The Silo Metaphor Oversimplifies to a Fault The use of the silo metaphor typically serves as a call for more collaboration. We often talk about silos as barriers to activating student centeredness or being more collectively mission directed. Those are noble and correct motivations. But talking about a lack of institutional alignment by faulting…Read more
Author: Sam Waterson
Co-Founder and Principal Rick Bailey on “Starter Stories”
Founder of Enrollify Zach Busekrus hosts “Starter Stories” a podcast series telling the stories of founders of leading higher education consulting and professional services. Zach invited Rick Bailey to give the backstage story on the start of RHB. Following is the transcript or you can listen here. Rick Bailey: In the book, was a question.…Read more
Rick Bailey Serves Love on Servant Marketer Podcast
On Dec. 9, 2020, RHB principal Rick Bailey joined Jenny Petty, Director of Enrollment Marketing at the University of Wyoming (soon to be Vice President for Marketing at the University of Montana) and host of The Servant Marketer podcast. In the Season One finale, Rick and Jenny discuss falling in love with our customers, delivering…Read more
Seeking Seamless Modalities: Revisited in 2021
I originally formulated this post in–what will now be described as–better times in many ways. Of course, market forces were present at the time, the very ones that informed my perspective. I had returned from assignments on multiple campuses where the organizing principles were built and duplicated by delivery method. “Online” had its own organization,…Read more
Coherence, Cooperation and Cocktails
If you missed Coherence, Cooperation and Cocktails with the RHB team (our substitute for our annual Slate Summit gathering), you’re in luck. Here’s a recording and summary of the webinar where you’ll enjoy a great metaphor featuring a house (from the genius of Jess Ricker of Wellesley), a fair amount of talk about sports cars…Read more
The Case For and Against Generalization in Higher Ed Marketing
For much of my early career, I was engaged by clients to research and consult on the best way to communicate with millennials. Typically, this meant identifying a set of characteristics and preferences that afforded our clients the opportunity to better communicate with this target audience. It started with Neil Howe’s Millennials Rising, and then…Read more
Decoding the Enrollment Marketing Budget
Most enrollment leaders struggle with precision when planning an enrollment marketing budget. The marketing cost to acquire a particular class is indeed calculable, but only if the institution is prepared to measure individual marketing initiatives. And while there may be a great deal of certainty about the divisional budget as a whole, when it comes…Read more
Reconciling “the Numbers” and Market Positioning Progress
For most institutions, May represents early returns, to say nothing of frantic or disciplined refreshing of reports to reveal the evidence of the size and shape of the class that may be on campus in the fall. “How are the numbers?” memes abound, making light of the fact that “the numbers” to most only mean…Read more
Four Ways Prospective Students Search for Your Majors
When communicating with your prospective students, you undoubtedly strive to connect your offerings with their goals, interests and values. In doing so, you emphasize the benefits of your distinctive market positon and your ability to provide an exceptional education that is supportive of your prospects’ plans, hopes and dreams. But because the goals, interests and…Read more
The Trust-Personalization Matrix
The correlation between a prospective customer’s trust and the personalization of your experience offering shapes behaviors, impressions and outcomes related to exchange. Let’s look at a model* to help us understand its significance for enrollment marketers. On the y axis is trust. Trust, for purposes of this model, is defined as the degree to which…Read more