With high school student enrollment declining, colleges need to find alternative ways to fill gaps in their enrollment. Numerous factors have contributed to this “Enrollment Cliff,” like COVID-19 causing students to delay or skip college; fewer births during the Great Recession leading to a smaller student population; and many high school graduates finding alternative paths after graduation.
Most colleges focus their recruitment on high school graduates, but there is another demographic that colleges should focus their efforts on: adult learners.
There is a growing number of adults going back to school later in life. Adult learners are a valuable audience for colleges to recruit. In fact, adult students make up at least 40% of total higher ed revenue today.
Recruiting adult students requires a different strategy than high school students. Here are our best strategies and tips for reaching and recruiting adult learners:
Who are “adult learners”?
Many colleges refer to adult learners as non-traditional students who are 25 years old or older. They typically want to advance in their existing field or change career paths. Some common adult learners include military veterans, parents, and career changers.
Adult learners face some challenges when they continue their education. They have to balance school, their current job, and their home life; so, continuing their education is often a big decision for them.
There are also financial considerations for many adult students, and many will need to take out loans or have financial aid assistance. But at this stage in an adult learner’s life, the decision to attend college is not taken lightly; they are highly motivated to accomplish their goals.
What are adult students looking for?
Each adult learner’s motivation for continuing their education is different. However, a common goal for adult students is that they want to get a degree or certification so they can start their next chapter. Some common reasons why prospective adult students want to attend college include: wanting to change their careers, looking to advance in their current career by obtaining more education, or chasing what they are passionate about.
Recruiting Adult Learners: Tips for Colleges and Universities
Recruiting prospective adult students is different than recruiting high school graduates. Their goals, motivations, and expectations of college are often quite different than those of younger students.
To successfully recruit adult learners and non-traditional students for your college, your marketing strategy for enrollment needs to connect and align with adult learners’ priorities and needs. Here are some top enrollment strategies for colleges on how to recruit adult learners:
Connect with Adult Learners through Unique Messaging
Messaging that works for high school students or traditional students may not resonate with adult learners. To help fill your enrollment gap, have different messaging when marketing to high school students versus adult learners.
The targeted messaging you use for adult learners should connect with them and show that your college understands their challenges and can provide solutions through its programs.
Highlight the Flexibility and Convenience of Your Programs
Online learning has never been easier or more convenient. Many adult students look for a flexible program where they can work on assignments on their own time, at their own pace, and at a convenient location.
If your college offers certain degree programs that align with the flexible curriculum that many adult learners look for, highlight these programs in your recruitment efforts.
Emphasize Career Advancements for Adult Learners
Some adult learners want to stay in the same career field, so they may just be looking to gain additional skills and education. In fact, some companies will offer financial incentives for their employees to complete graduate programs.
Emphasizing the positive impact that your college’s programs have and how they can help adult learners advance in their existing careers can help you attract these students. Provide statistics on how these programs help adults succeed or real stories from adult learners in your recruitment materials to help illustrate the benefits adult students will receive.
Financial and ROI Transparency
An important factor that adult learners consider when thinking about college is the financial aspect. Addressing financial concerns can help non-traditional students better understand your college programs and the decision to continue their education. Displaying easy-to-read cost analyses on your program’s web pages can be helpful for adult learners.
Adult learners who complete college and earn a degree earn 68% more than those with only a high school diploma. Emphasizing this kind of information to prospective adult learners can motivate them to apply to your college.
Showcase your College’s Resources and Support
Having easily accessible resources and support at your college can be a big selling point for adult learners. For many non-traditional students, the idea of attending college at their life stage may seem intimidating. However, showcasing the helpful services and adult programs your college provides can help attract adult learners to your institution.
Targeted Digital Marketing
There are numerous digital marketing efforts that can attract adult learners. Below are a few examples:
- Social Media Advertising: Create ads or boost posts that promote your programs and highlight success stories.
- Google Ads: Use keywords for Google Ads that are most relevant to adult learners
- Blog Posts and Guides: By following SEO best practices, your blog posts and guides can reach adult learners searching for specific queries. Helpful information on your blogs can lead the reader to further investigate your college.
- Emails: Sending purposeful messages and emails targeted to adult learners can make them curious to learn more.
- Web pages: It’s beneficial to have pages on your website that are dedicated to adult learners and have specific and helpful information for that audience.
Personalize your Outreach to Connect with Adult Learners
Emails and SMS campaigns are a great opportunity to personalize your messages to adult learners. Whether it’s information about specific programs that might interest them or a notification about an open house, connecting with them through these channels can help boost their interest in your college.
Power Your Recruitment with the Right Data
To increase your college’s enrollment numbers, you need data on adults who are currently interested in continuing their education. Having accurate data can allow you to reach the right audience of adults who would be interested in your program.
Boost Adult Student Enrollment with CBSS
Your database may have an existing list of adult learner prospects, but diversifying your data sources can increase your chances of turning prospects into applicants. Having a detailed marketing plan is important, but having the right data to support your efforts can make it a success.
At CBSS, we offer Adult Continuing Education data. With our data, you can reach adults aged 20-50 who have recently expressed an interest in continuing their education.
This adult data is self-reported via surveys. Records are removed from the file after 12 months and it’s updated quarterly—so you can ensure you’re accurately reaching highly interested students.
Our Adult Continuing Education data includes:
- Full Name
- Postal Address, including county
- Email Address
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- The recency of their interest in continuing education
To meet our high-quality standards, all of the individuals in this dataset have opted in to receive recruitment material. And, all records go through our top-notch data hygiene and cleansing process. So, you can be confident that this data is accurate and actionable.
For more information about CBSS’s data offerings, check out these additional resources:
- Increase your enrollment numbers with our student data!
- Struggling to get student records? Check out this helpful infographic to learn what you can do to navigate the enrollment cliff.
- Want to learn more about how to achieve enrollment success in today’s challenging landscape? Contact us today!
