Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

In higher ed marketing, budget cuts are a fact of life. Our college and university partners are under tremendous pressure to meet their enrollment number in every cycle, and we look at each interaction during the prospective student journey as an opportunity to impact that number.

From a paid media standpoint, budget cuts mean less money within our marketing plans, which in turn can negatively impact the number of inquiries/applications generated from prospective students. When we do face budget cuts, we concentrate the paid media budget on the institution’s highest enrollment marketing priorities, spending on tactics most likely to deliver those outcomes. For example, if an institution is focused on RFIs, we will allocate the budget to lower-funnel platforms such as Search and Meta.

It starts with digital expertise

Budget cut or not, we use our expertise to optimize campaigns to drive cost-efficient results at the highest rates we can achieve. This involves having a strong digital team that can evaluate options beyond a platform’s “sales pitch” and use the institution’s own data to fine-tune the audience and budget allocations to improve performance. Often, we find that one platform is delivering higher quality leads at a lower cost, and we shift budget to the better-performing platform.

Focus on quality leads that connect with students

At the core of our approach is a focus on lead quality over quantity. We know that the most valuable leads come from prospective students who authentically raise their hand, drawn in by messaging and content that truly resonates with them. That’s why we work hand-in-hand with our higher ed partners to deeply understand the student user journey on their websites.

By collaborating closely with the analytics team, we ensure robust tracking is in place to better feed data into our platforms. This allows us to uncover insights about top-performing geographies, programs, and other areas that resonate most with students. Armed with these learnings, we craft campaigns designed to connect with students on a personal level, inspiring them to say, “Hey, I want to talk to you.”

Our focus is not just on driving high lead volumes, but on cultivating quality leads from prospective students who are genuinely interested and engaged. This student-centric approach helps our partners build meaningful relationships with the right prospective students from the very start.

Tap the power of data

Most importantly, we take advantage of the data at our disposal. We integrate our clients’ enrollment data into our campaigns to accurately reach users who will most likely visit the website, submit an RFI, and hopefully attend the school. Ultimately, we navigate budget cuts by focusing spend toward the strongest tactics and using data signals and our expertise to optimize the campaign for the most qualified and cost-effective performance possible.

Track and monitor relentlessly

The practice of constantly monitoring and testing paid media performance has made some of our difficult budget decisions easier and allowed budget changes to be made more confidently. Having a data analysis process that tracks and measures each lead from initial click-through to successful enrollment, and holds each stage accountable for data management, enables reduced budgets to work as effectively as possible.

When you view the opportunity holistically, budget cuts can be less painful. Tracking lead flow will help you see where drop-offs in engagement are occurring. Is there a messaging breakdown? Is there a timing issue? Is the website flawed? Have we focused our budget on the audience segment most likely to take action? Are the personal interactions positive, rewarding, and effectively moving prospects to the next step?

Thoroughly, honestly answering and resolving these questions will help ensure that paid media spending is not wasted because of other marketing weaknesses.

Get the most out of every single dollar

Producing numbers is hard. Producing numbers with a slashed budget is harder still. Paskill brings more than 30 years of enrollment marketing experience and expertise to wringing every ounce of effectiveness out of whatever enrollment marketing dollars you have. Get more from your budget. Reach out to us, and let’s talk.