Are You Missing the Signs? What Student Intent Signals Are Trying to Tell You

Oct 7, 2025 Marketing Trends, Undergraduate Enrollment

What if I told you your enrollment challenges weren’t due to a lack of student interest, diminishing demographics, or even (gasp!) that you didn’t buy enough names?

The truth: You’re missing your goals because you’re missing — or worse, ignoring — important signals students are giving you every day.

The wrong fix for a bigger problem

The default reaction when classes fall short is predictable, and it happens every year. 

• When you miss your goals, you buy more names. 
• When apps drop, you throw more money at advertising, without re-thinking who you’re advertising to. 
• To buffer yield, you fill mailboxes with more open house invites and put your text opt-in list on blast.

Each tactic might have its place. But without knowing which students actually matter, and what they’re interested in, you’re flying blind with every tactic on every platform — resulting in bigger spend and fewer results.

The reality for counselors

Ask any admissions office what their counselors are up against right now and the story is the same: territories that feel too big, inboxes that never stop, and outreach lists that grow faster than they shrink.

• Which students are serious? 
• What are they interested in?
• Which are slipping by? 
• Which are already lost? 

Counselors spend hours chasing students — but without intelligence, it’s guesswork. Most teams don’t know what action to take – leading to fatigue, frustration, and possibly still missing your goals.

This is the reality: Counselors are overworked and under-resourced. The solution isn’t more names, more noise, or another AI counselor. It’s the ability to identify students and unlock access to the very breadcrumbs that they’re leaving throughout your website as you’re reading this blog.

The intent signals you’re ignoring

Students are telling you exactly what they’re thinking — think of it like their digital body language. They’re telling you how interested they are, and what they’re interested in … and not with forms, but with their actions:

• Which pages they read (and reread)
• Whether they log into the application portal but don’t submit
• If they open (or ignore) counselor emails
• Whether they engage at admitted student events or quietly back away

This isn’t random internet doom scrolling. These are intent signals. They’re the loudest voice in your funnel. And if you’re not listening, your competition surely is.

Using intent signals in your enrollment marketing

Intent signals, when aggregated, paint a clear picture of who to contact and what to say.

Prioritization

Intent signals tell you who to call first. The prospect who visited your nursing program page five times this week? They’re interested. The admitted student who hasn’t logged into their portal in three weeks? They’re losing interest fast.

Depending on the time in the cycle, you can use intent signals to figure out who to call first. For example, prioritizing interested prospects during app season keeps your funnel moving strong; while contacting disengaged students in the summer can mitigate melt.

Personalization

Behavior reveals what students care about. If someone keeps reading your financial aid pages, lead with scholarship info—not campus tour invites. If they’re obsessing over your athletics content, connect them with coaches. When students show you what matters to them through their clicks, you can speak their language instead of sending generic “we’d love to have you” emails.

“Capture’s targeted approach allows us to identify students when they are at their highest level of interest. In an era of ‘stealth shopping,’ Capture’s partnership assists us in not just identifying these students but positioning our messaging in front of them at the opportune moment.”

– Katy Remich, Director of Enrollment Communications, Jacksonville University 

Accelerating your funnel with Capture’s intent signals

We use AI-powered, data scientist-developed scoring to aggregate lists of prospective students your counselors should prioritize, including:

Daily Visitor Report (DVR): See who’s on your site and what pages they were on, so you can call engaged prospects while they’re actively browsing instead of waiting for inquiry form fills.

CES (Capture Engagement Score): Know who’s most engaged with your website right now. 

CAI (Capture Affinity Index): Understand their affinity for your school over time. So, a visitor with a high CES and CAI score is a top candidate for attention from an admissions counselor. They are actively on your website regularly, over a long period of time.

Behavior Timelines: See the complete digital journey. Spot students stuck on financial aid pages or showing “about to apply” browsing patterns. And confidently know how to follow up with them.

Counselor Copilot takes counselor outreach even further by auto-drafting personalized emails based on each student’s intent signals and site behavior. Instead of staring at a blank email wondering what to say, counselors get pre-written messages that reference the specific programs students explored, pages they visited, and content they engaged with. Organized in a priority list based on recent web behavior, predictive insights and season of the enrollment cycle. So your counselors can work smarter, not harder.

Stop Flying Blind

It’s time to admit the truth. Your problem isn’t that students aren’t interested in your institution. It’s that you don’t have insights into what they’re not telling you. 

The institutions that will thrive in this environment are the ones that build a signal-first strategy. Not just more noise, but smarter, more human engagement — powered by the longest-standing partner in AI for enrollment.

Ready to unlock access to intent signals? Contact Capture today.

Mia Charette