About the Episode
Our guest for this episode is Day Kibilds, Strategy Director at Ologie.
Join Day and Allison as they explore the impact of higher education marketing on equity and access. Get actionable tips to improve your marketing strategy and make information about college more accessible. Spoiler alert: Day and Allison also give permission to do something that every higher ed marketer secretly wants to do (you’ll have to listen to find out what!).
Key Takeaways
- Access Begins With Information: The greatest barrier to higher education is often not cost, but information. Higher ed marketers can make information more accessible and understandable for diverse audiences.
- Simplify Content for Equity: Write at a 7th-8th grade reading level to ensure that all students, regardless of background, can comprehend key information. Simplifying language is essential to breaking down access barriers.
- Center Content Around the Student Journey: Break information into digestible pieces tailored to where students are in their enrollment journey. Present only what they need at that moment to help them take the next step.
- Embrace Empathy in Content Creation: Use tools like empathy maps to understand the thoughts, emotions, and external challenges of diverse students. This helps ensure your messaging resonates and addresses their unique needs.
- Take Ownership as Marketers: Marketers play a critical role in equity by addressing systemic communication gaps. Own this responsibility and advocate for clearer, student-first content.
What Do Equity and Access Mean in Higher Ed Marketing?
Day Kibilds challenges marketers to view their role as opening doors for students who may otherwise feel locked out of higher education. Equity and access mean making information understandable and available to all students, especially those from marginalized or underrepresented backgrounds. The goal is to simplify and demystify processes like admissions and financial aid that are often perceived as daunting or impenetrable.
Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Ed Marketers
One of the biggest challenges marketers face is internal resistance. Departments like admissions and financial aid often operate in silos, leaving critical information fragmented and overly complicated. However, this also presents an opportunity to partner with these departments to simplify and streamline messaging. Kibilds also highlights the shifting demographics in higher ed, such as the rise in first-generation college students (56% of undergraduates nationwide) and an increasing Hispanic/Latino student population. These shifts emphasize the need to use inclusive language and provide culturally relevant resources.
Creating Inclusive, Accessible Content
Kibilds emphasizes the importance of adopting a content strategy approach. She recommends using tools like:
- User Stories: Center your content on the student’s perspective (e.g., “As a first-generation student, I want to find financial aid information so I can apply to college”).
- Journey Mapping: Identify the information students need at each stage of their journey, from inquiry to enrollment.
- Empathy Maps: Understand what students think, feel, see, and do to create messaging that resonates.
Most importantly, simplify language. Research shows that web content written at a 7th-8th grade reading level performs better—even for audiences with advanced education. This approach ensures that all students, including those for whom English is a second language, can engage with your content.
How to Measure Impact
Kibilds suggests using metrics like increases in inquiries, applications started, and applications submitted from target populations to evaluate success. Another method is conducting usability testing or focus groups to see how accessible and effective your content is. Ultimately, simplifying content and improving access aren’t just moral imperatives—they’re also critical for achieving enrollment goals.
First Steps to Take Today
- Own Your Role: Recognize that marketers have a direct impact on access and equity in higher education.
- Play Pretend: Visit your institution’s website as a prospective student from a targeted group (e.g., DACA students or first-gen applicants). Try to complete a simple task like finding admission requirements and track how many clicks or pages it takes.
- Test Reading Levels: Copy text from high-traffic web pages (like financial aid resources) into tools like Hemingway App to assess readability. Aim to rewrite content at a 7th-8th grade level.
Clear, accessible content is more than just good marketing—it’s a pathway to opportunity for students who need it most. By making information easier to understand, higher ed marketers can help open doors to education for everyone.
If you’re ready to make a difference, start small. As Kibilds puts it, “The students on the receiving side of this content might not have anyone else to help them. But after this episode, they can have you.”
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If this sounds like something you could benefit from, give those folks a ping and be sure to mention that Enrollify sent you to claim a 10% discount on any of their SEO offerings.
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About the Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Application is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!
Our podcast network is growing by the month and we’ve got a plethora of marketing, admissions, and higher ed technology shows that are jam packed with stories, ideas, and frameworks all designed to empower you to be a better higher ed professional. Our shows feature a selection of the industry’s best as your hosts. Learn from Jeremy Tiers, Zach Busekrus, Jaime Hunt, Allison Turcio, Jamie Gleason and many more.
Learn more about The Enrollify Podcast Network at podcasts.enrollify.org. Our shows help higher ed marketers and admissions professionals find their next big idea — come and find yours!
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