Enrollment Insights Podcast

This episode is a recording of a previous Niche Webinar that covers the results of the Niche Grad Searcher Survey. We discussed how to use the insights to better understand and recruit graduate students.

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Jaime Hunt, VP and CMO at Miami University. Jaime has been Vice President and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Miami University since September 2020. Prior to that, she was Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Winston-Salem State University (2015-2020). She began her career in 1997 as a print journalist in St. Paul, Minnesota, covering K-12 education and city government. Her first role in higher education was at Northwestern Health Sciences University (2004-2007) where she served as a Public Relations Coordinator. She has also served at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (2007-2010) and Radford University (2010-2015). She has been actively involved in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education since 2006, was a board member for the College News Association of the Carolinas (2017-2019), and founded the College Communicators of the North Carolina Piedmont. She also served as Vice Chair of the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem (2020).

0:52 - You can't approach staff with "one-size-fits-all" project handoffs

2:20 - Getting to know staff when you aren't in the same place

3:33 - Working with different styles within a team or project

6:33 - Input from diverse points of view to improve creativity and brainstorming

8:26 - How to ask for feedback to ensure you get valuable feedback

10:49 - Creating space for creativity as a team with design challenges

14:49 - Setting up effective marketing and communication teams

15:54 - Using brand guidelines as guardrails rather than walls

17:16 - How to approach writing and maintaining brand guidelines

19:06 - Supporting staff creativity within rigid guidelines and cyclical work

21:52 - How the pandemic has helped and hindered creativity

23:41- How to communicate your needs and vision to the creative team for successful project outcomes

29:08 - Tips for getting to a CMO or Marketing leadership role

31:09 - How to continue the conversation

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Brendan Schneider. Brendan is the Director of Advancement at Sewickley Academy. He is one of the leaders in the field for teaching on and knowledge about inbound marketing for schools. In addition, Brendan presents and consults on inbound marketing, social media, SEO, and marketing technology at the regional and national levels. With his workshops, the SchneiderB Media blog, his schneiderb.fm podcast, his SchneiderB VirCons, and his SEO Coach software, he continues to advance the abilities of the independent school admission, communication, and marketing professional. Brendan is also the founder of The MarCom Society, an online community created expressly for Marketing and Communication (MarCom) Professionals at schools.

1:32 - What's something you tried that didn't work?

1:52 - Pivoting when a tactic stops working

3:24 - The value of educational content versus promotional content for inbound marketing

3:58 - Don't set and forget your engagement tactics

4:46 - The importance of consuming content about the creative process and marketing in other industries

7:13 - Why school marketers and admissions professionals struggle with digital marketing

7:57 - The school marketing superhero doesn't exist

9:13 - Compensation for digital marketing roles in schools needs to play catch up

10:03 - Will the remote work trend impact hiring for schools for marketing and admissions roles?

11:55 - How Brendan stays on top of the ever-changing digital landscape

12:49 - Starting with "No" when you evaluate new tactics

14:15 - The importance of understanding your brand and ideal "customer" when evaluating new tactics

16:32 - "Only use data that can be actionable"

17:02 - Don't develop your personas in a vacuum

17:39 - In-house versus outsourced persona development

18:48 - Giving your prospective parents a name

20:11 - Persona development for students and teachers

21:07 - Red light/green light: What should schools stop doing and what should they start?

21:55 - Why schools should "stop freaking out about" social media

23:05 - Social media as a retention tool

23:33 - Why Brendan is "super bullish" on schools doing their own SEO

25:55 - Finding consultants who want to teach you and not just tell you what they've done

27:55 - Using experimentation in your work

28:09 - Creating a safe space for failure

29:13 - Having S.M.A.R.T. goals for your experiments

29:29 - Failure as a data point

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, Angela and Will discuss website and email benchmarking and some housekeeping you can still get done this summer. We reference the Niche Education Website Benchmarks and a couple of great posts that Angela recently wrote.

0:23 - Introductions

0:57 - Key takeaways for PK-12 schools

2:19 - Key takeaways for higher ed

4:51 - Quick website housekeeping wins

7:45 - Save time with dashboards and automated reports

12:38 - Build a culture of continual improvement and optimization

17:28 - Don't neglect your off-site digital presence

18:58 - Long-term investments for a team of one

20:32 - When to consider outside support for projects

22:31 - Finding partners who will teach and support you, not just a vendor

25:19 - KPIs for benchmarking and evaluating your website and email

28:35 - The impact of Apple's Mail Privacy Protection

31:35 - Optimization as a KPI

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Akil Bello. Akil is an educator, entrepreneur, and advocate who has worked in admissions testing and educational access for almost three decades. A nationally recognized authority on educational access, admissions, standardized testing, and admissions testing, Akil was a founding partner and CEO of Bell Curves, a test preparation company that helped schools and non-profit organizations understand standardized tests and admissions and develop affordable solutions for underserved students. Akil has also served as the Director of Equity and Access for The Princeton Review.

