The Key to Successful Enrollment Marketing is Understanding Student Intent
All enrollment marketing, regardless of the type of school, is a response to prospective student intent.
Every prospective student is on a buying continuum: Some are very close to enrolling — they’ve done their research, view your brand favourable, or have some connection to your school. Others are at the very beginning of their journey — they are researching you, your competitors, different program paths, and even whether they want to go to school.
The job of enrollment marketing is to offer choices that are meaningful to where your prospect is in his or her journey.
Think of it as a concentric circle around intent to enroll. Inbound calls and application forms are high intent (but lower volume). An inquiry form is moderate intent — it represents someone sufficiently interested willing to reach out but not ready to apply. Quizzes, downloads, etc are lower intent (but higher volume). As the circle expands volume increases as there are more prospects on the outer edges, than in the middle.
Most schools are way too timid in how they market. They’ve got an inquiry form, which attracts a very specific person at a very specific point in their journey. And maybe some links to their social media accounts. But that’s it.
It’s much better offering too many ways to connect than not enough. Some of your colleagues may perceive it as too “pitchy” but what you are really doing is respecting where your prospect is at in their journey.
Here’s some examples, from high to low intent:
- Enrollment form
- Application form
- Phone number
- Inquiry form
- Career Quiz
- Live Chat / Chatbot
- School Readiness Quiz
- Career exploration kit
- Registration for a Salary Calculator
- Webinar registration
- Information Session registration
- Downloadable White Paper
- Opt-in to email information
- Social media follow buttons
- Links to social media posts
Our Saas tool Virtual Adviser features an awesome tool kit of lead boosting tools for your schools website.
