Encoura

Understanding, Supporting, and Engaging Today’s Prospective Parents/Guardians

Intro

While many enrollment teams focus on the shifting demographics and preferences of today’s college-bound students, far fewer colleges are paying attention to their families’ motivations and behaviors. This action plan will highlight the unique characteristics of today’s parents/guardians and empower your team to successfully engage them to support enrollment.

Chapter 1

Who Are Today’s Parents/Guardians?

The parents/guardians of today’s college-bound students are diverse in backgrounds, college experiences, financial situations, and college preferences for their children. However, recent research does reveal key insights that can help you grow in your understanding of and engagement with these important family members.

Demographics

Today’s parents/guardians largely fall divided across the Gen X and Millennial line, with more Millennials becoming parents/guardians of high schoolers each year. Mostly in their 40s and 50s, these family members are increasingly comfortable with technology.

Demographics of parent/guardian participants in the Eduventures® 2022 Prospective Parent Research™.

When considering college for their students, the majority of these parents/guardians (87%, Eduventures® Prospective Parent Research™) have had at least some college education themselves. While this means they have some comfort and familiarity with the search and application processes, these processes have evolved since their time in school.

Additionally, on average, today’s parents/guardians plan to send three children to college (Eduventures Prospective Parent Research). Your college may be working with students who already have siblings in college, giving those families even more knowledge about the college enrollment process.

Preferences

So what do these technology-friendly, Millennial/Gen X-cuspers with some familiarity about the college search process prefer for their childrens’ college searches and decisions?

When parents/guardians are weighing in on colleges, they focus mostly on cost and reputation. These two factors bring out families’ strongest preferences, with proximity to home, college type, career, and major playing a lesser, but still important role. 

Eduventures’ 2022 Prospective Parent Research reveals the top preferences of today’s parents/guardians in college search.

When considering how to market your college’s reputation, know that parents/guardians say that they largely rely on rankings, but other factors are also important—like being known among employers and the community and high starting salaries. Get creative with how you can show off one of these reputation indicators if your college is not in the top rankings.

While the figure above reveals common parent/guardian preferences, your recruitment and marketing can be strengthened by understanding how there are distinct types of parents/guardians in the college search process. 

In chapter 3, we’ll go into more detail about five specific Parent/Guardian Mindsets that reveal families’ preferences and motivations so that you can speak directly to what each type of parent/guardian cares about most.

Involvement

Combining both a familiarity with college and a strong preference for cost considerations, today’s parents/guardians are often stepping up their involvement in their students’ college searches and have shared that they prefer that colleges reach out to them in the early stages of college search, rather than after submitting applications.

In fact, nearly half of parents/guardians are already thinking about colleges for their children by the ninth grade. Additionally, parents whose children have two or more “access factors”—low-income, first-generation, or underrepresented minority—begin significantly earlier. This research highlights how important it is for your college to begin engaging with families of students as early as possible, especially as you try to support and enroll students with more access factors.

When asked how involved today’s parents/guardians are in their childrens’ college searches overall, 71% of them share that they are at least 50-50 partners with their students, if not leading the way. With most parents/guardians being at least half of the decision-making power in college search, it’s crucial that enrollment teams intentionally involve these family members in their recruitment and directly address their specific concerns. 

Eduventures’ 2024 Prospective Parent Research reveals how involved parents/guardians say they are in their students’ college searches. 

Continue on to the next chapter to learn more about the roles that parents/guardians are taking on in their students’ college searches and how your team can support them in each of these roles.

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Understand the Minds of Today’s Parents/Guardians

Learn more about how college-bound high school students’ parents/guardians approach one of the most important decisions of their childrens’ lives.

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Chapter 2

Parent/Guardian Roles in the College Search

The parent/guardian role is changing as they take on multiple roles during the college search process. These include serving as a counselor, therapist, coach, financial planner, and most of all, parent. Parents and students are working together in the search while also conducting their own research as they plan to make a lifetime investment in a college education. 

How to Support Parents/Guardians in the College Search: Use the Five Roles as a Guide

Reaching parents in your marketing requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Just like students, parents have unique Mindsets that institutions can use to target their messaging (check out the next chapter for more on this).

But before you look at the Prospective Parent Mindsets™, it is important to understand the many hats parents wear in the college search so that you can speak to and support these roles in your marketing efforts.

1. Counselor: Exploring Major and Career Interests 

Parents have taken on the role for school counselors who are overburdened in their districts and often underprepared for college counseling. Principally, they help their children find their career and major interests. 

  • How You Can Support: Give parents the resources they need to counsel their students, instead of relying on the schools to do it. 

2. Therapist: Helping Students Through Motivational Issues 

The pandemic has sapped student motivation to apply to college; parents are working to stimulate interest and urgency for college search. 

