The achievements that you send through Merit can be shared with parents, friends, family, mentors, coaches, and others who wish to be notified when your school publishes stories about students. To do so you must have an email address for each of these stakeholders. If your school does not have access to these emails or you want to curate a more comprehensive list, you can take advantage of Merit’s stakeholder email collector, a simple form that lets stakeholders sign up to follow students’ successes.
How it Works
Merit's Stakeholder Email Collector is a simple form that helps you gather the contact information of the people interested in news about your students:
To sign up for notifications, stakeholders will enter in the following information into the form:
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Student Email Address - The email address of the student they wish to receive achievement notifications about
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Recipient’s Email Address - The email address they would like these notifications sent to
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Recipient’s Name - The stakeholder’s name
Upon submission, Merit will look for the student's email address inside Merit. When a match is identified, the stakeholder’s email address will be added to the student's account and they will then receive an email notification every time their student is featured in a Merit achievement.
To start gathering this information, you will want to share the link or QR code below with your networks:
Direct link to the form: http://my.meritpages.com/student-updates
Asset Library and Marketing Resources
Merit has created marketing and promotional assets for your school to use to encourage parents, friends, family, mentors, coaches and others to use the Stakeholder Email Collector.
There are two types of assets provided by Merit. Marketing materials targeted towards students and marketing materials targeted to parents. Each section includes copy, images and mockups of how to syndicate these marketing materials.
Click Here to Visit the Asset Library and Download all Marketing Resources
Student Welcome Emails: You can customize your welcome email to promote the parent email collector by encouraging students to add others to receive achievement notifications. We recommend adding the following text to your student welcome email template inside Merit:
In addition to sharing stories online, we'll keep your family, local newspaper, state representatives and former high school apprised of your accomplishments. You can keep your friends, family, mentors and others up to date on your achievements by adding them here: https://meritpages.co.securechkout.com/student-updates.
Facebook Posts: We recommend sharing these sample posts periodically in the Facebook Groups that your students and/or their families are a part of:
Click Here to Download the Social Media Assets
Flyer: Merit has created marketing materials that you can share with both students and parents. This one-sheet flyer will help encourage parents to fill out the form:
Click Here to Download the Promotional Stakeholder Email Collector Flyer
Promotional Video: We've created a promotional video that can be used to educate all audiences about Merit and encourage parents to sign up for achievement updates:
Click Here to Download the Video
Or embed the video on your own website:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/732133421?h=bee7eec5e2&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Email Templates: We've designed two email templates to help you share the Stakeholder Email Collector with students and parents:
Click Here to Download the Email Templates
Digital Billboards: Display these billboards on TV’s around campus to keep the Stakeholder Email Collector top of mind and get more submissions:
Orientation Pack: This asset collection was curated for you to use during orientation to inform students not only about the Stakeholder Email Collector and how to use it, but also about Merit and how your university is utilizing it. Share these assets with students during orientation:
Frequently Asked Questions
Can anyone sign up or is this only for parents?
This is a great opportunity for parents, friends, family, mentors, coaches and others who wish to be notified of student achievements. Anyone can sign up to receive these notifications. It is not intended only for parents.
Can students see who their achievements are sent to?
Students can view all of the email addresses who receive notifications about their achievements. After logging into Merit they can view, add or remove these email addresses at any time. Learn more here.
Does this tool replace the current workflow for uploading parent emails via spreadsheet?
No. If you currently have access to parent email addresses please continue to upload them into Merit. However, Merit's Stakeholder Email Collector will allow you to collect additional emails for parents, family and friends, resulting in a more comprehensive stakeholder email list.
Our institution does not conduct student imports. Will we still be able to match stakeholder email addresses to students?
Yes, Merit will still search for connections between stakeholders and students. However, this search will only be able to match stakeholders to students who have been added to Merit through achievements. We recommend performing student imports each semester to get the most out of Merit's Stakeholder Email Collector.
What happens if Merit can’t find a match for the student’s email address?
Merit will attempt to find a match for any email addresses requested by the stakeholder for six months. During this period, Merit will repeatedly check to see if the requested student email address has been added to Merit. If a student was added to Merit, the stakeholder will be added to their account automatically. If the student is not added to Merit within six months, the stakeholder's request to follow the student will expire.
Should stakeholders request to follow students' campus or personal emails?
Student Merit accounts generally use their campus email addresses as their primary address. However, if your school collects both campus and personal emails, the stakeholder can request to follow either email address.