Innovative Enrollment Marketing Strategies for Universities

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Innovative enrollment marketing strategies include integrating CRM technology, adopting an omnichannel approach, boosting engagement through content marketing, implementing SEO, and using retargeting and digital ads. These strategies can help higher education institutions differentiate their recruitment campaigns and attract prospective students in a competitive marketplace.

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If you work in college admissions or marketing, you are already very aware of the changing dynamics of student recruitment. You know your school is now competing in a digital-first world where personalization and data-driven strategies are key to connecting with Gen Z. You might be feeling like you need a brand presence everywhere, using the very latest technology, just to reach your prospective students. Converting them into enrollees is an even bigger challenge amid declining enrollment. 

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Enrollify has your back and keenly understands what you’re up against. That’s why we’ve assembled this comprehensive guide to help you work smarter when it comes to enrollment marketing.

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Define Your Target Audience for Tailored Outreach

All the AI and data-driven tools in the world won’t make a difference if you don’t have a crystal clear picture of who your right-fit prospects are. But how do you approach this when you have so many kinds of students? That’s where a strong segmenting strategy comes into play. You can segment by demographic data, psychographics (e.g., values, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices), and media consumption behavior to tailor messaging. Your customer relations management (CRM) system is one of the best places to look for data on the segments that make sense for your school. 

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Here are some ideas for segment attributes that could help you tailor your marketing messages:

• Residency Status: in state vs. out of state
• Personality Type: introverted vs. extroverted
• Preferred Media: YouTuber vs. email reader
• Values & Goals: career-driven vs. curiosity-driven
• Lifestyle Choices: staying close to home vs. exploring new places

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Once you’ve selected segments, you can build personas. Personas are more detailed, fictional representations of students within your segments. They provide a specific, dimensional image of a person that enrollment marketers can tailor messaging to. 

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Enrollify Spotlight: Talking Tactics

Each episode of Enrollify’s "Talking Tactics" podcast is devoted to a single tactic that significantly impacted an enrollment metric—be it inquiries, booth visitors, completed applications, or views. We only cover tactics that had to be executed with limited resources: a small team, a short timeframe, or a tight budget. Listen to the latest episode.

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Build a Strong Brand Identity to Stand Out

In today's competitive higher education landscape, building a distinctive brand identity is more crucial than ever. Your institution's brand isn't just a logo or color scheme—it's the story you tell across every touchpoint of the student journey. Whether it's through social media, your website, or printed materials, consistency across your visual identity, brand narrative, and core messages are key. 

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Consistency demonstrates the stability of your institution and builds trust with your audiences. Consider how MIT's innovation-focused brand architecture shapes their entire brand experience. 

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Memorability is a different matter. The most powerful way to stand out from the crowd? Let your students tell their stories. Authentic testimonials and alumni success stories bring your institution's values to life, showing rather than telling potential students how your university's unique identity could shape their future. Check out our nine ideas for enrollment managers looking to differentiate their school’s recruitment campaigns.

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Integrate CRM Technology for Smarter Enrollment Marketing

Before you get too deep into running campaigns based on your great brand, you need to invest in a robust, modern Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. To avoid stabbing in the dark and wasting precious time and resources, Enrollify strongly recommends setting up a system to track your audience data and responses. You can then create targeted, effective campaigns that are measurable, so you know what works best for your audience. 

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Modern CRM platforms and higher ed marketing software like Element451 transform your recruitment efforts into an intelligent ecosystem, tracking every touchpoint from that first website visit to final enrollment confirmation. Automated communication workflows ensure no prospect falls through the cracks, delivering relevant content at exactly the right moment—whether through email, text message, or social media. 

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Perhaps most valuable is the CRM's ability to serve up data reports and insights you can act on. By analyzing patterns in your prospective students’ responses and engagement, you can continuously refine your marketing approach, allocate your budget more effectively, and make data-driven decisions that boost enrollment outcomes. 

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Adopt an Omnichannel Approach to Maximize Reach

The most innovative enrollment marketing strategies leverage multiple channels (email, SMS, social media) for omnichannel approach. This ensures you’re visible to prospective students and staying on their minds no matter where they are. Use a combination of digital ads, emails, SMS, and social media campaigns to develop brand awareness in your target audience. How do you know what combination to use? We bet you already know the answer. (Spoiler: it’s data collection.) Here are the best data-driven ways to optimize your omnichannel marketing strategy:

• Use your CRM to run A/B testing and track your conversion rates.
• Survey your prospective and current students about their enrollment decision journey
• Study demographic-specific communication patterns
• Learn about generational shifts in media consumption 

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CTA 

Fact: University presidents have the highest social media engagement rates, particularly on Instagram, with an average of 13%.

