Right now, Gen Z makes up virtually your entire prospective student pool. As we know, this generation is highly attuned to authentic interactions, treats technology as an extension of itself, and is rapidly incorporating AI tools into daily life. According to Hanover Research, 65% of Gen Z used an AI chatbot as a replacement for a Google search in the past month alone. These students are active, discerning consumers who can tell the difference between a message crafted for them and one that simply drops in their name.

Right behind this group? Gen Alpha, the oldest members of which are just about to wrap up their freshman year of high school. While they won’t show up in your inquiry pool in significant numbers until about the 2027-2028 recruitment cycle, research tells us that their demand for personalization is on a whole different level from their predecessors. According to Horizon Media, Gen Alpha is the first algorithmically native generation, shaped by algorithmic content from infancy. They are extremely brand aware. They are extremely marketing savvy. And they are extremely good at filtering out anything that doesn’t speak directly to their interests.

Gen Alpha is the first algorithmically native generation, shaped by algorithmic content from infancy.

The takeaway here is not “panic about Gen Alpha.” It’s this: The habits, systems, and communication strategies you build to serve Gen Z well are exactly what will prepare you for the changes to come with Gen Alpha. And those habits start by taking a deep dive into the types of campaigns you’re running and getting your drip vs. date-based campaigns balanced.

Let’s be fair. Drip and workflow campaigns have a legitimate role in your communications strategy and, as stated above, should play a role throughout the lifecycle. A welcome sequence for new leads? Great. An application incentive flow to boost completion rates? Smart. Event registration confirmation and reminders? Absolutely.

Notice the pattern? These are all:

• Short
• Goal-oriented
• Built with clear end points

Just enough messages to accomplish the objective — and not one more.

The trouble starts when campaigns stop being tactical tools and start becoming the entire strategy. When every stage of the funnel has its own multi-message/text sequence — and those sequences just keep running and running and running — that’s when things can go sideways.

Here’s why:

1. They’re Almost Impossible to Coordinate
When you have long-running campaigns, it becomes nearly impossible for teams to track what messages are going to which students and when. Sure, they can click into individual records and see what just dropped, but what about the next message? And how does it all tie together? Not having easy access to that information is a critical miss. Why? Because lack of coordination leads to inbox overload.

A student can wake up on a Tuesday morning to find:

• A nurture message from Admissions
• An invite from a coach to visit the team
• A college fair reminder from their counselor

And no one at your school has any idea that the others even exist…

Even worse? When drip campaigns include messages or texts from individual counselors. Imagine being that student and getting two emails or two messages from the same person in one day — on completely unrelated topics — with no acknowledgement of the earlier message.

You know what that makes students want to do? Unsubscribe.

Honestly, how many Temu emails did you receive before finally hitting the button?

Exactly. Don’t be like Temu.

Every spam complaint hurts your deliverability. Every unsubscribe shrinks your pool. In a time when every prospective student matters, we don’t need to give them reasons to disengage.

2. They Kill Your Ability to Respond to the Moment — And the Moment Is Everything
A 12-month workflow is, by definition, written for a version of the world that no longer exists by the time it finishes running.

And the world moves fast.

When your team has a genuine opportunity to connect with prospects (teams making the playoffs, a major speaker announced, a campus moment going viral), a drip-heavy strategy leaves you no room to act on it. You can’t pause the sequence. You can’t slip in something timely. You’re left hoping the next scheduled message still makes sense in the time and on the day it’s delivered.

That’s not a strategy. That’s autopilot.

3. They Increase Your Tone-Deaf Risk
This is the one that’s kept me up at night.

Imagine a workflow with a message about campus safety that drops on the anniversary of a school shooting, or the same day another tragedy takes place.

It may sound extreme, but the reality is sobering: According to Hanover, U.S. schools experienced 233 shooting incidents in 2025 alone — incidents that directly affect the schools your prospects attend.

Gen Z’s worldview has been profoundly shaped by these events, making it absolutely critical to maintain control over the timing of potentially sensitive communications.

4. They Get Stale — Quietly
Every message sitting in a long drip sequence is a message that likely hasn’t been reviewed in a while.

Outdated photos. Incorrect deadlines. Links to pages that no longer exist. Copy that made sense two years ago but misses the mark today.

