Enrollment Playbook by CMP

Michael Gonzalez
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  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Enrollment Playbook by CMP is the go-to podcast for trade school and career college leaders who are serious about growing enrollment. Hosted by Michael and Andrea Gonzalez of College Marketing Pros, each episode delivers straight-talk strategies on paid media, admissions, AI-resilient messaging, CRM, and everything in between — built for any school training the hands-on workforce America needs. No fluff. No Gen Z playbooks. Just what's actually working for the schools that keep the country running.

Episodes

  1. 4h ago

    Getting Into the AI Answer: How Trade Schools Show Up in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

    Your next medical assistant student is asking ChatGPT for school recommendations right now. Is your name in the answer? In just twelve months, the share of adult learners using AI tools to research programs jumped from 4% to 20%, a five-fold increase, according to Search Influence's 2026 higher ed benchmarks. Half of prospects now use AI weekly, and 79% read Google's AI Overviews before clicking a single link. Education sector organic traffic is down roughly 17% year over year as a result. Translation for trade school directors: the old SEO playbook is not enough. Ranking on page one of Google means less when prospects never scroll to the blue links. On this week's episode of Enrollment Playbook by CMP, Michael Gonzalez and Andrea Gonzalez walk through the three-move playbook every career college needs right now: 1. Structure your program pages so AI models can pull clean answers 2. Build third-party signal on the directories AI cites 3. Test the prompts yourself and reverse-engineer what's missing #EnrollmentPlaybook #TradeSchoolMarketing #CareerCollegeMarketing #VocationalEducation #AlliedHealth #EnrollmentStrategy #CollegeMarketingPros #AISearch #GenerativeEngineOptimization #HigherEdMarketing

    6 min

  2. 2d ago

    The AI Jobs Shift: How Smart Trade Schools Are Turning the Crisis Into Enrollment Wins

    Key Topics: AI job displacement New prospect personaMessaging strategyFacebook & Google ad tacticsThe 90-day window

    7 min

  3. 6d ago

    The Enrollment Cliff Is Their Problem: Why Trade Schools Win the Next 15 Years

    Every four-year university is panicking about the enrollment cliff. You shouldn't be. The 18-year-old cohort in the U.S. peaked in 2025. Traditional colleges are staring at a 15-year decline. But trade schools, allied health programs, and career colleges? You serve a completely different audience — and right now, everything in the economy is driving that audience straight to you. ✔ AI and automation displaced roughly 16,000 U.S. jobs last month alone. ✔ The U.S. construction industry needs 349,000 new workers this year beyond normal hiring. ✔ Healthcare is short 11 million workers globally by 2030. Career changers, displaced workers, and adults done waiting — they are your next class. The problem isn't demand. It's messaging. Most career colleges are still marketing like a traditional university, targeting the wrong audience with the wrong message. This is one of the most timely episodes we've done, and the schools that act on this in the next 90 days are going to pull ahead of the ones still watching from the sidelines. We work exclusively with trade schools, career colleges, and allied health programs. If you're not growing as fast as you should be, let's figure out why.

    7 min

  4. May 26

    Workforce Pell Is Coming — How to Turn July's New Funding Into an Enrollment Edge

    Workforce Pell expands federal Pell Grant eligibility to short-term training programs on July 1, 2026 — and most career colleges are treating it as paperwork, not a marketing opportunity. In this episode, Michael and Andrea break down which programs qualify, why leading with "federally funded" in your ads beats any financing message, and the exact four updates your marketing needs before July. The first-mover window is real and it's short.

    7 min

  5. May 26

    2026 Essential Marketing Guide for Colleges and Trade Schools

    Everything College and Trade School Leaders Need to Know, in Under Six Minutes.

    5 min

  6. May 13

    CRM & InRoll

    Why Your Enrollment Software Might Be Working Against You — and What to Do About It.

    5 min

  7. May 13

    What Great Admissions Looks Like

    The Admissions Call Is the Most Important Marketing Moment in Your Entire Funnel

    4 min

  8. May 13

    Why Your Website Is Losing Leads

    The Program Page Mistakes That Are Costing You Enrollments Every Single Day.

    5 min

  9. May 13

    The Working-Parent Persona

    Understanding the Adult Learner Who Makes Up Your Core Enrollment Market.

    5 min

  10. May 12

    Speed-to-Lead

    Why the First Three Minutes After an Inquiry Are Worth More Than Your Entire Ad Budget

    4 min

  11. May 12

    Why Static Ads Beat Video

    What the Data Actually Shows for Working-Parent & Career-Changer Audiences.

    4 min

  12. May 12

    AI Anxiety as an Enrollment Driver

    The Most Powerful — and Most Underused — Messaging Lever in Trade School Marketing.

    5 min
  • 12 Episodes

About

Enrollment Playbook by CMP is the go-to podcast for trade school and career college leaders who are serious about growing enrollment. Hosted by Michael and Andrea Gonzalez of College Marketing Pros, each episode delivers straight-talk strategies on paid media, admissions, AI-resilient messaging, CRM, and everything in between — built for any school training the hands-on workforce America needs. No fluff. No Gen Z playbooks. Just what's actually working for the schools that keep the country running.

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