Gain more takeaways like this on Enrollify’s “Confessions of a Higher Ed Social Media Manager” podcast, hosted by MIT’s Jenny Li Fowler

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Boost Engagement Through Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the marketing strategies that you have the most control over. Content marketing is the term for the content you publish on your own website. It boosts SEO significantly while also giving your website visitors a deeper look into your school’s authentic character. 

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Start with content that addresses common questions and concerns—from academic program details to campus life experiences. This will demonstrate your school’s expertise while educating your future students, all of which builds trust. Video content is particularly powerful with Gen Z.  Offering virtual campus tours, day-in-the-life student vlogs, dorm tours, and faculty interviews brings your campus community to life, especially for international and out-of-state students who can’t visit your campus.

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Live webinars also create interactive touchpoints where your prospects can engage directly with admissions staff, current students, and faculty members. Get creative and make your institution feel accessible by not worrying too much about polish and perfection. Always take a welcoming, human tone and try giving your audience the feel that they are getting a special, behind-the-curtain experience. 

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Implement SEO to Increase Visibility

All higher education leaders and marketing teams worry, sometimes excessively, about how their school performs in search engine results. Approaches to search engine optimization (SEO) change frequently, as Google, Bing, Baidu, and other search engines continuously change up their algorithms. Lots of the conventional SEO wisdom still applies, however. Universities can still improve their SEO ranking significantly by using quality keyword research and focusing on long-tail keywords. 

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Optimizing program-specific pages is the best place to start, as these are often the first pages students land on when conducting online searches. Make sure these pages use long-tail keywords and SEO best practices for content strategy and content writing. The content marketing strategies mentioned above offer some of the highest ROI when it comes to boosting search engine results, even compared to paid SEO advertising.

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Use Retargeting and Digital Ads for High-Conversion Results

Retargeting (also called remarketing) is a digital advertising technique that can help you continue engaging prospects who have already shown interest in your school. Think of retargeting as a digital way of staying "top of mind" with prospects who've shown interest but haven't yet applied or enrolled.

Here are a few examples of how retargeting works:

1. A student researches your MBA program, then sees ads for it while reading news sites
2. A prospect views campus housing, then sees residence hall images on social media
3. Someone downloads a program brochure, then receives related ads on YouTube

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In terms of strategic tips, Enrollify recommends showing a student multiple versions of ads about the program they viewed. You should adjust your messaging based on how far along they are in the admissions process (which you should know from your CRM). Use two of the biggest marketing levers—timeliness and urgency—to prompt students to take action. An upcoming admissions event is an example of using timeliness, while advertising reminders about nearing application deadlines creates urgency.

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Succeeding in The Increasingly Competitive Marketplace 

Everyone working in higher education marketing is feeling the squeeze. The national trend in declining traditional student demographics, the growing number of online credentialing programs, and the price sensitivity that is increasing among students can feel like a perfect storm for enrollment marketers. 

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But you have more sophisticated and more affordable marketing strategies at your fingertips than ever before. Reaching the digital natives of Gen Z prospective students requires more precise segmentation and messaging. However, AI-driven higher ed marketing systems like Element451 are making it easy for teams of all sizes to compete in this tight market. 

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Amid all the strategies and tactics you’re planning to adopt, it is always important to remember to stay student-centered. It can be tempting to tell the world about all the great things your school has to offer—but this generation of prospective students wants to know why that’s relevant to their lives. Personalizing your campaigns with segmentation, tuning into what prospects respond to by analyzing your data, and then testing until you find the right mix are key to meeting your prospects where they are and making them feel understood.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is enrollment marketing automation?

Enrollment marketing automation is the use of software platforms and digital tools to streamline, systematize, and personalize marketing to prospective students. AI-driven higher ed marketing software can suggest next best steps to marketers and craft campaigns that correlate to each stage of a prospective student’s decision-making process.

What is an enrollment funnel?

An enrollment marketing funnel tracks and nurtures prospective students through key stages of their college decision journey. These stages are, generally, awareness, inquiry, compare, apply, enroll, and attend. An enrollment funnel marketing strategy tailors content and communications to move them through each stage.