Ideas, insights and inspirations.

In times of the coronavirus, higher education marketers can easily get distracted and lose sight of the fundamentals. Included here are 25 timeless higher education marketing strategies that have generated proven growth in enrollment, endowment and reputation for colleges and universities. Branding 1. Students and faculty, not the institution, are the real heroes of your story Colleges and universities empower student journeys. Faculty enable students and build institutional reputation. 2. Invest in brand Know your core promise, values, ideals, distinctions and what you stand for. Articulate your brand value cheerfully irrespective of whether you are a liberal arts college, STEM university, research powered, experiential brand, college of access, online educator or an integrative brand. 3. Speak with one brand voice to all audiences Strike different notes for each segment of students, faculty, donors and partners. 4. Prove your brand claims Buyers are smart. Provide proofs in the form of stories, stats and third-party validations. 5. Stand for something unique and … Continue reading

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As higher education departs the shores of government sponsorship and enters the era of academic capitalism (which unites the scientific search for truth with economic maximization of profits) improving the reputation of a college/university becomes mission-critical. However, becoming known as a college of consequence takes talent, discipline, money and smarts. Included below are the five best practices for improving college/university reputation and brand recognition: 1. Invest in Brand Begin your journey for building reputation and brand recognition by investing in a brand. A brand is the sum of all experiences, be they virtual, experiential or architectural interactions. It is the DNA of an institution that affirms its purpose, defines its core values, creates distinction and is the foundation of its reputation. 2. Transform Your Flagship Publication to a Print/Digital Hybrid Publication Reimagine your print university magazine as a print/digital hybrid publication. Instead of publishing it bimonthly, quarterly, biyearly or annually, consider rolling out stories digitally on a weekly schedule, SEO-optimizing … Continue reading

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Colleges and universities can take the following SEO steps to grow their undergraduate, graduate, online and international enrollment. 1. Make your website responsive, secure and fast Google rewards responsive websites – the ones that auto-adjust gracefully on smartphones, tablets or desktops. Google also ranks higher those websites that load fast and are running in secure mode. 2. Use .edu Instead of Using .com, .org and Other Domains Since each college and university can be awarded only one (and occasionally two) .edu domains, search engines generally rank .edu websites higher than other domain extensions. Use .edu domains for websites, landing pages and microsites. 3. Create a Keyword Lexicon, and Claim Top Search Engine Rankings Develop a Keyword Lexicon for your college. The lexicon is comprised of keywords and key phrases the college should claim. Categories in the lexicon include program keywords, brand positioning keywords, reputation keywords, decisioning keywords, and location keywords. Prospective students use different clusters of keywords at each phase … Continue reading

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Colleges and college admissions teams have their hands more than full managing current and prospective students through the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. Here is a 10-point plan to help you meet next year’s numbers:     A 10-Point Response Plan for College Admissions 1. Create Online Concierges Rally financial aid to help prospects and parents understand their options regarding extended deposit deadlines and revised family income estimates. Anticipate the distinct concerns of first-generation prospects and families and take on more of a concierge approach to working through their indecision and obstacles. Audit existing admissions and financial aid materials and language for assumption, blind spots and jargon. Consider joining the 200 colleges who have moved their May 1 deposit deadline by a month or more to give families extra time to assess their income and financial decisions. If your institution subscribes to rolling admissions, work with your accepted students and their families to mutually determine the right date for them to respond. … Continue reading

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The best higher education marketing agencies are being invited by their college and university clients to solve a spectrum of challenges and achieve a set of goals  – from the very routine to the most sophisticated ones. Over the last 25 years, in serving over 100 colleges and universities, we have solved the following challenges for numerous clients: Enrollment Challenges Since most college are primarily tuition-driven, they want to grow their enrollment. Elite colleges want to shape their classes. These goals come in several flavors. Undergraduate Programs How to recruit undergraduate students by undertaking the following: Grow inquiries Increase college visits Improve our college visit experience Grow applications Get inquiries and applicants from new geographic markets Make us more selective and allow us to shape the class Improve college yield rate Reduce summer melt Grow international applications Turn parents, teachers, high school counselors and principals into recommenders Reduce transfer out rates Increate our transfer in rates Shape our incoming class … Continue reading

