How to Grow and Increase Enrollment in STEM Schools, Colleges and Universities: Strategies, Tactics and Best Practices

Over 30 years of partnering with leading STEM institutions, we’ve seen firsthand which strategies drive enrollment—and which fall short. What follows reflects what we’ve learned works in practice, not just in theory.

Play to win with a strategic plan

To realize prosperity, a college must play to win more of right-fit students and partners.

1. Understand situational context. Perform SWOT and benchmark peers.
2. Pick the right strategy lever. Where should the college play and how will it win? Aim higher.
3. Know demographic and psychographic segments. How will you meet and exceed their needs?

Invest in an unforgettable brand

In the sea of sameness, brands win. A brand is the DNA of an institution that affirms its purpose. The practice of branding demands that a college:

1. Define core promise that is enduring, immutable and indisputable.
2. Articulate a distinct and memorable brand image.
3. Position the college vis-a-vis peers.
4. Pursue a big idea, without which the college will be ignored.

Once articulated, speak with one brand voice to all audiences, but strike different notes for each segment of students, alumni, donors, partners and influencers.

Craft a Keyword Guide

Google page one is destiny. As is inclusions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. If prospects can’t find the college, they won’t enroll. If corporations can’t find the college, they won’t partner with it. If foundations can’t find the college, they won’t fund it.

The journey to Google/ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini page one begins by creating an institutional Keyword Guide with the following groups of keywords a college needs to claim and own:

1. Program keywords.
2. Thought leadership keywords.
3. Brand keywords.
4. Reputation keywords.
5. Location keyword.
6. Decisioning keywords.

Because fresh content is the fuel of Google, create an editorial calendar. Never create a piece of new content without identifying the keyword first. You become the story you choose to tell.

Inspire prospects with a beautiful and compelling website

A website is the digital soul of an institution. All roads lead to it. Here are some guidelines worth following:

1. Merchandise hope.
2. Don’t be a bore. A college can’t bore people into enrolling, or buying into its brand ideals.
3. Secure Google/ChatGTP/Perplexity/Gemini page one rankings for all the college programs. If a program can’t be found, prospects won’t consider enrolling.
4. Make students and alumni the hero of the institutional journey, not the institution. Celebrate successful students and alumni.
5. Express Gen-Z diversity and camaraderie — religious, racial, and gender in your photography.
6. Separate public facing and internal facing websites.
7. Project the university as an institution of consequence.
8. Deploy a smart program finder. Half the site visitors think a college doesn’t offer a program when it does.
9. Create a fields of study section to inspire prospective students, enhance content relevance, and establish spheres of influence as entry points for academic programs.
10. Romance prospects with high-fidelity academic program pages. We call them money pages. Feature courses, students, alumni, faculty, career paths, corporate placements, placement stats, and proof of tech transfer and startups. Spotlight special STEM scholarships. Show how AI is being integrated into the curriculum and pedagogy. Use retail merchandising techniques to cross-promote related programs.
11. Merchandise signature programs. Let them generate unfair returns to bring the rest of the programs along.
12. Create a career pathways section outlining possible career paths.
13. Create “Day in the life of” pages.
14. Streamline admissions process. Avoid frustrating prospective digital native students with arcane process. Develop an accepted student microsite.
15. Prominently display STEM designation to attract more international students who are entitled to extended practical training opportunities.
16. Feature brand anthem video to tell your brand story and why the college matters.
17. Create a STEM lovers resource channel as an extension of the college website. Feature symposiums, summits, graduate addresses, keynote speakers, and STEM topics such as 3D printing, solar eclipses, robotics and scientific breakthroughs. Promote all this via social media.

Connect and build relationships via social platforms

Turn on the charms and enhance a college’s likability using social media platforms.

1. Tell better stories of impact and consequential work of students, talented faculty and successful alumni.
2. Partner with influencers.
3. Promote social posts.
4. Create an editorial calendar.
5. Measure metrics.
6. Keep an eye on peer institutions.

Win hearts and minds of prospects with an integrated marketing campaign

Colleges must fish where the fish are. They must:

1. Implement precise paid advertising campaigns with story landing pages and A/B testing. They must have the discipline to starve the losers and feed the winning ads and landing page alternatives.
2. Execute charming email marketing campaigns.
3. Run data-driven traditional media advertising if they have spare budgets.
4. Conduct persistent content/SEO/GEO marketing campaigns with educational, career counseling and thought leadership content that:

• Offers career guidance infused with inspiring stories of recent alumni and tied back to academic programs
• Tells stories of day in the life of a student
• Celebrates student heroes and achieving alumni
• Explains emerging fields of study
• Explores program journey
• Shows worth of a college education
• Focuses on the work of the future

Grow institutional reputation

Great colleges curate, orchestrate and elevate their content strategy to deftly manage their institutional destiny with flagship publications, storytelling on websites and social media channels.

They maximize their content productivity and amplify their thought leadership with their Keyword Lexicon. They insist that each and every piece of content a college produces is infused with keywords, so it can secure its rightful Google/ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini page 1 rankings. They widen their content reach beyond alumni and friends to influence people who aren’t aware of their college brand. They measure and communicate the economic impact of their institutions.

They grow reputation by becoming known as thought leaders by:

1. Organizing public programs that attract STEM lovers in the surrounding communities with topics like Machine Learning, AI in medicine, and more.
2. Creating special interest groups such as Women in AI and People in Space Resources.
3. Influencing ranking and rating agencies by forming committees.
4. Starting new pioneering special interest groups and industry conferences.
5. Investing in pre-college programs, summer STEM camps and executive education programs.
6. Creating unique STEM competitions that attract a broader community of technology enthusiasts such as robot competitions, autonomous vehicle competitions, and more.
7. Attending extracurricular events where college prospects hang out such as Comic Cons, First Robotics competitions, GreyCon conferences, Maker communities, Lego Mindstorm communities, Videogame communities, Raspberry Pi clubs, Cybersecurity clubs, Girls Who Code clubs, and Women in STEM clubs. Follow Twitch streamers.
8. Throwing game launch parties.
9. Befriending high schools and community colleges.
10. Creating 3+2 programs with liberal arts colleges.
11. Forming, cultivating and fortifying corporate relationships for internships, coops and job placement.
12. Creating joint programs with high schools.
13. Developing a large variety of STEM clubs and organizations.

Turn interest into action and relationships into loyalty with boots-on-the-ground and follow-up plan

If marketing lights the spark, then boots-on-the-ground activities fuel the fire, and follow-up shows genuine care. To be successful, universities must orchestrate all three. You must surround and engage accepted students:

1. Treat accepted students like royalty.
2. Curate tours and visits. Invest in first impressions.
3. Optimize follow-up programs.
4. Create anti-melt programs and activities.
5. Invite accepted students to accepted student days and pre-orientation programs.
6. Create accepted student communities.

Invest in marketing

No money, no mission. To see success, dedicate sufficient budget.

If you have in interest in growing your STEM program, school, college or university, please review our higher education marketing capabilities and consider partnering with us.