Trend 1. Improved prospect student experience

Changes in the global economy — such as financial crises and health outbreaks — have introduced new challenges to institutions and learners. These lead to reduced federal funding, technology challenges, shifting enrollment patterns, travel restrictions, and socioeconomic issues regarding student recruitment for college admissions.4 The digital shift has opened new avenues to engage with prospective students. Virtual open houses and online events — featuring enriched digital experiences — help many prospective students learn about colleges without needing to be there in person. Institutions worldwide are engaging prospects remotely and providing an improved student experience. This is largely because educational institutions have quickly evolved to meet both the needs of students and the demands for digital-first experiences.

Microsegmentation helps institutions achieve recruitment goals using prospective student data modeling techniques, predictive analytics, and personalized digital marketing. It also reduces marketing costs by optimizing resources to focus on students with high probability scores to apply, admit, and enroll.

Targeted outreach is a trend that takes advantage of social media marketing to identify and recruit the best prospects. Student recruitment teams use personalized surveys and engagement to cater to individual needs and preferences. Personalized digital marketing, including social media nudges, increases the prospective student pool and improves conversion rates.

Data analytics and campaign dashboards provide insights on prospective students in the funnel and help to analyze and adjust recruitment strategies to achieve student recruitment goals.

One of the largest U.S. educational services companies partnered with Infosys to automate prospective student data transformation, including data cleansing, standardization, and data enrichment. The transformed data were able to identify prospects, while a predictive analytics system using supervised learning techniques generated scores and ranks to further narrow down potential prospects.