Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

Even before COVID-19, declining enrollment trends and a rapidly shifting landscape were common in higher education. The numbers of closures had been upsetting: (11 privates on average per year) and students’ impacted (half a million displaced in the past five years). Fall 2020 has schools thinking seriously on when and how to reopen campuses, making marketing to prospective students more critical than ever.

While there are many decisions to make about growing or retaining enrollment, there’s one essential marketing tactic that has consistently made an impact in admissions and recruiting outcomes for decades: professional development.

There are countless ways to build an institution’s brand, exacting ways to understand your school’s positioning in the marketplace, and a range of marketing strategies to employ. Those efforts are integral to survive and thrive, but any enrollment marketing investments are wasted if you aren’t also investing in those on the frontlines of higher education admissions: your recruiters.

As a full-service higher education marketing firm in business for more than three decades, Paskill Stapleton & Lord offers comprehensive services to advance enrollments. Yes, our digital enrollment marketing suite is making an impressive impact. Yes, micro-content across platforms matters. Yes, brands must be built on solid research, not just hopeful taglines. But what’s never stopped making an immediate impact in higher education enrollment marketing is professional development and academic sales training. Better recruiters can deliver you better outcomes – they just need the tactics and skills to be effective.

Our consultants have delivered more than 1,000 customized workshops for admissions teams of small private, large public, faith-based, community college, and online offerings, recruiting traditional and non-traditional students. This same effective program is now being offered virtually, so wherever your team is recruiting from – at home, on campus, a hybrid approach – they can be connected to each other, trained with the skills that matter now, and energized to make a difference this fall.

Like any winning coach will say, your team is only as strong as your weakest link. Everyone on the field makes a brand impression and they need to do their part to move every play toward enrollment. Question is: can each and every admissions player on your team be trusted to represent your school’s brand and engage prospective students through the enrollment process?

Providing consistent, high quality training can positively impact the answer to this question.

PS&L offers a range of customized recruitment and staff development workshops, including Yield Boot Camp; SMART (Sales Management & Academic Recruitment Training); and the Workshop for a Student-First Culture. Talk to us about our virtual workshop options.