Enrollment innovation starts before a prospective student ever fills out a form, opens an email, attends a campus visit, or appears in your CRM.

We analyze inquiry volume. We study application conversion. We look at admit rates, yield, melt, and every step in between.

Those metrics matter. But what happens before a student enters the funnel?

Before a prospective student fills out a form, opens an email, attends a campus visit, or appears in your CRM, they are already forming impressions about colleges and universities. They are noticing which institutions show up consistently, which messages feel relevant, and which schools seem to understand their world.

That is where enrollment innovation can make a meaningful difference.

In this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer podcast, I spoke with James Steen, Vice President for Enrollment Management & Marketing at Houston Christian University.

James has spent more than 30 years in admissions and enrollment leadership, beginning as an admissions counselor and eventually overseeing enrollment management, marketing, recruitment, financial aid, web services, and other enrollment functions at HCU.

James shared how Houston Christian University is reaching students before the traditional funnel through digital billboards inside local high schools, direct-admission partnerships with school districts, targeted scholarship campaigns, and carefully measured experimentation.

His story is not about finding one perfect tactic.

It is about developing the courage and discipline to test new ideas, measure what happens, and keep adjusting.

Enrollment Growth Rarely Comes From One Big Idea

When people hear that Houston Christian University has grown its entering class from 268 freshmen to a projected class of more than 1,100, they naturally want to know the secret.

Was it the rebrand from Houston Baptist University to Houston Christian University?

Was it a new campaign?

Was it a larger advertising budget?

Was it direct admission?

James’s answer is more realistic—and more useful.

There was no single breakthrough. The growth came from years of paying attention to hundreds of details throughout the enrollment process.

“I wish there was a silver bullet or a magic pill or a kind of a one-size-fits-all recommendation or solution. Unfortunately, it’s probably a hundred, maybe even a thousand little things. Tweaks.

When I came here, the fall right before I got here, it was HBU, Houston Baptist University at the time, had just enrolled 268 freshmen. Our trajectory right now is to enroll over eleven hundred freshmen this fall. And that didn’t happen overnight.

We did set a goal pretty early on, and we attacked the funnel. If you know me and you’ve heard me get on my soapbox at conferences and other places, you know I’m gonna talk about the funnel. And we just literally methodically went down the funnel and attacked every stage of the funnel. We attacked every metric, and slowly but surely we got things going.”

That mindset is critical.

Enrollment innovation is not the rejection of proven fundamentals. It is the willingness to improve those fundamentals continuously.

James and his team studied every stage of the funnel. They improved communication flows, visit programs, orientation, registration, marketing, application processes, and yield strategies. At the same time, they stayed open to testing ideas that did not fit neatly inside the traditional recruitment playbook.

The lesson is simple: innovation works best when it is connected to disciplined enrollment management.

A new tool will not rescue a broken process. But a new tool can become powerful when it strengthens a process that is already being measured and improved.

Showing Up Inside the High School

One of HCU’s most interesting experiments involved placing NextGrad digital billboards inside local high schools.

The timing of this strategy mattered.

Texas schools were changing how students could use mobile phones during the school day. HCU had already been using geofencing to reach students around high school campuses, but James recognized that reduced phone access created a new challenge—and a new opportunity.

Students might no longer be scrolling throughout the day, but they were still walking through hallways, going to lunch, attending events, and moving between classes.

That is where the digital displays came in.

“Honestly, what completely pushed me over the edge was the fact that in Texas, starting last year, students could no longer have their mobile phones at school.

Now, if students aren’t looking at their phones all day, (and we knew they were looking at their phones all day, my teenagers included) there’s this unique opportunity that, as they’re walking down the halls, as they’re going to class, as they’re going to lunch, [for them to see our] digital billboard with my ads scrolling on it.

And there’s no other interference. There’s no other distractions. There’s no other screens, if you will, influencing them while they’re at school. And it just felt like a no-brainer. It’s like, we’re gonna do this, and if we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna go big.”

This is what enrollment innovation looks like in practice.

