Using Modern Marketing Trends to Improve the Student Recruitment Funnel

If you lead recruiting efforts at your college or university, you likely understand how important it is to keep pace with the times. Not only do student opinions and expectations change over the course of several years, but marketing messages that once worked well to bring a prospective student in might lose steam over time.

Here’s the million dollar question—how can you leverage current marketing trends effectively without building your entire student recruitment strategy on fads that could quickly fall out of favor next year? At the same time, how can you nurture prospective students in the admissions process in ways that cater to them?

We believe in building your admissions funnel using a mixture of contemporary trends in addition to sustainable strategies that last over time.

As we enter a new stage of student recruitment efforts, let’s have an honest conversation about incorporating trends into your higher education marketing playbook.

What Higher Ed Marketing Trends are Happening Right Now?

Trends change rapidly, and in a digital economy, that’s truer than ever. While the cornerstone goals of your marketing team might stay the same every recruiting season (such as collecting a set number of new inquiry forms, for example), the manner in which you accomplish those goals might need to shift in response to current events.

At Element451, we’ve talked about higher education marketing trends before, including ways that your team can remain relevant even in a highly competitive higher education climate. 

As enrollment numbers continue their eventual rebound from pandemic declines, the trends we’re highlighting here are ones that your team should actually care about this year.

Genuinely Transparent Brand Content

A lack of authenticity is one sure-fire way to lose prospective students before you even start to move them through a marketing campaign or funnel. As StudentBeans points out, “authenticity” can become a buzzword associated with Gen Z learners, but schools need to truly understand what that term means as it relates to the ethics and values of these students; the result is that schools need to have this understanding in order to reach future applicants more effectively.

Institutions that speak directly to core values, acceptance, and individuality are more likely to get it right when it comes to authentically branded content. 

Marketing that feels overly outdated and removed from the struggles and concerns of contemporary students might miss opportunities to take students from initial interest to application. If students make the decision to leave the funnel, it’s difficult to get them back.

Short-Form Clips and Video

As we’ve pointed out previously, short-form video content (think TikTok and Instagram Reels), is rising in popularity this year. The good news is that this type of content isn’t reserved for digital creators or influencers. Colleges and universities can produce and publish short-form video content as a way to actively engage with ideal audiences. 

Student-Centered Podcasts

Audio content is an extremely popular media outlet recently, and podcasts alone have a listenership of an estimated 82 million subscribers. As a result, podcasting is a huge trend to capitalize on—not only because it’s trendy, but also because it’s a catalyst for conversations.

Students want to talk about the issues that are most important to their daily lives, particularly as they relate to higher education. What better way to host open discussions and grow an audience than to place these talks on a podcast platform? 

When produced according to best practices, student-centered podcasts have the potential to reach both prospective students and currently enrolled students. This is a winning combination for higher education institutions that need to attract and retain students using proven digital marketing tools.

Campus Ambassadors or Representatives

Another higher education marketing trend that we’re watching closely is the use of student ambassadors to create branded content. Brand and campus reps aren’t necessarily a new phenomenon, but they do help create legitimacy in a competitive education environment—especially one in which students want to know that they can trust a school’s messaging before they attend.

Campus ambassadors are helpful when you need to build a library of user-generated content for online channels, including advertising and social media. User-generated content (UGC) is often extremely powerful for student recruitment because it captures realistic student life at a very personal level, and it helps new students visualize and experience what they can expect from a particular college community. 

Today’s Enrollment Funnel—Is It Broken?

Even though the traditional recruitment funnel isn’t necessarily broken beyond repair, higher education marketers do need to continually think ahead and take note of many trends that pop up (like the ones mentioned here).

This means being innovative in your school’s approach to student engagement and knowing how to actually personalize the recruitment funnel so that it caters to students in your target audience. Remember—students don’t know which stage of the funnel they’re in, but they do know and appreciate when marketing messages resonate with their own values.

Keep the comprehensive student journey in mind when moving students from the inquiry stage to the final stage (with an eventual enrollment decision).

Replace Outdated Recruitment Strategies

With these facts in mind, it’s time to think beyond traditional outbound tactics like in-person college fairs, high school visits, and campus tours. Legacy and third-party strategies for sourcing students’ contact information aren’t the best tactics for growing enrollment in today’s higher education culture, and many have already been replaced by easier, more streamlined digital tactics. 

Students can (and will) recognize which schools are stuck in the past because their overall enrollment experiences may be less helpful, streamlined, and simple as other more advanced recruiting funnels.

Leveraging Trends to Personalize the Student Experience

It’s not always possible (or recommended) to build your school’s marketing foundation on passing trends. They’re bound to come and go, and at the end of the day, what’s most important is differentiating your school from the rest of your competition and exceeding enrollment goals in the process.

The way to bridge the gap is through student personalization. At a quick glance, personalization means delivering timely messages to interested students and fulfilling a specific need in the recruitment or enrollment process. 

You can apply personalization to each new trend that comes your way by considering how it specifically applies to your student body or pipeline. Then, go one step further by giving each idea your own branded spin and tailoring them to your school’s unique selling points.

Personalization Tips to Follow For Higher Education Recruitment

Personalizing current trends is entirely possible and surprisingly simple for many institutions. To successfully create engaging marketing experiences as they relate to enrollment marketing funnel trends, take the following tips into account.

Segment the Admissions Funnel

Break your recruitment funnel down into specific segments or audiences. These categories should be based on student goals, region, anticipated degree program, etc.

Incorporate One-on-One Video in the Recruitment Process

Create personalized video content for individual students to address specific questions, needs, and concerns. The admissions office can also use one-on-one video to send out special invitations to the incoming class, including virtual tours or personalized events.

Use Stories in Several Stages

Leverage a story-based marketing campaign to capture student interest and build better brand narratives that aren’t focused only on getting the student to do something (such as submit an application or make a deposit upon final decision). Story-based narratives are helpful at the top of the funnel, through the consideration stage, and during the decision making process.

Research Every Application Stage

Research, research, research! Know more about your ideal students and target market than many schools do. Develop engaging student personas that help you market, recruit, and enroll more effectively as a result of actionable student data.

Let’s Improve Recruitment Outcomes…Together

Let’s be real—recruiting is changing, and it’s more important than ever to have workable steps that deliver results for your funnel. Although incorporating today’s trends into your marketing strategy can be a powerful way to reach students, you also need enduring tools (like personalization) to continually attract, enroll, and retain.

At Element451, we help schools keep students engaged and enrolled. Let’s revamp your recruitment funnel with an all-in-one platform that moves enrollment forward.

Request a Call