As the higher education industry prepares to bounce back post-pandemic, colleges are looking to identify new ways to engage prospective students to help increase enrollments and inform both prospective and active students about important information. Targeted push marketing can help higher education institutions more effectively engage students and prospective students while encouraging desired actions, such as completing an application, scheduling a campus tour, downloading university information or registering for events.  

How Can Colleges Use Push Marketing To Help Increase Admissions?

Once a prospective student has opted in to receive push notifications, schools can send targeted pushes to those individuals. Pushes can be triggered based on enrollment milestones to encourage specific actions after interacting with or visiting multiple pages. For example, an automated push notification can be triggered if a prospective student does not finish submitting a form in a defined period of time. Web push notifications can be delivered to both desktop and mobile devices, helping schools to connect with and continually engage prospective students by providing them with relevant, targeted messaging at the right times. 

How Can Colleges Retarget Prospective Students Early In The Decision Making Process? 

Enrollment marketers can deploy personalized push notifications based on on-site activity for prospective students who are early in the decision-making process. For example, students researching journalism programs can be retargeted with push notifications containing information on top journalism programs. Because the enrollment cycle for higher education often takes several months, it is important for higher education institutions to regularly connect prospects with relevant information that can inspire them to take action.

Students Specifically Interested In Online Programs Can Benefit From Informational Push Notifications  

Online programs remain an option for students, and push notifications can help provide information about program options. Since push notification technology collects data needed to personalize pushes, such as website pages visited, days since last visit and forms abandoned, enrollment marketers can leverage this information to craft relevant notifications that prospective students are likely to find useful. The information shared via push notification may help a student determine which online program will work best for their needs. The notification itself provides the student with a quick way to connect with the content.    

Automated Reminders Keep Students Informed Of Important Dates And Deadlines 

Automated reminders about important deadlines can help keep both prospective and enrolled students engaged. For example, a targeted push notification with deadline information alerting prospects who have started but not completed their enrollment applications may encourage students to finish. Students preparing for college have many dates to remember, and push marketing can help to keep students organized and prepared. 

Colleges & Universities Can Engage Enrolled Students With Class-Specific Alerts

Colleges and universities can also use push notifications for class-specific alerts and university-wide announcements, such as graduation plans, timelines for paying dues or course enrollment deadlines.

Class-specific push notifications about assignments, testing information or discussion board posts can help students, including those enrolled in online courses, stay on top of their studies. Because push marketing increases student engagement, targeted push strategies can also help increase retention rates.

Are You Looking For Innovative Ways To Retarget Prospective & Enrolled Students?

Digital Media Solutions^® (DMS) offers a variety of advertising solutions to help higher education brands achieve their marketing objectives. Engage and retarget your audience while building lasting connections with highly targeted push notifications, in-app messages and email enhancements with our self-managed and fully-managed push marketing solutions. With optimized messaging campaigns sending to segmented lists of consumers, you can reach the right person at the right time.  

Click here to learn more about Aimtell, our self-managed, push messaging SaaS technology that helps you re-engage website visitors with highly targeted push notifications.