Creative (and Effective) Ways to Engage Prospective Students and Parents
When it comes to reaching prospective students and their parents with your school’s marketing material and communication plans, it can be difficult to figure out how to stand out from the slew of materials they are getting in the mail and online. (Some prospective students get a “staggering” amount). Separating yourself from the crowd is a challenge due to the sheer amount of competition. Budget and resources are also a real consideration for most independent schools who don’t have endless funds for new initiatives.
The good news? There are lots of great ways you can communicate with prospective students and their parents with approaches that are valuable, educational, and even entertaining. Your institution can still stand out from the rest!
We’ve pulled together several creative and effective examples from some schools that we’ve worked with (and some that we haven’t) to shed light on how you can start reaching, delighting, and converting prospective students into actual students today.
Give them a Sense of Place and Personality
Every prospective student has received a brochure in the mail with a picture of students walking to class surrounded by gorgeous orange and red foliage. There’s also usually a paragraph describing the school’s dedicated, outstanding faculty. It’s fine to include content like that, but it’s crucial to differentiate your school—to communicate a real sense of place and personality. The goal shouldn’t be to merely give students a sense of what living at a college for the next four years is like, but what living at your college is like.
Instagram is great way to convey place and personality. It remains one of the most popular social media platforms for high school-aged students today. So show off your school with energetic photography that captures life on your campus. And make sure to not only include staple images of your library or stadium, but also aspects of student life that highlight your unique academic community.
Spotlight:
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor @umhb
UMHB’s Instagram account provides plenty of images of students at various events and settings (giving a life-and-blood feel) as well as beautiful shots of popular spots around campus.
Ouachita Baptist University @ouachita
For yet another example, check out Ouachita Baptist University’s account, which not only provides a nice visual swath of life at Ouachita, but also features photos that are beautifully shot, subtly signaling the quality of the school.
Bonus: Ouachita takes it a step further with a short video on a well-designed and easy-to-navigate landing page for prospective students and parents. In just under a minute, they poke fun at the difficult-to-say-name of their university, “Ouachita,” with a good measure of humor and playfulness. It’s a great way to reveal the school’s unique personality, which not only works to delight prospective students and parents but can help the school stand out as memorable.
Don't Reinvent the Wheel
It’s likely that much of the compelling content you’ve produced over the years is not actually being seen. Yikes. You may have some great student testimonial quotes on your website or a series of blog articles featuring successful alumni— but your audience may be completely unaware. Wondering how to be more direct about getting this content in front of your prospective students and parents, instead of spending valuable time and resources to just create more content?
Spotlight
MidAmerica Nazarene University
Certain items in MNU’s communication plans for prospective students and parents provide links to alumni stories on their website as well as a digital version of a booklet highlighting ten separate alumni and their current success at the workplace. MNU works hard to get this content in front of students and parents because employment is a big concern for both audiences. Your school may have tons of similar content, whether it’s for your print magazine or a blog. The key is to get this in front of students. Can you make sure your emails link to this content (or include the content in the body of the emails)? How about highlighting these stories specifically during campus tours or info events? Integrate the content you have into multiple outlets. No matter how many compelling alumni stories or impressive stats you have, they won’t do any good if they remain out of sight from your prospective students and parents.
Another approach is to offer simple and easy-to-produce content that can keep your school top-of-mind. For example, offering a free pen when prospective students take a campus tour or a packet of stickers with your school’s logo are affordable, simple, and effective ways to leave an imprint (quite literally) about your school.
Campbellsville University
CU’s recently re-designed acceptance packet for prospective students includes a sheet of stickers (and some other cool stuff). Custom stickers are a very affordable and easy thing to do, and provide a fun “swag” item with which students and their parents can decorate their laptops, fridges, or notebooks. This turns prospects into potential brand advocates for your school by making your school more visible. The custom stickers were a huge hit with Campbellsville’s accepted students, and an affordable way for the admissions team to keep things simple and fun.
Don't Forget About Parents
Keep in mind that parents—the ones who are often taking on some of the financial investment of attending a school—usually have a large say in prospective students’ college decisions. For the most part, high-quality content that reveals the unique place and personality of your school will impact both of these audiences. But just like certain social media strategies will mostly resonate with prospective students, it’s important to keep in mind some effective approaches to uniquely engage parents.
Spotlight
Colorado Christian University
For simple but well-designed web content addressing this audience, check out Colorado Christian University’s parents page. Not only does the content put parents' minds at ease by affirming the role they will continue to play in the lives of their kids while at college, but it also provides contact info so parents can inquire for more details. It also offers helpful resources with a UX-friendly sidebar, featuring information related to sending a care package, the parent handbook, and more.
Georgetown College
For another easy-to-implement example of how you might tailor your website specifically for parents, Georgetown College developed a "Request More Info" call to action at the bottom right corner of their website. This allows parents to request information that is specifically customized for them and demonstrates Georgetown College's commitment to serving all of their audiences. Parents will appreciate this tailored approach to their needs—and it’s never a bad thing to win over parents when it comes to recruiting prospective students.
Do any of these examples get your wheels turning about unique ways your school could engage prospective students and their parents? Give us a call or drop us a note—we’d love to partner with you.
