Notes from the field

Trader Joe’s has built remarkable customer loyalty by doing something many colleges struggle to do: being exceptionally clear about who it is, who it serves and what kind of experience it wants to create. Here are five lessons higher education enrollment marketing teams can borrow, from ruthless curation and emotional differentiation to surprise-and-delight moments and genuinely human interactions.

The first time I sat in a room to build a communication flow, someone asked: "What do we want students to know?" I raised my hand and said: "shouldn't we be asking what they want to know?" Nobody had an answer. Because nobody had asked.

Most admissions websites are built for one student: the traditional freshman with college-educated parents who knows what a FAFSA is. After auditing more than 100 admissions sites, a clear pattern emerged: five student populations that are either missing entirely or handled as an afterthought, from first-gen students getting retention content instead of recruitment help to a homeschool pipeline that has doubled with almost no institutional response.

Higher education has its own language, but for first-generation families, that language can sound like a locked door. From jargon and acronyms to deficit-based labels, colleges often communicate in ways that confuse the very students they hope to include. This piece unpacks how words quietly shape belonging — and how marketers and enrollment leaders can rewrite them to open more doors.

Let admitted students personalize their acceptance packages with custom swag, videos, and tours to boost yield and engagement.

Higher education websites are often dense and impersonal. What if these websites could work more like Amazon?