Currently, Akil serves as Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement and he works to build resources and tools to guide policy and ensure that large-scale assessment tests are used responsibly and transparently to benefit students. Akil attended an HBCU and ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree from a university in Brooklyn.

0:00 – Introduction

1:13 – What’s something you tried that didn’t work?

2:19 – How Akil brings new ideas into his work

2:54 – Twitter as a brainstorming tool

4:22 – Making the internal case to move test-optional or test-blind

10:18 – Reconciling student/parent/counselor beliefs with desired behavior around testing and grades

13:50 – The false objectivity of testing

15:58 – ACT, SAT, CLT and flawder (a new term) metrics

18:10 – Be honest advocates for change

23:23 – Want to understand the barriers? “Do the thing yourself.”

26:50 – Predictive validity and Miss Cleoing decisions

29:17 – Graduation and retention rates are inputs

30:01 – Moving the needle on what parents and students see as important metrics

33:15 – Incremental change vs restarting from scratch

36:06 – What is the capacity of colleges?

39:23 – What is the purpose of college?

40:44 – Input metrics and the lack of measurements for what actually occurs at college

42:34 – Do we need campus visits as much as we think?

45:10 – A challenge: Post your standardized test scores online. Have faculty do the same. Then see how important they are.

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Angela Brown. Angela is the director of marketing and communications at Flint Hill School, a PK-12, co-ed day school just outside of Washington, DC. Angela joined Flint Hill in 2014 after spending 10 years focusing on B2B marketing communications.

1:22 - Transitioning from corporate culture to school culture

3:13 - The importance of branding - more important than on the corporate side

6:59 - Branding as therapy and advice for schools to doing branding work

9:07 - Looking outside your industry for new ideas

9:48 - The importance of building relationships at conferences

10:26 - Prioritizing ideas using ICE Scoring

11:41 - Transitioning to education and finding mission fit

14:11 - Cycles and timelines in enrollment marketing

15:10 - The lesson to adopt from agencies? Project management

20:00 - Designing marketing that attracts both students and parents

21:31 - Persona development, keeping it grounded in research to avoid bias

23:30 - Tailoring content and events to meet PK-12 student needs and concerns

26:58 - Should personas be built in-house or by a third party?

29:59 - Psychographic metrics - a starting point

32:23 - What is Angela most looking forward to about joining Niche?

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Jeremy Branch. Jeremy is the Senior Assistant Director of Enrollment Management for Penn State University. He is an active member of the Pennsylvania Association for College Admission Counseling (PACAC), having served on the Executive Committee, Professional Development Committee, Conference Planning Committee, and the Inclusion Access and Success Committee. He has also served as faculty, Director, and Dean of the Summer Institute for the Association. He is currently the President of PACAC.

1:52 - Trying to mentor someone who doesn't want to be mentored

4:47 - Finding surprise success with podcasting

6:26 - The generational impact of counseling and the impact of strong leadership

9:05 - Journaling and taking notes to brainstorm

11:46 - Finding inspiration in art

14:05 - Listening as a critical tool in yield

15:31 - The changing world of onboarding and training

21:38 - Is the job to travel and recruit, or to fulfill the mission through relationships?

24:00 - Professional development as a cohort model

29:49 - Viewing staff retention through a yield lens

35:08 - How can middle managers and leaders support growth

37:27 - Collaborative development

41:34 - Final thoughts and continuing the conversation

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

In this episode, you will hear from Marie Bigham. Marie is the Founder and Executive Director of ACCEPT (Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today), an advocacy group, community, and movement that centers racial justice in the college admissions process and profession. She also serves as the coordinator of Hack the Gates. Marie has almost 25 years of college admissions and college counseling experience.

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.

This episode is a recording of a previous Niche Webinar that covers the results of the Niche and Tudor Collegiate Strategies survey to better understand the class of 2022 and provide insights into how to better recruit them.

In this episode, you will hear from Justin Mayfield. Justin is a B2B Marketing Analyst at Niche and works to help schools with their enrollment strategies and digital outreach through data dives and other forms of analysis. We discuss trends in major interests on Niche for the classes of 2021 and 2022 and what that might mean for your recruiting strategies.

Show notes are available on the Enrollment Insights Blog at niche.bz/podcast.

In the Enrollment Insights Podcast, you'll hear about novel solutions to problems, ways to make processes better for students, and the questions that spark internal reflection and end up changing entire processes.