Introduction
Understanding your market is the foundation of an effective enrollment strategy. This action plan helps enrollment teams build market awareness, define your competitive landscape, identify growth opportunities, and strengthen your brand to drive sustainable enrollment results.
Whether you’re a new enrollment professional or more seasoned, we’ve got you covered. Using the table of contents above, start at the level that best suits where you’re ready to glean new strategies.
Level 1What is the Market?
Before you can decide where to recruit, how to message, or what to invest in, you need a clear understanding of the market you’re working in.
In this context, the market is more than a list of high schools or competitor institutions. It includes the students who could reasonably consider postsecondary education, the environments they’re growing up in, and the forces shaping their decisions long before they encounter your institution.
This chapter focuses on market awareness — understanding what’s happening around you so decisions later in the funnel are grounded in reality.
The Market Extends Beyond Your Institution
It’s common to define the market narrowly: by geography, by peer set, or by historical enrollment patterns. But those definitions often miss the bigger picture.
The market is shaped by:
- Demographic change, including population shifts and uneven growth across regions
- Declining or flattening college-going rates in some areas
- Evolving student sentiment, particularly around value, outcomes, and flexibility
- Greater family and influencer involvement in decision-making
These forces influence whether students pursue postsecondary education at all — and which institutions they consider viable. In addition, while these trends are national, their impact is always local. Two institutions in neighboring states — or even neighboring counties — may experience these forces very differently.
It is important to remember that if your results are changing, it may not be because your strategy is broken. The market itself may be shifting, requiring a different approach.
Level 2Defining Your Market
Once you have a clear view of the broader market and the forces shaping demand, the next step is narrowing the focus. Defining your market means understanding where your institution actually competes today — geographically, demographically, and perceptually.
While Level 1 helps you understand what’s happening around you, Level 2 focuses on what that reality means specifically for your institution and where your efforts are most likely to make an impact.
Your Market Is More Than a Map
It’s tempting to define your market by drawing boundaries — a state, a region, a travel territory. But geography alone rarely tells the full story.
Your true market is shaped by:
- Where your enrolled students actually come from
- Where students recognize and consider your institution
- Which institutions students view as realistic alternatives
Two institutions recruiting in the same area may experience very different outcomes based on brand awareness, program mix, affordability perceptions, and institutional fit.
Defining your market requires looking beyond where you recruit to where students are willing to choose you.
Use Your Enrollment Data as a Starting Point
Your enrollment funnel already holds valuable insight into your market. By reviewing enrollment outcomes over time, teams can begin to see:
Level 3Exploring Opportunities Within Your Current Market
Now that we’ve defined your institution’s primary market, how do you find and understand new opportunities for student search and engagement there?
One of the most effective (if not the most effective) ways to pinpoint your best market opportunities is to use predictive models. Predictive models in student search strengthen the top of your funnel by finding students with qualities that show they are most likely to be interested in your institution.
Pinpoint Opportunities With Predictive Models
Let’s take a closer look at the two types of predictive models that help you find key students in your primary geographic or program markets: market opportunity models and prospect-to-enroll models. (To see a deep dive into the different types of predictive models available to institutions, including these two, check out Chapter 3 of our Optimize Your Funnel Action Plan.)
Market Opportunity Models
Market opportunity models (aka prospect-to-interest models) point out both offensive and defensive opportunities that your institution has at the very top of the funnel. When looking for new students (offensive approach), this model identifies students in your market(s) who are interested in colleges similar to yours, as well as students who are willing to travel farther from home for college. This prospect-to-interest strategy empowers you to reach out before your competitors to connect with students who are most likely to engage with your school.
Level 4Expanding Into New Markets
After solidifying your understanding of your current market, it’s time to explore how your team can achieve or surpass your enrollment goals by expanding into new markets.
When considering this expansion, it’s important to define your goals and your capacity. Ask yourself:
- Are we trying to grow enrollment in general, or do we have specific institutional or enrollment goals that necessitate focusing on certain populations or programs?
- What is my staffing situation? Does my team have bandwidth to pursue new markets without neglecting our current ones?
- What is my budget? Do I have extra funds for the travel season? Do I have money I can apply to grow my digital marketing efforts in new areas?
- Do we have sufficient financial aid that we can offer to new students so that our recruitment efforts result in enrollment decisions?
- Do we have systems in place to support students from new markets so they retain?
Once you’ve assessed your situation and determined that you have the direction and resources needed to expand in new markets, your next step is to set your strategy.
Early Engagement Is Critical
Don’t try to reach seniors in new markets; they’ve already been engaging with schools and probably have their decisions set. To be successful in new markets, it’s necessary to start by reaching sophomores and their families — or even younger students.
To be successful in new markets, it’s necessary to start by reaching sophomores and their families — or even younger students.
Level 5Become a Leading Brand in Your Market
After successfully understanding your primary market and expanding into new markets, your team is probably asking, “How do I grow my brand equity and efficacy regionally, or even nationally?
Know Your Brand
The first step to grow your brand is to understand your brand. Ask yourself:
- Who is my institution?
- Who defined that brand for me?
- Would prospective students and families agree? How do I know?
While every institution and organization develops its mission, vision, values, and brand guidelines, it's essential to pulse check with your audience to see if that’s the brand you’re truly communicating externally.
Are you regularly checking in with prospective students to see what words they use to describe your school? Participate in research that surveys this audience, like the Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research™. Not only does this research reveal successes and discrepancies in your brand efforts, it will strengthen your recruiting and marketing teams with Student Mindsets — college-bound student personas that reveal which students your institution best attracts and enrolls.
Own Your Brand Neighborhood
Read the Full Action Plan
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