James did not simply chase a new advertising format because it was interesting. He connected the tactic to a real change in student behavior.

That distinction matters.

Too many schools begin with the tool. They hear about a new platform, product, or campaign type and immediately ask, “How can we use this?”

A better question is, “What has changed in our audience’s environment, and how should our strategy respond?”

For HCU, the change was reduced mobile phone access during the school day. The response was to create a visible, low-distraction presence inside the places students already occupied.

Awareness Before Inquiry Has Long-Term Value

Digital high school billboards are not only about generating immediate inquiries.

They also create familiarity.

James pointed out that colleges often struggle to build awareness among younger high school students. Institutions may purchase names for sophomores and juniors, but they are less likely to have direct access to freshmen.

A digital display inside a high school allows a college to appear in front of those students years before the formal recruitment process intensifies.

That early visibility matters because familiarity can reduce friction later.

When a student eventually receives an email, sees a social ad, attends a college fair, or gets a postcard from HCU, the institution may no longer feel completely unfamiliar. They have seen the name. They recognize the colors. The brand has already begun to occupy a small place in their mind.

This is not always easy to quantify immediately, but it supports the larger work of enrollment marketing.

HCU also created a unique landing-page URL used only on the digital billboards. The campaign drove fewer than 100 unique visitors to that page, but it also generated inquiries. More importantly, the university could connect at least some student action directly to the displays.

James was realistic about what the data did—and did not—prove.

The campaign was a blend of brand awareness and lead generation. It was not designed to function like a bottom-of-funnel paid search ad where every click has obvious intent.

That means enrollment leaders need to define success appropriately.

Possible indicators might include:

• Application growth from participating high schools
• Landing-page visits from billboard-specific URLs
• Inquiries generated from campaign pages
• Event registrations during promotional periods
• Year-over-year admit and enrollment changes from targeted schools
• Increased awareness among younger students

HCU saw significant application growth in many of the high schools where the digital ads ran. James and his team planned to follow those students through admission and enrollment after census to better understand the final impact.

That is the right approach. Measure what you can now, then keep closing the loop.

Connecting the Campaign to Direct Admission

The billboards became even more effective because they were connected to a broader enrollment strategy.

Houston Christian University has developed Guaranteed Admission Program partnerships with local school districts, including Katy and Fort Bend. Through memoranda of understanding and data-sharing agreements, HCU can identify seniors with qualifying GPAs and tell them they are admissible before those students complete a traditional application.

The student receives a message explaining that they qualify for admission and a scholarship. To move forward, they complete an onboarding form—which effectively becomes the application.

This flips the traditional process.

Instead of asking a student to apply and wait for an answer, HCU begins with the answer: You are admitted. Here is the scholarship available to you. Let us know whether you want to make it official.

The digital billboards supported that message inside the participating schools.

Students could receive an admission or scholarship communication and then see HCU’s campaign as they walked through the building. The university reinforced the same opportunity across email, postcard, text, and on-campus digital displays.

That consistency is powerful.

Enrollment innovation does not require every channel to carry a different message. In fact, the strongest campaigns often repeat one clear message in several appropriate places.

Students are not waiting eagerly for every college email. They may miss the postcard. They may ignore the text. They may not remember the conversation with a counselor.

But when the same relevant opportunity appears repeatedly, recognition grows.

Creative for a Hallway Is Different From Creative for Instagram

Using a new channel requires creative that fits the environment.

HCU did not simply resize existing social media ads for a hallway display.

Rather than static creative, they designed motion ads. The ads lasted approximately seven or eight seconds before resolving to a clear message and a specialized URL.

That format makes sense for a student walking to third period.

They do not have time to study a complicated design. They are not going to read a paragraph. They may only glance at the screen for a moment.

Effective creative in that setting needs:

• Immediate visual movement
• One primary idea
• Minimal copy
• Strong brand recognition
• A simple call to action
• A memorable destination

HCU also changed the creative based on timing and audience.

Before preview days, the billboards promoted the visit event. In the fall, they supported the Guaranteed Admission Program. In the spring, HCU used them to promote the Grace Hopper Scholarship for engineering students.

