There are so many different ways to address student enrollment management, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. After all, enrollment management is not only about attracting students to an institution, but finding out why they want to stay... AND making it happen. Here’s a few dos and don’ts that can help take the pain out of student enrollment management.
Admit What You’re Doing Is Marketing
One way to help ease the pain of student enrollment management is to approach it from a different perspective. From a marketing angle, you are actually selling the attractive qualities of your institution to prospective students. What do they like about your institution? What can they gain? If you’re using a marketing angle as a metaphor and framework for how you share the best about your institution you will start to see new ways to attract students. It’s a simple way to make sure you are making the best, most consistent touches on potential students.
Customers vs. Clients
There’s still a bit of controversy in viewing enrollment management as a marketing metaphor for admissions. This is almost always due to those who associate the marketing angle with treating students as customers. The argument being that customers tend to be passive, not expecting to have a relationship once the transaction is complete. After all, one of the most important aspects of enrollment management is not only that initial attraction for students, but making sure they are able to build a relationship necessary to your institution to find reasons to stay.
The best solution to this “students as customers” theory is to simply view your students as clients instead. After all that hard work, you can expect clients to return if they’re satisfied with a service. This same idea can be applied to enrollment management. Clients expect to participate with the professional providing a service, the same way students expect to interact with the institution, professors, even other students. Clients expect some give and take, as well as to be changed by their interactions with the professional. This is the perfect example of why students strive to attend school in the first place, to grow as a person, and of course to achieve skills necessary to grow in their career.
Be A Part of Campus Society
One mistake that is constantly hindering admissions staff and how they are viewed is the lack of presence on campus. It is crucial that you understand what’s happening on your own campus, particularly policies and governance. How are you to keep students already enrolled coming back if you’re not constantly bettering current events and issues at your institution? Many see admissions staff as a separate entity solely because they can be gone from campus for stretches of time; out of sight, out of mind. Your perspective on how decisions can reach beyond campus is crucial. It is important to see yourself as an expert on your own institution after all. Whenever possible, you must take advantage of opportunities to make your voice heard, within your context of course, especially in conversation on student identity, institution direction, policies, branding etc.
Us vs. Them Mentality
Another way to be more a part of your institution as whole is to avoid an “Us vs. Them” thinking. There are many different sources from which this thinking can stem, even from administrative or faculty positions. This is especially apparent if they also have a resistance to the marketing language. This is where trying to see yourself as fully part of life on campus can support your strategy. It is exceptionally hard to share great and exciting news about your institution if you too agree that you are not part of the whole. Being united with the rest of your campus society, staff and student body alike, is a definite solution to this “Us vs. Them” attitude that so commonly hinders progress in student enrollment management.
Hopefully these do’s and don’ts will help you achieve success in your enrollment management. Just remember taking a marketing angle can be effective as long as you recognize that’s what you’re doing, view your students as valued, long term clients, and participate with the entirety of campus society, and these simple tips can help ease the pain of student enrollment management.
Photo credit to Flickr user Texas A&M University-Commerce Marketing Communications Photography
