Higher Ed Pulse

Zach is out at a leadership retreat this week, so we’re featuring our most recent Starter Stories episode on the pod! Get ready to meet Elizabeth Johnson — Co-Founder and Chairman at SimpsonScarborough, one of the leading market research, branding, and design firms serving higher education today.

In her senior year of high school, Elizabeth thought she’d go and study psychology in college. But, after a conversation with her father who was footing the bill, she learned that she had two different major options before her — pre-med or mathematics. 

And while she chose the latter, her favorite college class was actually an art history course! After graduating, she went to work at a small market research firm before joining Carnegie Communications, now Carnegie Dartlet, where she worked for 10 years and served as COO until she received a phone call that would change her life forever.

Christopher Simpson, the former Vice President and Spokesman for Indiana University who had been in charge of handling Bob Knight’s departure as a Hoosier back in 2000, asked Elizabeth to lunch to discuss an idea he had. 

That idea would lead to the founding of SimpsonScarborough.  Elizabeth didn’t know it at the time, but just a few months after the company was founded, Christopher received a terminal cancer diagnosis. 

Tune in to hear the inspiring, challenging, and remarkable story of the birth and growth of SimpsonScarborough.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes. And hear more founder journeys on our Starter Stories podcast.

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Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a recent Snapchat study, Gen Zers and millennials say that they watch over one hour per day watching video on social media apps alone. Over half (52%) of both Gen Zers and millennials say this increased viewing is here to stay.

On this week’s episode of Fanatical Fridays, Zach and Mickey continue their Summer Sessions series and discuss how video is no longer optional in your marketing or recruitment strategy as it is the primary channel and format through which Gen-Z consumes information.

Get tips, tricks, and loads of ideas on how to better utilize video in your school’s brand, marketing, and admissions campaigns. Some ideas include:

• 1:1 Video admissions nurturing via Goodkind
• Asynchronous Q&A’s (“How to Interpret Financial Aid,” “How to Navigate the Application, etc.) via Loom
• Hire a couple of student workers to storyboard 20-30 Instagram/Snapchat stories that you can use over the fall recruitment cycle
• Develop video-only comm flows to A/B test against email comm flows

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This special segment is the third part of our Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Series brought to you by our sister company, DD Agency, an enrollment marketing services agency that specializes in SEO, content marketing, and all things HubSpot.

You can stream part one, the State of Event Marketing in Graduate Enrollment Management here, or part two, the State of Content Marketing in Graduate Enrollment Management here.

Tune in for insights, data, and strategic recommendations for how to up your email marketing game in 2021 and beyond.

To access the full benchmarks report, visit www.BeatTheBenchmarks.com!

More about benchmark data and the 2021 Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Report:

• The research conducted for this report spanned a period of 12 months looking at hundreds of marketing campaigns that involved thousands of content pieces and prospect actions.
• The vast majority of marketing tactics and channels were targeted to prospective graduate students roughly 18-50 years of age, across an extremely wide variety of demographics, psychographics, industries, professions, and education levels. The following statistics allow you to understand the breadth and depth of data we scoured that is the backbone of this report.
• The way schools used to rely on physical, in-person recruitment events has dramatically changed over the past few years, but has been especially impacted since the start of the pandemic.
• Grad school fairs are no longer the mass-recruitment lead source they once were, and schools have moved to hosting their own information sessions and open houses.
• The biggest change in the last year is the predominance of virtual events as a result of the pandemic, which means we now have more data on virtual admissions-related events than ever before to analyze and identify the new benchmarks.
• Before the pandemic, virtual events typically achieved 25-40% attendance rates out of registrants, but as you will see in the report, more students are signing up and attending recruitment events than ever before.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This special segment is the second part of our Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Series brought to you by our sister company, DD Agency, an enrollment marketing services agency that specializes in SEO, content marketing, and all things HubSpot. You can stream part one, the State of Event Marketing in Graduate Enrollment Management here.

To access the full benchmarks report, visit www.BeatTheBenchmarks.com!

More about benchmark data and the 2021 Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Report:

• The research conducted for this report spanned a period of 12 months looking at hundreds of marketing campaigns that involved thousands of content pieces and prospect actions.
• The vast majority of marketing tactics and channels were targeted to prospective graduate students roughly 18-50 years of age, across an extremely wide variety of demographics, psychographics, industries, professions, and education levels. The following statistics allow you to understand the breadth and depth of data we scoured that is the backbone of this report.
• The way schools used to rely on physical, in-person recruitment events has dramatically changed over the past few years, but has been especially impacted since the start of the pandemic.
• Grad school fairs are no longer the mass-recruitment lead sources they once were, and schools have moved to hosting their own information sessions and open houses.
• The biggest change in the last year is the predominance of virtual events as a result of the pandemic, which means we now have more data on virtual admissions-related events than ever before to analyze and identify the new benchmarks.
• Before the pandemic, virtual events typically achieved 25-40% attendance rates out of registrants, but as you will see in the report, more students are signing up and attending recruitment events than ever before.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Guest co-host Jamie Gleason joins the discussion this week as Mickey breaks down his approaches to working prospective student pipelines. Mickey discusses three components to address the pipeline as the conversation gets intense quickly! From defining stages and substages, to high conversion moments, to prioritizing your daily and weekly engagement efforts, this episode dives deep. Tune in to hear the approaches Mickey has successfully applied to improve student conversions and increase enrollment.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This special segment is the first part of our Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Series brought to you by our sister company, DD Agency, an enrollment marketing services agency that specializes in SEO, content marketing, and all things HubSpot.

Tune in for insights, data, and strategic recommendations for how to up your event email marketing game plan!

To access the full benchmarks report, visit www.BeatTheBenchmarks.com!

More about benchmark data and the 2021 Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks Report:

• The research conducted for this report spanned a period of 12 months looking at hundreds of marketing campaigns that involved thousands of content pieces and prospect actions.
• The vast majority of marketing tactics and channels were targeted to prospective graduate students roughly 18-50 years of age, across an extremely wide variety of demographics, psychographics, industries, professions, and education levels. The following statistics allow you to understand the breadth and depth of data we scoured that is the backbone of this report.
• The way schools used to rely on physical, in-person recruitment events has dramatically changed over the past few years, but has been especially impacted since the start of the pandemic.
• Grad school fairs are no longer the mass-recruitment lead source they once were, and schools have moved to hosting their own information sessions and open houses.
• The biggest change in the last year is the predominance of virtual events as a result of the pandemic, which means we now have more data on virtual admissions-related events than ever before to analyze and identify the new benchmarks.
• Before the pandemic, virtual events typically achieved 25-40% attendance rates out of registrants, but as you will see in the report, more students are signing up and attending recruitment events than ever before.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this week's episode of Fanatical Fridays, Zach and Mickey flesh out a tried and true framework for social media advertising that helps schools of all shapes and sizes generate quality leads (regardless of their media budget). Furthermore, Zach shares ideas for how enrollment marketers should diversify their marketing channels based on their average annual budget for media buys. Get ready for some specific, tactical tips to up your channel strategy game!

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this week's podcast, Zach sits down with Will Patch from Niche and Jeremy Tiers from Tudor Collegiate Strategies to discuss a survey they recently conducted of high school juniors.

A total of 7,129 juniors responded to the survey and expressed their hopes, dreams, and fears about their college search process in a (soon-to-be) post-pandemic world.

Tune in for a fascinating discussion on what these survey results suggest about the future of higher ed marketing and student recruitment.

Some noteworthy stats from Niche:

1. 75% of juniors believe that their chances of being accepted will be hurt if they do not submit test scores with their application to test-optional and test-blind colleges.

2. Nearly half of students reported that they had already taken the SAT, ACT, or CLT; and amazingly only 6% reported that they don’t plan to take a test. Of students who have taken, or plan to take, a test, 96% plan to submit the scores to some or all of their colleges when they apply.

3. 25% of juniors have already narrowed down their list of schools, while another 68% are actively doing college research. The majority of juniors reported actively started researching colleges between the summer before their junior year and the spring of their junior year.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In our first SUMMER SESSIONS☀️ episode, Mickey and Zach chat about the disruption in the higher ed industry ushered in by the pandemic and the unique challenges faced by various types of educational institutions. 

The hosts dive into the following questions:

Is this the 'moment of truth' for schools who are facing massive enrollment declines? How do they become genuinely distinct, before going extinct?

Why do enrollment marketers focus on huge virtual events, when there can be rich and engaging events on a smaller scale?

When will there be a disruption of the application process? Will institutions ever rethink application deadlines, especially as they shift toward being test-optional?

Jump into this first episode for additional insights by Mickey and Zach. And stay tuned for five more episodes of this special segment designed to teach you a new strategy and/or tactic to help you become a better enrollment manager or higher ed marketer this summer.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 2019, SimpsonScarborough published a State of Higher Ed Marketing report, which noted that more marketers say their president relies on anecdotal opinions than many quantifiable measures and that only 1 in 3 are using periodic brand tracking to measure success.

While tides are shifting, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in higher ed to associate brand and marketing impact with an institution's bottom line. 

On this week's episode, Zach sits down with Jason Simon — CEO of SimpsonScarborough — to unpack the frameworks that leading institutions are using to take a performance-driven approach to branding and marketing in higher education.

Learn more about this episode and about our sponsors in our show notes.

- - - -

Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!

Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.