Higher Ed Marketing Leaders Need Permission to Say “No”
“Let’s link to our regional events on the university homepage!” says the alumni director.
“Did you see the biology faculty’s new research project? We should do an ad campaign around that,” exclaims the dean of the sciences college.
“The communication arts program has its highest enrollment ever—ten students! We should do a press release!” writes the director of recruitment.
This constant influx of suggestions like these can put marketing leaders in a tricky position.
While they may share the enthusiasm their colleagues have for the school’s happenings, marketers also want to execute the most successful campaigns possible. And to execute the most successful campaigns possible, sometimes the answer to an enthusiastic professor or a pumped-up alumna quite simply needs to be “no.”
In other words, to say the strongest “yes” possible, marketers have to say “no,” too.
Saying “no” doesn’t have to be as hard as it may seem at first. By establishing a clear framework for campaigns, and by communicating that framework throughout the institution, marketing leaders can help their colleagues grow in a common understanding of the school’s approach to marketing.
When it comes to building such a framework, academic programs, sports and activities, and student personas are great places to start.
Prioritize Programs
While your school may pride itself on having something for everyone, it’s likely that such an approach leads you to miss out on promoting your best academic programs.
When it comes to choosing the programs you want to feature prominently in your school’s marketing campaigns, consider which programs:
are growing in enrollment
demonstrably prepare students for success in graduate school
directly correlate to jobs with growing market demand
offer unique experiences like internships, study abroad, or mentorship
Does your pre-law bachelor’s degree have an eye-catching law school acceptance rate? Maybe your business analytics program has a partnership with local businesses that offer students real-world experiences. Perhaps the internships offered through your sports management major regularly lead to full-time positions after graduation.
Lean on facts like these in your marketing approach! By saying “no” to leading with a general, something-for-everyone approach—and saying “no” to marketing programs with less recruitment power—your school can say “yes” to marketing programs that will draw students who will thrive.
Spotlight Sports and Stages
When it comes to sports and the arts, where has your school invested? Maybe you hired a coveted basketball coach or have an award-winning chorale. Perhaps your school offers the opportunity to participate in a sport or special interest that can be hard to find at other institutions. Maybe the culture of camaraderie and competition around the school’s softball team is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Things like these can be critically important in raising the profile of a school and helping prospective students to imagine themselves becoming a part of your community. Consider which sports or arts opportunities:
receive financial support and resources
have strong alumni involvement
generate goodwill and a sense of belonging on campus
If students never fail to show up at the spring musical, cheer their hearts out on the tennis court, or curate the campus art displays like master gallerists—highlight those examples in your marketing campaigns. For some prospective students, an ad or brochure that features the sport or artistic opportunity they love will grab their imagination more than any of your more general materials. But first you have to say "no" to that all-inclusive approach.
Recruit Realistically
With ever-increasing competition in a crowded higher education landscape, leaders may feel nervous about focusing their marketing strategies. But the truth is, by saying “no” to a generalized approach, colleges can say “yes” to the students who would have fit best on their campus all along.
Maybe your school:
helps students with learning disabilities thrive in the college environment
has a work-study program that students love
invests far more heavily in the sciences than the arts, or vice versa
Consider creating personas that describe the type of student who would resonate with the various dynamics of your school. If your persistence rate for first-generation college students is sky-high, how can you dig deeper into the needs of such a prospective student and market to them? If your online program delivery gives full-time workers access to a quality education they’d otherwise miss, how can you further understand such a professional and market directly to them?
Personas can help your marketing team feed what’s already growing at your school. In doing so, you may very well help smaller programs and populations thrive as well. That physics department with two professors and nine students may never get the big ad campaign of their dreams. But if the neighboring computer science lab is promoted and successfully draws students, chances are that the physics department will see some growth as the institution’s general public profile increases.
For You, For Your Institution
You already know you can’t say “yes” to everything. By establishing a marketing framework, you can make those tough decisions simpler. Your school is already doing great things that will draw students in—now it’s time to market them specifically and creatively!
5° Branding builds brands by helping universities refine their most meaningful stories. Interested? Let’s talk.
