Higher education lead nurturing is one of the most underrated enrollment tools in an institution’s arsenal.
Schools invest huge sums of money into ads, campus tours, and brochures. But without a cohesive system to move prospective students from inquiry to enrollment… None of that money matters.
Here’s the hard truth:
It takes students months — even years — to make up their mind on where they want to enroll. Without an effective lead nurturing strategy in place, those students will pick someone else and institutions will never know why they chose not to attend.
Let’s break down how to build a student enrollment strategy that actually works:
- Why Higher Education Lead Nurturing Is Important
- What Leads to an Effective Student Enrollment Strategy
- 4× Higher Education Lead Nurturing Strategies that Actually Work
- How to Track and Improve Your Strategy’s Performance
Why Higher Education Lead Nurturing is Important?
Student enrollment competition has never been fiercer.
Think about how most schools approach reaching out to prospective students. They blast an email, follow up with a phone call… and then assume the burden of proof rests on the student to click “apply”.
That’s not nurturing. That’s doing the bare minimum and calling it a strategy.
Higher education lead nurturing is about reaching out to prospective students through consistent, positive messages across every stage of the enrollment journey. Building trust, answering questions before students know they have them, and setting institutions apart from their competitors.
Take a look at this data from GlobeNewswire:
25% of students engaged with nurturing campaigns leads to better enrollments. Yet most institutions struggle to nurture leads consistently.
This is a huge hole in the enrollment strategy that a well-executed higher education lead nurturing program can fill.
Higher Education Secrets That Lead to an Effective Student Enrollment Strategy
Why do most enrollment strategies fail to convert?
Simple. They put too much focus on getting leads and not enough on what happens next.
Get the lead. Send an information brochure. Cross fingers and hope for the best.
Take a look at any institution’s lead nurturing process. How are follow-ups handled with prospective students who showed an initial interest? What happens between step one and deposit day?
Here’s a shocking statistic:
96% of visitors on a school’s website are NOT ready to enroll.
Making students feel comfortable and keeping them coming back for more isn’t just nice to have — it’s required to survive.
Any student enrollment strategy that wants to see results needs to:
- Attract the right kind of prospective student
- Consistently nurture those students through the enrollment process
- Convert with a well-timed, personalised message across multiple channels
Sounds simple enough, but when most institutions are asked how their enrollment strategy is going… they’ll excel at one of these categories and struggle with the other two.
4× Higher Education Lead Nurturing Strategies That Will Improve Your Enrollment Numbers
Build out Multi-Channel Nurture Campaigns
Think about the different places a prospective student spends their time online.
Social platforms, search engines, email, SMS, YouTube… These are just a few of the channels students use to learn about and research a school.
Winning institutions know this and build nurturing campaigns across every single one of those channels.
An email drip sequence alone won’t cut it. Schools that have mastered higher education lead nurturing create campaigns that include:
- Email drip sequences targeted to each step in the enrollment process
- SMS messages for time-sensitive communications and reminders
- Retargeting ads that follow students after they leave a school’s website
- Customised website experiences that address students’ interests and goals
The objective? Simple. Students should encounter the institution no matter where they go online.
Personalise EVERYTHING
Would a student rather receive information personalised to their needs… or generic content broadcasted to everyone?
Students today aren’t picking schools — they are choosing between dozens at once. With so many options, the institutions that stand out are the ones that make every message feel like it was made just for that individual.
This starts by:
- Segmenting students based on what program they are interested in
- Sending content that bridges the gap between their personal goals and what the institution actually teaches
- Referencing past interactions and using a student’s name in emails
When the student experience is personalised, institutions boost their revenue. EducationDynamics found that personalising the experience with students can increase revenue by up to 10%-40%.
Small changes like these can drastically improve an institution’s ability to reach enrollment goals.
Respond Faster
Here’s a problem most schools don’t realise they have.
A prospective student fills out a form on a school website. Then they wait.
By the time someone from admissions reaches out to that student, they’ve probably already spoken to another school for 30 minutes.
Response time matters more than most institutions think.
Higher education lead nurturing is about showing students that help is available whenever they need it. Sending an automated “We got your message!” Email after someone submits a form can drastically improve how quickly a student lead is converted.
Top institutions use conversational AI and SMS automation to respond to students within minutes of their initial inquiry.
Use Content to Help Students Along
Imagine how many questions a student has when reaching out to a school for the first time.
Tuition costs, career prospects, scholarships, application requirements, housing… students have a ton of questions. And if those questions aren’t being answered with helpful content… they’ll go look elsewhere. Even if that means visiting a competitor’s website.
Publishing great content should be part of every school’s wider lead nurturing strategy. Content that:
- Breaks down program specifics on dedicated landing pages with outcome data and salaries
- Features blog posts that answer common student questions
- Uses video to showcase the student experience and campus life
- Has smartly placed FAQs throughout the enrollment process
Each piece of content should make students feel confident that the institution knows what it’s doing — and that enrolling there is the right choice for them.
How to Track Which Pieces of Your Strategy are Working
Creating a student enrollment strategy is half the battle. Figuring out if it works is another thing entirely.
The two biggest metrics to track when testing a higher education lead nurturing strategy are cost per inquiry (CPI) and cost per enrolled student. According to research by UPCEA, the average cost per inquiry across all universities is $140, while the average cost per enrolled student sits at $2,849.
Tracking these metrics will show which programs are running efficient enrollment strategies and which ones aren’t.
Wrap-Up
Catching a student’s interest is the first battle. Making them choose one institution over the competition is the war.
Higher education lead nurturing should be the core of any institution’s enrollment strategy. Just ask any school that’s consistently blowing their enrollment targets year after year.
Here’s what needs to happen to build a repeatable system that brings students back again and again:
- Create multi-channel nurture campaigns that reach students on everything from email to SMS
- Personalise every message and email to a student’s programmatic interests
- Respond quicker to student inquiries with automated tools
- Use helpful, branded content to answer students’ questions and concerns
- Track CPI and cost per enrolled student by program and channel