The Circle of Excellence Awards recognize a variety of work in marketing. When the judges for the 2022 marketing categories issued their results, their comments brought to light a common theme: 

“Great understanding of targeted demographic and community.” 

“A great example of a school understanding its market.” 

“Clearly defined audience and well targeted.” 

More than ever, higher education enrollment marketing professionals are targeting, segmenting, and personalizing their content. Winning 2022 entries had tailored messages to well-defined audiences such as low-income, high-achieving students; those who are undecided about a major; Spanish-speaking students; admitted students; nontraditional students seeking an online education; and parents. 

Personalization is essential in today’s increasingly competitive enrollment marketplace. With fewer high school graduates projected in the U.S. after 2025 through 2037—experts predict an 11% to 15% decline—the “enrollment cliff” is looming. The pandemic may have even accelerated the cliff: the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showed an overall decline in U.S. postsecondary enrollment in spring 2022 by 4.2%, with public institutions disproportionately affected. 

Plus, conversations about student debt in the U.S. have shined an even brighter spotlight on affordability and value of education, leading many students and their parents to be more discerning in the college search. 

This generation of digital natives have tools at their fingertips to compare colleges and universities like no other generation. With so many more choices coming their way, that means marketing approaches need to be “fire.”  

“Gen Z expects personalization,” says Terry Flannery, author of How to Market a University: Building Value in a Competitive Environment and CASE Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “They’ve grown up with technology and data. They are bombarded by brands that track their interests and send personal messages directly through texts and social media. Higher education is catching up to Amazon-like data-driven marketing. We’re getting better at it because if you want the attention of Gen Z, it needs to be personal and relevant.” 

As if there wasn’t enough to consider in this new era of enrollment marketing, the pandemic added unpredictability. 

“With use of data, we knew that students who come for a visit are more likely to apply, and if they are admitted and visit, they are more likely to commit,” says Jimmie Foster, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. With more than 20 years in the field, Foster says, “We’ve not seen anything like this before. We learned to be flexible by doing things like hosting virtual open houses. The pandemic also confirmed the importance of targeted communication, which became even more essential with the loss of in-person touch points.” 

The 2022 Higher Ed CMO [Chief Marketing Officer] Study by SimpsonScarborough, a higher education marketing agency that tracks trends in the industry, makes that clear. This survey of 230 CMOs concluded, “personalization is crucial to building consistent and authentic brand experiences—which underpin trust; something that has been increasingly fragile—especially in higher education—since the pandemic started.”