Industry: Higher Education
Region: North America
Solution Areas: Salesforce Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud Engagement, Account Engagement (Pardot)
Outcome: Unified Student 360, near real-time insights, scalable segmentation & activation, reduced ops overhead
Overview
A leading educational institution partnered with NexTurn to transform how it understands and engages students across the lifecycle from first inquiry to alumni. The goal was to unify fragmented data from CRM, marketing platforms, and academic systems into a single, actionable Student 360 and use it to power truly personalized communications at scale.
NexTurn adopted a use-case-driven, right-to-left approach: we began with the engagement outcomes the university wanted (personalized journeys, timely nudges, and better conversion/retention), then worked backwards to design the data model, unification strategy, and integrations needed to support those outcomes. Leveraging Salesforce native connectors and out-of-the-box capabilities kept costs predictable, maintenance simple, and time-to-value fast.
The Challenge
- Student signals were spread across multiple systems (CRM, marketing platforms, web, academics), making it hard to see a complete picture.
- Manual list builds and narrow audience definitions slowed down campaigns.
- Engagement data lacked the granularity and freshness needed for journey decisions.
- Ongoing maintenance was heavy due to custom glue code and brittle pipelines.
Our Approach
1) Right-to-left, Use-Case First
We prioritized Herzing University’s highest-impact engagement scenarios from prospect nurturing, application follow-ups, enrollment support, academic success nudges to alumni re-engagement, and mapped exactly which attributes and events those journeys require. That blueprint guided the target data model and the integration plan.
2) Strong Data Foundation with Salesforce Native Connectors
To minimize custom code and accelerate value, we integrated first-party data via:
- Salesforce CRM Connector (student/prospect, application, course/enrollment, academic outcomes).
- Marketing Cloud Engagement Connector (subscriber, campaign, email engagement).
- Account Engagement [Pardot] Connector (email & web engagement).
- SFTP Ingestion for supplemental engagement signals.
3) Target Data Model & Best Practices
- Designed a clean target model in Data 360 with custom Data Model Objects (DMOs) where needed.
- Mapped only required fields from each source; created necessary formula fields ahead of ingestion.
- Defined primary keys & categories for every stream and set up cardinalities between DMOs.
- Established a clear source-to-target lineage so marketing and data teams could trust every attribute.
Architecture at a Glance
Data Streams:
- Salesforce CRM (student/prospect, applications, courses/enrollments, grades).
- Marketing Cloud Engagement (subscriber, campaign, email engagement).
- Account Engagement / Pardot (email & web engagement).
- SFTP (additional engagement data).
Data Volumes & Cadence:
- Near real-time engagement updates (~every 2 minutes) for hight-signal streams.
- User/roster refreshes (~15 minutes) to keep profiles current.
- Hourly connector syncs to Data 360 for steady freshness.
- Daily upserts & extracts for standard operational data.
- Bi-weekly full refresh with ~10-minute incremental cycles thereafter for large master datasets.
Unification
We unified records across CRM, Marketing Cloud, Pardot, and SFTP using stable identifiers (e.g., Contact/Lead/Application/User keys) to create actionable individual profiles. The design for Herzing University emphasized:
- Deterministic matching on well-governed keys.
- High consolidation of duplicates and look-alikes.
- Traceable stitching so downstream teams could explain profile composition.
- At launch: ~1.21M unified profiles created from ~4.32M source profiles.
- ~72% consolidation rate, dramatically reducing duplication and noise.
Segmentation & Activation
- Built marketer-friendly segments in Data Clous for prospects, active student, and alumni cohorts.
- Activated segments to Marketing Cloud Engagement for campaigns and journeys.
- Implemented post-activation processing using an SSJS (Server-Side JavaScript) automation to flatten related attributes delivered as JSON into columnar Data Extensions so Journey Builder decisions can operate on clearly defined columns.
ResultHighly granular, always-fresh audiences that power personalized emails, triggered journeys, and timely nudges without engineering bottlenecks.
Business Impact
- Personalization at scale:Unified profiles + fresh engagement signals = relevant communications across the student lifecycle.
- Faster insights:Near real-time engagement updates flow into segmentation without manual work.
- Lower TCO & simpler ops:Native connectors and OOTB tools reduce custom code and maintenance overhead.
- Data you can trust:A governed target model, clear lineage, and deterministic stitching build confidence across marketing and academic teams.
- Future-ready foundation:The model and pipelines support new use cases such as advising, retention, program upsell, and alumni development, without re-platforming.
What’s Next
- Expand segment with behavioral & academic milestones for finer-grained journeys.
- Introduce predictive insights (e.g., propensity-to-apply/enroll/engage) using Salesforce AI.
- Bring in additional channels (SMS, push, paid) for orchestrated, omni-channel experiences.
- Broaden first-party data sources to deepen the Student 360 and measure long-term outcomes.
Why NexTurn
NexTurn blends deep Salesforce expertise with use-case-first design, partnering with institutions like Herzing University to deliver measurable outcomes. We engineer clean, scalable data foundations that marketers love and IT trusts so that higher-education instructions can deliver the right message to the right student at the right time.
Ready to unify your student data and personalize engagement at scale? Write to us at info@nexturn.com. Explore more at https://nexturn.com