Moving a prospect from admitted to deposited student is a BIG deal. It’s their first real commitment. Here are our marketing secrets to helping students make the jump.
While it’s not officially the end of the enrollment cycle, most of us education marketers start celebrating when a student changes their status from “admitted” to “deposited student.”
Of course, nothing is ever for sure.
But the fact that they (and their family) have put up the money for their deposit is a strong signal they’re going to be sitting in their first freshman courses soon!
Here are some little known secrets to helping more prospects make the jump from “admitted” to “deposited student.”
Increase Contact with Admitted Students
When a prospective student is admitted to your school, college, or university, there’s a temptation to slip into autopilot.
But letting things go will lead to mediocre results.
When your prospective student becomes an admitted student, now’s the time to increase your frequency of contact.
If they’ve been admitted to your school, chances are, they’ve received admissions offers from two or more other schools.
In other words, they have yet to make their final decision.
In fact, you are now within the top three to five options they are seriously considering.
Your prospective student might already have their preference out of the top three or five schools.
In this case, there’s little you can do to change their minds.
But for many prospective students, what you do at this point can make all the difference.
Best thing to do is craft a series of “touch points” aimed specifically for admitted students.
Tailor Your Message
At the beginning of enrollment cycle (which can be thought of as a funnel or “buyer’s journey”), the content you send prospective students is meant to get their attention.
When you’re marketing at the top of the funnel, you just want to get your education brand in front of as many people as possible.
At this stage, you don’t want to dive into too much detail about your school or the enrollment process.
When you’re beginning your relationship with prospective students, you want to mainly communicate your brand distinctions.
What makes you unique? What makes the education experience at your school special?
These are the questions prospective students are asking themselves at this point in the process.
(In my last post, I talk about using light-hearted or humorous content to increase the number of people viewing your content.)
At the bottom of the funnel, your content needs to answer a new set of questions.
To move your audience from admitted to deposited student, you’ve got to answer more specific questions about your school and what you have to offer.
Some content needs to give administrative detail.
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- How do you apply for scholarships?
- When does school start or end?
- What do you need for move-in day?
- How are payments made?
Other content needs to give an emotive message.
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- What’s it like for students on move-in day?
- What are the dorms like? Housing? Registration?
- What was it like for students to receive their financial aid?
- How is it for students when they graduate, or go to their favorite class?
- What is the relationship between faculty and student like? How does this contribute to their future success?
Useful Content for Bottom of the Funnel
One of the most useful forms of content to move a prospect from “admitted” to “deposited student” is the checklist.
You can create checklists for a wide variety of processes within your school that will help your new student be better prepared for their new life at your institute.
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- A financial checklist for all the payments, fees, obligations, or financial aid process.
- A move-in checklist for the myriad things they will need in the dorm.
- An academic checklist to help them choose the right major or program for them.
Checklists break down the complex into simple steps.
This makes it easier for an admitted student to say “yes!” to you and make their deposit. It also reminds them of the fact that their deposit has yet to be made.
Another useful content piece at this point is white papers.
My ebook Redesigning Your Education Website is a good example of what these can be.
You can use white papers to help solve a complex problem your admitted student might have. White papers on choosing the right major or picking the right career path would fit into this category.
White papers can also explain a complex process: Financial aid, for example.
These long-form pieces of content also give you the space you need to make a good, emotional argument on choosing a specific course of action, like making their deposit now.
Of course, along with checklists and white papers, you will be sending out a number of emails promoting these pieces of content.
Increase Personalization
The final secret — and I believe most important — is to increase the level of personalization in your comm flow.
This begins with the very simple tactic of using their first name on all written communications, but it goes much further than that.
High touch enrollment marketing is about taking an active interest in the life of your prospective student.
It works best when you remember things about your prospective student that your “competition” doesn’t catch.
This will most often happen on the phone with admissions officers, but this highly personal information should be inserted into the marketing communications you send to the prospect.
So encourage enrollment officers to ask students about the things they care about like hobbies, sports, family, and passions.
Then create a process through which you get this useful info into your marketing materials.
One final note here, personalization also means including parents on every communication piece.
Be sure to copy parents on messages so that visit days and other elements don’t get missed.
Admitted to Deposited Student is a Big Jump
The jump from admitted to deposited student can be a big leap.
For some prospective students, this decision will be a no brainer. But a good portion of them will be on the fence.
These are the prospective students that you can help cross the line and make their deposit!
The big secret to helping prospects become deposited students is all about getting closer.
Send them content that will help them think through their decisions. Publish stories that help them envision their life at your school.
But whatever you do, don’t let up on your marketing efforts. Now’s the time to intensify your comm flow.
Believe me.
This is the final push for the “sale.” So don’t be afraid to get closer to your prospective student.
If your marketing messages are helpful and inspiring, you’ll encourage them to take the next step in the enrollment journey with you.
And if you need further help with getting prospective students through your enrollment funnel, we’re here with proven results. Feel free to reach out.
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Featured image by Stockphoto-Graf via Adobe Stock