The longer the campaign, the higher the risk that something outdated or inaccurate is already queued up, just waiting to arrive in a student’s inbox.

Here’s the honest pitch: Date-based campaigns put a human back in the loop.

Someone on your team makes a deliberate decision — this message, to this audience, on this date, for this reason. That intentionality alone elevates the quality of the communication.

And the benefits add up quickly.

You Stay Agile
When something happens — in the world, on campus, in your community — you can respond.

You can show up in a student’s inbox like a school that’s paying attention, not like one that just fired off a message regardless of context.

Your team made the playoffs? Send something.

Your campus was just named the most beautiful in the region? Send something.

Date-based campaigns make that possible.

And don’t underestimate the power of pairing your email with a well-timed text. SMS and MMS create a sense of immediacy in a way email can’t always match. A GIF that captures the energy of the moment, sent at the right time to the right segment, is exactly the kind of communication Gen Z notices — and remembers.

Surprises? Zero.
You always know exactly who’s getting what and when.

No more “wait, is that workflow still running?” moments. You can see the full picture of what’s going out on any given day and make smart, informed decisions about it — including when not to send.

You Can Finally Coordinate!
This one may be underrated, but having a shared content calendar changes everything.

With all of your different offices — athletics, housing, student life, admissions — able to see what’s planned, they can make smarter decisions about when, and if, they should add to the mix.

This isn’t just about avoiding overlap, either. It’s about presenting a cohesive, thoughtful experience to prospective students and families.

I’m so glad you asked! Start right here with these three concrete steps to whip your communications strategy into shape.

Step 1: Conduct an Audit
Before you do anything, take stock of what’s already running. Pull up your CRM, dive into your reports, and answer these questions:

• How many active drip or workflow campaigns do you currently have?
• What’s the goal of each one?
• How many messages does each campaign contain?
  Pro Tip: If you’re seeing double digits, pause and take a breath. If you’re seeing triple digits in a single campaign (hey, it happens!), stop reading and call us.
• What are your conversion rates? (You are tracking conversions, right? Not just opens and clicks?)

This audit is often where reality starts to set in. Teams uncover forgotten campaigns, campaigns built for a goal that’s no longer relevant, and messaging that hasn’t exactly aged well.

It can feel overwhelming. It can be overwhelming. But we’re here, without judgement, to help clean things up. All you have to do is reach out.

Step 2: Build a Content Calendar
Once you know what you have, start mapping what you want and need.

The good news here is that there’s a natural rhythm to enrollment communications that you can use as your scaffolding. There are inquiry spikes, application deadlines, decision periods, financial aid releases, yield season, summer melt — each of which calls for a different kind of conversation with a different audience.

A content calendar helps you:

• See the full arc
• Plan intentionally
• Create space for timely, unplanned moments

And that last one matters. Flexibility doesn’t happen by accident… it needs to be built into the foundation.

Step 3: Find Your Sweet Spot
Drip and workflow campaigns aren’t going anywhere — and they shouldn’t.

But every sequence you run should answer two questions:

1. What is the goal?
2. What is the minimum number of messages needed to achieve it?

If you can’t answer question one, retire the campaign.
If the second answer is creeping past eight, take another look or give us a call to lend a hand.

Here are a few examples of drip campaigns that work:

Initial Nurture Flow: Short and focused. Cover the top three to five topics that every inquiry needs to know about your school and nothing else. Resist the urge to cram everything in. Instead, focus on piqueing their interest and getting the click. Everything they need should be on your website.

Event Flows: Invitations, registration confirmation, a reminder or two, and a post-event follow-up. Clean, functional, done.

Behavior Flows: Further demonstrate you’re paying attention by using behavior-triggered communications. Has a student visited your application page a few times but hasn’t started their app? Send them a targeted sequence designed to get them across the finish line.

This isn’t just about improving today’s strategy. It’s about being ready for a generation that will demand even more.

According to research from Horizon Media, Encoura, and Salesforce, Gen Alpha is coming in with some seriously high expectations. They see education as a service to be experienced on their terms — personalized down to the most minute detail (remember, they’ve been experiencing algorithmic content their entire lives), cross-platform, and responsive.

