Admissions marketing, and the right suite of admissions marketing tools, continue to play a major role in every higher education institution’s enrollment strategy. As high school graduation rates across the United States continue to decline and fewer high school graduates choose college as their next step, competition between public and private two-year and four-year institutions has become fierce.
A good strategy for student outreach is the first step to getting a leg up in this competitive market. But you’ll also need the right tools in place to optimize your messaging and get the attention of prospective students and their parents. These eight admissions marketing tools can help you prepare your digital marketing strategy and create the backbone of a successful recruitment cycle.
1. An Integrated CRM System
Admissions offices tend to manage massive lists of potential students. From SAT list buys to inquiries and applicants, each audience requires its own communications flow and outreach plan. A CRM system can help you both build and execute that plan and enhance your student recruitment in the process.
Ideally, the CRM system is more than just a database of prospective students. Systems like Slate and CRM Recruit allow you to send emails and texts through the system. It tracks communications to each student record so that admissions counselors always know what information the prospect has received before any personal outreach.
When done well, the result goes beyond the automation of your admissions process. It also creates an ability to build relationships with your prospective students. Gathering student-specific information, both in terms of demographics and the type of content they interact with, enables you to personalize your email campaigns and create a more customized user experience.
Key Features
- Lead generation and management opportunities to drive potential students from landing pages into your prospect database
- Marketing automation capabilities, such as automated drip and scheduled email and texting campaigns
- Integrations with other admissions marketing tools. This includes the ability to track the website traffic of potential students and create more personalized follow-up outreach opportunities.
- Real-time reporting capabilities to track key enrollment management metrics like application conversion rates, yield rates, and more
- User-based access roles for your admissions staff to track their prospect tool based on the territory they’ve been assigned
2. Social Media Management Software
Modern enrollment marketing is impossible without social media. Gen Z uses social media more than any other generation to learn about the world and research brands and higher ed institutions. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are some of the most important ways potential students learn about your school.
However, success on social media requires more than simply posting content. It’s vital to engage your future students—but only if you can build a social media presence that is consistent, engaging, and reciprocal. That’s why social media management software is among the most important admissions marketing tools you can secure.
Effective higher education marketing in this realm requires a thoughtful content plan so you can schedule posts to build a good mix of content. You should also build in internal review steps so everything goes out at the same time. Social listening, or the prospect of knowing what others are saying about your school online so you can respond as appropriate, is another important component that the right social media management tool can provide.
Key Features
- Connectivity with all social media channels that your school currently uses to engage prospects, current students, and parents
- A content calendar and scheduling tool. Plan your social media posts ahead of time and ensure a consistent mix of content optimized for student enrollment.
- Tagging and reporting on individual categories of posts such as events, admissions, athletics, academics, and more
- Social listening capabilities to monitor social media mentions of your institution and relevant keywords
- Approval workflows to ensure centralization and quality control when students and staff members post on the institution’s behalf
3. An Interactive Map Software
Interactive maps rise in relevance when prospects start to think about their college visit. At that point, the right digital campus map can become an invaluable component as you look to recruit your next class. For example, use the map to offer clear and easy directions to the right parking spots and campus buildings.
But that’s just the beginning. You can also leverage it to promote other physical selling points of your school, like a new building or all-gender restrooms. Your interactive map can prepare users for campus visits or even serve as the foundation for a self-guided campus tour. Students and parents alike can use it to explore your campus digitally, boosting your student engagement in the process.
Of course, the usefulness of the interactive map doesn’t end with the first admissions visit. From admitted student day to move-in weekend, it remains an essential tool in your admissions marketing arsenal.
Key Features
- A clear and accurate overview of campus that includes all roads and walkways to and from your buildings, parking lots, and other important locations
- Direct integration with direction tools like Google Maps
- Mobile-friendly design to ensure consistent and positive user experience for students and families on the move
- Lead generation capabilities to connect users who want to schedule a visit or campus tour after exploring your campus virtually
- Capabilities for secondary value-added content, like integrated video content describing key buildings or real-time data feeds for shuttle buses and computer lab capacity
4. Project or Task Management Tool
Not all admissions marketing tools are audience-facing ones. Building a comprehensive admissions marketing campaign is complex. It requires a multi-channel approach of digital, print, and Out of Home (OOH) efforts. At the same time, you’ll need to align with the on-the-ground work of admissions counselors at high schools and fairs. A project or task management tool like Trello, Monday, or Asana can be vital to keep everyone on track and streamline your processes.
The right task management platform ensures that everyone’s tasks get completed on time and add to a greater whole. Meanwhile, it also provides admissions and marketing leaders with the overview needed to keep the oversight of overarching recruitment goals. Both admissions and marketing teams can work more closely together, resulting in more integrated recruitment strategies that can be executed successfully, on time, and on budget.
