workflow misalignments by analyzing current state behaviors and mapping them to role expectations across four frontline teams

  • Developing a modular, role-specific framework that addressed institutional nuances while preserving consistency in tone, cadence, and follow-up strategy

  • Partnering with Regulatory Affairs to translate compliance expectations into actionable, staff-friendly guidance

  • Embedding performance principles into content by structuring each job aid to reflect typical daily workflows, communication goals, and system interactions (e.g., CXone dispositions)

  • Establishing a scalable content governance model including templating, approval tracking, and version control for future LMS integration

The Solution

To drive consistent and compliant SMS communication, I developed a suite of role-specific job aids designed to be easy to reference, integrated with daily workflows, and scalable across three institutions.

Each guide was structured using a visually scannable format—leveraging iconography, consistent layouts, and section-level clarity to support fast decision-making in live student conversations. This format allowed staff to find answers quickly without needing to sift through dense paragraphs.

Each job aid included:

• • SMS etiquette: tone, character limits, and message clarity

  • Time zone–specific texting windows and outreach pacing

  • Compliance-aligned protocols for opt-outs and unresponsive contacts

  • Messaging templates tailored to specific outreach moments

  • Logging instructions for CXone to align behavior with system tracking

  • Role-specific workflows and daily goals designed to mirror real-time staff activity

Job aids were tailored for:

• • Graduate Admissions Specialists (Upper Funnel)

  • Admissions Coordinators

  • Interviewers

  • New Student Liaisons

  • A general reference version for all staff members

Each job aid was delivered through SharePoint with embedded version control and templating to support future LMS integration and training scale.

Results and Impact

This project advanced a critical organizational goal: establishing a repeatable, scalable model for frontline communication enablement across three institutions and five frontline functions. By transforming ad hoc messaging into a structured, role-based system, I supported strategic alignment between compliance, performance, and training in a high-visibility communication channel.

Strategic outcomes included:

• • Five SMS job aids deployed—creating a foundational communication framework for new and existing staff

  • Regulatory Affairs approval ensured the guidance could be confidently adopted without compliance uncertainty

  • Consistent expectations across roles, reducing friction and confusion in student-facing interactions

  • Content governance structure built in—including version control, role-based segmentation, and update workflows

  • Positioned for future LMS integration, making this solution not just a reference tool, but part of a long-term enablement ecosystem

Reflection

This project reinforced that high-impact content isn’t just about clarity—it’s about enabling aligned action. By intentionally designing for role specificity, behavioral consistency, and compliance scalability, I shifted SMS guidance from a reactive tool into a strategic asset.

It also deepened my understanding of content as infrastructure—something that can reduce ambiguity, shape decision-making, and extend the reach of training and compliance efforts across complex teams.

If extended further, this framework could support:

• • Scenario-based coaching in LMS modules

  • Interactive walkthroughs embedded in tools

  • Metrics-driven feedback loops to inform ongoing content iteration

This project strengthened my approach to building content systems that not only inform, but actively drive performance, alignment, and trust across cross-functional teams.