Higher education recruitment has never been more competitive, and institutions that adapt quickly will win the race for top talent.
Students today have more choices, more information at their fingertips, and higher expectations for personalized engagement. The institutions that thrive are those that don’t just keep up—they lead the way with data-driven insights, strategic outreach, and seamless experiences for prospective students.
After five years on the road as a university recruiter, I’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t. At Coastal, I now help institutions build smarter, more connected recruitment strategies using Salesforce.
Here are three of the biggest lessons I learned—and how the right technology can help your team turn insights into action.
1. Organization Isn’t Optional—It’s Essential
A typical day for a university recruiter might include visiting four or five high schools, meeting dozens of students, and wrapping up with an evening college fair. Recruiters need more than just a calendar to stay organized.
They need a system that tracks every student interaction, makes follow-ups seamless, and ensures no promising lead falls through the cracks.
Without a connected system, outreach efforts can become scattered, making building lasting relationships with students difficult. Successful recruitment isn’t just about making connections—it’s about managing them effectively.
How Salesforce Education Cloud Helps Admissions & Recruitment:
- Education Cloud: Provides a unified platform for managing student and recruitment data across the enrollment journey. Centralizes all prospect and event details so recruiters have real-time access to key insights.
- Salesforce Mobile: Enables recruiters to log student interactions, update records, and retrieve critical data on the go.
Coastal in Action:
“The Recruiting and Admissions Team at Bluefield University needed a better way to track the full student journey, from first contact through enrollment. With Salesforce, we now have a single system for all student communications and tracking. Self-service portals empower students, reducing the administrative workload for our team.”
– Education Consultant, Bluefield University
2. Data Should Drive Your Recruitment Strategy
There are only so many hours in a day and only so many students a recruiter can meet in person. Without a data-driven strategy, recruitment efforts risk being scattershot, missing high-potential candidates while overextending resources.
Recruiters who leverage data can focus their time on high-value prospects, ensuring personalized outreach that makes an impact. With clear visibility into enrollment trends, teams can proactively engage the right students at the right time, rather than reacting to missed opportunities.
How Salesforce Data Cloud, Tableau, and Agentforce Help Admissions & Recruitment:
- Data Cloud for Education: Enables institutions to unify and analyze student and recruitment data in real time across multiple channels. Unifies recruitment data to provide real-time insights across all engagement channels.
- Tableau for Higher Education: Customizes reports to analyze trends by major, geography, and engagement level.
- AI & Automation with Agentforce: Helps recruiters leverage predictive insights and automation to engage high-potential students effectively. Uses predictive insights to help recruiters focus on high-potential prospects.
Coastal in Action:
“We had no way to measure the impact of our marketing and outreach. Now, Salesforce gives us the insights we need to refine our approach, track engagement, and make data-driven decisions. It’s transformed the way we recruit.”
– Experience Coordinator, The Wellington School
3. Students Expect Engagement on Their Terms
Students expect universities to engage with them like their favorite brands—personalized, immediate, and always available.
They want clear, relevant messaging and quick responses, whether they’re applying, scheduling a visit, or asking a question. They want to hear from schools in real-time, on their terms—whether through chat, email, or social media.
Recruitment teams that rely on outdated processes struggle to meet these expectations, while those that embrace technology can create meaningful, high-impact interactions.
How Salesforce Education Cloud and Marketing Cloud Help Admissions & Recruitment:
- Application Management in Education Cloud: Streamlines application review, making it easier for teams to provide timely feedback.
- Agentforce Agents: AI that handles FAQs instantly, allowing recruiters to focus on high-value conversations.
- Marketing Cloud for Education & Account Engagement: Provides personalized, data-driven outreach and engagement capabilities tailored to prospective students. Delivers targeted outreach based on student interests and engagement history.
Coastal in Action:
“Florida Atlantic University receives thousands of admissions inquiries. Before Salesforce, we had no system to track and manage them efficiently. Now, we have a 360-degree view of every student interaction, enabling us to respond faster and engage more effectively. Since implementing Salesforce, we’ve managed over 3 million messages and expanded our outreach.”
– Director of Project Management & Quality Assurance, Florida Atlantic University
The Bottom Line
Recruitment isn’t just about filling seats—it’s about finding the right students and giving them an experience that inspires confidence in your institution. With the right technology, your team can streamline operations, harness data-driven insights, and create meaningful connections that drive enrollment success.
Coastal helps higher education institutions build recruitment strategies that work. Ready to take the next step? Let’s connect.
About the Author
Shaun Bummer
Consultant
Shaun is an 8x Salesforce Certified Consultant and a proud graduate of the University of Montana. Before joining Coastal, he worked as a Student Ambassador Coordinator and Admissions Counselor at the University of Montana and on the recruiting and admissions team at the Oregon Institute of Technology.
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