If everything were simple, your college could send a message to interested students, have them enroll, and that would be the end. When it comes to college recruitment, though, competition is tough, which means colleges need a top-notch strategy for how to recruit students.
1. Offer free webinars
A low-cost but highly-effective way to showcase your expertise and build trust with students and their families, webinars are online lectures or presentations that are viewed over the Internet. Consider any topic that is of high interest to your prospects, such as applying to college, dorm life, academics, and financial aid.
If you’re curious about how to recruit international students, you can create dedicated webinars that focus on the most common questions international students have about becoming a student in another country.
2. Provide ebooks and other downloads
Offering informative content that users can download via your website is another great way to share helpful information. It’s also a great answer to how to recruit students for university. Consider asking for an email address in exchange for the download so you can form a line of communication with the prospective student.
3. Send newsletters
Provide interested parties with information that they can’t get anywhere else. Delivering news and other information straight to their inboxes saves them time and provides them with something they want. Newsletters today can be interactive and contain more than just words on a page. You can add enticing images, links, and video as well.
4. Create and share infographics
A high-quality infographic is both visually appealing and informative. There are many infographics out there today, but they’re not all of the same quality. Couple relevant facts and statistics on your infographic with high-quality images, and you’ll draw attention from a lot of new potential students.
5. Make information helpful and student-focused
Choosing a college is stressful, but this fact gives you a chance to meet a need for prospective students. They likely have questions about financial aid, the college application process, and many other topics that come with enrolling in college.
You should aim to provide them with information they need. You will build trust with these potential students and their families if you provide them with helpful, relevant information. No matter which college recruitment strategies you use, make what you offer useful.
6. Use clear call to actions
Regardless of your college recruitment strategy, it’s important to use clear call to actions (CTAs). Your goal is to find people who are interested in your college. Once you reach them online, you have to give them a way to express their interest.
For example, if you provide an ebook packed full of helpful advice to new college students, you should make it clear that you want prospects to download it.
If the ebook was about the financial aid application process, you should include a line or two of information about the help students can expect to receive during that process if they enroll at your college. You should also include a clear CTA makes them take the next step toward becoming a student.