6 Steps to Take to Improve Communication and Boost Student Enrollment

In Higher Education, effective communication is essential to student enrollment, so when departments aren’t aligned or when communication is inconsistent, prospective students can easily fall through the cracks. The key to improving communication with prospective students lies in building a cohesive strategy. You need to unite departments, standardize communication, lean on your data, and make sure you are leveraging the right tools. This might seem like a lot to tackle, but creating an effective communications strategy can be simple if you break it down into manageable steps. By implementing a system that can be tested, refined, and continuously improved, you'll set your institution up for lasting success.

Below, we explore the 6 steps institutions can take to improve communication with prospective students and boost enrollments!

Step 1. Align Goals Across Departments

The first step in improving communication and boosting student enrollment is ensuring that all relevant departments are on the same page. This starts with identifying and engaging key stakeholders like admissions, marketing, student services, and IT, then setting shared goals for enrollment, retention, and engagement.

Additionally, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your institution’s overarching goals will help measure progress later down the line. These could include application completion rates, response times, and retention rates. 

Step 2. Identify Communication Gaps and Challenges

Next, it’s important to take a step back and assess your current communication practices. Start by evaluating the tools your team is using to communicate with students—whether through email, phone, or text—and whether these tools are consistent across departments. A lack of consistency can lead to missed opportunities or confusion among students. In addition, it's crucial to assess how well your team tracks student communication. Are you able to easily access a comprehensive history of interactions with each student?

Inconsistent messaging can also be a major issue. For example, if different departments send conflicting information about registration steps, it may confuse or alienate prospective or current students. Finally, it’s important to pinpoint missed touchpoints—such as application reminders, registration alerts, or retention check-ins—that could lead to disengagement if overlooked.

Step 3. Analyze Workflow Efficiency

Manual processes often lead to inefficiencies and delays, so once communication gaps are identified, it’s time to evaluate your workflows. Examine your administrative processes like document submission, approvals, and communications. Are these tasks still being done manually?

Next, identify any bottlenecks that slow down progress and determine which department is responsible for each step. Efficient cross-departmental collaboration is key here—if silos exist, teams may struggle to deliver a smooth student experience. Identifying where work stops flowing and where silos hinder processes is the first step to fixing the issues.

Also, it’s important to assess how much time staff members are spending on repetitive tasks. If a large portion of their time is spent on repetitive, manual work, it’s worth considering automation tools that can free them up for more impactful projects.

Step 4. Build Your Communication and Workflow Strategy

With a clearer understanding of where improvements can be made, it’s time to build a strategy. Begin by defining your target audience segments. By analyzing student demographics, interests, and engagement history, you can create more targeted and personalized communication strategies.

Mapping the student journey is another crucial step. By identifying the key touchpoints at each stage—whether it’s initial inquiry, application, enrollment, or retention—you can ensure that communications are aligned with students’ needs and interests at every stage. At the same time, setting clear objectives for each phase of the student lifecycle will help you stay focused on the end goal, whether it’s increasing application submissions, improving event attendance, or boosting retention rates.

Collaboration across departments is key to developing workflows that streamline student engagement. By connecting departments like admissions, advising, and student services, you can eliminate silos and reduce delays. Don’t forget to explore automation opportunities—tasks like follow-up emails, document requests, and appointment scheduling can be automated to reduce manual work and minimize errors.

Step 5. Implement Essential Systems & Tools

The next step is to implement systems and tools that will support your communication and workflow strategy. Start by choosing platforms that integrate departments and automate repetitive tasks. The right solutions should be flexible, scalable, and tailored to the needs of higher education institutions.

Integration is key—systems should allow seamless data sharing and collaboration across departments, ensuring everyone has access to up-to-date student information. Scalability is another important consideration. As your institution grows, your communication and workflow tools should be able to scale with you without requiring major upgrades. Finally, ensure your staff receives proper training on the new systems and provide ongoing support to keep them up to date.

Step 6. Monitor, Measure, and Adjust

Once your new systems and workflows are in place, it’s crucial to regularly track performance using the KPIs you established earlier. This will help you measure key metrics like application completion rates, student engagement levels, and response times. Evaluating the effectiveness of your communication campaigns is also essential. Are students responding to your messages? Are your key processes—like application completion and event registration—on target? Use both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the impact of your efforts.

Once you’ve gathered your data, identify areas for improvement. Analyze your processes to pinpoint where things might be slowing down or falling through the cracks. Regularly using data insights to refine your strategies will help you continuously improve engagement, streamline operations, and ultimately boost enrollment outcomes.

Next Steps to Take

Improving communication and boosting student enrollment requires a thoughtful, strategic approach. By aligning goals across departments, identifying communication gaps, analyzing workflows, and implementing the right tools, you can create a more efficient and effective system. With these strategies in place, your institution will be better equipped to engage students, improve the student experience, and achieve stronger enrollment results.

Get started on creating a strategy that improves communications and boosts enrollment outcomes by downloading our checklist!