  • How You Can Support: Acknowledge that the post-pandemic world looks different, but that the college experience is still not only relevant but extremely valuable. 

3. Financial Planner: Assessing Student/Family Ability To Pay 

Parents, even if they are not financially supporting their childrens’ college educations, are helping students be realistic and pragmatic about college costs. 

  • How You Can Support: Speak to both parents and students about costs and options, clearly and early. 

4. Coach: Keeping Students on Track With Grades and Deadlines 

Related to motivation, parents are making sure that students fulfill requirements, manage deadlines, and complete the work needed to apply to colleges. 

  • How to Support: The college search can be a lot! With parents more involved than ever, provide families with materials to make it easier to keep up with all the moving pieces.

5. Parent: Worrying About the Health/Well-Being and Life Satisfaction of the Child 

Ultimately, parents are parents. They are seeking the best possible college experiences for their children, ones that will be supportive and ultimately fulfilling.

  • How to support: Parents want their students set up for success in career and life. To speak to this, find ways to offer support for families (not just the students) in major discovery, providing career outcome stories for all majors, campus life stories from other students, and messaging around how your institution helps students have a well-rounded and life-changing experience.  

As evident by the many roles parents play, it is clear that most parents are substantially involved in building a consideration list and making decisions. By showing families that you “get them,” you are acknowledging their importance in the process.

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Easy Ways To Engage Parents

In this Enrollminute video, we cover three ways your institution can engage parents, including adding RFI forms to your website.

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Chapter 3

Using the Prospective Parent Mindsets™

Parents/guardians imagine a path for their students through college by assessing the importance they place on college experiences, financial expectations, and key application decision criteria. The more universities can understand their roles, the better they can support them in the process.

Participating in Eduventures® Prospective Parent Research™ is one way to do this and provides insights into the preferences and expectations of parents of college-bound high school seniors, juniors, and sophomores.

These Mindsets, a key part of the Prospective Parent Survey, help institutions understand:

  • The parent/guardian roles in college search, including key differences.
  • How to best support the whole family throughout their college decision-making process.
  • Optimize marketing and recruiting efforts to stay top-of-mind with the entire family.

The core identity of each of these five Prospective Parent Mindsets remains the same as we see in students. These five Mindsets are outlined below:

  • Social Focus™: For these parents, college is about balancing the important social aspects of college with academics and a pathway to a good career.
  • Career Through Academics™: This group of parents believes college is about finding your way to a solid career through a balance of academic and career activities.
  • Career Pragmatist™: College is about finding your way to a career at an affordable cost through campus community for these parents.
  • Exploration and Meaning™: For these parents, college is about developing the ability to learn continually and lead a meaningful life.
  • Grad School Bound™: Grad School Bound parents see college as setting the academic and technical foundation for a future in graduate or professional school.

Across the board, parents/guardians place a higher importance on the strength of academics and career outcomes; they also value immediate ROI on the college experience. We’ve worked with colleges and universities to leverage these Mindsets across the full funnel to recruit and engage this audience.

By speaking directly to each of these Mindsets, your institution can stand out on top platforms by addressing what’s important to parents/guardians.

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Dive Deeper Into the Eduventures Parent Mindsets

Use these key insights to understand what’s on the minds of parents/guardians throughout the college search and enrollment processes, allowing your team to refine its marketing and communication strategies to this key group.

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Chapter 4

Reaching Specific Prospective Family Populations

Now that we’ve learned who today’s parents/guardians are and the roles they play in college search, let’s discuss how you reach these families by type.

The Eduventures 2023 Student Sentiment Research™ dives into how colleges can most effectively support and recruit distinct populations.

First-Generation Students From Low-Income Households

First-Gen students from low-income families are the most likely to question whether college is right for them and stand the most to lose from not obtaining postsecondary education. It’s extra important to reach and support these students and for your college to not let these students fall away. 

Prospective students’ attitudes toward college digital ads, as revealed in the Eduventures 2023 Student Sentiment Research.

Our recent Student Sentiment Research reveals that these first-gen, low-income students are more likely to notice and find ads from colleges helpful. Moreover, they are significantly more likely to have clicked on these ads. This reveals an important strategy for reaching these families—digital ads that make the case for the value of higher education. Also consider geofencing neighborhoods with lower average household incomes.

Latine Families

If your college wants to improve outreach to Latine students and their families, a grassroots approach is recommended. While your school website is a great outreach tool for students overall, the Student Sentiment Research Report reveals that Latine students learn about colleges from and trust the support of high school teachers and counselors and high school/college fairs. 

With limited travel resources, prioritize high school visits in areas with large Latine populations to maximize your investment in face-to-face time.Try to provide recruitment materials in Spanish at these events so that families who attend or back home can more fully help support their students.

