Strategies for Each Stage of the Enrollment Journey
Higher education institutions face many challenges in their efforts to engage with potential students and keep them motivated while they navigate the enrollment process. In a 2024 Lumina Foundation/Gallup survey on the state of higher education, prospective adult students cited cost, work conflicts, emotional stress, and lack of remote learning opportunities as their top barriers to enrolling in a college program.
Institutions and enrollment teams have the unique opportunity to support students on their journey through each stage of the enrollment funnel — awareness, interest, consideration, intent, application, and enrollment — to help them achieve their goals.
To learn more, check out the infographic below, created by the Higher Education Marketing Journal.
Stage 1: Awareness
In the first stage of the enrollment funnel, prospective students search for colleges and universities and find out about the different programs they offer. The challenge that universities face during this stage is: How do we reach as many potential students as possible?
Prospective students learn about institutions in the following ways:
- College and university websites
- Emails from schools
- Videos
- Printed brochures
- Financial aid and scholarship calculators
- Marketing campaigns
According to a recent survey of prospective students, 83% find videos from colleges and universities helpful, 79% find virtual tours helpful, and 63% have clicked on a college’s digital ad.
Universities can use the following strategies to reach potential students:
- Use a mix of digital and traditional marketing. Digital tactics include social media ads, blog content, and search engine optimization (SEO), while traditional methods include college fairs, in-person events, direct mail, and phone calls.
- Personalize your tactics. Recent high school graduates may prefer text messages and emails, while adult students may prefer phone calls.
Stage 2: Interest
In the next stage, also known as the familiarity stage, students narrow their focus and move closer to deciding which program is right for them. Universities face this challenge during the interest stage: How do we stand out among the competition and promote our institution’s brand?
Strategies to stand out include the following:
- Promote your brand. Use strategic marketing strategies to emphasize the unique value propositions (UVPs) and benefits of earning a degree at your institution.
- Provide informative content. Anticipate your audience’s questions by describing how a degree can benefit their life and help them reach their career goals. Tactics include career-focused blog articles, informational webinars, and customized emails.
Stage 3: Consideration
At this stage, students have several options and may now take the time to reach out to the institutions they’re interested in to get more information before they make their decision. By engaging directly with students, colleges and enrollment teams can build relationships with them and establish trust.
Universities at this stage wonder: How do we build trust and encourage prospective students to enroll?
To build trust with prospective students, universities should employ tactics such as the following:
- Maintain one-on-one communication. Admissions counselors can contact students directly via emails, phone calls, or video meetings to answer their specific questions and address any issues they may have on topics such as financial aid opportunities, program lengths and delivery formats, and support services. Adult students may prefer adult-specific messaging that relates to their lives, such as information about work-life-school balance, family-centered goals, and increased earning potential.
- Connect students with faculty and alumni. Virtual Q&A sessions give students an opportunity to meet professors and faculty face-to-face and hear about the real experiences of current and former students.
- Provide materials and resources. Be prepared to answer questions about credit hours and course descriptions, and to provide any other information that can help them make their decision.
Stage 4: Intent
In this stage, sometimes known as the choice stage, prospective students are very close to making a decision. Enrollment teams need to be ready and available to help them take the necessary steps to enroll.
These teams have the following challenge questions to solve: How do we continue to keep students engaged? What other information and encouragement can we provide?
Over 14,000 prospective adult students who responded to the 2024 Lumina/Gallup survey ranked their reasons for not enrolling in a college program. The following challenges were flagged as very important or moderately important:
- Cost: 85%
- Work conflicts: 77%
- Emotional stress: 72%
- Program length (too long): 72%
- Favorable job market: 71%
- Lack of remote learning: 68%
- Personal mental health reasons: 64%
- Degree/credential not needed for job: 62%
- Unprepared academically: 58%
- Getting accepted: 56%
- Personal physical health reasons: 55%
- Lack of value in further education: 52%
- Child care/adult family care: 47%
- Degree doesn’t fit with personal beliefs: 47%
Universities can employ strategies such as the following:
- Continue personal engagement. As students come closer to making a decision, they may have more detailed concerns about costs, financial aid, and program specifics, so it’s important to check in and be available to answer any new questions.
- Create urgency. Remind students about upcoming deadlines for enrollment and financial aid applications.
- Provide incentives. Offer application fee waivers and other benefits for early application.
Stage 5: Application
At this stage, students have made their decision and are ready to apply to the institution. This is a big step for students who may need help submitting documents and fulfilling admission requirements.
The challenge universities face involves this question: What can we do to ease the application process?
Schools can employ strategies such as the following:
- Check in regularly. Streamline the application process, and provide reminders of important dates and deadlines.
- Create a help desk. Provide resources, application checklists, and video guides to students, and help them locate any missing or remaining information.
- Encourage and motivate. Send positive messages to students letting them know they’re near the finish line.
Stage 6: Enrollment
In the last stage, students complete their registration and begin the orientation process. Admissions advisors at this stage must keep students engaged and set them up for success. Students will choose classes, buy books, and meet teachers and other students, while also making decisions about how to manage their other life obligations while they are in school.
The challenge question for universities: How can we provide support and promote retention?
These schools can benefit from strategies such as the following:
- Provide guidance and resources. Support students through the registration process, help them create manageable course loads, prepare them with the resources they need to succeed, and help them create long-term plans with the goal of graduating.
- Analyze and evaluate enrollment process successes. Gather feedback from students and parents, analyze data, and make improvements to each stage of the enrollment process.
Create Enrollment Strategies to Support the Student Journey
Enrollment teams not only help students choose the best program to reach their goals, they also support them throughout the enrollment and admissions process to ensure their success through graduation.
Sources
The Council of Independent Colleges, 2023 E-Expectations Trend Report
Lumina Foundation, The State of Higher Education 2024
Modern Campus, “How To Optimize The Enrollment Funnel & Increase Matriculation”
Higher Education Marketing, Essential Admissions Funnel Best Practices For Schools
Higher Education Marketing Journal, “Enrollment Funnel: Tips for the Student Journey”
