9 College Admissions Marketing Tools to Strengthen Your Enrollment Strategy

While the college admissions landscape remains ever turbulent, there are many simple shifts you can make to strengthen your enrollment marketing strategy.

Before you deep dive into looking for the best college recruitment platforms, let's take a step back, recalibrate, and consider: Are we doing the most we can with the marketing tools we have? What are the best tools for college admissions teams?

Zoom out with us and let's look at your current enrollment and admissions marketing tools (and maybe some new ones) from a different perspective. In this blog post, we're covering higher ed tools for marketing to students and families, plus internal tools for your team.

Note: This article may be especially helpful for small colleges and universities with limited budgets.

9 Admissions Marketing Tools to Consider (And How to Make the Most of Them)

Odds are, you’re already using a lot of these tools. Below, we’re digging into some ways to maximize them this academic year.

If you’re not already using them, these can be great enrollment marketing tools to consider adding to your strategy.

1. Virtual Tour Software
2. Task Management Tool
3. Email Marketing Software
4. Asynchronous Video Recording Tool
5. SEO Research Software
6. Website Chatbot
7. Webinar Hosting Tool
8. Text Messaging Platform
9. Bonus: Go Where The Students Are with Scoir!

1. Virtual Tour Software

This college brand-building tool has gained a ton of traction since 2020. Tours are a crucial factor in the final college decision-making process, making them a great event to revisit this year to boost enrollment numbers (especially if you haven’t touched yours since 2020 or 2021). 

Features to look out for: Mobile functionality, interactive campus maps, 360 views

Audience: Students and their families

Funnel stage: Consideration and decision (bottom of the funnel)

Key metrics to track: Tour view rate, percent of the tour watched, post-tour inquiry submissions

Ways to optimize: 

• Add in testimonials from current students
• Highlight what’s truly unique about your college
• Start sharing via email marketing, on social media, and on your school’s website

2. Task Management Tool

Say goodbye to the days of rogue sticky notes. Get on the same page with teammates and reduce meetings.

Features to look out for: Time tracking ability, communication tools with teammates, fields to organize task categories

Audience: College admissions staff (internal)

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Average tasks completed per month, workload per employee, average time to complete certain types of recurring tasks

Ways to optimize: 

• Track average time spent on tasks to help determine your high-impact tasks and better optimize workloads
• Configure goals to track progress
• Create projects for your top initiatives
• Invite your team to collaborate with you in the task management tool

3. Email Marketing Software

Okay, we know you've got this tool, but have you refreshed your email communications lately? If not, do an email marketing health check-up and try out some highly targeted campaigns. This article on higher education email marketing must-knows is a great resource to check out if you're looking for the latest email marketing tips for higher ed.

Features to look out for: Robust reporting, drag-and-drop editor, segmentation abilities

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, conversion rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Try cleaning your lists (removing bounced contacts, for instance)
• Create a new lead nurturing campaign for students at each stage in the funnel
• Revamp your email design
• Revisit your segmentation and determine how to get even more targeted with your email campaigns
• A/B test subject lines and CTAs

4. Asynchronous Video Recording Tool

Are you looking to save time on internal communication? Or, do you want to start making video content for students yourself?

This is a great option if your team's budget is too tight to fund high-production videos.

Numerous video recording tools allow you to record yourself (and/or share your screen) and send those videos to students or coworkers. Videos like these are great to add to your website, send via email marketing, or send directly to students.

Features to look out for: A large storage capacity, the ability to record yourself and your screen, the option to add your school’s branding elements

Audience: College admissions staff, students, and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Percent focus rate, click-through rate, post-video view form submission rate

Optimization questions to consider:

• Where can you add more personalization to your enrollment marketing? (Video may be the answer)
• How can you convert your written content into video?
• Which recurring internal meetings can you reduce by using asynchronous video?

5. SEO/AEO Research Software

A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) tool can help you determine which phrases students and families search for on Google and in LLMs to find colleges like yours. With more and more students going to LLMs to do research throughout the college search process, it's important to find tools that will support with the AEO side of things as well.

Psst…you may not need to buy one. For example, Google Search Console is free for everyone! Plus, there are many free resources out there to teach you about SEO and AEO. 

Features to look out for: Keyword management, keyword search, content optimization ideas, LLM prompt tracking

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Website traffic, organic traffic, keyword rankings, LLM mentions, keywords your domain and your competitors are ranking for

Ways to optimize: 

• Update the content you already have (How can you make it more helpful and evergreen?)
• Determine gaps in content strategy
• Discover commonly asked questions and create content to answer those questions

6. Website Chatbot

Chatbots are a great way to answer questions and address inquiries quickly. 

Your CRM or marketing automation software may allow this, or you could go with another vendor. 

Features to look out for: AI functionality, the option to speak with a bot or real person

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Engagement rate, percent progression through chatbot steps and phases, conversion rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Branding (How can you give your chatbot a voice unique to your school?)
• Chatbot pathways (How can you make the potential chatbot paths more helpful? How can you use AI to help surface the right content to the right visitors?)

7. Webinar Hosting Tool

Ah, yes. It's a marketing classic. And for good reason!

Webinars can be a great way to interact with prospective students and help them get to know your school’s culture (plus learn the answers to any FAQs they may have).

Features to look out for: Ability to prerecord webinars, simple registration flow, automatic reminder emails

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: Consideration and decision (bottom of the funnel)

Key metrics to track: Engagement rate, focus rate during the event (time spent watching), attendance rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Analyze past webinar performance and determine which dates and times work best
• Convert your webinars into podcasts, blog posts, and social content

8. Text Messaging Platform

With email inboxes overflowing and attention spans shrinking, text messaging can be a great addition to your enrollment marketing strategy. It’s direct, fast, and where students already spend most of their digital time (on their phones!). 

Features to look out for: 

• Two-way messaging
• Scheduled campaigns
• CRM or SIS integration
• Shortcode or toll-free number options
• Opt-in and compliance tools (especially for SMS regulations like TCPA)

Audience: Students

Funnel stage: All, but especially effective for nudging students at the inquiry, application, and deposit stages

Key metrics to track: Response rate, click-through rate (if linking to pages on your site), opt-out rate, application and deposit lift

Ways to optimize: 

• Personalize messages by name, major, or interests
• Use for deadline reminders, event invites, or updates on application status
• Keep texts short and conversational (avoid sounding like a mass message)
• Segment by funnel stage

9. Go Where The Students Are With Scoir!

If you’re looking for a new, high-impact enrollment marketing tool, we think Scoir is worth a look! 😉

Scoir is the place where students do all things college search and planning. Every college has a profile on Scoir, similar to a social media profile. When you become a Scoir partner, you can take your profile to the next level, message students who follow your school on Scoir (and their parents!), see insights about those who follow you, and even access contact information of students who’ve requested to hear from your school.

Our college partners find that 52-90% of their interested students on Scoir are stealth (meaning, the students weren’t already captured in their CRM)!

Check out what we’re all about, view our case studies, or schedule a consultation to get started.

This article was originally published on April 22, 2024. It was updated on April 8, 2026 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.