Black Families

Already underrepresented in current traditional student populations, Black students are the most likely to be negatively affected by the Supreme Court’s decision against affirmative action. How can your team engage with these students early to help them enroll?

Eduventures’ 2023 Student Sentiment Research reveals how Black students’ social media use in college searches compares to high school students overall.

The Student Sentiment Research Report points out that Black students typically use social platforms more for their college searches than their peers, especially for the top three most commonly used platforms for search—YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Use these findings to intentionally reach Black students by showcasing your campus community in pictures and videos on social platforms so these prospective students can see themselves fitting in at your school. 

Reach their families as well by providing information that is important to parents/guardians (see chapter 1 preferences) on the landing pages that your social media accounts promote.

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Increase Engagement From These Populations

Learn more about what we’ve covered in this chapter through the Eduventures Student Sentiment Research; these insights help institutions like yours shape outreach to key groups of students.

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Chapter 5

Engaging Prospective Parents Through Email & Print

Now that we know more about parent/guardian audiences, it’s time to plan for incorporating parent-specific communications into your institution’s workflow. Your team may already have this in place, but it’s important to keep in mind that speaking to them directly with a dedicated communication flow will help your brand stand out.

You may find that the feedback you’re hearing from parents is that they’re reading admissions guides, postcards, etc., and are engaged with emails from colleges. Knowing what’s currently grabbing their attention, even if not specially created for them, can help your team understand what’s top-of-mind for parents interested in your institution.

Here are our top three tips for creating an effective family engagement email plan:

1.) Create a Separate Communication Flow for Parents/Guardians

  • Emails: Only overlap email content with the student communication flow for invitations to visit campus or deadline reminders, but all of these emails should still be written specifically to parents/guardians.
  • Print Materials: Consider cost-effective print materials, like a postcard focused on deadlines, to help them keep informed on more important deadlines.

See how the University of Connecticut used parent emails to increase engagement.

2.) Focus on the Five to Six Most Important Topics to Families, Including Costs and Career Paths

In Chapter 3, we discussed the Prospective Parent Mindsets; by using these insights, or information you already know about your parent audience—you can highlight the top things that are most important to families.

Careers

  • Outcomes, like their education leading to a job
  • Immediate ROI of their investment

Experiences

  • Social environment, like clubs
  • Opportunities for impact, like travel abroad

Academics

  • Connecting majors to careers
  • Research and faculty opportunities/guidance

3.) Assess How Parents Are Engaging, Get Their Feedback, and Adjust

Since the parent/guardian communication flow is condensed, you want to ensure they not only open/engage with these communications, but that they see value in your institution highlighted in emails, print, etc.

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Reach Interested Parents/Guardians

Access the only double-validated parent/guardian data in the country so you are confident that your institution is reaching parents/guardians that want to hear from you.

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Chapter 6

Engaging Prospective Parents Through Digital & Website Marketing

Including families in your digital- and web-based marketing will not only increase your engagement, but help keep these influencers informed on next steps in the enrollment process.

This chapter will cover some of the digital tactics for reaching prospective parents/guardians and developing web pages to support their needs (including how to weave these into your digital campaigns).

Digital Tactics to Support Family Engagement

Residential targeting, which allows your institution to reach students and their families at home on their most-used devices, is an effective tactic to stay top-of-mind while students are at home. Our clients have seen up to 5x more engagement with this family outreach strategy.

Kent State focused their ads on getting parents to take action—confirming their students’ enrollments and seeing their next steps.

Geofencing is another location-based tactic proven to reach these decision-makers at parent-based events and more. Other digital tactics, like website and search keyword retargeting, also keep your brand top-of-mind while reassuring parents/guardians who have previously engaged with your ads and/or website.

Video ads are not only effective in reaching students, but in sharing your brand’s message(s) with the entire household to engage families at different points in the enrollment process. Featuring specific student outcomes, real-life experiences, and other key points of differentiation helps our partners stand out in their video-based digital marketing ads.

Static ads, regardless of the digital tactic they’re supporting, should focus on engaging parents/guardians with quick next-step copy, like in this ad from University of the Pacific. The university used this opportunity to encourage parents to join their parent portal, which helps families stay updated on deadlines, financial aid, scholarships, and more.

The University of the Pacific’s parent ad focused on getting this audience involved in their parent portal, a place for them to share resources to keep this group engaged.

Web Tactics To Support Family Engagement

Stand alone web pages for parents, regardless of their focus, are great resources for parents at all stages of the funnel. Not only can these be used in traditional marketing campaigns, but are also an ideal CTA in a digital ad as it’s clearly focusing parents/guardians on information that’s specific to them.