James did not place the engineering campaign in every school. He reviewed data from research providers and identified high schools with stronger levels of STEM interest.

That is an important detail.

The channel was broad enough to create awareness, but the targeting was narrow enough to make the message relevant.

That is the difference between merely advertising and doing strategic enrollment marketing.

More Leads Are Not Always Better Leads

James is a self-described “funnel guy,” and his approach to top-of-funnel activity is refreshingly practical.

More inquiries are only helpful when those inquiries continue moving.

If an institution adds 10,000 or 15,000 names but its inquiry-to-application conversion collapses, the larger database may not represent real growth. It may simply create more work for the admissions team.

HCU saw something different.

The university increased inquiry volume while also improving inquiry-to-application conversion and application completion. That gave James confidence that the additional leads were not simply inflating the top of the funnel.

This is where enrollment innovation must remain accountable.

A campaign should not be judged only by the number of impressions it produces. Nor should it be dismissed simply because its direct attribution is imperfect.

Instead, marketers should look downstream.

• Did application volume grow in the targeted schools?
• Did application completion improve?
• Did those students become admissible?
• Did they enroll?
• Did the campaign help the institution reach a specific academic or geographic audience?

Those questions keep innovation tied to institutional goals.

Authenticity Still Wins

One of my favorite moments in the conversation came when James described watching his own children receive college mail.

His son received a personalized postcard from an institution he had never contacted. James pointed out that the postcard included his son’s name. His son immediately recognized that the institution had simply purchased his information.

That is the challenge of modern personalization.

Adding a first name is not the same as creating relevance.

Students understand how marketing works. They know when a school is speaking meaningfully to them and when it is merely inserting their name into a template.

HCU’s high school strategy works because the messages can be connected to something real: a district partnership, guaranteed admission, an upcoming preview day, a scholarship, or an academic interest.

The communication is not personalized only in appearance. It is personalized through context.

That is a much higher standard—and it is where higher education marketing needs to go.

Become an Enrollment Innovator

At the end of our conversation, James offered a challenge to enrollment leaders.

“For all of us in enrollment management, it’s pretty easy to get comfortable doing what we’re doing. We know it works, and we just keep doing the same thing, the same thing over and over.

To grow enrollment  in this day and age with the enrollment cliff, to maintain enrollment, we have to be willing to try new things. We have to take sometimes painstaking and even expensive steps at times to try new things.

This was a new initiative for us. I was able to carve out some money to do it, and we’re gonna carve out a little more money hopefully this year to expand it and do even more. But there have also been years where we tried a new thing and it didn’t work. But we pivot.”

That is the heart of enrollment innovation.

It is not innovation for innovation’s sake.

It is the disciplined practice of finding a new way to reach the right students, testing it carefully, measuring its effect, and deciding what to do next.

Some experiments will work. Others will not.

The institutions that make progress will not be the ones that avoid failure entirely. They will be the ones that learn quickly enough to redirect their resources toward what is working.

You may not have a new budget line available for experimentation. But you may have underperforming name purchases, weak digital campaigns, outdated print tactics, or broad advertising that could be narrowed.

Look at your metrics.

Find the resources that are not producing meaningful movement.

Then carve out space for one thoughtful experiment.

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Listen to the full episode to hear more from James Steen about HCU’s enrollment growth, the university’s name change, guaranteed admission, high school targeting, funnel performance, and why every enrollment leader needs to keep trying something new.

Caylor Solutions Can Help You Reach Students Earlier

Reaching students before they enter the funnel requires more than buying another advertising product. You need a strategy that connects audience insight, campaign creative, channel selection, enrollment data, and measurable outcomes.

At Caylor Solutions, we help colleges and universities identify the watering holes where their best-fit students already gather—and build enrollment marketing strategies designed to reach them with the right message at the right moment.

Whether your institution needs to improve early awareness, develop a more effective communication flow, promote a direct-admission program, or make better use of a limited marketing budget, our team can help you turn enrollment innovation into enrollment progress.

To get started, let’s talk!

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Images via hc.edu