The Prospective Student Journey: Capturing Inquiries

When a student begins their college search journey, it is the best time to capture new prospects, increasing the likelihood of nurturing them through the funnel.

First, we need to understand what it takes to capture the attention of prospective students and make them consider your school over others. Our recently released student and parent survey revealed the top three factors influencing a student’s choice of a higher education institution:

1) Total cost

2) The availability of their desired major

3) The quality of career preparation they will receive

By effectively showcasing these factors, colleges can better attract prospective students. It’s important to engage prospective students early through informative content and maintain their interest throughout the decision-making process. If students easily find the information they need at these early stages, they will be more likely to engage/inquire. Drawing students and their parents into an engagement relationship with your school relies on you having the right content combined with the right social media, search and website content that meets both groups where they are.

The Early Years of High School

Advance Education’s 2024 Student/Parent Survey showed that 50% of students and 54% of parents began the college search during the student’s freshman and sophomore years in high school. When students are in their first or second year of high school, admissions departments may not pay them much attention, yet this could be a missed opportunity. At this stage, students may not have formed solid ideas about what they want in their college education. However, the concept of college is on their radar, and even more so for their parents. Optimizing your marketing to effectively target prospect segments is crucial for a successful strategy. You need to communicate your value proposition and highlight what differentiates you from other schools. Here are the primary areas to consider:

• ANALYTICS: Analytics can help you define target geographical and demographics
  for outreach, direct your advertising and email campaigns, and discover missed
  opportunities in your strategies.
• WEBSITE: Designing a user-friendly website with intuitive navigation and good
  loading times is crucial.
• VIDEO: Incorporating video into all your marketing channels increases
  engagement: virtual tours, video testimonials to showcase student success, faculty
  videos about programs, and event videos are just a few of the types to include.
• SOCIAL AND EMAIL: With insight from Advance Education’s 2024 Parent
  & Survey, use the right social media platforms to target students and parents
  separately. Ensure your email outreach is mobile-friendly and conversational, and
  segment your lists to optimize messaging.

Want to learn more download our student journey whitepaper today!