Navigating Life as a Higher Ed CMO: Conversations on Enrollment Marketing, Leadership, Failure, and Growth

Today’s episode is an engaging conversation between Jeremy and fellow podcaster Jaime Hunt, who also happens to be the Vice President for University Communications and Chief Marketing Officer at Old Dominion University.

‍

Key Takeaways

• Shift Focus Toward Non-Traditional Students: Institutions must adapt to the evolving demographics by focusing on military personnel, adult learners, and post-traditional students.
• Prioritize a Concierge Experience: Create flexible, personalized, and highly supportive experiences for prospective students—especially for those navigating higher ed independently.
• Quality Over Quantity in Marketing: Avoid spreading resources too thin across multiple tactics. Instead, double down on the channels with proven ROI, such as search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM).
• Website Strategy Starts with Data: Use heat maps, analytics, and student feedback to redesign your website and prioritize user needs. Make data-driven decisions, not ones based on internal politics or organizational structure.
• Build Relationships Across Campus: To align stakeholders around new initiatives, invest significant time in relationship-building during your first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job.
• Invest in Internal Communications: Employees are key brand ambassadors, but they often feel disconnected. Conduct focus groups to understand gaps and create a communication strategy tailored to internal audiences.
• Mentorship and Succession Planning Matter: Developing clear career pathways and mentoring the next generation of marketing leaders is critical for retaining talent in higher ed.

‍

Addressing the Enrollment Cliff

Jaime Hunt opens the conversation by discussing how institutions must address the demographic shift in prospective students. With fewer traditional-aged college students, universities need to pivot toward post-traditional learners, including military personnel, online students, and adults returning to finish their degrees. At ODU, Jaime is focused on expanding their online programs and creating more accessible pathways for non-traditional students.

Jaime emphasizes that differentiation in 2023 hinges on creating exceptional student experiences. For non-traditional students, this means offering a “concierge” approach: fast admissions decisions, hands-on support, and personalized pathways tailored to their unique circumstances.

‍

The Role of SEO in Enrollment Marketing

When asked about her stance on quality versus quantity in marketing, Jaime is firm: quality wins every time. Many schools waste resources on too many low-impact tactics, like billboards and Pandora ads, without focusing on what drives real results. She highlights the importance of SEO and SEM as the “workhorses” of enrollment marketing.

Jaime shares insights from her experience leading five website redesigns. The key to success? Start with data. Use heat maps, analytics, and user feedback to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where students are getting lost. A strong website strategy puts prospective students first, rather than catering to internal organizational silos.

‍

Overcoming Stakeholder Resistance

One of the biggest challenges in higher ed marketing is getting stakeholders to align on a shared vision. Jaime explains that many departments see their web content as “their website” rather than part of a larger institutional strategy. She stresses the importance of reminding teams that the website exists to serve prospective students, not internal politics.

To overcome resistance, Jaime recommends building relationships across campus. During her first 90 days at ODU, she spent 90% of her time meeting with stakeholders, including deans, faculty, and staff. By listening to their needs and demonstrating how changes would benefit them, she was able to gain buy-in for large-scale projects like a centralized communications model.

‍

The Importance of Internal Communications

Jaime also shares her approach to improving internal communication on campus. At Winston Salem State, she hired a dedicated communications manager to bridge the gap between leadership and staff. She also conducted focus groups to ask employees two key questions:

1. Do you feel like you know what’s going on?
2. How would you like to be kept in the loop on what’s going on?

By acting on employee feedback and creating tailored communication strategies, Jaime transformed staff morale and engagement.

‍

Leadership Lessons and Career Growth

As a VP, Jaime admits that leadership can be lonely. She often grapples with the “curse of knowledge”—knowing information that others aren’t privy to and assuming they have the same context. To combat this, she’s worked to improve her self-awareness and resilience. Therapy, journaling, and reframing failures as learning opportunities have been essential to her growth as a leader.

Jaime also emphasizes the importance of mentoring the next generation of higher ed professionals. At Miami University, she spearheaded a career pathway project to give staff a clear roadmap for advancement. By creating opportunities for growth, she helped foster a culture of retention and excellence.

‍

Actionable Tips for Higher Ed Marketers and Leaders

1. Use Data to Guide Decisions: Whether it’s redesigning your website or reallocating your marketing budget, make data your north star. Analytics, heat maps, and student feedback are invaluable.
2. Create Personalization at Scale: Beyond adding names to emails, leverage CRM data to tailor messaging based on location, interests, or program of interest.
3. Break Down Silos: Build relationships with deans, faculty, and other campus leaders to ensure everyone is aligned around shared goals.
4. Invest in SEO: Search remains the most effective channel for driving prospective students to your site. Make it a top priority.
5. Ask for Internal Feedback: Regularly survey staff to ensure internal communications are meeting their needs and fostering engagement.

This episode is brought to you by our friends at DD Agency:

DD Agency is a higher ed-specific marketing technology agency that has conducted countless SEO Audits for colleges and universities across the country. 

In these audits, they detail where you currently rank, what you could be ranking for, exactly how copy should be tweaked on website pages, and much more. 

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. 

Head on over to enrollify.org/ddaseo, or simply follow the link in the show notes below…that will guarantee you get a 10% discount off of your audit. 

About the Enrollify Podcast Network 

Mission Admission 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 Mickey Baines, Zach Busekrus, Jaime Hunt, Corynn Myers, Jaime 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!