When we’re not actively solving marketing challenges in higher ed, we’re thinking about them.
And writing about them. And reading about them. And talking about them. Collected here are our insights and resources into all things related to higher education marketing, including white papers, presentations, videos, audio files, worksheets and the RHBlog.
What Your President Expects: Insights for Higher Ed Marketers
April 18, 2018
As a marketer in the higher ed arena, you have multiple challenges and an array of clients who need (and sometimes demand) your intelligent solutions to keep your institution afloat. It’s your president, however, who likely needs you most. From our research and experience with more than 130 colleges and universities, we offer the following suggestions of what she expects of you…Read more
Translating Customer Experience to Meaningful Marketing: The Value of Interpretation
March 27, 2018
Although the discipline of CX is relatively new, modern undergraduate residential education has been—by definition—a manufactured customer experience. Every aspect is designed and oriented toward intended outcome. Where a student lives, the curriculum, the accoutrements are all created events. The common challenge is how to take the student experience and translate it to specific and compelling messages to prospective students and families. Often, this takes a set of eyes from the outside…Read more
The 5Ws of Slate Implementation for Colleges and Universities
March 16, 2018
Implementing any new tool on campus can be a daunting task. The team. The timeline. The configuration. The misconfiguration. The reconfiguration. A lot goes into getting a system up-and-running. While many institutions focus exclusively on the “how,” taking the time to think about all five of the Ws (Who? What? Where? When? Why? And then, how?) can help you execute implementation more efficiently and effectively. Substantive research and discovery through the 5Ws enables a team to take a more holistic view of the project prior to implementation. Indeed, approaching implementation like a research project and breaking these questions down at institutional, departmental and individual levels can pay dividends in getting the “how” of the project off to a fantastic start…Read more
Knowledge is power, but power can be knowledge, too
March 5, 2018
Traditionally, colleges and universities have communicated with prospects by illustrating that they offer something powerful that can quite literally change the course of your life. And that “something” is knowledge, expertise and the ability to apply those elements to careers, graduate study or to life more generally. Put differently, colleges and universities often (rightly) believe that they empower students to think, create or act in ways that they may have never imagined. But what happens if students are already empowered?…Read more
Using your CRM to own prospect relationships
February 14, 2018
Many firms close the gap between client and student by keeping the implementation and measurement on the vendor side. An example of this is traditional (they wouldn’t describe themselves this way) student search firms. A campaign is developed, a list is purchased, search is deployed, inquiries are gathered and returned to the institution. These are billion-dollar firms that close the gap between implementation and measurement by keeping it all on the vendor side. Yet, this simply creates a different gap and new resource overlap: the vendor is now an avatar of your institution and the interaction with the student has left the purview of the institution. The vendor sits between you and the student. How to close this gap?…Read more
Aligning Position, Product, Delivery, and Message: Are You Student-Ready?
January 30, 2018
It has become commonplace to discuss whether prospective students are “college-ready,” especially in terms of academic preparation. But, are American colleges today “student-ready,” that is, prepared to meet the academic and social needs of rapidly changing demographics ? Prospective students and parents expect to see institutions promoting their “academic excellence.” But what, exactly, does this mean? Terms like these, while they look good on paper, are empty of content. That is, they fail to fully articulate a differentiated market position (and they do little to address the specifics of student-learning)…Read more