Communications
Learn the Slate concepts and tools that support effective student communication—from understanding your audience and targeting the right records to sending messages, managing responses, collecting information, and connecting communication to student engagement.
Learn how Slate connects people, data, messages, responses, and engagement into a thoughtful communication strategy.
Your Slate Communications Toolkit
Effective communication in Slate starts long before you write the message.
Before sending anything, you need to understand: Who should receive it? What do we know about them? How do we identify the right audience? What should they know or do? What happens when they respond? How can they take action? How does that action connect to their broader engagement?
This pathway focuses on the Slate concepts and tools that help communications move from broad messaging to intentional, data-informed student engagement.
Records
Understand who you're communicating with.
Fields
Understand what Slate knows about the audience.
Queries
Identify the right records for the communication.
Deliver
Create and send the right communication.
Inbox
Understand what happens when students reply.
Forms
Give students a way to provide information or take action.
Events
Connect communications to opportunities for student engagement.
Right Person. Right Message. Right Next Step.
Good Slate communication isn't simply about sending more messages. It means using the information Slate already has to communicate intentionally.
Before sending, ask: Who needs this? Why do they need it? What do we already know about them? What should they understand or do next? What happens after they respond or take action?
Lessons
Understand the people behind your communications and why every message ultimately connects back to a record.
“Who am I communicating with?”
Understand the information stored about your audience and how that information can support more relevant communication.
“What do we know about this audience?”
Use criteria to identify the records that should—or should not—receive a communication.
“Who actually needs this message?”
Understand how Slate Deliver supports sending communications to the right audience.
“What are we sending, to whom, and why?”
Understand how student replies can return to Slate and continue the communication loop.
“What happens when the student responds?”
Use forms to give students a clear way to provide information or take the next step after receiving a communication.
“What action do we want the student to take?”
Understand how communications can connect students to events and how event activity provides another signal of engagement.
“How can this communication lead to meaningful engagement?”