Your college or university’s website might get thousands of visits every month, but how many of those visits turn into real conversations with your admissions team? For most schools, the number is surprisingly low. And here’s the thing: increasing your traffic alone won’t grow your enrollment. If you’re not following up with visitors, you’re letting interested students slip away to other schools. While it isn’t always easy for you to know what marketing efforts will work best for your program or institution as a whole, and you might be concerned about the “man-hours” a different strategy would require, we have a few suggestions for you. These tips are easy to implement and won’t take up much of your time, but, if implemented correctly, they can help you get more enrollments with your marketing efforts.
Keep reading to learn tips on how to plug the leaks in your funnel, stay connected with your prospective students, and ultimately turn more of them into applicants.
1. The Leaky Funnel Problem in Higher Education
If 100 prospective students visited your website this week, but only 2 or 3 of them actually fill out a form, download a brochure, or request more information, that means the rest clicked around, read a little, and left, likely without ever coming back.
This is what we call a leaky enrollment funnel. Your website is bringing people in, but it’s not keeping them engaged. It could be that you’re not giving them enough reason to, or you’re not providing them with a clear path to stay engaged. We find, in many cases, it’s a bit of both. Common reasons for leaks in your enrollment funnel include:
- Confusing messaging: Prospects can’t quickly understand what you offer or why it matters to them.
- Hidden calls-to-action: “Request Info” or “Apply Now” buttons are buried or missing.
- No low-commitment offers: Not everyone is ready to apply right away, but you’re not giving those cold (or lukewarm) leads an alternative next step to take.
The result? You’re left with only the small fraction of students who are ready to apply immediately, allowing the rest to go silent… or straight to your competition.
2. What Prospective Students Actually Want
Prospective students, and often their parents, are overwhelmed with choices. Each student and parent might have different goals and wishes, but most of them can often be summarized into two desires: simplicity and reassurance. This means your website needs to have a structure and content that provides this to them. Here are a few things to consider that often make a big impact:
- Empathy: Show that you understand their concerns (affordability, career outcomes, finding the right fit, etc.).
- Clarity: Clearly explain what programs you offer, why they matter, and what makes your college unique. Think: “Why would they choose us/our program over the competition?”
- A simple next step: Not everyone is ready to apply, so offer an easy way to keep learning. This might be downloading a checklist (“5 Things to Do Before Applying”), registering for a virtual info session, or signing up for a short series of student success stories. No matter the format, this allows you to continue providing value and to keep in touch with them, instead of allowing them to leave without any engagement.
When you speak to your prospects’ concerns and give them an easy first step, you show that you understand them, and you keep them moving forward instead of clicking away.
3. How to Stay Top of Mind with Email & SMS Campaigns
Once you’ve captured a student’s email address or phone number, your job is to stay connected without overwhelming them. This is where an automated email campaign or SMS campaign can work wonders.
Here’s a simple five-email sequence you can use to warm up cold leads and move them closer to applying:
- Welcome Email: Thank them for downloading your resource or signing up. Make sure to include a reminder of how to get the resource, whether that’s a link to download an asset or a nudge to add an event to their calendar.
- Student Story: Share a quick story about a student who found success through your program. This can be a current student who found their passion or community, or an alumnus who found the job of their dreams.
- Helpful Guidance: Offer advice on financial aid, application tips, or upcoming deadlines. Consider areas of friction they may face or questions and objections they may have, and address those in this email.
- Invitation: Encourage them to attend a virtual info session or tour campus, keeping them engaged and reminding them of how you can help them reach their goals.
- Next Step: Invite them to apply or request a one-on-one call with an admissions counselor. Consider using “why not?”, risk avoidance, or scarcity tactics to encourage them to make a decision (without coming across as pushy).
In addition to nurture emails, SMS campaigns could serve as a booster to your efforts by providing potential students with an alternative, easy way to stay engaged. You can send shortened versions of your nurture emails to the same list, or get your admissions team involved and use SMS as a way to connect students with counselors who can help answer their questions and guide them through the application process based on where they are in their enrollment journey.
Each touchpoint, whether via email or text, keeps your institution top of mind and builds trust over time, increasing the likelihood they’ll choose you when they’re ready.
4. Don’t Overlook The Long Game
Many prospective students aren’t ready to make an immediate decision — and that’s okay. The goal is to nurture them until they are ready. This is where many colleges and universities fall short. They focus almost entirely on the “ready-to-apply” students and miss opportunities to build a relationship with those still exploring.
Over the years of working with institutions to bring them more student leads, we’ve noticed that many either don’t have enough hands on deck and feel overwhelmed, or have admissions staff that simply don’t want to follow up with these “cooler” leads and only want to focus on the “hot” leads. But, with the little work it takes to set up email and SMS automation, it’s worth it so you can stay in their world until the timing is right.
Remember: the student who downloaded your guide or submitted an inquiry today might become next semester’s applicant if you stay in touch.
Ready to Stop Losing Students to a Leaky Enrollment Funnel?
If your website is only converting the small percentage of students who are ready to apply now, you’re leaving a lot of opportunity untapped. Let us help you build a funnel that captures interest, nurtures relationships, and turns more website visitors into applicants. And the great news? Most of it can be set up on autopilot, so it works for you while you focus on other things (like actually taking a lunch break).
Talk to us at Greenstone Media to get started today.
