How Recruitment Marketing Helps

Underserved Students

Recruitment marketing can even the playing field

In order to better understand how recruitment marketing influences underserved students’ path to higher education, EAB data analysts examined the rate at which students ended up inquiring about, applying to, and gaining admission to the colleges and universities whose outreach they received. A particular focus of the analysis was students from underserved minority populations: African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and Multi-racial students. Key findings from the analysis are explained below.

Underserved students are especially likely to engage

Number of students by recruitment stage and conversion rates, general population versus underserved students

Proactive outreach finds a receptive audience

Our main finding was that underserved students responded to recruitment-marketing outreach at markedly higher rates than the general population-a trend that translated into proportionally more admits for underserved students contacted.

This insight reinforces a finding from past EAB survey research that, when it comes to learning about schools they are considering, underserved students and their families are more likely than the general population to find push communications helpful, versus self-serve information sources.

Recruitment marketing fills an unmet need

The findings from our analysis also underscore the important role that recruitment marketing can play in assisting underserved students, who often lack the kind of support their peers in the general population can take for granted-for example, expert guidance from college-educated parents who are intimately familiar with the search and application process.

Recruitment-marketing campaigns that include information such as how to file a FAFSA, when to apply, and how to navigate other important aspects of the college search process can help underserved students avoid serious stumbling blocks on the path to matriculation.

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