The institutions that will be ready for this group aren’t going to be the ones scrambling to rethink their strategy in 2027. They’ll be the ones using 2026 to streamline their campaigns and build out flexible, date-based, responsive strategies now.

First off, let’s define a couple terms. Similar to SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are both web search strategies; however, they specifically target AI queries. DigiDay has more details on the two, but here’s a quick rundown on how they differ:

• AEO: Focuses on snippets of information that target voice tools such as Alexa and Siri that give fast, direct answers.
• GEO: Focuses on trusted, conversational content preferred by generative AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini, which return highly detailed and cited summaries in response to prompts and search queries.

Prior to AI, the goal was to be ranked high by search engines, namely Google. But now it’s being ranked high by search engines and about having content that AI can turn to when responding to prompts and web searches. That’s where AEO and GEO come into play: creating content that’s both trustworthy and human, with key details in plain sight, easy for AI to find and cite.

Let’s see how these new tools work by putting them to the test in before-and-after examples. We’ll start with content you might find on a typical college visit webpage.

Here’s another example using content from an admissions page about how to apply.

Clear sentences. Bulleted lists. Step-by-step instructions. As you see, it’s far from rocket science. Just like us humans, AI doesn’t want to labor through complex prose. Keep it simple and friendly, ensuring the most important details (who, what, where, when, why) aren’t lost in a sea of words. But it doesn’t end there. From ensuring your content is up to date to including trusted sources where appropriate, there are other ways to keep the bots coming back for more — and we can help with all that.

About 50% of people are using chatbots (a percentage that’s likely much higher among younger users) as their preferred search tool, reading detailed summaries and clicking on the content that AI trusts most. To make sure your content ends up in that prime real estate at the top of search returns, AEO and GEO should be a priority in your content strategy. In fact, one study saw a 62% increase in web traffic after AI optimization. And these numbers are only going up from here on out.

Ready to optimize your school’s web content? Our team of web experts and seasoned writers knows exactly how to keep AI bots happy. Reach out today and let’s start working on an AI game plan together!

Here’s a sampling of what you can look forward to:

If your yield numbers aren’t quite where you want them to be yet, it can be helpful to quickly take a step back and consider the many broader factors that may be contributing to that stall. For example, “College and university application numbers have surged, driven by test-optional policies and the rise in direct admit programs,” says Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy. “This has led to many of our clients seeing drastic increases in applications, as students can easily submit them stress-free. This is going to make yield forecasting harder for many schools, as relying on YOY data won’t provide accurate benchmarking.”  

Timing is also a factor, as several of our strategists have commented that their clients are seeing both applications and deposits trending later and later. “As we’ve seen in recent years, students and families are continuing to take their time in the decision-making process,” says Natalie Larson, Client Strategist. “They’re waiting to compare all admissions decisions, financial aid offers, and making final — or even first-time — campus visits prior to committing.”

“Students continue to apply later and later in the cycle,” says Bryn Campbell, Senior Client Strategist. Adding that this season’s uptick in FAFSA completion rates“suggests that there is strong interest [in college overall] and a population still left to apply.”

On a related note: “After the catastrophe of the 2024-2025 FAFSA delays, I believe families are more financial-aid literate and possibly skeptical,” says Brammer. “Coupled with the rising cost of tuition, I believe that we will see many more families submitting financial aid appeals as they compare schools’ financial aid packages against each other. This will delay the deposit timeline.”

We asked our strategists to share their recommendations for what admissions teams should focus on in the final weeks of the yield season. Here’s are a few key highlights:

“Leverage hidden insights in your CRM by finding impactful ways to measure engagement with your portals, emails, and website. This can help you identify students who are engaged, but not in the traditional ways you’d expect.”
–Ed Flaherty, Associate Manager of CRM & Data Services

“Double down on the established relationship between the student and their admissions counselor. High-touch communication rooted in empathy makes the student feel known and supported as they make this major life decision. And don’t forget their key influencers along the way.”
–Natalie Larson, Client Strategist

“Communicate — in a helpful, not overbearing, way. It’s an important time to be answering last questions, inviting students back to campus, and making sure that the students and their families have the necessary information to make an informed decision.”
– Lara Salazar, Senior Client Strategist

