About the Episode
About the Episode: This podcast episode tackles the essential unity of marketing and communications, advocating for a seamless Marcomm strategy that encompasses all channels, both digital and traditional, under a singular, well-defined brand identity. The dialogue underscores that marketing and communications are not separate entities, but rather complementary facets of a holistic approach that ensures consistent and impactful messaging. The episode brings to light the power of storytelling, authenticity, and strategic uniformity and serves as an insightful guide for professionals aiming to synchronize communication tools and promotional strategies to build a robust educational brand.
Key Takeaways
- Integrated MarCom Strategies Build Impactful Narratives: Marketing, communications, and PR should work in harmony to tell a unified story across all channels.
- Internal Audiences Are Your Best Brand Ambassadors: Consistently engaging faculty, staff, and students ensures they can authentically champion the institution’s brand.
- Start with Brand Clarity: A well-defined brand identity lays the foundation for all marketing and communication efforts, creating consistency and trust.
- Measure and Adjust in Real Time: Data-driven insights, like A/B testing and campaign tracking, enable teams to refine strategies for better results.
- Leadership Buy-In Is Essential: A seat at the executive table ensures marketing and communications efforts align with institutional goals.
What Is the Difference Between Marketing, Communications, and PR?
The episode begins by unpacking the confusion around MarCom terminology. Lisa Slappy explains that corporate communications focus on managing internal and external information to influence brand perception. Public relations, on the other hand, deals with fostering relationships and addressing public opinion. Marketing is more action-oriented, focusing on selling products or services through strategic advertising and outreach.
Peter Turan reinforces the importance of storytelling across all functions. Whether it’s marketing, PR, or communications, they all share a common goal: telling the institution’s story to different audiences through various channels in ways that resonate.
Visualizing Integration: A Chair and a Building
To illustrate the importance of integration, Lisa and Peter introduce two memorable analogies:
- The Chair: Lisa describes a four-legged chair where each leg represents an element of communication—external communications, internal communications, community relations, and marketing. The seat symbolizes integration, while the backrest represents key stakeholders like students, employees, and the board of trustees. If one leg falters, the entire chair collapses.
- The Building: Peter compares integrated MarCom to a structure with a brand foundation, three pillars (traffic, destination, and nurture), and a dome of integrated marketing. This analogy underscores the importance of starting with a strong brand, creating targeted campaigns, and nurturing relationships through tailored communications.
These analogies emphasize that integration ensures consistency, strengthens collaboration, and maximizes resources.
How to Maintain Consistency Across Messaging
Consistency is key to creating a cohesive brand, but it’s not always easy in higher education, where silos between departments can lead to disjointed messaging. Both Lisa and Peter highlight strategies for maintaining consistency:
- Engage Internal Audiences First: Faculty and staff must understand and believe in the brand to serve as authentic ambassadors. Regular training, workshops, and resources—such as Carroll’s practice of welcoming new hires through the marketing team—help reinforce messaging.
- Develop Clear Brand Guidelines: Providing accessible tools, templates, and branding guidelines ensures that even non-marketers can create materials that align with the institutional identity.
- Leverage Data and Feedback: Use surveys, campaign analytics, and real-time feedback to adjust strategies and messaging based on audience response.
Aligning MarCom Efforts with Institutional Goals
MarCom teams must align their strategies with the college’s mission and strategic goals to demonstrate their value. Lisa shares her experience integrating communications, PR, and marketing at Carroll Community College to ensure that messaging supports the institution’s broader objectives.
Key strategies include:
- A Seat at the Table: As a member of the executive team, Lisa ensures that communication priorities reflect institutional needs and can pivot when necessary.
- Defined Goals: Clearly outline measurable goals, such as increasing enrollment by a specific percentage or boosting community engagement, to guide efforts and evaluate success.
- Collaboration: Break down silos to foster collaboration between marketing, academics, and other departments, ensuring everyone works toward shared objectives.
Peter adds that marketing leaders must advocate for resources and timelines while managing leadership expectations. By presenting data on what works—and what doesn’t—MarCom teams can make a strong case for additional investments and strategic pivots.
Success Stories of Integrated Campaigns
Lisa and Peter share examples of campaigns that effectively integrated marketing and communications:
- Colorado Community College Campaign: Peter highlights a college that successfully aligned its brand and messaging with its community, exciting students, alumni, and external stakeholders. The campaign’s authenticity was its key strength, demonstrating the importance of rooting campaigns in the institution’s true identity.
- University of Baltimore’s Knowledge That Works Campaign: Peter recounts a successful branding effort centered on real-world learning. The campaign resonated so strongly that students began using the tagline themselves, holding the university accountable to its promise.
These examples emphasize that integrated campaigns grounded in authenticity and supported by data can drive significant results in enrollment, engagement, and reputation.
About the Show: The Hidden Gem podcast is dedicated to empowering community college presidents, executive team members, enrollment, marketing and communication leaders with the knowledge and insights they need to harness the full potential of strategic marketing and communications within their institutions. This podcast aims to shed light on the often-overlooked aspects of marketing, emphasizing its vital role in shaping an institution's overall strategy and success.
By showcasing real-world examples, case studies, and interviews with experienced community college leaders and industry experts, the podcast will inspire its audience to view marketing and communication as integral components of their leadership toolkit, not an ancillary service. It aims to elevate the importance of these functions and empower leaders to make more informed and strategic decisions in their roles.
Connect With Our Host:
Maya Demishkevich
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayademishkevich/
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 made possible by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.
Connect with Us at the Engage Summit:
Exciting news — Maya will be at the 2024 Engage Summit in Raleigh, NC, on June 25 and 26, and we’d love to meet you there! Sessions will focus on cutting-edge AI applications that are reshaping student outreach, enhancing staff productivity, and offering deep insights into ROI.
Use the discount code Enrollify50 at checkout, and you can register for just $99! This early bird pricing lasts until March 31.
Learn more and register at engage.element451.com — we can’t wait to see you there!
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