The college admissions landscape is more crowded than ever. More than 4,300 higher education institutions vie for attention in the United States alone. They’re seeking to attract an ever-shrinking number of high school graduates looking to attend college, as today’s grads are less likely to choose college than at any point in the last few decades. Schools that fail to stand out through engaging college admissions campaigns don’t stand much of a chance.
In this environment, prospective students are constantly bombarded with information. It’s not uncommon for a single school to send more than 100 emails to prospects in their database in a single cycle. It’s also common for students to receive that much volume from more than 50 colleges in that same cycle.
When standing out is more important but more difficult than ever, recruitment professionals need to create college admissions campaigns that capture attention and inspire action. It’s not easy, but with the right strategy, it can be possible. Use the practical tips in this blog to design admissions campaigns that resonate with today’s students and drive results.
The Basics of Compelling College Admissions Campaigns
Analyzing admissions campaigns takes work. Part of what makes the most successful case studies so compelling is that they are uniquely creative and suited to their institution. Still, the most compelling college admissions campaigns all tend to share a few major common elements:
- A clear and persuasive message that aligns with the institution’s mission and values. That message may differ across public and private or faith-based and secular institutions. But it has to be authentically validated by the institution’s history, legacy, and lived student experience.
- Visual and emotional appeal that connects with prospective students on a personal level. A commitment that ranks among the most significant financial and personal investments for students and families is not made lightly. Great admissions campaigns attract attention instantly. They also tap into their emotions to suggest an experience that will pay off their investment multi-fold.
- A call to action that is both actionable and timely, driving students toward the next step in their application process. Like the messaging and visuals, the call to action should immediately resonate with audiences. Promise them something they’re looking for on the other side of the click.
Consider these three elements the pillar of great admissions campaigns. Building them requires an intentional approach to finding the right audience, crafting a narrative that suits their needs, and engaging students with compelling content across channels.
Identifying the Right Audience for Your Campaign
Even the best college admission campaigns won’t succeed if they don’t reach the right audience. Who that audience is, of course, depends entirely on your institution and its enrollment goals.
Finding the students who are most likely to engage and apply requires an in-depth understanding of your ideal applicant’s demographics, interests, and concerns. Consider a complete analysis of your current student body to better understand the areas and demographics from which you are pulling students. Secondary analyses, like targeting growth areas in your radius of influence, can also help.
From there, consider tailoring your messaging to specific student segments.
- Your local students may be more likely to consider you if they understand the opportunities to study away or take high-level internships.
- International students need an understanding of American college culture.
- In contrast, first-generation students may need more explanation of higher education jargon and nuances than those with family members who have gone through the process already.
FlippedApp can be valuable in this step by providing admissions teams with the profiles of students who fit their institution’s criteria. That creates the potential for more targeted and efficient campaigns. As a result, you maximize your likelihood of reaching students who are most likely to engage and apply to your institution.
Crafting a Strong, Student-Centric Narrative
While many decisions about the college search are rational, it is still ultimately an emotional experience. For a student to choose your school, it has to “feel right” to them. That’s why storytelling and narrative can be powerful admissions tools to engage your prospects.
Start by highlighting real stories from current students or alums that showcase the value of your institution. That process can be as general as a testimonial about student life or as specific as particular majors and events. Build your storytelling around the unique opportunities that your institution offers, and display student success that shows on a human level just how much the investment in attending your school can pay off.
The key in this step is authenticity. The more you can personalize your storytelling and take it from an institutional voice to the real people that make up that institution, the more personalized that narrative will become. Your goal should always be to make prospective students feel seen and understood. Help them envision themselves at your school with ease.
Leveraging Multi-Channel Marketing for Maximum Reach
Successful college admissions campaigns never rely on a single channel. Instead, they can deliver a consistent message and visuals across multiple platforms designed to ensure maximum visibility and engagement.
In today’s digital environment, digital channels will likely make up the backbone of your channel mix. Social media, especially, has become a valuable tool for students in their college search. Meanwhile, students expect to receive the most relevant information from colleges and universities via email. But you can also go further, with virtual events allowing you to meet students where they are in informal settings.
As you expand across multiple channels, a dichotomy of needs becomes crucial. On the one hand, you need consistent messaging and visual branding across all platforms to reinforce your campaign’s message. On the other hand, you also need to optimize your content for each channel. Consider steps like leveraging video for social media and reserving longer-form narrative content for your website.
Only hitting the balance of these two needs can allow you to be successful. The more intentional you are about the channels on which you choose to engage prospective students, the better you can plan out your content to achieve that balance.
Engaging Prospective Students With Interactive Content
Communication experts know that effective interactions with your audience can never be limited to a single direction. The more the sender and receiver can interact with each other, the more the message will resonate. The same is true in college admissions campaigns, where interactive content can make a massive difference in creating memorable experiences for your prospective audiences.
The type of interactive content you can leverage ranges widely, including:
- Virtual tours that take out-of-state and local prospects alike through the parts of campus they want to learn more about
- Live Q&A sessions focused on topics most relevant to students, such as financial aid, residence life, and more
- Interactive quizzes that allow students to learn more about your institution and campus with small giveaways
- Social media takeovers from current students or recent alums that provide a personal look at life on campus along with Q&A opportunities
Contests and challenges always have the potential to draw attention. So can the process of incorporating personalization features that correspond with student interests and help them see how they fit into your institution’s community. The more they can interact with your content, the more likely they will be to engage with it.
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness and Optimizing for Success
Finally, an age-old marketing truth applies to college admissions campaigns, as well: never trust that best practices alone will lead you to the promised land. Instead, every part of your campaign should be tracked to measure its effectiveness. Then, your team can invest extra in the areas that work best and make improvements where the data suggests it.
Start by tracking campaign metrics such as click-through rates, social media engagement, and application conversions. For every channel in your mix, outline exactly what the most relevant metrics will be to help you measure that channel’s success.
Of course, you don’t have to stick with quantitative metrics for your measurement efforts. Student feedback can also be invaluable. You can refine your messaging, visuals, and even your targeting through surveys, focus groups, and informal communication as you plan to launch future campaigns.
Tools like FlippedApp once again become valuable in this arena. Used the right way, they can support the optimization process by offering relevant data on student profiles, helping to refine your targeting across channels and improving campaign outcomes in the process.
Building Better Admissions Campaigns for Sustainable Enrollment Success
In a crowded admissions landscape, intentional campaigns are more important than ever when you want to stand out among the crowd. Intentional practices help you find the right audience, craft a strong narrative, leverage interactive content across multiple channels, and measure campaign effectiveness. Ultimately, intentionality is key to consistently creating compelling campaigns that captivate prospective students.
Even in the middle of a recruitment cycle, these campaigns still have the potential for immense success. Begin implementing them now to boost student engagement in the short term. This process can also create the potential for increased application rates in future semesters and years.
Good strategies never rely on a single tool, but those tools can still play a valuable role in the process. Consider the potential power of FlippedApp, which can help your team build more targeted and effective campaigns by connecting with the right students. Learn more about FlippedApp today and start to create college admissions campaigns designed to successfully recruit future students.