Small schools confront their own unique set of challenges in addition to the concerns facing higher education as a whole. At the 30th annual National Small College Enrollment Conference (NSCEC) July 16-18, admissions and enrollment professionals will convene in Louisville, KY to discuss how their institutions are adapting to survive and thrive in a changing marketplace.
Often, smaller schools appeal to students who want personal attention — they want ready access to faculty. They want staff to remember their names and goals. They want to feel connected to a community. As a small school, that’s your differentiator, and it starts from the second prospective students learn about your institution and its programs.
However, recruiting staff may be overwhelmed at the thought of forging close connections and delivering a high level of personal attention to each and every prospective student. Getting through an influx of inquiries and responding to each student can be daunting for a small team, especially if that “team” is just one person! Yet, personalized, relevant communications remain key to attracting right-fit students.
That’s where Liaison’s Enrollment Marketing Platform (EMP™) comes in. With EMP, you can quickly and easily:
- Tailor your messages to reflect each student’s unique interests, delivering the personal touch they expect.
- Capture detailed demographic and behavioral data, allowing you to target different groups with relevant offers and information.
- Reinforce messages across multiple channels, delivering a powerful impact across web, print and email.
- Allow students to quickly see where they are in the process, increasing engagement by guiding them through next steps.
As EMP covers communications management, you’ll have more time to spend with students in interviews and advising sessions.
Using EMP to create targeted recruiting campaigns, Faulkner University, a private Christian liberal arts school enrolling approximately 3,200 students, was able to increase its number of applicants by 28% and the number of students enrolled by 32%. Faulkner incorporated more personalized student information into all of its marketing touches — emails, letters and its electronic application. Admissions staff were able to target different groups of prospective students with the specialized offers that were most likely to resonate with them. In addition, staff could easily identify which students started the savable online application but didn’t finish, then follow up to guide them through the rest of the process. Delivering the right message to the right student at the right time helped increase applications and enrollment.
Faulkner isn’t an outlier. Liaison has helped many small schools stand out and increase applications and enrollment — without a corresponding increase in staff. Stop by our table in the exhibit area at NSCEC to learn more about how EMP can help you streamline and personalize communications to attract more of the right students.