Students Want Meaningful Relationships: 4 Ways to Make This Part of Recruiting
In the era of Gen Z students, relationships matter more than ever. One of the most effective ways to help your school stand out from others is to convey to prospective students that you value meaningful relationships. It’s important for prospective students to know how your school will interact with them—and what kind of relationships they can expect to form at your school.
Here are four ways to be sure you’re showing your commitment to this essential element of the college experience.
Personalize Your Interactions with Prospective Students
No one likes to feel that they are being sold something, regardless of their unique circumstances and needs. When admissions or financial aid counselors interact with prospective students, it’s critical that they demonstrate a sincere desire to help students choose what’s best for them. Whether advising them on financial aid options or helping them connect their interests with a major of study, prospective students need to know that you aren’t just trying to get them to attend your school. Instead, they should feel that you’re trying to help them make the best decision for them (even if that means not actually attending your school)!
Prospective students should also feel like the relationships they have with counselors—whether in-person interactions, phone calls, or email, are authentic and helpful. The best way to do this is to ask them questions: How are they planning to pay for school? What are the most important factors when it comes to selecting a school? What do you they see themselves doing after graduation?
With answers to questions like this in hand, you can begin offering helpful guidance that, when it makes sense, matches your school to their needs and desires. This way you are truly listening to them and offering a solution, instead of blindly selling them on your school. Prospective students should walk away from all interactions with your school feeling that they are seen as unique individuals.
Emphasize Stories that Focus on Relationships
If your school highlights small classroom settings and a vibrant campus community, it’s important to follow this up with proof points like testimonials and stories. You can do this by including quotes from students on a specific mentoring relationship, a video of students talking about how they formed deep friendships with other students in their dorm, and so on.
The key is to be specific and use concrete details. Nearly every school mentions that it offers faculty mentorships and opportunities for building community. A generic quote about how professors are helpful is not nearly as effective as one that details the name of a professor or concretely mentions how that person has been so helpful as a mentor. In other words, use real examples, testimonials, and videos that are unique to your school and highlight concrete examples that reflect the school’s commitment to building personal relationships.
Check out this casual student-created video from The King’s College as an example. It does a great job of reflecting the quality of friendships you can expect if you attend. Instead of simply featuring a single isolated student sharing about his or her experience, the video takes on a communal flavor and displays, in an authentic way, friends spending time with each other and having fun.
Maintain Social Media Relationships
It’s important to be active on social media to connect with students. This is a subtle way to show that you are listening to what students are saying. If someone posts an exciting message about being accepted to your school, why not provide a simple congratulatory response? Or if a prospective student is having trouble with something related to the admissions process and is complaining about it on social media, how about reaching out to him or her and offer to provide guidance? Many of our partner schools utilize cost-effective social media monitoring software like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to efficiently interact with prospective students across a variety of social media platforms.
By having an active presence on social media, you are demonstrating that you care about what is being said about your school and are interested in connecting with students on their terms. While social media doesn’t necessarily allow for the deepest types of relationships, it’s a small way to signal that forming relationships with students is valued. It also allows you to invite more meaningful interactions through an email, a phone call, or an in-person conversation.
Pay Attention to the Tone of Your Emails
Email communication remains an important strategy when it comes to reaching prospective students. It’s important to make sure your emails convey a friendly, helpful, and welcoming tone. They should not be filled with only sterile invitations to upcoming events or pushy calls to action encouraging prospective students to visit your website or to apply.
Instead, prospective students should feel like they are being contacted by a real person when they read your school’s emails. Can you share about what makes your school unique in a way that makes prospective students feel like they are hearing from an actual human being? Can you encourage them to connect with a counselor over the phone for a real conversation, not a sales pitch?
Practicing these four points will give prospective students first-hand evidence that your school values meaningful relationships., Then it will be much easier for them to believe that they can expect the same should they attend as a student!
Need some help to figure out how to build engaging relationships with prospective students? Whether it’s an audit of your recruitment communications or some strategic recommendations about personalizing your recruitment approach, we’d love to partner with you.
