Blog

Effectively Engaging and Connecting with Gen Z

Aug 4, 2016

Is your enrollment marketing resonating with the unique audience that you’re targeting? When you consider that 1 in 2 Gen Zers—those with birth years ranging from the mid 1990s through the 2010s—will be university educated, your answer to this question becomes even more important. If you’re going to attract and keep the attention of the Gen Zers who will comprise your school’s next class, you need to know what sets this generation apart.

Who better to share how to engage with your prospective students than two parents of Gen Zers? During a recent webinar, Kate Dunn, Director of InfoTrends Business Development Group, and Suzanne Sharp, Executive Director of Enrollment Managing Consulting at Liaison International, shared insight into trends around the characteristics of this generation along with a few of their own personal experiences raising Gen Zers.

Watch the session recording and view the session slides for answers to questions that will help you better engage with your future students, specifically:

  • Who are they? 61% of high school students want to be an entrepreneur rather than an employee. 26% of 16-to-19 year-olds are currently volunteering and many of these teens are interested in social entrepreneurship as a career choice. Though sometimes only a few years apart in age, members of Gen Z are not like the Millennials that came before them.
  • What influences how they see the world? Gen Zers have always lived in a post-9/11 society. Post-apocalyptic fiction doesn’t scare them. It entertains them. Your audience is growing up in a world you may not recognize.
  • What does the world look like from their perspective? From greater diversity among teens and tweens—there’s been a 1.5% decrease in the caucasian 6-17 year-old population projected by 2018—to a better understanding of the hard work it’ll take to land a job post-college, you’re marketing to a truly unique group.

This is a lot of information to digest and your enrollment marketing strategy may need some updating. Not to worry—help is available! Learn more about EMP, Liaison’s Enrollment Marketing Platform. EMP enables colleges and universities to launch targeted cross-media marketing campaigns that engage prospective Gen Z students. Sign up for a personalized demo.

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Over the last three decades, Liaison has helped over 40,000 programs on more than 1,200 campuses more effectively manage admissions through its Centralized Application Service (CAS™) technology and complementary application processing and support services. The higher education technology leader supports its partner institutions’ total enrollment goals by pairing CAS with its Enrollment Marketing (EM) platform as well as the recently acquired TargetX (CRM) and advanced analytics software Othot.