How can you increase your admissions in 2024?

In this fast-paced world of technology, student behaviour has undergone a significant shift, especially with the emergence of Generation Z. Unlike the previous generation, GenZs are not only well-informed but also tech-savvy, favouring mobile platforms and showcasing remarkable creativity.?

With the start of the new year educational institutes like yours need to gear up and explore different, tailored marketing strategies to attract these GenZs.

But, do you know what GenZs prefer when applying to institutes?

Let’s explore this further! When GenZs do their research and shortlist institutes they want to apply to, they look at ?4 criteria:

1. Brand Value
2. Customisation
3. Affordability
4. Diversity

As an education institute, when creating your admissions strategy, ensure that these 4 areas align with your strategy!

1. Brand Value: Think from the perspective that ‘WHY’ a student will be interested in taking admissions. Maintaining your brand value is the need of the hour. A survey stated that 87% of students rely on websites to research courses.

Enhance your website by using SEO strategies. Social media platforms can be a great way to update students about all the latest news about your institute.

2. Customisation: The days are gone when a student used to be in the classrooms for a whole day and their whole world existed there. Do you know 51% of Gen Z teens are not interested in pursuing a four-year degree?

The new generation demands to learn without boundaries. Micro courses or crafted YouTube videos are GenZ's preference. Institutes need to offer skill-based courses so that they can start their professional journey with more efficiency

3. Affordability: Education costs have risen. The new generation wants options such as scholarships, flexible fee structures, etc.

Monthly installments or semester-based plans offered by colleges will help reduce students' financial burden and they can advance in their careers without big debts.

4. Diversity: The best thing about this generation is that it greatly values including everyone. Breaking down the barriers and challenging the stereotypes. They want an enriching experience from your institute.

Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in colleges offer benefits for both the institution and the student. It promotes creative thinking. Institutes can offer courses on Diversity. Cultural Programs are a great way to make people of different cultures feel inclusive.

Ensure that your institute is worth their investment. Make it easier for GenZs to learn about your institutes by sharing many success stories and testimonials and empowering your admissions team.

How improving the counsellor’s efficiency will increase your admission?

Admissions Teams play a big role in boosting admissions conversions. Counsellors are the ones who help students navigate through their college admission journey. With education institutes facing many challenges in the current market in terms of attracting and retaining students, increasing counsellors’ efficiency is the need of the hour!

In a session with Surabhi Dewra - CEO of CareerGuide.com , she guided counsellors and gave tips on how they can increase admissions.

1. Effective Student Profiling: Student profiling helps counsellors by providing a holistic understanding of individual students. Ask them about their career aspirations, their background, and what activities they like. It will help you in customising courses according to student’s goals and needs.

2. Establishing Rapport with Students: Students are here to build careers. Building rapport will help with personalised career guidance. Build trust among yourself. Be invested in their career, and encourage them. You’ll be able to Identify suitable career paths and educational opportunities that align with a student's interests and skills. A smile in your voice will go a long way.

“Smile, confidence, good conversation, build trust and rapport with students, and your work will become easy.” - Surabhi Dewra , CEO, CareerGuide.com

3. Exploring current course and career trends for insights: After establishing rapport you’ll understand your Student's goals—research well before advising any course or college. Providing accurate and up-to-date information on current and emerging trends in various fields will enable students to choose fields relevant to their interests. Counsellors should provide data about how students in the past were able to gain placements after taking any particular course.

How can you help your counsellors increase their efficiency?

Education Institutes need to equip their admissions team with the technology so that they will be able to retain more students and increase their admissions conversions.

Institutes should invest in a CRM that is built for education institutes to automate the enrolment process end-to-end. It will help them to integrate, manage, and nurture them to convert the maximum number of leads.

Let’s learn about how a good CRM will benefit your institute.

1. Counsellors can set reminders and follow-ups for the students so they do not miss out on conversations. Timely follow-ups with automatic reminder notifications will always result in better admission rates.
2. It will help them to engage and nurture the students at multiple touchpoints via different communication channels i.e. phone, email, chat, WhatsApp, and even virtual meetings. It will improve the engagement rate.
3. Counsellors can prioritise the leads with the help of the lead score feature. Using indicators such as how many times the student was engaged, comments, and calls outgoing and incoming. It also helps in calculating the conversion probability.
4. They can measure and analyse their individual performance. They can also measure marketing ROI and track conversion funnels in real-time.

ExtraaEdge has been helping over 350+ institutes across India by providing them with a one-stop solution. Our CRM is designed to fit your specific needs. Want to learn how ExtraaEdge can help you streamline your admission process- Click here .

Hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter!

Get ready for your journey of educational excellence in 2024, with strategic and innovative approaches.