Key Features
- Individual tasks that can be assigned to individual team members with specific deadlines and details
- Reporting capabilities that enable team leaders to review the workload of each of their team members
- Project-level views that provide an overview of more complex project timelines, like the different tasks involved in creating next year’s viewbook or digital marketing campaign
- Integrations with admissions marketing tools like your CRM, email, and others to streamline your workflow
- User-friendly interface that makes it easy for admissions and marketing staff members who may not be familiar with project management tools to use the system
5. A Virtual Tour Software
A virtual tour can become an essential tool in your content marketing strategy, especially for students for whom a physical campus visit may be difficult or impossible. Students from other countries or states, especially, will appreciate the ability to check out and immerse themselves into your campus and its many important spots.
In addition, the virtual tour can become a core messaging highlight for all admissions marketing efforts. Social media posts, printed materials, and emails can all point to it as a way to engage students more deeply and convince them of your value. The result is a comprehensive, interactive experience that gives prospective students a realistic view of campus life long before they set foot on campus.
Key Features
- Immersive, interactive system for students to explore campus through 360-degree photos and videos
- Internal content management system that makes it easy to update content and keep your school marketing up-to-date throughout the cycle
- Multi-language support for students from different countries and cultures to experience your campus virtually
- Enhanced engagement and immersion through hotspots, providing the ability for additional content like student testimonials and alum success stories
- Lead generation integration through integrated forms that enable students to learn more about your school or schedule a visit
6. Email Marketing Tool
From drip lead nurturing campaigns to calendar-based reminders about deadlines and admission events, email marketing can play a core role in the enrollment process. The right email marketing tool, in turn, can add to your suite of admissions marketing tools to ensure that you effectively reach your prospects and reliably grow your enrollment numbers.
While many marketing activities in higher education are outsourced, email marketing is largely managed in-house. That means you need a reliable tool to help you succeed. In some cases, that tool may live within your CRM. If it does not, it should integrate directly with your database to leverage some of the most important features you’ll need.
Key Features
- Pre-built templates that can be customized to fit your university brand and visual style
- Custom email scheduling set-ups that include the ability to run trigger-based drip campaigns and calendar-based push campaigns
- Reporting that integrates with the rest of your admissions marketing tools to view not just open and click-through rates but also deeper metrics like inquiries and applications generated
- Personalization features that enable you to make your messaging relevant for every prospective student you contact
- Segmentation capabilities to create unique and clearly defined target audience segments based on your marketing personas
7. Content Management System (CMS)
Your CMS is the backbone of your school’s website. It enables you to create dynamic, mobile-friendly admissions pages along with secondary content like blog posts, event pages, landing pages for specific ad campaigns, and more. It powers your website as the hub for all recruitment initiatives, leading your audience from awareness to inquiry, application, and enrollment.
Today, 99% of websites are built on content management systems. For organizations as complex as universities, the CMS becomes an essential tool—not just for admissions and marketing but also for retention and alumni engagement. Finding the right CMS can go a long way to effectively communicating with your audiences online.
Key Features
- User-friendly ability to update key web pages without needing to edit any of the underlying code of your website
- Search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, such as the ability to audit your site for technical errors or add alt text to your images
- Accessibility features that ensure your website complies with the requirements and guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Multi-user access to avoid bottlenecks as different stakeholders across the institutions look to update their content
- Integration with your CRM, virtual tour, and other key admissions marketing tools to effectively capture leads, facilitate sign-ups for events, and create a more dynamic online presence
8. Website Chatbot
The college search journey is immensely complex. Students and parents will have questions that your website or social media presence cannot answer. When they have those questions, they might not want to pick up the phone or wait until business hours to speak to someone from your admissions office. A website chatbot can provide a more immediate and efficient way to answer questions and concerns.
Gen Z is more comfortable interacting with chatbots than any generation before them. They’ll have no problems asking about anything from their intended major to financial aid, student clubs and organizations, and more. While a chatbot won’t replace direct conversations with your admissions staff, it can alleviate workload by answering the most common and straightforward questions immediately. Reserve your staff’s time for the more complex and in-depth conversations with students.
Key Features
- Direct integration into your website to ensure a consistent user experience
- Lead generation capabilities that enable you to capture the contact information of any student or parent asking a question
- An editable database that contains all relevant answers to common questions your students have
- A natural pass-off to human admissions staff for questions that the chatbot cannot answer
- Artificial intelligence capabilities that enable the chatbot to learn from common questions and answers, expanding its database and ability to answer complex questions over time
Elevate Your University’s Marketing Efforts With Concept3D
Admissions marketing is becoming increasingly complex. But the right tools can help simplify the process and help your recruitment efforts. From CRM systems to chatbots and social media management, these tools are vital for reaching your audience and meeting your enrollment goals. Ready to learn more about how virtual tours and interactive campus maps can help? Contact us to get started.