Web Pages

As promoted in University of the Pacific’s digital ad, a parent portal is one way to segment information and resources for parents. This parent portal is promoted on a specific landing page packed with at-a-glance relevant information: 

Along with specific web pages dedicated to this audience, other universities are utilizing their websites to help families feel confident in sending their students to college on their campuses. Virtual tours, and again, dedicated web/landing pages for these audiences will ensure you’re not only reaching parents, but building digital campaigns with website CTAs that are tailored to their experiences.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are an effective way for your institution to share specific information and/or a larger campaign idea your institution is running. For example, content you’ve produced in other ways, like a YouTube video explaining the top five things parents need to know can be housed on a landing page with supporting resources and information. The strength around landing pages is focused information—you have a short amount of time to grab attention and sending this busy audience the one thing you want them to do gets that focus in one spot.

Request for Information (RFI) Forms

Parents want to request information from your college, too. Not only are parent-specific RFI forms great for continued engagement with parents, but also allow you to build your parent contact lists for emails, digital campaigns, and more. The more information you know about parents, the more specific information you can provide them on the college experience, their student’s desired major, etc.

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Increase Your Website Engagement

Encoura Digital Solutions will help execute your digital ad creative and messaging, as well as provide landing page tips to ensure that digital ad engagement leads to actions on your website.

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Chapter 7

Event Planning With Prospective Parents in Mind

The standard for most institutions is to market to the prospective student when hosting events. However, as we have learned, parents and guardians are key players in a student’s college decision making process—including the family in event marketing and planning is vital.

The good news is that including parents in the event planning process is just a practice in reframing what already exists. Simple steps can be taken to account for parents and guardians throughout your already established event marketing. 

To start, as mentioned in Chapter 6, more than 40% of parents are filling out RFIs to receive information. Similarly, it is likely that the guardian is involved in or is the one planning college visits. Therefore, ensuring family members are included as a field in any online registration forms for on-campus events is a simple way to acknowledge their roles. 

When it comes to the actual events, it is also valuable to treat parents and guardians as members of the college planning team as opposed to simply being “plus ones.” These three steps can help your institution stand out:

  1. Create a Separate Parent/Guardian Tour: During this tailored experience, tackle their specific pain points. The Prospective Parent Mindsets detailed in Chapter 3 are a great place to go to develop that type of programming. 
  2. Develop a Parent/Guardian-Specific Virtual Event: Again, this tailored event is a great way to reach this audience. Eduventures’ Prospective Parent Research Report 2022 includes a list of top questions families have for prospective colleges, including:
  • What will it really cost to attend?
  • What will the academic program be like?
  • What kind of careers can my child’s major lead to?
  • How will the school keep my child safe and healthy?
  • What will campus housing be like?

3. Include Parents in Your College Fair Planning: Again, simple steps can be taken to connect and engage, such as having a parent-specific QR code linking to your online family resources. 

Ultimately, parents are parents. They know their children more than anyone and ultimately want their students to attend the best schools for them. Being involved at the in-person and virtual events of your institution can help bolster the decision conversations happening at home. 

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Get Consulting From a Higher-Ed Expert

Our enrollment services consulting team is ready to collaborate with your team on unique approaches for engaging parents/guardians. Consulting with the Encoura team is focused on the entire funnel, using Encoura Platform data and strategic insights to meet your goals.

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Chapter 8

A Checklist for Family Engagement

Let’s do a quick recap on what we’ve learned in this action plan with specific steps you can take now to start discussing and implementing them across your enrollment team. This helpful checklist will guide your team in getting started.

  • Who Are Today’s Parents/Guardians?

    By understanding today’s different types of prospective student families and how they approach their students’ college searches, your institution can better support them throughout the funnel.

  • Parent/Guardian Roles in the College Search

    Guardians' college search roles have evolved over the years; it is important to understand the many hats parents wear in the college search process so that you can speak to and support these roles in your marketing efforts. 

  • Using the Prospective Parent Mindsets

    The five distinct Mindsets of prospective parents/guardians each differ in how they support parents. Knowing these, plus their differences, will help your team drive a marketing strategy that caters to what parents/guardians care most about.

  • Reaching Specific Prospective Family Populations

    Different family populations uniquely approach the college search process–and their specific challenges–uniquely. Understand which populations you may need to tailor your outreach to.

  • Engaging Prospective Parents/Guardians Through Email and Print

    Developing email and print strategies that are distinctly designed to address the specific interests, concerns, and needs of today’s parents/guardians will lead to increased engagement.

  • Engaging Prospective Parents/Guardians Through Digital and Website-Specific Marketing

    By investing in digital campaigns, your institution can further engage prospective parents/guardians throughout the funnel. Similarly, developing parent/guardian-specific webpages and request for information (RFI) forms will aid your team in marketing campaigns, plus more.

  • Event Planning With Prospective Parents/Guardians in Mind

    Attract, engage, and win over parents/guardians through virtual and in-person events. This is all about adapting what you currently offer to meet parents’ specific needs.

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