Now that travel season has come to an end, it’s time to turn your focus to the next steps in the admissions cycle. December is a crucial month for setting the stage for a successful spring and beyond, so we’ve put together a list of key tasks and reminders to help keep you — and your CRM — on track:

Sending holiday cards to prospective students and their families is not only thoughtful, but a great way for your school to stay top-of-mind. Use your CRM to curate a list of top-engaged students for your recipient list, then, assign tasks to your counselors (or even print to card using services like Slate Print). This personal touch can make a significant impact and shows that you care about the student’s journey.

Get ready to implement yield campaigns over the coming months to nurture your admitted students. Regular, personalized communications will help keep them engaged and excited about attending your institution, and consistent reminders about next steps will help move your admit pool through the funnel.

Take advantage of portals and microsites by using them to house additional information and action items that future students need to complete in order to deposit and enroll. Then, be sure to link to them in your communications to grow engagement metrics! You can even create reports to help your team visualize metrics and track which campaigns were most successful.

It’s never too early to start developing your spring yield events! Begin by refining your recipient list within your CRM, then, determine how many email and SMS reminders you want to send (don’t forget to preview all of them!). These events are critical for converting admitted students into enrolled students, so be sure to create them ahead of time so they can be reviewed internally before going live. Remember, the more prepared you are, the smoother these events will run.

A new source format for the National Student Clearinghouse was recently released in Slate, so now it’s time to automate the import. Remember, the quicker student’s transcripts are imported to your CRM, the quicker your team can process them.

If you’re a Slate user, a quick check to make sure you’re displaying the correct round and decisions could save your office staff a lot of time. Don’t have Slate.org configured? Reach out to us for help!

Now is the perfect time to test out any new functionalities your institution will be rolling out. Take advantage of your test environment and test records to ensure everything is working as expected. Spending a little more time on testing can save you a lot of headaches later.

In addition to your personal New Year’s resolutions, set some CRM New Year’s resolutions for you and your team. By focusing on these tasks, you’ll be well-prepared for the upcoming months and ready to support your students in making one of the most important decisions of their lives.

Ensuring your workspace is clean and organized is just as important as your CRM being clean and organized! Take some time clearing your desktop, downloads folder, shared cloud storage, and physical workspace. It’ll make coming back to the office in the new year much more enjoyable. Most importantly, remember to take a moment to celebrate your team’s successes this month! Recognizing and appreciating the hard work of your colleagues goes a long way towards fostering a positive and motivated work environment.