The Higher Ed Marketer

Radical Hospitality: Transforming Student Recruitment in Higher Education

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The admissions process can get stuck in an endless loop of application deadlines, essays, and transcripts.By investing in “radical hospitality” an...

Academic Advocates: Customer Service in Higher Education

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Customer service often takes a back seat in the process of higher ed recruitment. Every interaction with a prospective student is crucial to how they...

Donor Dynamics: Navigating Higher Ed with AI for Swift Engagement

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are you utilizing all the tools in your toolbox?Thinking bigger, more interactive, and focusing on fueling engagement is within reach.By learning with...

Next-Gen Scholars: Gen Z Preferences in Higher Ed Marketing

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Making higher education accessible to all is big as we approach the enrollment cliff. Identifying the needs of all prospective students and really as...

Emotional Transformation: The Power of Authentic Student Stories

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Telling the authentic transformative stories of students and staff on your campus helps foster real emotional connections. Without forming a genuine ...

Getting Your Marketing Ready for Generation Alpha

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Different generations are beginning to have an increase in educational influence. Having a marketing strategy that can adapt but be intentional when...

Breaking the Mold: Higher Ed for Non-Traditional Learners

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The higher education experience is changing. With attention spans shifting and life getting in the way, institutions need to adapt. Now more than ev...

Data-Informed Decisions: How AI is Reshaping Marketing Strategies

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the Gold Rush era of artificial intelligence. AI is integrating more and more into the world of higher education and everyone is hoping f...

The “Why” Factor: How to Stay True to Your Mission in the Enrollment Ecosystem

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If someone asked you to define your institution’s “Why,” could you? When was the last time you really looked through your brand guide to ensure...

People Interaction Isn’t Dead: Why Every Collaboration Is a Teachable Moment

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are always opportunities to learn in the higher ed marketing space. But there are also opportunities to teach.Higher education tends to move slo...

Online Learning: Change Management in the Age of AI

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the saying goes, “Change is a part of life.” The same can be said for higher ed online classroom resources. How can schools meet the needs of ...

Video Storytelling: A Strategy for Building Your Brand’s Content Engine

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is your college or university's content engine struggling to chug down the track? Do you often find yourself scrambling to find where your next piece...

Behind the Numbers: U.S. News And World Report “Best Colleges” Rankings

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Step right up as we unpack the U.S World News College & University Rankings. There’s methodology, there’s branding, but how does it all work ...

Cracking the Code: How to Differentiate Yourself and Attract Mission-Fit Personas

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Higher education is not one size fits all. Markers need to wade into the data and demographics and focus on creating an intentional message for their ...

Truth in Advertising: Authenticity in Higher Ed Marketing

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Authenticity has taken a front seat in higher ed marketing. Branding your institution authentically is a big key to success, and it starts with impro...

From Generic to Magnetic: Tailored Marketing in Higher Education

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marketing in Higher Education is evolving more rapidly than ever. If we sit around and watch the innovations fly by, we might be out of the game befor...

The Fastball Special: Your Higher Ed Marketing All-Star Team for 2023

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Batter up! With the 2023 World Series just around the corner, we’re celebrating an all-star roster of The Higher Ed Marketer interviews. From CMOs ...

Print Is Not Dead: Magazines as a Key Part of Alumni Communications

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to alumni communications, print isn't dead yet. In fact, many alumni who are express great interest in receiving printed content. When ...

Generative AI in Higher Education: Future-Proof Your School’s Marketing Tools

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The market for public-facing generative AI tools has exploded since ChatGPT’s launch in November of 2022. And lots of higher ed institutions are sti...

International Student Marketing: How Your School Can Sell Brand USA

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Like a lot of higher ed departments, international student marketing has been on a rollercoaster since the pandemic. And while other global players li...

Five Ways to Build Trust Within Higher Ed Enrollment

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Brand Framework: Reshaping and Rediscovering Your School’s Promise

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 department...

The Five C’s of Building Great Teams in Higher Ed

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Enrollment and Marketing Data Silos: Stop Hoarding and Start Talking

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“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 departme...

Content Marketing: Its Strengths, Weaknesses, And Everything In Between

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

It Takes a Campus: Marketing and Understanding the Entire Student Life Cycle

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

What Would Ted Lasso Do?: Driving Organizational Change Through Branding

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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....

