Digital Marketing at Every Stage of the Enrollment Funnel

Anyone who knows me will know that I love a good conversion funnel. They provide the clearest roadmap to recruitment success that I know of, because we all know that the path to purchase (the path to enrollment) is never linear. It would be great if this were true. Imagine how easy our lives in higher education enrollment would be if students submitted an RFI form, submitted an application, and then enrolled on the timeline that works best for us. But we know that’s not the case.

With all the disruption in the higher education market today and how today’s students search for programs, it’s even more important that your digital presence is firing on all cylinders and at every stage of the funnel. This ensures you will reach your prospects wherever they are online. Whether they know about you or not, or are already considering you, by organizing your digital efforts across the recruitment funnel you will maximize your digital presence at every stage in the student prospect’s journey.

Marketers often think that the primary focus of the digital presence is the top of the funnel, but I’m making the case for the notion that the digital presence runs from top to bottom of the funnel. So what does this mean?

By making sure that you have a digital presence at each stage of the funnel, you’re really putting yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Before you do anything else, answer the following questions, which will guide so much of what you do:

• What is going to be most interesting to them about what you offer?
• What questions do they need answered to go from awareness to consideration?
• What do they need to know to go from being engaged to actually enrolling?

When you take a look at this, you can see there are tactics at each stage that helps take your prospect through the funnel.

Awareness and Interest

The goal at this stage is to keep your institution top of mind among prospective students that are not yet ready to engage. If you are using the right strategies (see the Recruitment Funnel graphic), they will be able to find you and learn about your “brand” at a high level. Again, even at this stage, the core of the strategy is to provide content that helps answer questions appropriate to the stage (Do you need a GRE? What does financial aid look like? Do you have a Yellow Ribbon Program?). Take a step back and understand if you were a prospect at your organization or your university, what would you need to know to go through this funnel? At this stage, you want to make sure you have display ads and videos on the websites and social media pages that your prospects are visiting, so they can become familiar with your brand, your programs, and how you can help them.

Consideration and Intent

The goal at this stage is to move students from knowing about you (being an “informed consumer”) to considering your institution as a place to enroll in their chosen program. They are getting ready to engage directly with you, and the key to a successful digital presence is to make them want to do that while also making it easy for them to do. Think of questions that they will have and also how they will want to ask them, then guide your strategies around that. Whether students are doing an online search, looking at college rankings, researching financial aid, or exploring the best degree for working professionals, this is your time to reach your prospective students at the moment of need. They are actively researching, learning, and comparing. Student prospects are savvy, and this where they will make their early impressions and decisions, so it’s critical that you make it informative, helpful, and easy.

Inquire and Engage

This is, of course, the critical stage in the funnel. Students have been searching and now are ready to make their move. Make it easy for them to do so. Be sure they can make contact at any time they may want to do so. They are looking 24/7, so make plans for how to effectively and personally engage with leads that come in “after hours.” You need multiple ways for prospective students to engage with you in the form of a website form, chat bot, text, or email. Speed is key here, so make sure you have the resources to follow up with all your inquiries. Believe it or not, social media profiles will “grade you” according to your response times!

Application

The application stage is increasingly blending into the Inquiry and Engagement stage as more and more students use the application as their first contact with programs of interest. This makes the ease of submitting an application, the channels which can be used to do so, and the overall process of completing the application all the more important. The “abandon” rate on complicated and complex applications is something that you will want to evaluate. What is the balance between requiring enough information to effectively evaluate qualification for your program and the amount that will cause some fully qualified people to move on to the next school on their list. In an era where you can download an app, complete an order, and get a product within days, it’s never been so important to have a streamlined process.

Enrollment and Beyond

Finally, there’s always the bottom part of the funnel, which after they’ve enrolled, they could become your brand advocate. And you have that opportunity, even once they’ve enrolled, to continue the marketing and to continue having them engage with you and tell your story to others—because we do know that word of mouth is powerful. If you can provide a seamless and helpful experience throughout the enrollment funnel, this should take care of itself. Helpful email marketing and relevant social media posts are a great way to give your student base content that they can be proud of and share. So it’s really making sure that you have a presence at each stage and that you’re providing that helpful, relevant content to move them through the funnel. I like to challenge my clients to create five questions at each stage of the funnel that your student prospects need to know to move to the next stage. It can be easy to overlook things because you are so close to your brand, so don’t overthink this!

Let’s talk about how you can engage more students with your digital marketing

You can dive into this topic in our webinar, Successful Strategies in Marketing to Online Students. Three of my RNL colleagues and I discussed the digital marketing strategies that are most effective, based on our work with hundreds of colleges and universities.

We’re also here to talk with you about your best strategies for moving forward. Reach out to connect with our digital marketing and enrollment experts so you can find the best approach for engaging students and achieving your enrollment goals. Ask for your complimentary consultation and we will set up a time to talk.