About the Episode
About the Episode:
In this episode of The Hidden Gem, host Maya Demishkevich sits down with Ryan Morabito, a higher education marketing expert known for his popular LinkedIn insights. Together, they discuss the Top 10 Truths About Higher Ed Marketing, touching on everything from building trust with stakeholders to creating effective brand narratives that resonate with students, donors, and faculty. This episode is packed with valuable insights for both marketing professionals and campus leaders looking to better understand and leverage marketing strategies in higher education.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn why it’s crucial to understand and continually re-assess your audience in higher ed marketing—whether students, donors, or other stakeholders.
- Hear about the importance of a consistent, clear brand positioning that remains stable, even as leadership changes over time.
- Discover why telling authentic student-centered stories is more powerful than traditional marketing messages, and how influencers play a role in building trust.
- Find out how speed and agility in marketing execution can set institutions apart in a competitive landscape.
- Understand how data-informed decisions and regular pulse checks can ensure marketing efforts align with student needs and community perceptions.
- Learn how to foster collaboration across campus silos and get buy-in from leadership to create stronger, more unified marketing efforts.
Episode Summary
Why Knowing Your Audience is Essential
Ryan emphasizes the importance of understanding your institution’s target audiences. Knowing the specific motivations of students, donors, and even state funders is crucial for higher ed marketers to develop meaningful messaging that resonates with these groups. For colleges, data is more accessible than ever, offering an opportunity to refine and personalize outreach efforts. A college that knows its stakeholders' perceptions can adapt to meet changing needs, building trust and engagement more effectively.
Differentiation is Key in Higher Ed Marketing
Brand differentiation is vital to staying relevant in a competitive market. Ryan calls this process a “strategic narrative” that should act as a guiding star for consistent messaging, regardless of changes in leadership. He warns against shifting brand messaging with each new leadership team, urging institutions to focus on an enduring brand narrative that aligns with their founding mission. Colleges that succeed in maintaining a clear and consistent brand strategy can leverage it to unify all departments, creating a cohesive experience for stakeholders.
Tell Your Story Authentically
A shift toward authentic, student-focused storytelling is gaining traction in higher education marketing. Students are the true heroes of any educational institution, and sharing real stories through initiatives like student-run social media takeovers can have a profound impact on prospective students and donors alike. Ryan notes that storytelling should reflect transformational experiences, positioning students at the center. This approach strengthens authenticity and builds a relatable brand image that connects with prospective students, current students, and donors.
Deliver Clear and Memorable Messaging
In an age saturated with digital content, it’s critical for institutions to create messages that stand out and are easy to remember. Ryan shares that the specificity of messaging — like success rates and measurable outcomes — can boost retention among audiences by up to four times. Marketing that includes concrete examples, such as high employment rates for recent graduates, resonates more strongly with prospective students and their families, cutting through the noise of a crowded media landscape.
Agility and Speed in Execution
A significant roadblock in higher education marketing is the lack of a culture of experimentation. Thriving institutions, according to Ryan, prioritize agility in implementing marketing strategies, allowing them to quickly assess and refine approaches. Drawing from examples like Ryan Reynolds’ “speed of culture” concept, Ryan encourages marketers to adopt a faster pace, embracing small risks to test new ideas in real time. Colleges can start with short pilot projects, observing what resonates before scaling successful tactics.
Using Data to Guide Decision-Making
Shifting from “data-driven” to “data-informed,” Ryan advocates for regularly assessing audience perceptions through pulse surveys rather than sporadic, large-scale research projects. These ongoing data touchpoints provide a more accurate view of changing sentiments and improve the precision of marketing campaigns. He highlights how dashboards, particularly those updated every two years, can help track and communicate trends to leadership, showing how perceptions and engagement metrics are shifting over time.
The Need for Ongoing Brand Investment
Ryan underscores that branding is a continuous process. Colleges should avoid seeing branding as a one-time project but instead view it as an ongoing commitment to building familiarity and trust. Long-term investments in staff and resources are critical for brand development, particularly in today’s competitive higher education landscape. When institutions commit to consistent messaging across all platforms — from websites to social media — they reinforce their brand presence and elevate their appeal to prospective students.
Building Bridges and Breaking Down Silos
A thriving institutional brand requires collaboration across departments. Marketing departments often have insights across all areas of campus life, making them key players in fostering cross-functional communication. Ryan advocates for creating workshops and regular check-ins with campus partners to build these bridges, aligning efforts to prevent messaging inconsistencies and missed opportunities.
Measuring Success Through Dashboards and KPIs
Ryan introduces the concept of institution-wide dashboards to monitor KPIs that reflect marketing’s effectiveness. Beyond enrollment and fundraising, colleges should track how audiences are engaging with content over time. Institutions that measure the same indicators consistently can better align their strategies with campus goals, creating data-informed dashboards that resonate with leadership and stakeholders.
Stay Agile and Open to New Opportunities
Ryan concludes by encouraging a culture of agility, where institutions remain flexible and open to experimenting with new audiences. He shares examples of institutions that have pivoted creatively, like Marquette University partnering with Harley-Davidson to deliver an MBA program on-site. Adopting an agile mindset lets institutions react to and capitalize on emerging opportunities, from new partnerships to potential program repackaging.
This episode offers actionable advice and thought-provoking insights to help institutions improve their marketing strategy and engagement efforts.
Connect With Our Host:
About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Hidden Gem: Marketing Community Colleges is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!
Some of our favorites include Visionary Voices: The College President’s Playbook and Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO.
Enrollify is produced by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.
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