Start Early: Serving Freshmen and Sophomores in Your Funnel

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Everybody Wants to Be on a Winning Team: Confrontation and Caretaking in Higher Ed Marketing

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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-l...

Be Curious: Showcasing Your School’s User-Generated Content

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As digital marketing channels continue to elevate new ways of promoting user-generated content, higher ed marketers have to continue identifying emoti...

How to Plan Your SEO Roadtrip: Mapping Your SEO Investment

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 th...

I Want to See the Dorm Room: Marketing Insights From Guy Kawasaki

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Sky’s the Limit: How Drone Shows Can Pull in Your Higher Ed Community

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drone shows are much more than pretty lights in the night sky. Through curated storyboarding and other audiosensory elements, these innovative spectac...

A Professor in a Box: Boosting Your Mental Bandwidth With ChatGPT

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a veteran of the newspaper business, Jaime Hunt, Vice President for University Communications and CMO at Old Dominion University, has seen firsthan...

Diversity of Voice: Attracting Mission-Fit Students With CMS Deliverables

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When evaluating a school’s content marketing system (CMS), it’s easy for higher ed marketers to get tunnel vision when defining their target audie...

The 5 Steps of a Student Intake Optimization Strategy

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 —...

Value + Urgency = Conversions: A Winning Formula for Your Enrollment Funnel

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2017, the Pepperdine University - Graduate School of Education & Psychology has nearly tripled its enrollment from about 1,500 students to o...

Seek the Unexpected: Surprising Students With Real Storytelling

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mission-fit storytelling is an essential piece of higher ed content marketing. That sounds straightforward on paper, but many schools struggle to attr...

Targeted Digital Advertising: Captivating a Small Audience Over a Large Footprint

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Despite digital marketing’s evident impact on prospective students, social media managers are still some of the most undersupported members of many ...

Your Students Will Tell You Everything: Power Your Innovation by Listening

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Community colleges are the front door of higher education for hundreds of thousands of students annually. They may be smaller than their 4-year counte...

Empower Your Ambassadors: Crafting a Peer-To-Peer Marketing Strategy

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peer-to-peer marketing may be one of the most underutilized strategies for American colleges and universities today. Several studies show that curren...

Authentic Automation: Leveraging SMS Texting to Engage With Lead

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As regenerative AI takes the marketing world by storm, enrollment marketing teams continue to look for ways to boost engagement with prospective stude...

Take Your Voice Back: Being Change Agents in Higher Ed Marketing

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Higher ed marketers often get so caught up in promotion that they take a backseat in developing the other core components of their school’s brand. B...

Speak With One Voice: Getting Students Involved in Enrollment Marketing

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Enrollment marketing teams face new challenges every day as they work tirelessly to attract prospective students. Despite those obstacles, Teresa MacG...

Design Planning: Build a Framework Around Your School’s Identity

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The compounding effects of the pandemic and the Great Resignation have left a lot of schools looking for answers. Design planning may be just the solu...

Shaping Community: How Gen Z Students Are Leading the Way in DEI

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion — is top-of-mind across marketing channels, not just higher education. That’s because as Gen Z starts to ...

The Demographic Enrollment Cliff: Forecasting the Great Dropoff

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The proof is in the data pudding: higher education is racing towards a demographic enrollment cliff over the next few decades. Be it due to ethnic, li...

Audience-First Marketing: Understand How Students Discover Your School

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Higher ed marketing teams often tout content as an asset, but does content that falls on deaf ears still make a sound? Without a consistent pipeline f...

An Audience of One: Make the Prospective Student the Hero of Their Story

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As higher ed marketing teams look towards an unpredictable future injected with AI technology, one question is now on everyone’s mind: what qualifie...

Audience-Centric Content: Building Relationships Through Engagement

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Higher ed marketers all know the struggle of reaching target audiences, but real audience-centric content is in the eye of the beholder. With so many ...

Leveraging Students as Co-Creators for Your Social Media Content

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’re all still students of social media content creation, but some schools are bringing their A-game when generating content that speaks to Gen Z. ...

