Make no mistake: a sound understanding of your admissions funnel can make all the difference in building a successful recruitment and admissions marketing strategy. But of course, building that understanding is only the beginning. In addition, you also need to know the next step: how to continue optimizing your college admissions funnel for successful recruitment.
That optimization process can take significant time, data analysis, and audience preference research. But the time invested is well worth it. Optimized admissions funnels can become the engine that drives all your recruitment strategies, from digital to in-person and print to email.
So let's get started.
These five optimization methods can help you build a better admissions enrollment funnel, jumpstarting your recruitment efforts for 2023 and beyond.
Every enrollment marketing strategy has to start with a close understanding of your audience. That means digging into the numbers and conducting qualitative and quantitative research on who you know your audience to be. The goal: learn as much as possible about their behaviors, preferences, and pain points while they decide what school to attend.
An almost infinite number of possibilities exist to help you conduct this research. Which of these menu options you choose depends on your budget, expertise, and available time:
There are other possibilities, as well. For example, some schools conduct student experience or admitted student surveys that offer invaluable information about student preferences. The goal here is to gather as much data and form as many insights as possible about your audience's college search.
Based on the research and insights you've collected, it's time to build your student journey. Here, even seasoned enrollment professionals can get confused between the terms admissions funnel and student journey. The two concepts build on each other and are closely related, but allow us to explain the differences:
Creating a funnel is relatively simple - the data is all there to let you know how many inquiries, applications, and enrolled students you have each cycle. The student journey, though, is necessary to understand precisely how that funnel can be optimized. The more you can outline your students' steps on their way to college, the better you can build those optimizations.
So far, we've considered everything related to the recruitment funnel from the student's perspective. Time to turn inwards, looking at how all your owned channels play into and intersect with your student journey.
Start by outlining everything you do to attract students, including:
Once a complete inventory is in place, map it to each stage of the student journey--and the funnel. This allows you to gain a comprehensive overview of what's being done at each stage of the enrollment funnel to nudge prospective students toward the next stage naturally.
The next step returns to your admissions funnel. A full inventory of communications efforts, coupled with in-depth audience insights, allows you to analyze where your funnel succeeds and where it falls short. Look for answers to the following questions:
Finding the answers to these questions requires thorough analysis and will likely take time. However the insights gained can go a long way towards finding improvement opportunities and optimizing your enrollment funnel.
The final step is, in some ways, the simplest: based on your analysis, it's time to set some enrollment goals. All these goals should be related directly to your funnel, ideally improving the conversion rate between different funnel stages over time.
As you set goals, staying realistic is vital. The SMART framework can become helpful here, ensuring that your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Consider setting multi-year goals with more realistic year-to-year conversion increases.
From the goal setting, it's time to move to implementation. And that's where you need a partner on your side, helping to ensure all of your higher education marketing pieces are just right.
Are you ready to optimize your admissions funnel - from research to execution? Let's chat!
The admissions funnel represents the linear stages prospective students go through, from inquiry to enrollment, with some drop-off at each stage. On the other hand, the student journey encompasses all the non-linear steps students may take, including researching colleges, visiting websites, attending events, and more, which may occur both within and outside the defined funnel stages.
Conducting research on prospective students helps institutions understand their behaviors, preferences, and decision-making processes. This data allows for targeted marketing efforts and optimizations throughout the admissions funnel to better meet the needs of potential students.
Start by inventorying all recruitment and marketing channels, including website pages, digital ads, emails, print materials, campus events, and more. Then, map each of these efforts to specific stages of the student journey and admissions funnel to ensure a comprehensive and cohesive strategy.
Analyzing each stage of the admissions funnel involves assessing the effectiveness of messaging, identifying oversaturation or gaps, understanding audience nuances, and evaluating performance trends. This analysis helps identify areas for improvement and optimization within the funnel.
Setting goals for admissions funnel improvement involves establishing specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound objectives. Goals should focus on improving conversion rates between funnel stages and may be set for multi-year periods with realistic year-to-year targets.
The SMART framework is a method for setting effective goals, ensuring they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By applying this framework, institutions can create clear and actionable objectives for optimizing their admissions funnel.
Partnering with a specialized agency, like Sonority Group, can provide expertise, resources, and support to ensure all aspects of admissions funnel optimization are executed effectively. Agencies like ours can help with research, strategy development, implementation, and ongoing analysis to drive recruitment success.
Common challenges include data collection and analysis, aligning marketing efforts with audience preferences, and adapting strategies to changing trends. These challenges can be addressed through robust research methodologies, continuous monitoring and adjustment, and collaboration with experienced professionals.
The timeline for seeing results can vary depending on the scope of optimization efforts, the complexity of the admissions process, and external factors such as market conditions. Generally, institutions may start to see improvements within a few months to a year, with continued progress over time.
Institutions can leverage various resources, including data analytics tools, industry reports, professional development opportunities, and partnerships with specialized agencies. These resources provide valuable insights and support for implementing effective optimization strategies.
To get started, institutions can begin by assessing their current recruitment processes, identifying areas for improvement, and conducting research to better understand prospective students' needs and preferences. Partnering with a trusted agency, like Sonority Group, or a consultant can also provide guidance and expertise throughout the optimization process.
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