8 Ways to Kickstart Your Student Recruitment in 2024

For higher education admissions professionals, the task of reviewing, planning, and improving upon a student recruitment strategy is a daunting one.

However, the clock is ticking, and it’s time to gear up for the 2024/2025 academic year.

This article is designed to be your guide, offering valuable tips and insights to help you fine-tune and inform your strategy. From understanding prospective students’ needs to leveraging the latest technologies, we’ll explore the most important and impactful aspects of effective student recruitment.

Let’s dive in and prepare for a successful recruitment season! Here are 8 ways you can kickstart your 2024 student recruitment. 

Tip #1: Understand the Impact of AI on Student Recruitment 

AI is a rapidly evolving technology and can revolutionize student recruitment in education. It can aid in attracting and enrolling students, helping them make informed decisions, and enhancing their experience. However, it also brings with it ethical implications and the need for continuous adaptation.

Learn more about valuable insights for leveraging AI in student recruitment strategies, and importantly, get best practices and examples of AI use in education. Read more about the impact of AI on higher ed. 

Tip #2: Become TikTok-tastic

TikTok can help universities and educational institutions reach and attract more students with its short-form and creative videos.

Using TikTok to showcase institutional expertise, student experience, and other services, is a fun and authentic way to advertise your institution without being too formal or corporate. The platform can also help build trust, foster connections, and provide guidance for students, especially from user-generated content.

Learn the top tips from institutions that have used TikTok successfully, as well as best practices - access the full ebook here. 

Tip #3: Keep learning and networking with your peers  

If you are looking for networking and learning opportunities in the higher education sector, you should mark your calendar for the upcoming 2024/25 student recruitment cycle.

There are many global higher education conferences that you can attend in 2024, where you can meet and interact with other professionals and experts in the field.

Here is your Higher Ed Conference Calendar for 2024, along with their expected attendees and highlights.  

Tip #4: Learn to use AI tools like ChatGPT for student marketing 

AI tools and creativity are equalizing the social media landscape in the quest for student engagement, regardless of an institution’s size or location. The use of AI tools like ChatGPT in higher ed is evolving. Social media teams using AI tools in content creation and repurposing will be able to enhance their creative focus in 2024. These tools provide additional resources for content ideas, hashtags, posting schedules, and audience engagement strategies. By streamlining tasks, AI tools allow teams to focus more on strategy development, creating engaging content, and fostering authenticity and community in their communication efforts. 

Tip #5: Learn to leverage student communities in Facebook groups  

Do you want to better leverage Facebook student groups for enhanced student engagement and recruitment? 

Navigate common challenges such as declining organic reach and negative feedback, become versed in optimization strategies like encouraging user-generated content, and discover how to harness the power of metrics, with one of our most popular blogs.

We have also shared some success stories and case studies from universities that have effectively used Facebook groups for student recruitment and retention. 

Tip #6: Focus your communication energies on the right channels

Wondering what students these days would answer to the question, ‘What is your preferred way of communicating with universities?’  

We conducted a global survey in 2023 with 23,800 students and prospective students to find out these insights and more. The data was even compared to the data from 2022 to see how the preferences have changed over time. 

With 76%, the most popular communication channel in 2023 was overwhelmingly email. Coming in at a distant second (8.8%) was instant messaging, such as WhatsApp or Facebook, as a preferred communication method with universities. Download the full report here.

Tip #7: Leverage emails better

Students prefer email, but do they even read them? Yes!... and no.

The trick is to make it simpler for the student. They’re overloaded with cute, FOMO subject lines and copy. From universities, some of the best attention-grabbing emails are the ones that get straight to the point.

Ashley Budd, Director of Advancement Marketing at Cornell University (U.S), recently spoke about leveraging better emails for students as part of our Student Recruitment Survival Guide webinar.

Access our full guide on tips on how to better leverage student communications here. 

Tip#8: Follow direct email marketing best practices 

If you want to connect with your audience effectively, you need to master the art and science of Direct Email Marketing (DEM). But creating a great email campaign is not as simple as it seems. You need to follow a strategy based on evidence and research.

Here are some of the best practices for DEM that will help you optimize your email campaigns.