“I believe consistent outreach from a variety of university supporters can provide great value to improve yield. In addition to the admissions outreach that has gone on all year, adding in current students from a prospective student’s high school or hometown can help form even deeper connections in the final weeks. Outreach from faculty in relevant academic disciplines can also help reinforce that student’s interest in programs.”
–Marshall McClung, Client Strategist

“Today’s students are digital natives. They can smell marketing from a mile away. They are engaging with AI and doing their own research via social media platforms. I think it will be especially impactful if schools are present where students search and are providing just as much user-generated content as they are refined marketing materials.”
–Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy

Effective marketing means reaching the right student with the right message at the right time. According to our strategists, the following are among the key points to emphasize with your accepted students and their families late in the yield season:

“Focus on helping students and families understand the benefits of committing to your institution — including academics, ROI, student life, and other unique factors that make it a great fit.”
–Doug Brady, Senior Client Strategist

“Students and families know they’re committing to a big ‘purchase,’ but still may feel uncertain about how much the bill they’ll get this summer will be. Messaging that helps them understand their financial options, but more importantly, that the school is committed to helping them figure this out, is huge.”
–Amanda Miller, Client Strategist

“At this stage, students may be overwhelmed by information fatigue. Now is the time to reiterate the value proposition of your institution, so it is top of mind as they consider their final decision. This includes opportunities for experiential learning, graduation outcomes, and the support systems that will ensure their success from day one.”
–Natalie Larson, Client Strategist

“ROI. ROI. ROI. But, specifically, shift the messaging away from just the traditional stats about the percentage of students employed or in graduate school. Students want to see and hear real, specific success stories.”
–Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy

Most college and university admissions teams are working with limited resources (time, money, and humans), so when admitted yield crunch time hits, it becomes even more critical to shut out the noise and focus your energy on the areas where you can make the greatest impact with the lightest lift. Here’s what our team would prioritize:

“Focus on the high-probability-to-attend group who haven’t decided yet. Those who are opening emails, have submitted the FAFSA, attended an event, or visited, but haven’t deposited yet. The admissions team can reach out for a personalized touch, asking what’s holding them back and/or connecting them with additional resources to help them gain more clarity and answers.”
–Meghan Oblazny, Client Strategist

“Don’t have your counselors spend time trying to reach out to their entire list of admits. Leverage behavioral scoring to identify their ‘hot’ list so they can really drill in on their efforts to move the needle. Also, approach students with no-agenda outreach, such as sending a text message with a reminder that the deadline is in two weeks. Or, ask ‘What is one question or hurdle standing in your way right now? No judgement — I’m just here to help you.’ This shifts the dynamic from the admissions counselor being a salesperson to more of a support network/problem solver.”
–Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy

“Right now is the time to survey and qualify your admit pool. Remember: a ‘no’ is as valuable as a ‘yes.’ It’s essential to know who is still engaged so you can focus your resources in the right places as May 1 approaches.”
–Doug Brady, Senior Client Strategist

Finally, here are some common but avoidable mistakes or miscalculations to avoid during this hectic season, along with some tips about what you can/should do instead:

“Don’t overestimate the yield on direct admits. Schools should consider these admits as ‘soft apps,’ and not depend on them to yield in the same way that a traditional applicant would.”
–Meryl McDonough, AVP, Client Strategy & Services

“Schools should make sure they are not letting their deposited students sit without communications. Having an anti-melt plan is imperative to continue engagement until classes begin.”
–Lara Salazar, Senior Client Strategist

“Avoid panicking and sending out too many mass emails, texts, and other communications trying to obtain any last-minute deposits. Instead, stay calm, review the data, and reach out to the students who are most likely to commit.”
–Meghan Oblazny, Client Strategist

“Plan ahead and map out your communication plans so that everything is calculated, timely, and you don’t find yourself hitting the ‘send’ button multiple times because you forgot to mention an important detail. Students don’t want to feel overwhelmed or pressured into making a decision, and they will appreciate your timely messaging.”
–Megan Brammer, Director of Client Strategy

By now, we hope you’re brimming with confidence about your team’s next steps to make the most of this admitted yield season. However, if you walk away with nothing else, please know that you’re not in this alone. The Spark451 team is here to help you troubleshoot through every phase of the cycle. 

If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into the specific yield challenges your institution is facing this year, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help!