In the higher ed enrollment management space, there are two prevailing mindsets that have overtaken the first-year enrollment practice.
Mindset One: When it comes to enrolling the right number of students, all we need is more prospects at the top. As such, our practice is just to keep drawing in more inquiries — through travel, through digital, through email abuse, through search, etc. We’ll add to the top and churn through the pool until the numbers at the bottom arrive at the desired total.
Mindset Two: We want the right number of enrollees, but we must be uber-strategic in getting there. Accordingly, we rely on best practices to attract leads that are likely to apply and enroll … and we do all we can to move them along, tell our story of student success, earn their trust, and make the case for education at our institution.
Both mindsets have merit. Both practices can lead to the desired outcome. But neither guarantee results. However, I would argue that only one of these mindsets creates opportunity to invest in the potential students and their families; tell the story that is required to build trust with your institution; demonstrate value; and lay the necessary groundwork for future retention.
What I have described here is the process of nurturing.
Some might argue that nurturing is becoming (or has become) a lost art. After all, we live in a disposable society that capitalizes on sound bites and drive-by media clips — essentially thriving and cashing-in on short attention spans. THIS. IS. UNDENIABLE. However, one could (and should) argue that telling an effective story — one that makes a prospect convert to a student — will involve captivating content and diverse distribution.
As the highly unusual 2021 cycle grinds on, Capture is working hard with our clients to build digital nurturing plans with RELEVANT CONTENT that are deployed using diverse DIGITAL channels.
So, what’s your enrollment management mindset? At Capture, we choose NOT to be wasteful. We don’t just aimlessly add more to get our desired results. We choose NOT to be monolithic. We don’t rely on only traditional mechanics of outreach. Instead, we choose strategy and diversity as we create, test and deploy content.
Join me Thursday, Nov. 12, at 2 p.m. for the webinar, “Set in Motion a Digital Strategy for Seniors and Influencers,” in which I’ll work through strategies to help with digital nurturing. Sign up here for the webinar.
By Jamie Gleason, Director of Undergraduate Initiatives, Capture
