Key Takeaways:
- With fewer high school students expected to graduate in the coming years and fewer names available from traditional list sources, today’s search strategies require data-informed insights.
- Liaison Search empowers schools to target high-quality prospects with an unprecedented level of focus.
- Successful search initiatives involve identifying and engaging the students who are most likely to become committed applicants.
- Predictive and prescriptive analytics allow you to analyze historical data and forecast which students are most likely to apply, increasing your institution’s visibility and enhancing communications with potential applicants.
As we edge closer to the demographic cliff—a projected decline in the number of high school graduates—and fewer names are available to purchase from traditional sources, yesterday’s approaches to student search are no longer good enough. While relying on broad demographic data or generic prospect lists may have worked in the past, finding today’s ideal students demands a more personalized, data-driven approach. Standing out in a crowded market and achieving your enrollment goals now requires a more strategic solution that helps you identify and engage the right students at the right time.
To help institutions achieve those goals, we recently hosted a webinar—From Lists to Leads: Transforming Student Search to Compete in a Data-Driven World—that provided an in-depth, action-oriented overview of best practices and tools for executing more effective student recruitment initiatives.best practices and tools for executing more effective student recruitment initiatives.
The focus of the discussion was Liaison Search, our advanced AI-driven solution that empowers schools to target and engage high-quality prospects with unprecedented precision.
Finetuning Your Focus
Liaison Search uncovers deep, actionable insights about your target student populations through comprehensive data analysis and predictive modeling. As a result, it can help you pinpoint new, high-potential markets, optimize your prospect lists, and even forecast a student’s likelihood to apply. This allows you to allocate recruitment resources more strategically, focusing your efforts on the students who are most likely to become engaged, committed applicants.
Liaison Search provides the tools and support you need to craft personalized, omnichannel communication campaigns that capture the attention of the students you want on campus. Whether that involves deploying variable-print direct mail, email, text or hyper-targeted digital campaigns, Liaison Search ensures your messaging resonates with each individual prospect, nurturing them throughout the entire recruitment funnel.
“Search and lead generation, as a whole, comes down to developing a strategy that identifies how to target the right student with the right message using the right channel at the right time,” says Liaison’s Assistant Vice President of Integrated Marketing Josh Monica. “I think that’s more important than ever now because there’s so much at stake if you get it wrong.”
Liaison Search is particularly well suited for institutions looking to connect with hard-to-reach student populations, such as first-generation, underrepresented, and other non-traditional prospects. By using predictive and prescriptive analytics to analyze historical data and forecast which students are most likely to engage and apply, it increases your institution’s visibility and enhances communications with potential applicants.
“The whole concept here is about being able to create a deeper profile of your students so that you can understand their individual wants and needs better and then target them with appropriate communication,” Monica says.
“The ideal customer segment is an audience of one,” adds Liaison’s Director of Digital Strategy Jess Lanning. “Every marketer wants to achieve the goal of making the consumer feel like you’re talking directly to them. We now have the ability to do that better than ever.”
Liaison can help improve your search efforts. Key features of Liaison Search include:
- Digital first-party data: Leverage the data you own to tailor digital messages across paid social or programmatic channels.
- Market analysis and list optimization: Analyze your historical recruitment data to identify trends and uncover new, high-potential markets. Get data-informed recommendations on list purchases for maximum impact.
- Personalized list building: Receive tailored support for purchasing student lists, enhanced with demographic and household data.
- Applicant likelihood scoring: Use AI-driven models to predict a prospect’s likelihood to apply, so you can prioritize high-potential students and allocate resources effectively.
- Omni-channel outreach: Engage students through personalized messaging across multiple channels, including email, print, SMS, and social media, ensuring consistent communication throughout the recruitment funnel.
- Precise influencer targeting: Connect parent identities with student profiles and access valuable contact information using our extensive database and advanced matching techniques.
- Real-time analytics and dashboards: Monitor and adjust recruitment efforts with real-time dashboards that track key metrics, such as engagement and conversion rates, to make strategic decisions backed by comprehensive data.
Watch From Lists to Leads: Transforming Student Search to Compete in a Data-Driven World today to learn more about bringing your student search out of the past and into the future.