Enrollment marketing has become more complex, and expectations have increased. Marketing teams are often responsible not just for generating leads, but for understanding how those leads move through the enrollment process and ultimately contribute to growth.
This checklist is designed to help institutions assess whether the foundational elements of their enrollment marketing are in place. It focuses on visibility, structure, and alignment across marketing and admissions, identifying potential gaps in tracking, follow-up, user experience, and measurement.
Each section reflects a core best practice. The questions are intended to be answered simply, but they point to deeper operational realities. If the answer is “no” or unclear, it’s a signal that additional structure, systems, or alignment may be needed.
This is not a diagnostic tool for any single campaign. It is a way to evaluate whether your enrollment marketing approach is set up to deliver consistent, measurable results over time.
Best Practice #1: Know Where Every Lead Comes From
If you can’t identify the source of your leads, you can’t make informed decisions about where to invest your budget. As a result, you may be generating leads, but you won’t know which efforts are actually driving enrollment.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Can you identify the source of every lead (paid, organic, event, etc.)? |
|
|
Do leads from all channels flow into one system? |
|
|
Are leads labeled consistently (e.g., by campaign or partner)? |
|
|
Can you pull a report showing leads by source? |
|
|
Can your agency and your team see the same numbers? |
Best Practice #2: Follow-Up Must Be Structured
Generating leads is only the first step. Without consistent follow-up, even strong leads can go cold before they have a chance to convert, making marketing performance look worse than it actually is.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Do you have a defined follow-up process for every new lead? |
|
|
Are leads contacted more than once? |
|
|
Do you use multiple channels (email, phone, SMS, etc.)? |
|
|
Is there clear ownership of follow-up within your team? |
|
|
Can you confirm that every lead is actually being worked? |
Best Practice #3: Marketing and Admissions Alignment
Digital advertising doesn’t improve through one-time reporting. It improves over time, as marketing and admissions share data, learn from it, and refine their approach.
If those teams are operating in silos, that learning never happens. Leads are generated, but outcomes aren’t fed back into marketing. Over time, that makes it impossible to understand what’s working, improve performance, or invest budget effectively.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Can you report total enrollments tied to marketing efforts? |
|
|
Do you know how long it takes a lead to convert to enrollment? |
|
|
Can you track how many touchpoints occur before conversion? |
|
|
Do you know which communication methods drive engagement? |
|
|
Can you identify which programs or lead types convert best? |
|
|
Do marketing and admissions regularly share data and insights? |
Best Practice #4: Website Conversion Readiness
Driving traffic is only valuable if users have a clear, trackable path to take action. If your site doesn’t make the next step obvious, you may be paying for traffic that never converts.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Does every campaign lead to a page with a clear next step? |
|
|
Are there trackable forms or actions on key landing pages? |
|
|
Is it obvious what a prospective student should do next? |
|
|
Are user paths consistent across programs? |
|
|
Can you track conversions from your website back to campaigns? |
Best Practice #5: Conduct a User Experience Audit
Even when conversion paths exist, friction in the user experience can prevent prospective students from taking action. Without evaluating how users actually move through your site, it’s difficult to identify where and why they drop off.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Have you reviewed your key landing pages from a prospective student’s perspective? |
|
|
Is it immediately clear what action a user should take on each page (request info, apply, schedule a visit)? |
|
|
Are page layouts, navigation, and next steps consistent across programs? |
|
|
Do you know where users are dropping off in the journey? |
|
|
Are your forms and key actions easy to find and complete on both desktop and mobile? |
|
|
Do your landing pages align with the intent of the campaigns driving traffic to them? |
Best Practice #6: Application Path Visibility
In higher education, not all application paths are fully trackable. If you don’t understand where visibility starts and stops, you may be underreporting performance or misinterpreting campaign results.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Do you understand all application paths across programs? |
|
|
Do some programs use third-party application systems? |
|
|
Can you track when users leave your site to apply elsewhere? |
|
|
Do you know which parts of the application journey are untrackable? |
|
|
Have you aligned expectations with your agency on what can be measured? |
Best Practice #7: Privacy and Platform Constraints
Data usage rules directly impact what marketing tactics are possible. If these constraints aren’t defined upfront, campaigns may need to be reworked mid-flight, limiting performance and efficiency.
|
Questions |
Yes/No |
|
Do you have clear internal rules around using prospect data? |
|
|
Can your agency access the data needed to run campaigns effectively? |
|
|
Are there restrictions on using data for targeting (e.g., lookalikes)? |
|
|
Have these constraints been communicated before the campaigns launch? |
|
|
Do you understand how these limitations impact performance? |
Learn more about our Higher Education offering >>
Download the Higher Education Enrollment Marketing Alignment Checklist >>
HIGHER EDUCATION ENROLLMENT MARKETING ALIGNMENT CHECKLIST
COPYRIGHT 2026 © ORANGE 142, A DIRECT DIGITAL HOLDINGS COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