Building a Story Vault: Empowering Storytellers in Your Marketing Process

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alumni and students have so many incredible authentic stories to tell about their colleges and universities. But higher ed marketing teams can sometim...

Leaning on Legacy: Blending History and Branding in Enrollment Marketing

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How much should colleges and universities lean on legacy branding? Advancement departments undoubtedly love promoting the “glory days” to their sc...

Telling Over Selling: Discoverable Short-Form Video Content

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Short-form video content has exploded on social media platforms over the last few years. Colleges and universities are scrambling to take advantage of...

Pay It Forward: Higher Ed Advancement and Philanthropy

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Working in higher ed advancement can be discouraging when you hear the word “No” from potential donors. But by imprinting philanthropy on your stu...

Consumable Content for a Human Audience - Search Engine Marketing Part 2

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Search engine marketing is top-of-mind for most higher ed marketers, but it’s still a drastically underutilized marketing mechanism. In fact, acco...

Covering All the Angles in Lead Conversions - Search Engine Marketing Part 1

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Search engine marketing is still considered a 21st-century mystery to many higher ed marketers. But the fact is that, with a solid content marketing s...

Capturing Reality: Authentic Stories of Disability Students

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite fifteen percent of the world’s population having a physical disability, the disability community of students is often an afterthought in DEI...

Automagic Customization: Personalizing the Regional School Website Experience

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a personalized website experience that adapts in real-time to the home region of prospective students who visit your homepage. We’ve seen t...

Easy to Apply, Hard to Ask: Addressing Your School Website’s Focus

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Too often, colleges and universities put themselves on a pedestal on their school website’s homepage. Be it celebratory news stories, sporting event...

More Than a Campus Logo: The Evolutionary Branding Process

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Technology-driven solutions in branding are remarkable tools. But shiny gadgets can make it easy to lose sight of your higher ed marketing team’s ul...

Empathic Storytelling: Identifying Appropriate Content for Your Audience

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In higher ed marketing, it can be a struggle to understand who our target audience is and what their needs are. Sometimes, that means pausing and step...

Multi-Generational Marketing: Customizing Your Value Proposition

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Generations Z and Alpha transition into the college student ranks, it is multi-generational marketing’s time to shine. Yet, as Jennifer McChord ,...

The DEI Viewfinder: A Practical Tool for Highlighting Inclusion

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is top-of-mind for many colleges and universities today. Marketing inclusive content in a respectful manner req...

How to Articulate Distinctiveness: Making Your Small School Stand Out

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Marketing can be a difficult proposition for small institutions in higher ed, but intentional collaboration with vendors and other schools can add inc...

Tugging the Heartstrings with Emotive Storytelling

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you’re a small faith-based college or one of the largest schools in the country, immersive storytelling is a powerful marketing tool. First-...

The Million Dollar Question: Our Aspirational Branding Follow-Up

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few months ago, we spoke with Shauna Davis and Mary Laphen Pope from the Lumina Foundation. They provided an overview of their Million Dollar Commun...

Video QR Codes: Sticky Notes for the TikTok Generation

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

QR codes have made a furious comeback in business circuits over the last couple of years. The folks at spokenote saw a unique opportunity for marketer...

The Problem With University Rankings

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

University rankings play a big part in where a prospective student chooses to go to school, but most rankings focus on prestige and what other peers o...

Saving Face and Doing Campus Photography Right

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many marketers struggle to keep track of photo and video assets on campus, but with the proper techniques, you can implement a campus photography prog...

Purpose Driven Marketing Through Brand Storytelling

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The most important part of storytelling in higher education is creating stories where students can easily insert themselves and be an active participa...

Making the Case for a Liberal Arts Education

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The liberal arts education has evolved. Students not only need skills developed from classic education subjects for career readiness but also to be ab...

How To Market a University with Teresa Flannery

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While there are common elements across marketing (the 4 P’s), higher education marketing presents some unique challenges with the diversity of audie...

The Future of PPC in Higher Ed Marketing

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the pandemic, many higher ed marketers have gone to pay-per-click ads to generate leads. In the near future, Google is changing its cookie-based...

Increasing Outcomes for Higher Ed Leaders Through Radical Collaboration

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Businesses and organizations lose the most impact and productivity by not working together. The same goes for higher education. To solve big problems,...

