Five reasons why you’re not attracting enough students to your institution

In the competitive world of higher education, attracting students to your institution is crucial to survival. Not only do you need to stand out from your competitors to catch their initial attention, but you also need to nurture them through the pipeline until you get that all-important conversion. A student recruitment process with friction will kill conversions, so let’s look at five critical factors that could be impacting your student recruitment efforts.

 1.      Your story isn’t memorable enough

Whether it’s your institution’s overarching narrative or subject-specific stories, the importance of creating a memorable and compelling story is key when it comes to standing out among your competitors.

Simplify your proposition, avoid proposition creep, and stick to a consistent narrative over time. Creating a powerful story that resonates with your audience and differentiates your institution is vital to ensuring you stay on top of the minds of potential students.

2.      You’re not on their radar

Is your institution visible and present in the minds of prospective students? If a student enters Clearing or goes through self-release, it’s well known that they are more likely to go back to their original shortlist than seek out an unknown institution. So being present in the minds of these prospective students is crucial.

Ensure that your institution is not only seen but leaves a meaningful impact on the radar of potential applicants. Focus on human connections and meaningful interactions. In our experience, engaging with students through personalised interactions, HE fairs, campus visits and outreach programmes forms a human connection that is more likely to convert.

3.      Your relationships don’t start early enough

The best-converting institutions are the ones that concentrate their resources and budgets on pre-application relationships.

Focus on building connections early in the cycle through personalised communications, tailored experiences, and ongoing support. A relationship is not a one-sided thing. There has to be dialogue. So think about what you’re doing to get that lead, but then create a relationship. Generating a lead is great, but it’s not enough by itself.

4.      You’re not treasuring your precious leads

No matter what institution you’re at, leads cost money and staff time to get into your customer relationship management system (CRM) and once they’re there, they require nurturing and proper management.

Many activities are lead-generating, such as HE fairs, but perhaps teams aren’t thorough enough when it comes to collecting them. If you’re not collecting names and addresses during outreach events then you’re missing a trick, because that’s what your competitors are doing.

Treasuring your precious leads means working CRM systems as they’re intended to work. A customer relationship management system needs to be properly planned and properly executed. It may seem like an insurmountable cost for universities, but if you trade off what that cost would mean in the long term, it will pay back itself.

TOP TIP: If your academic colleagues are being sent out on strategic outreach sessions, they need to be briefed on how to collect leads at the end of their session. If they don’t want to, they should be accompanied by someone who will.

5.      Not engaging your wider stakeholders

Engaging with internal and external stakeholders, including academic colleagues, parents, guardians, and supporters is so important when it comes to building a culture of enrolment at your institution.

Collaborate, build trust, and equip stakeholders to contribute effectively to the recruitment process. By involving stakeholders in recruitment activities, leveraging their insights and support, and fostering meaningful partnerships, you can expand your reach beyond what your marketing team could achieve alone.

Ask yourself, what have you done to spend time with your academic colleagues or your professional services colleagues to equip them to help you in your student recruitment and marketing endeavours?

Building a strong narrative, increasing visibility, fostering relationships, nurturing leads and engaging wider stakeholders are key pillars of a successful student recruitment approach. By embracing these principles, you can set your institution apart, strengthen its enrolment pipeline and establish long-term connections with prospective students.

Penny Eccles is a marketing consultant specialising in Higher Education marketing and student recruitment.