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Top performing SEO agencies help their clients realize that fortune smiles on colleges and universities that pursue and achieve top organic rankings. Prosperity takes many shapes and forms for colleges ranked on page #1 of search engines. Their best practices arsenal includes: 1. Determine Goals and Objectives The best SEO agencies help colleges and universities realize that a college website has numerous audiences and each enjoys unique benefits. They help their clients determine the right goal for each SEO campaign: Prospective Students find them, get them to inquire, show up at open houses, apply and enroll Prospective Talented Faculty and Staff find them and motivate them to apply for open job postings Prospective Parents: find them and suggest their kids apply Foundations and Donors: connect with mission-aligned colleges Corporations: seek and connect with faculty for research & development Faculty: help media find faculty experts on various topics Ranking and Rating Agencies: discover new emerging gems Enrollment Officers: boast a low acceptance rate, making the college more … Continue reading

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At last count, more than 1,100 colleges have gone test optional. This translates to fewer names that ACT can sell to colleges for marketing. As Included below are 12 proven strategies for increasing enrollment in your your college if you can’t rely on buying names of prospective students: 1. Abandon traditional student search models. Hunt like sharks. Don’t feed like whales. The era of buying prospects names, spamming them, seeing who sticks, and praying some convert is over. Embrace new methodologies based on right-fit, micro-segments, look-alikes, machine learning, big-data algorithms and affinity groups. Think right-fit, admission pipes and inverted admissions funnels, not traditional admissions funnels. 2. Energize influencers, referral networks and reliable feeders. Wholesale student streams provide a solid foundation upon which you build retail recruitment. 3. Befriend corporate and government HR & Training leaders. Many corporations and government organizations use provision of advanced degrees as a retention tool. It behooves the enrollment officers to be the provider of choice … Continue reading

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Top performing higher education marketing agencies help their clients deploy the following best practices: 1. You become the story you choose to tell. It’s how institutions make meaning from the arc of their history, and operate with a sense of destiny to create purpose that propels them into the future. This story is what students, parents, donors, funders and partners buy into. A brand rarely exceeds the size of its ambition. 2. Students, not the institution, are the real heroes of your story. Colleges and universities are generative when they feed their students’ passions to enable them to realize their personal hero’s journey. 3. Invest in brand. Speak with one brand voice. Know your core promise, values, ideals, distinctions and what you stand for. Articulate your brand value cheerfully irrespective of whether you are a liberal arts college, STEM university, research powered, experiential brand, college of access, online educator or an integrative brand. Speak with one brand voice to all … Continue reading

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In 2020, higher education marketers are battling to win an outsized share of a shrinking pool of domestic and international students. Here are the 20 innovative trends that are underpinning higher education marketing. OUTLOOK & CULTURE 1. Celebrating Heroes Colleges and universities are realizing that students, alumni and faculty — not the institution — are the real heroes of a college’s story. That’s why they are increasingly spotlighting them and the consequential problems of humanity they are solving. 2. Storytelling You become the story you choose to tell. Colleges and universities are mining their history and mission to create purpose and propel themselves into the future. This story is what students, parents, donors, funders and partners are buying. Institutions are realizing that a brand rarely exceeds the size of its ambition. 3. Student Lifecycles As one college president said “we are recruiting future brand ambassadors and donors”. Colleges are taking the long view and seeing prospective students, current students, alumni … Continue reading

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In the past 25 years, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with more than fifty college chief marketing officers. Whether they are recruited as a change agent or a strategic visionary, they are increasingly expected to liberate new growth for college by focusing on the 3 R’s of prosperity: Revenue, Reputation and Rankings. These three currents flow under the fifteen practices for managing and running a successful college marketing operations in this manifesto: 1. You become the story you choose to tell.It’s how institutions make meaning from the arc of their history, and operate with a sense of destiny to create purpose that propels them into the future. This story is what students, parents, donors, funders and partners buy into. A brand rarely exceeds the size of its ambition and the story it chooses to tell about itself. 2. Students, not the institution, are the real heroes of your story.The best colleges and universities realize that students, alumni and faculty … Continue reading

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