3 Ways to Recruit More Students for Your University

Nov 06, 2020

If you are involved in admissions at a university, you know very well the types of challenges that you are up against today. Many students are looking to earn their degrees for less money and in less time via online education. Moreover, with fewer students graduating from high school, the pool of prospective students is growing smaller each year.

Ultimately, the consequences of not reaching your target enrollment numbers can be detrimental for your university. Not only are schools currently suffering from steady decreases in state funding from year to year, but other financial setbacks are prompting schools to make cuts in order to save money and keep things afloat.

The good news is that there are some ways in which schools are able to find success in the recruitment process. Many of these ways are a departure from the recruitment processes of years gone by, but without adapting to the current situation, many schools will surely fall by the wayside.

Here are three of the ways you can recruit more students for your university.

1. Consult the experts

With the growing problem in the university system of low enrollment numbers has come the emergence of a new type of marketing agency. Experts in education and marketing are bringing their skills to the forefront in order to help schools bring in the number of students that they need. A higher education ad agency can help you by designing ads and campaigns specifically targeting prospective students who are more likely to respond positively.

Such agencies have done their research on how and where to reach prospective students. Their methods have been proven to boost enrollment rates and successfully recruit more students. Ultimately, when you don’t know where to turn, consulting an expert is always a good step to take.

2. Use social media

Many universities and community colleges are realizing just how valuable social media can be as a recruitment tool. The fact of the matter is that a great number of high school students access social media sites every single day. Those are prospective students who will be guaranteed to see targeted advertisements and other social media marketing tactics.

It is likely that your school already has some sort of social media presence. Now is the time to take that presence to the next level and start engaging with prospective students through the right social media marketing practices.

3. Optimize your website

Anyone who has ever dabbled in the world of marketing will have gained some understanding of the value of good SEO practices. If a university is hoping to boost enrollment, they need to start by making their web pages more SEO friendly. This will bring many benefits, not the least of which will be higher placement on search engine results lists. This is important because most people do not click on the second page of search results. Being listed on the second page, or worse, third or fourth pages, means you’ll miss the majority of people searching for related terms. If you have not yet taken steps to make your university’s website as SEO-friendly as possible, then you could be missing out on multiple recruitment opportunities.