You have one duty: to increase enrolment. Everything else is directly correlated with your student population. If that number falls, you must use efficacious tactics to increase enrollment.
Here’s why. Marketers haven’t been having a field day so far. Everything is working against them: the pandemic, a decline in interest in higher education, rising student loan costs, subpar school administration, etc.
You should demonstrate the continued value of education and create a secure environment for young people to blossom into their best selves to increase enrollment numbers.
Having trouble with these? Not to worry. We’ll examine eight excellent methods for increasing enrollment and income.
Let’s go.
Formidable Methods to Boost Enrollment Rates
Enrollment rates have undeniably fallen over the past few years. A recent analysis found that institutions lost more than 1.1% of their student body, or 4.2%, between 2020 and 2022.
What Tactics Can You Use To Boost Enrolment Rates?
1. Establish Reasonable Goals.
Specify your goals clearly when developing a marketing plan. If you do, you’ll have a benchmark to compare your progress against. A plan enables you to choose a destination and make decisions with more clarity.
How do you set goals? First, know what’s vital.
For instance, are you looking for a particular age group or demography of young people? Are you looking for fresh, varied students? Do you need a group of students with specialized interests to start or grow a department?
All these objectives are attainable and measurable. They will assist your decision-making so you can choose the tactic to use with prospective students, the budget, and fantastic channels to concentrate your advertising.
After setting the goals, it’s easier to find the best course of action to lead to them. There are no good or bad steps. What may be effective in one school may not be effective in another.
2. Renovate Your Facility
“What, I thought we were discussing methods to increase enrollment levels? What on earth is renovation related to?”
You’re right, of course. It is unrelated to growth in student enrollment rates. It is completely related to it.
When a school is attractive, students can tell as soon as they enter it.
When you advertise a university, you’re not just pitching many courses. You are attempting to sell students lifetime pride. Students will choose another institution if their college lacks the proper visual appeal, laboratory equipment, or fundamental learning facilities.
Make little but significant investments in your school’s aesthetic design:
- paint the exteriors of the buildings and the halls
- repair faulty seats
- redesign the logo and alter the band team’s uniforms
- remodel the dining rooms
- add new publications to the library
And a whole lot more.
You only get one chance to create an impression, so seize it.
3. Repair Your Website
The university’s website is the first place students look for reliable information about any school. To have a terrific first impression, you must make the website inviting, navigable, and instructive.
Let’s take it step-by-step.
Your website should be informative. It should give individuals the information they need since, before everything else, it is a communication tool. Your website has to include information about your departments, employees, hours of operation, reviews, success stories, etc
Second, obtain quality leads from your website. You can collect information about prospective students via our website. Add a link to gather names, postal addresses, email addresses, and other crucial details for simple targeting.
Should you ignore aesthetics? Without a doubt. Students should be drawn to your website. Take photos of students in their natural environments, staff, artwork, university events, and even a brief school tour, aside from the site design. When prospective students visit your website, they should feel like they are already a part of your institution.
4. Social Media Marketing
When searching for prospective students, your intended market is mostly Gen Z. This study found that more than 50% of Gen Zers use social media for more than four hours daily, demonstrating that you cannot afford to neglect this medium.
Students will probably visit your profiles after visiting your site to understand campus life. You must ensure your profiles showcase your ideals, noteworthy extracurricular and academic endeavours, and illustrious success tales.
The first step to expanding your social media presence is identifying the platform your intended market utilizes most frequently. This does not imply that you shouldn’t spread your efforts across the board. Instead, pay attention to the media that produce the best ROI.
This study reveals that Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the platforms that Gen Z users utilize the most. To increase your following, create relatable content that represents your company and has a strong presence on these platforms.
5. Go Traditional
While focusing your efforts on the digital sphere is quite trendy, conventional advertising is still relevant. You’ll be surprised by how much traction conventional media advertising can generate.
What causes this?
Connecting with your local audience with conventional media advertising is a terrific idea. It’s a fantastic way to find aspiring students in your neighbourhood. Developing close connections with them is beneficial.
Furthermore, conventional marketing is more effective than digital ones in reaching a specific audience, despite common belief. Consider this: if finding your establishment’s ideal customers online was simple, why would you use many methods to focus your clientele?
Only those who really want your offers or deals will contact you if you advertise it through conventional techniques. You won’t need to worry about choosing the appropriate audience. Advertisements on radio, TV, and billboards will always be successful.
6. Take Video Marketing Seriously
The most popular platforms used by Gen Zers between the ages of 13 and 17 are YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Aside from prospective students, you can quickly connect with millennials and several baby boomers on YouTube. People of all ages and many professions use YouTube for different purposes.
Contrary to common belief, running a YouTube page doesn’t require you to be a pro or spend thousands of dollars. Your aim should be to portray the finest possible representation of the institution.
Students should feel like they’re living on campus when watching your videos, just like they would while browsing your website. Simply concentrate on producing relatable material that highlights your school’s positive attributes.
Also, benefit from Instagram stories and reels. Contrary to common belief, making video content shouldn’t be a time-consuming, expensive effort. You can utilize user-generated content (UGC) to promote your institution cheaply.
7. Improve Your Content Strategy
Even with effective social media and video marketing methods, you won’t get far if your content is weak. This tactic can drastically improve your conversion rates faster than you ever imagined.
Those that visit your website will probably read the articles, blogs, and research papers to get a sense of the calibre of work you take pride in. You wouldn’t want to publish material with typos or exudes mediocrity and ineptitude.
The right content will help you establish long-lasting relationships with students, even after graduation, and foster trust. People tend to trust government and college websites more than personal blogs because they perceive them as trustworthy and reliable.
There should be two types of great content: the first should be professional and include research papers, global news feeds, alumni success stories, or post-educational accomplishments. The second category should appeal to prospective students and campus activities. You can upload articles about time management, college preparation, etc.
8. Work on your Email Game
More than 76% of high school students say they prefer getting information via email from higher institutions than direct mail, texts, and phone calls.
Email marketing is a cost-effective method to expand your audience, advertise your services, and produce solid ROI. Colleges can increase enrollment rates via this technique by highlighting their advantages, advertising their educational deals, and providing sound academic consulting services.
Your audience can be segmented through this technique. The idea that every student researching your school would have the same goals is almost impossible. Some folks could be looking for reputable undergraduate programs, while others might look for fully sponsored graduate programs at your university.
When you segment your client base, offering pertinent and customised messages to address each client’s needs becomes simpler. In the long run, doing this promotes enrollment levels, loyalty, trust, and conversion rates.
The results you’ll receive when you combine email marketing with content, paid advertisements, and video will astound you.
Let FrescoData Help You Achieve Your Desired Outcomes
Do you worry that the number of students enrolling at your institution is dropping? Do you fear that your school wouldn’t be able to compete with its counterparts in several areas because of the declining student population?
Why not take a backseat and concentrate on other vital factors while FrescoData achieves the necessary outcomes rather than trying to fix the issue on your own?
FrescoData is a leading data-driven agency focusing on marketing to higher education institutions. We provide top-notch omnichannel solutions while utilizing successful tactics to draw the correct kind of students to schools. Contact FrescoData right now.
