Higher Ed Marketing Lab

Jarrett sits down with author Ben Guttmann to discuss practical ways to simplify your marketing communication strategies. An expert on simplicity, Guttmann explains why simplicity is essential if you want to reach and move audiences—and shares plenty of tips and tactics you can use immediately to craft simpler, more effective communications.

Read Ben Guttmann's book, Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win―and How to Design Them

Student recruitment can only happen if you sell your institution well. But because higher ed typically avoids the word "sales" like the plague, admissions counselors miss out on key skills they need to succeed. In this episode, Jarrett sits down with higher ed consultant Chris Lewis to discuss how your admissions team can embrace sales during student recruitment—and steps you can take to do so.

Explore the "Performance Marketing Trap" with Jarrett as he discusses the pitfalls colleges experience when they over-rely on so-called performance marketing channels to advertise. Learn why brand marketing is crucial for long-term success and get actionable steps you can take to create a more balanced strategy.

TikTok is the platform of choice for many of today's prospective students, but consistently executing relevant and engaging content is a challenge many colleges and universities are still trying to overcome.

In this episode, you'll hear from Morgan Goodwill, social media manager and producer at Flagler College, and someone who has seemingly cracked the code on TikTok content.

We discuss:

• Details on how Flagler College's marketing team works with student creators to generate 80% of their TikTok content

• Why quality over quantity and audience over platform is a critical social media success

• Morgan's favorite tactic for increasing the reach of important but less engaging institutional content, and

• Some of Flagler's TikTok home runs, surprising flops, and the lessons she learned from them.

Geoff Baird, CEO of EnrollML, shares pragmatic insights on how to evolve enrollment management. Discover how understanding market share, addressing foundational weaknesses, and leveraging data and technology can transform student recruitment higher education.

Analytics expert Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital gives us an update on the current state of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). We discuss some of the most important differences between Universal Analytics and GA4, and some of the ways the switch to GA4 has already impacted higher ed marketers. We wrap up with some of Chris's favorite GA4 resources.

We talk with Rod Guajardo, Senior Director for Integrated Media Communications at the University of Georgia about how the university has been using Reddit to reach new audiences with science and research content.

Many institutions include brand building in their strategic plans, but making those aspirations and reality is often challenging. Brand development expert, Jennifer Holland, argues the best way to build an enduring brand is to create strong alignment between organizational, marketing, and people strategies. We discuss:

• the vital importance of having deep internal buy-in on what your brand stands for.

• the right way to balance inside out versus outside in thinking when developing a brand.

• Jennifer's approach to hardwiring a brand into an organization so that frontline employees stay engaged and focused on the brand.

The campus visit is a make-or-break moment for traditional undergrads, but as campuses have emerged from the pandemic, the return to campus tours has been anything but business as usual. In this episode, we talk with leading campus visit consultant, Jeff Kallay, about the current state of the campus visit and what's on his mind for the road ahead. We discuss:

• How pandemic fatigue has impacted students and the way they view the residential experience
• Strategies for recruiting and retaining campus tour guides
• What prospective families are most eager to learn about on your tour (it's academics)
• The trend towards fewer pre-app visits.