5 Strategic Ways to Use Search to Optimize Your Recruitment Strategy

You may have heard the saying: There’s value in what remains. It’s especially true as the subscription year draws to a close. And for those who have an abundance (or even a small amount) of Search records left, using them strategically and creatively provides exceptional opportunity to boost student engagement heading into fall travel and application season.

Whether your remaining volume is large or small, now is the time to be intentional. Your remaining volume holds untapped potential—but only if you apply the right strategies. These five high-impact Search strategies will help you focus your efforts, elevate lead quality, and drive meaningful results for your campus.

Tip #1 – Contact Your College Board Search Consultant

Meeting with your consultant is a crucial first step. To build your student prospect list and maximize your engagement rates, begin with your goal in mind. Then, your consultant can take an analytical look at the Search features available to you that can be used to capture an audience you have not yet tapped. Through the consultation process, you can also revisit what’s worked and what hasn’t to help inform your decisions about leveraging that remaining volume.

Tip #2 – Effective Enrollment Strategies Are Future Focused

By beginning your outreach early, you build recognition for your school and improve your chances for strengthening your enrollment potential in years to come. Search can help you reach rising junior, sophomore, even freshman cohorts. It can also identify those student profiles most likely to engage with your institution. Building familiarity early builds comfort and trust, helping solidify that future student’s commitment to enrollment at your institution.

Tip #3 – Timing is Everything

Advanced Placement® score reports are released to students in July, which triggers an influx of new AP Exam data in Search. Don’t miss an opportunity to reach these students when they are most engaged—as they receive their AP scores. College Board research shows, “AP students, including those with average scores of 1 or 2, are more likely to enroll in a four-year college compared to academically similar students who did not take AP in high school.” 

Additionally, more records become available with the SAT data load in late June, setting the stage for the beginning of “senior search.” Rising seniors will be very methodically planning summer visits and looking for application dates so this is a critical time to get in front of these highly engaged students.

Tip #4 – Don’t Overlook the Obvious

The Interest in My College (IMC) feature in Search is included in all Access Plans and helps identify high-intent students. These students are the hand-raisers who have demonstrated organic interest in your institution. And if their academic profile formerly wasn’t a good match, take another look. Rising seniors often retake the SAT to increase their score. So, a student who didn’t fit academically as a sophomore or junior may have improved. IMC students are 10 times more likely to apply, and 9 times more likely to enroll! 

Consider, too, the students who have expressed interest in your competitors by using the Interest in My Peers (IMP) feature. By licensing these hand-raisers you will reach prospects who are far more likely to be engaged. Waybetter Marketing found records licensed using IMP engaged at a rate five times greater than the average prospect. IMP can be easily added to your plan if you don’t already have it.

Tip #5 – Consider Untapped Markets 

Segment Analysis Service™ (SAS), our data-tagging service, is a great way to identify high-potential prospective students with characteristics you may not have considered. SAS allows you to more effectively reach the student profiles that are historically more likely to enroll at your institution. If you’re new to SAS, work with your College Board consultant to help you maximize this tool’s potential. You might also get some ideas about how institutions are using this powerful tool by viewing a webinar, Success Simplified: Harnessing Segment Analysis Service, available for viewing now on demand.

As this Access Plan year draws to a close, remember, for pipeline building, no other source provides as much opportunity to reach students earlier in their academic career. The earlier you reach and engage your right-fit student prospects, the better your chances to recruit and enroll them.