Here are the five most important factors to significantly increase student enrollment numbers for your school.
Creating a targeted marketing strategy
You know your school best, which is why it’s so important that you create a marketing strategy to target your key demographic; the more specific the better. If you do not know the exact demographics of your students, including where to find them, then you NEED to spend some of your marketing budget on market research. While “branding” is important, it’s best to “brand” yourself in front of the type of students you want to attract.
Contacting the prospective student within minutes
Whether you sit on the Non-Profit or For-Profit side of the fence, you need to realize how crucial it is to contact a lead immediately. I have to tip my hat to For-Profits, because for the most part, they seem to get this. When a student is looking for colleges, they are shopping and want answers immediately. If you wait even 10 minutes before calling, there’s a chance that they have already mentally moved on or are no longer available to talk to you. If you want to see a difference in your conversion rates, get on the phone within minutes.
Positioning the institution uniquely
Once you have the student on the phone, it’s important that you can sum up what makes your college different than every other college they’ve previously looked at. Know your institutions strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t know why your current students chose to attend your school, then you won’t be able to convince prospective students to choose you.
Outlining the enrollment process
Now that you have convinced someone to attend your school, make the process easy. Knowing what documents are needed and understanding the acceptance procedures can be confusing. Outline a step by step process of what they need to do next to get enrolled and send it to their email. If you don’t know the rules, you aren’t going to play the game.
Following up (and then following up some more)
It happens all the time, admissions counselors get off the phone with a prospective student thinking they’ve got an enrollment and then the student drops off the face of the earth. Remember, you are selling. It’s your job to keep in contact with the prospect until they have started a class somewhere. If the prospect says that they aren’t interested right away, that’s fine, just don’t forget about them. Ask them what their time line is for starting school and keep in contact with them. We all need to be held accountable every once in a while, and if you’re not there to follow up, they will forget about you.