It is getting closer to the fall semester and your application numbers are below last year’s count.

Numerous campus administrators and staff members are concerned and offer plenty of potential ideas to reach more students.

Extending admission office hours beyond 5 p.m., adding in some weekend hours, increasing marketing, and scheduling more in-person and virtual open houses are some of the usual approaches. And crucial conversations about the numerous steps to start college or reenroll—and the importance of a “one-stop” approach to student services—are also taking place.

It’s tempting to jump right into action, implementing several strategies all at once. But by doing a bit of internal research first, you’re more likely to hit upon a solution that proves successful for your unique institution and student body.

Here are some factors to consider:

Your competition: Who are the education competitors for your community college? Do you have a four-year university in town with an access mission? Are there for-profit schools offering majors that you also have on campus? For each semester a former student is not enrolled, are they enrolled at another local school or just working? If a student “stops out,” what is the average time until their next term of enrollment?

Your students: Who do you serve? By age, what are the typical enrollment levels each semester? And what do the students do with the credits they earn? What is the breakdown between traditional transfer credits for four-year schools  and credits earned in vocational/technical education programs or in continuing education courses? Dual-enrollment options for high school students to complete college credit are growing in popularity. It is not uncommon for students to start college with between three and 12 credit hours already completed. But in most cases, this is not increasing community college enrollment. Instead, numerous students are listing their dual-enrollment college credit on the admission applications of four-year colleges and universities.

The labor market: What are the needs of local employers related to your certificate and degree offerings? Are labor market needs a part of your current marketing efforts?

Academic roadblocks: What trends are the staff in your college’s placement testing office and registrar’s office seeing? Has your remedial/developmental student support approach been modernized? (This would include the speed and pace of English instruction and the teaching and curriculum approach used for math instruction.) How are students right out of high school doing on the placement tests? Is the testing office seeing adult students who want to enroll in a degree program fail the placement exam for English? Is there a continuing education career course in the same field that could serve as an alternative?

The transfer process: What is the average turnaround for student credits to be evaluated? How does this potentially affect students who are enrolling to apply for your nursing and/or allied health programs? Is there a backlog of transfer credit evaluation due to limited staffing? If so, how can this be addressed in the short term and long term?

Based upon a review of all of these factors, you’ll be able to shape outreach efforts that are best suited to reach your goals. Doing the internal research and evaluation first better prepares you to move forward, ideally creating long-term solutions for your college and the students you serve.

Once you’ve reviewed your data, some specific ideas to jumpstart your enrollment efforts may include:

Revamp marketing for your vocational/technical programs. For-profit schools use television and online marketing to recruit students for automotive, computer-aided drafting, and electronic engineering technology programs. National and local hiring officials in the industry may be quoted in these materials talking about how graduates are ready for the workplace. The same employers in most cases are hiring your graduates as well. Having them involved in community college marketing efforts is ideal to show students and their parents that your school is connected to the same employers. You don’t want to have a community college recruiter with no industry-specific recruitment materials competing for potential applicants against another school with these materials.

Develop new avenues to meet local employer needs. For example, if there is a need for electronic technicians or dental assistants, and your placement test process is slowing down progress, have faculty review textbooks and other materials that could be utilized to teach the same class in your continuing education division. Work with local employers to develop times and dates for the classes, keeping in mind the work schedules of your potential students. Include time teaching the additional classes as part of the instructor’s overall teaching load for the semester. Have regular check-in meetings with employers to gauge the need for ongoing classes to fill the initial training needs of new hires and/or any retraining as suggested or required by the industry.

Promote (and support) flexible course schedules. Most community college students are working significant hours each week. Review your schedule of general education classes, which can count toward most academic majors. Promote early classes for people who work nights, discuss night classes with people who work during the day, and highlight online and weekend classes for those juggling family and school. Through online marketing and in-person presentations, emphasize the flexibility of your course offerings. Letting students know you understand they have a lot going on can encourage potential applicants to slow down and give college enrollment more consideration. Proactively let academic advisers know when certain enrollment campaigns will be taking place and ask them to help develop part-time class schedule options for the incoming students.

Again, the solutions you develop will need to be specific to the unique needs of your community. But whatever path you chose, you’re more likely to meet your enrollment goals when your strategies are informed by internal research and evaluation.

Kenneth McGhee is the director of the DC Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) within the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in Washington, DC. OSSE is a NACAC member organization.