College Prospect Survey 2016

What You Can Do To Better Engage Prospective StudentsPresented by: Jay Sharman

We share best practices, case studies and interviews with your peers to help keep you and your team on top of the latest trends in the industry.

We provide tips for using that information to guide the strategies at your institution.

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• 328 high schoolers surveyed from 15 Illinois high schools

– 56% juniors, 44% seniors

– 41% male, 59% female

• Each student is planning on attending a four-year non-profit university

• Students represent an equally distributed socioeconomic strata

• 63% know what they want to major in

Survey Demographics

College Prospect Survey 2016

Prospect PhaseWhat the survey revealed

• How students find universities:

– Web search (31.2%)

– Family or friend (29.7%)

– College ranking website (12.8%)• 44% of prospects first discover you through some

type of online search (Combined ranking website with web search)

• 6.1% of prospects first became aware of a prospective college through social media

• “I look at a school’s social media accounts before deciding to apply there.”

– 28% of respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” to the statement

– 47% who disagreed or strongly disagreed

Tactics to employ in this stageGetting your brand to the public

SEO • Authentic content• Guide students and parents through their journey

Paid search• Is your content providing value?

Rankings / PR • Are you getting in front of the prospects where they are? • Are you including relevant keywords in pitches?

Personal referrals • Caveat: you can only control this so much • Are you giving your audience the stories to “sell” your university

to others?

Creating content around the topics that prospective students and their families are looking forAmerican University

Who’s doing it well

Creating content around the topics that prospective students and their families are looking forAmerican University

Who’s doing it well

Inquiry PhaseWhat the survey revealed

• Influential Factors for Prospective Students:– #1 - “Feeling like I belong socially” (67.1% = very

important + essential)– #2 – Safety (64.3% = very important + essential)– #3 – Academic Reputation (62.8% = very important +

essential)

• 33% of prospective students agree that social media gives them a sense of the campus culture.

• Prospective students want to engage with a university on:– Facebook – 43%– Instagram – 18%– Twitter – 15%– Snapchat – 9%– YouTube – 8%

Tactics to employ in this stagePublic coming to your owned channels

Website• Prospects used to having customized content in daily lives

Virtual Tour• Entice people step foot on campus

– Prospects and families are actually 30% more likely to visit your campus in person after seeing a virtual tour¹

Social Media• Digital natives expect more media now• Use YouTube to get around the challenges of presenting dorms and cafeterias on campus tour

¹ Source: YouVisit

Prospective students and parents can customize the homepage to focus on the topics that matter to themBucknell University

Who’s doing it well

“Instagram is the new college viewbook.”

• Thom Atkinson, Indiana University Social Strategist

Courtship PhaseWhat the survey revealed

• 78.2% of prospects cite a campus visit as increasing their likelihood of attending that college

• 21% of prospects strongly agree or agree that college admissions presentations are unique

• 41% strongly agree or agree that campus tours give a true representation of campus culture

• 39% think universities aren’t paying enough attention to snapchat and 24% think you aren’t paying enough attention to YouTube

• 38% of prospects report feeling more engaged with a school when they interact with the student on social media

Courtship phase, continued

“YouTube has become the forgotten platform for colleges. You have to remember for most of these teens, YouTube isn’t their second screen, it is their first.”

• Yasin Id-Deen, University of Michigan Social Media Manager

Tactics to employ in this stageConverting them one-by-one

Campus visit• We know the campus visit converts. Use owned channels to get

students to campus.

Admissions presentation• Take advantage of opportunities like wait times• Drop the stats and facts• Help them feel like this could be home• Warm welcome (Jim and the dairy farms)

Social Media• Make it personal• Help prospects connect to each other, and to people at your

university

Marketing and Admissions team up to answer questions from prospective studentsBoston University

Who’s doing it well

If you’d like to set up a time to go more in-depth on how these results directly relate to your institution, Jay will happily set up a time to talk.

Just email lindsay@teamworksmedia.com and we’ll coordinate a convenient time for you.

Jay SharmanCEO / Founder TeamWorks Mediajay@teamworksmedia.com312.829.8326 x230312.446.9435 (c)

@StoriedU

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