5 Tips on How to Attract Your Best Prospective Students

Structural Graphics conducted several focus groups with prospective college students this Summer to help better understand what engages them.

Here are 5 key takeaways:

Think email is the best way to reach students?  Think again. Students are genuinely excited to receive mail at home. There is opportunity for schools to better connect high impact direct mail with valuable, relevant content online. 

Social media for students is just that...social. Students aren’t interested in connecting with schools on social media until after they have applied and been accepted to schools.

Ask a student what they are interested in. It’s me, me, me. Students want to feel wanted. Make it personal for them. Listen. Students are most interested in only what applies specifically to them - so targeted, personalized communications are best.

The only place you want to be common is in your application. Make sure you differentiate your school. Grab interest and stand out with mail but deliver relevant personalized communications online.

Think beyond application. Students use common app to apply to many schools so, from the point the student is accepted to multiple schools, and until the student makes a choice between them, colleges have an opportunity to stand out to increase yield.