Personalizing Recruitment Drives Enrollment Growth

Challenge

An HBCU in the heart of Georgia, Fort Valley State University (FVSU) develops students into leaders with their motto “Empower the Possible.” Similarly, when its admissions team faced challenges identifying students most likely to enroll at the university, the executive director knew it was time to empower the team to embrace its technology and enrollment partnership to achieve what he knew was possible: creating a communication flow that would engage the right students to surpass the university’s enrollment goals. 

Solution

FVSU teamed up with Encoura to leverage the industry’s leading inquiry-to-enroll predictive model, Smart+®, to identify students most likely to enroll at its university. With this information, the admissions team created a personalized communication plan–including handwritten letters to prospective students with the highest predictive scores, set travel plans to visit strategic new markets, and created new events to connect with these students. Additionally, FVSU and Encoura began reaching out to students earlier in their high school careers to engage these students with email and on social media before its competitors.