The admissions process is never a one-way street. The success (or failure) of attracting students to your institution will depend on how they respond to the messaging they receive from you and how willing they are to engage with it. It’s what makes student engagement during the admissions process such a central consideration.
Put simply, the level of student engagement you provide while students consider your school directly impacts enrollment decisions and long-term engagement.
At the same time, engagement is not simply something you can hope for as you plan and execute your prospective student outreach. Instead, you need to build proactive messaging systems that engage your future students at every stage of their admissions journey. Keep reading for actionable insights that admissions and recruitment marketing professionals alike can use to effectively enhance student engagement as part of their efforts.
The Role and Importance of Student Engagement During the Admissions Process
Successful student engagement is core to almost every admissions effort. In fact, the argument could be made that a highly engaged student prospect pool may be the biggest variable in driving successful admissions and enrollment outcomes.
To start, a more engaged prospect pool leads to higher percentages of your prospects applying to your school. When students respond to questions, browse your website, or engage with your content on social media, they begin to form clearer opinions and memories of your institution. When it comes time for students to decide, your institution and brand will be more likely to be on their minds.
At the same time, engagement also goes beyond the application process. Students who continue to engage with your content and have personal interactions after they apply become more likely to deposit. Finally, even after enrollment, a strong link between engagement and retention has been established, leading to higher chances of long-term student success.
In other words, student engagement should be a priority that goes far beyond the admissions process. Prioritizing it from the first interaction onward helps ensure that you not only attract the right students but also guide them through their pre-college and college experiences to help ensure their success.
How to Create Engaging Digital Content
Leveraged correctly, digital content can be a direct bridge to student engagement. Create the right content, and you can almost guarantee that your content will engage your students through multiple digital channels. Some of the many examples of this type of engaging digital content include:
- Interactive and visually appealing content. This includes webinars on relevant topics, virtual tours of your campus or specific parts of campus, and student testimonials—ideally in video form.
- Compelling stories that resonate directly with your students’ values and aspirations. Your current students, recent or long-time graduates, and professors can all become great sources for these types of stories.
- Short-form engagement-driven content on social media. Options include trivia questions, flashbacks to your institution’s history, user-generated content from your students, and more.
The key to generating engagement, especially in the digital realm and on social media, is to avoid leaning too far into the marketing angle. Authenticity is key, especially when looking to communicate with Gen Z audiences. The more helpful and ‘real’ your content can become, the better your chances of building consistent student engagement during the admissions process.
How to Drive Engagement Through Personalized Communication
In addition to authenticity in your digital content, personalization is another key factor in driving student engagement. Today’s generation of incoming college students is more diverse than any that came before them. So they require a custom approach to communication that depends entirely on their unique needs and preferences.
That personalization can take on a wide range of shapes and sizes, all designed to maintain student interest and attention. Consider:
- Diligent audience segmentation allows you to specifically target your emails, mailed materials, and other recruitment communications.
- Personalized content, ranging from email copy to personalized video messages, can create a more personal connection with your prospective students.
- A customized channel strategy that accounts for the preferences of your future student (and parent) segments to reach them where they spend your time.
Through some channels, you can prioritize personalization even further. For example, FlippedApp allows institutions to connect directly with students who match their criteria, enabling more tailored and engaging communications that speak directly to their unique needs and interests. This and other approaches are specifically designed for relevance and can potentially supercharge your student engagement in the process.
How to Engage Students Through Interactive Experiences
Taking matters a step beyond personalization, the ability to interact with content—especially digitally—is relatively new. But it has the potential to be a game-changer in this area. The right interactive experiences—built the right way—have the potential to engage and captivate students, keeping them engaged during the entire admissions process.
Consider, for example, the impact of live Q&A sessions with your admissions team and other campus resources as part of the recruitment process. Financial aid offices saw massive success in helping students and parents navigate their way through this year’s FAFSA crisis. Virtual open houses and interactive workshops are more comprehensive and take different angles but tend to have the same effect.
One goal should be to create opportunities for future students to interact with your institution’s current students, professors, and alums through these and other opportunities. That process builds more authentic connections than any marketing messaging could. Also, prospects gain more agency in both their college search and how they want to learn about your school.
Finally, consider incorporating gamification elements into the admissions process. It’s a particularly well-liked approach to marketing for Gen Z students, enabling you to provide little rewards and incentives to students who take steps like signing up for a campus visit, submitting their application, and more.
How to Build Community Early in the Admissions Process
Chances are that community is among your institution’s major messaging pillars. But who said that the sense of community you look to promote has to wait until they enroll? In fact, making it a priority earlier in the process can reap massive rewards for your student engagement efforts.
For example, consider creating online communities or social media groups for your prospective students to connect with other future classmates. Parents may enjoy similar groups. Both will feel more comfortable asking questions and getting to know each other directly instead of having to go through institutional channels.
Some schools also organize pre-enrollment events or meetups, both virtual and in-person. The goal is again to help students and parents build a sense of community. Then they can avoid coming to campus without knowing anyone yet. Especially when organized by region, these meetups can help students connect with others from similar backgrounds.
Finally, make your campus life an active part of your recruitment messaging. Let prospective students know about the student organizations they can join, the types of events they can participate in, and more. The more they can envision themselves as part of the community, the more likely they’ll be to want to join that community.
How to Measure and Improve Your Engagement Strategies Over Time
In theory, the above strategies have the potential for immense student engagement success. But in reality, only some of them may work and be worth the investment for your institution. Finding out how your engagement efforts are performing can help you refine and improve your strategies over time.
Start by setting up KPIs that are specifically related to student engagement. They may range from open and click-through rates to social media engagement rates and video views. More comprehensive metrics like event participation will also be valuable to track.
Next, use these metrics to better understand which strategies are most effective in driving engagement. Then, invest more in these strategies and measure again to ensure that the increased investment has led to increased returns.
Flipped App, for example, can significantly enhance engagement. You can use it to connect admissions teams with students who are most likely to be interested in their institutions. But it also offers advanced insights to measure the success of these efforts, ultimately building more efficient ways to nurture those relationships and drive greater enrollment.
Building a Student Engagement Strategy to Drive Long-Term Success
Institutions can create a comprehensive set of initiatives specifically designed to drive student engagement through tactics like:
- Engaging digital content
- Personalization
- Interactive experiences
- Building community
Alongside an integrated measurement strategy, these initiatives can go a long way toward driving more apps, enrollment, and long-term student success.
Of course, each of these engagement tactics can only be successful when implemented the right way. A comprehensive, thoughtful implementation can go a long way toward building stronger connections with your prospective students.
As part of that implementation, finding the right tools will be essential. A platform like FlippedApp can be immensely valuable by supporting your engagement efforts through the entire enrollment funnel. Learn more about FlippedApp and get started on driving more student engagement today.