The Higher Ed Marketer

Like a lot of higher ed departments, international student marketing has been on a rollercoaster since the pandemic. And while other global players like Canada and India are excelling in international recruitment, the US is falling behind.

But Mary Catherine Chase, Director of Marketing and Communications at The George Washington University - School of Business, thinks domestic institutions have a real opportuni...

When It comes to building trust by empowering teams to take ownership, higher ed leaders must communicate frequently and not be afraid to push boundaries.

Today, we're joined by the Senior Director of Enrollment Marketing at Baylor University, Jen McCrady.

Jen talks about what helps her unique management style to not only establish trust with her team but also empower them.  

How you support your collea...

For any number of reasons, higher ed institutions can sometimes get caught up in a branding dilemma. And it’s often up to their marketing departments to reshape — or rediscover — the magic behind their school’s messaging.

Such was the case at the University of Louisville in 2017. It was then that the school’s Executive Director of Brand and Marketing, Kim Butterweck, and Director of Marketing, Erica Walsh,...

Are you setting the teams at your university or organization up for success? How are you supporting your colleagues to ensure that they are at the top of their game at all times?

It all starts with being intentional, getting everyone aligned, and having a collaborative approach.

In this episode, we are joined by Kathy Kissane, Associate Chief Marketing Officer at Thomas Jefferson University.

Kathy share...

“Data silos” have been at the top of the buzzword pile for a few years now. But the truth is that many higher ed enrollment and marketing departments still don’t quite get each others’ roles.

Michael Doran, CRM Implementation Strategist at XEquals, thinks the biggest problem is they speak different languages. The solution? They need a translator — someone who knows how to unlock marketing solutions for their scho...

In this episode, we are joined by the Director of Content and Strategy Assessment at the University of Rochester, Brian Piper.

Not only do we get an inside look at his approach and strategies around content with the University of Rochester, he shares his perspective on this quickly changing landscape, and it was beyond insightful.

Not only has AI seemingly changed things overnight — people have adapt...

Higher ed marketers sometimes forget that they’re not merely engaging with prospective students. They’re selling their brand’s value proposition to future alumni.

That’s why Ellen Johnson, Vice President For Enrollment Management at Allegheny College, says her school’s enrollment marketing speaks to the entire breadth of the student life cycle. And by making their brand storytelling part of everyone’s mission, th...

Jenny Petty, Vice President of Marketing Communications at the University of Montana, had a tall order to fill when she arrived at the school in 2021. After nearly a decade of declining enrollment, the university was in desperate need of a branding facelift.  

Jenny knew she and her team needed to bring positivity back to the school’s messaging. And she started by taking everyone to “Brand Camp.” Today, ...

Many college and university admissions offices are so focused on processing applications that they forget that students want to feel a connection with their school.

As Liz Rainwater, Director of Admission Marketing and Communication at TCU, reminds us, trust is the foundation for every relationship. That’s why the folks at TCU prioritize giving over taking when they start a dialogue with prospective students and ...

Higher ed creative teams have seen incredible changes since Covid, for better or worse. We saw a shift that included a greater appreciation for work-life balance for employees, but is there a point when leadership’s focus on caretaking hurts more than helps?
WAYNE BARRINGER
Wayne Barringer, Founder of Jaro Group, believes many higher ed marketing leaders have lost sight of their North Star, and their teams know it.

As digital marketing channels continue to elevate new ways of promoting user-generated content, higher ed marketers have to continue identifying emotional stories that will speak to their target audience.

That’s because prospective students want to feel a genuine connection with their peers through real stories. Nate Jorgensen, Senior Director of Strategic Academic Marketing and Communications at Miami University...

A practical SEO strategy is critical to keeping your school’s enrollment website. But how can you know when to invest in pay-per-click ads versus the long content game?

Guus Goorts, Founder of DutchMarketer.com and author of Successful Student Recruitment With Google Ads, believes building an SEO strategy is like planning a road trip. A common issue is that most schools know where they want to go, but they...

Guy Kawasaki has been a marketing icon since his early days with Apple spreading the word of a product that’s now synonymous with personal computing, Macintosh. Today, the best-selling author and host of the Remarkable People podcast is the Chief Evangelist for Canva.

Guy talks with us about why his fandom made him a perfect fit with Canva and how their product puts the power of design right into marketers...

Drone shows are much more than pretty lights in the night sky. Through curated storyboarding and other audiosensory elements, these innovative spectacles can bring communities together by painting a larger story.

After Joy Fulkerson, Director of Leadership and Civic Engagement at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), saw a local theme park show, she knew her school’s community needed that experience. Once she s...

As a veteran of the newspaper business, Jaime Hunt, Vice President for University Communications and CMO at Old Dominion University, has seen firsthand how resisting change can destroy industries.   

That’s why she believes higher ed institutions and organizations need to hit the pause button on banning ChatGPT and other AI services. Rather than branding it as a threat, higher ed marketers need to treat ChatGPT a...

When evaluating a school’s content marketing system (CMS), it’s easy for higher ed marketers to get tunnel vision when defining their target audience. But as Kat Liendgens, CEO of Hannon Hill, reminds us, the national pool of traditional college students is shrinking fast.

So many small and mid-sized colleges and universities are caught up in trying to spread brand awareness that they’ve forgotten their core purpose — meeting the needs of prospective students.

Since 2017, the Pepperdine University - Graduate School of Education & Psychology has nearly tripled its enrollment from about 1,500 students to over 4,000. So how did they do it?

According to Luke Phillips, the school’s Executive Director of Marketing and Enrollment, they did it by avoiding the weeds and taking a strategic approach to their enrollment funnel. It isn’t enough for marketing teams to just f...

Mission-fit storytelling is an essential piece of higher ed content marketing. That sounds straightforward on paper, but many schools struggle to attract students by meeting them where they are. Neal Foard, Chief Marketing Officer at Within, Inc., thinks too many marketing teams are adrift in a sea of algorithms and analytics and have lost sight of their true purpose.