Best Practices for PPC in Higher Ed Marketing

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many higher ed marketers think that paid media and PPC (Pay Per Click) ads are the answer to their problems, but most fail to realize that this is a l...

Why Marketers Should Always Start With Why

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The only way to truly impact is to align particular strategies with particular audiences. To continue pushing the needle forward as marketers, we must...

Marketing Principles That Translate Across All Industries

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As marketers, we cannot be short-order cooks just serving up dishes, but chefs who figure out what the consumer wants and create a meal.   Kymm Bart...

Effectively Utilizing Your Website To Market Your College

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

People often look at websites from just a technical or aesthetic point of view but overlook how a website can be an excellent marketing tool to help s...

The Key to Successful Content Marketing

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The goal is not to be good at social media; the goal is to be better in Higher Ed because of social media.   Jay Bear, founder of Convince & Con...

How to Amplify Your Students' Voice for Success

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If there was ever an episode to give you a roadmap to success in higher education, it's this one.   Kathy Payne, VP for Enrollment Management, and K...

Greater Engagement in Higher Ed Through Virtual Events

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the pandemic began, we have had to adapt to a new online environment, but platforms like Zoom and Microsoft teams aren’t giving us the human t...

The relationship between Athletics and college enrollment

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s no secret that college athletics can play a role in deciding where a student will go to college. All across the country universities use differ...

Live Chat: Creating Better Accessibility for Greater Outcomes

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In higher ed marketing, it is important to stand out from everyone else and create a sense of belonging for prospective students. One of the best tech...

From the Ground Up: Building a Medical School With Community in Mind

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do you market a school that is in the process of being built?   Know your mission.   In this episode, Dr. Michael Rice details his next exciti...

Aspirational Branding: What Makes Your Community College Exceptional

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Community colleges often operate with limited resources. This can result in prospective students not knowing that there is an affordable and accessibl...

Collaborative Conversations Create Creative Solutions

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Higher ed marketing is a constantly evolving industry. From the early days of MySpace to connecting with prospects on WhatsApp today, the need for con...

Being Competitive With Bold Marketing

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A small liberal arts college education comes with many benefits, but most also come with an expensive price tag. Does it have to be that way?  In thi...

Fluid Communications Build Better Relationships

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, international student applications have more than tripled, but the way to market to international studen...

The Steep Cost of Disregarding Transparency in Tuition

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We talk with a lot of guests about college admissions from the higher ed perspective, but what can we learn from having the conversation from a second...

Supporting Individual Success Through Community

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Student retention and graduation rates are common concerns in higher education. How do we improve the experiences of students, therefore increasing th...

Diversify Classrooms Through Authentic Messaging

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Finding your perfect prospective student will increase your enrollment numbers.  How do you find your perfect student?  In this episode, Tim Bohling...

One-of-a-Kind: Marketing the Uniqueness of Your School

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What sets your school apart from others?  It’s a useful thing to know.  You can devise a powerful marketing strategy if you embrace what makes you...

Leadership Lessons: Clarify Vision & Tell Authentic Stories

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An essential part of a leader’s job is setting a grand vision for the organization and imbuing its people with a shared purpose. That goes for any o...

Social Media Strategies: How to Go Viral Like an Influencer

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What do you do when your family has a combined height of nearly 36 feet? You become social media superstars. That’s the journey of Rob Clark, Conten...

Bridging the Gap Between Higher Ed & High Schools in Disadvantaged Areas

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

College access is an issue in this country.  Many potential students simply don't believe higher education is within reach.   It’s this inaccessi...

Ending Departmental Silos & Focusing on Mission Fit

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest, Philip Dearborn, has spent over 25 years in biblical higher education serving in a wide array of roles—from student recruiter and registr...

Proving the Value of Higher Education by Marketing Outcomes

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The perceived value of higher education has declined in the last few years. It might seem like it’s simply an issue of cost, but that is only part o...

Confronting the “H-Bomb”: The Truth About Managing a Popular Brand

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Brian Kenny tells people he’s the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Harvard Business School, they often say, “Why does Harvard n...

Connecting w/ Gen Z via Customized Community

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The potential for getting roasted by Gen Z is high if you aren’t adapting to the new expectations for higher education. Facebook is in the past—st...