Weekly interviews with
experienced and successful marketers
in the education space

One of the biggest challenges for education marketers is the length of the average enrollment cycle.

In a field like Ecommerce, it usually takes just five to seven days for a lead to convert into a paid customer. Odds are, that Ecommerce purchase didn’t require much thought, since the product was probably more of a “want” than a “need.” Choosing the next stage of your academic career, on the other hand, is a life-changing decision. You can’t blame a prospective student for waiting several months (at least) to apply to a school. Thus, education marketers must monitor this months-long decision-making process so they can determine which marketing efforts are having the most influence on enrollments.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• How do you create strategies for such a long sales cycle?
• Why are tracking and attribution so important?
• What is the purpose of a lead management system?

This week, I spoke to Akeel Haider, who is the Director of Performance Marketing at the Flatiron School. This coding bootcamp has ten campuses around the US, along with one London campus. Students can also complete their degrees entirely online.

With nearly fifteen years of experience in performance marketing for higher education, Akeel has helped many traditional and non-traditional schools better understand their marketing funnel. This became increasingly difficult as schools began using more channels to connect with prospective students. Eventually, Akeel concluded that the key to scaling efficiently was creating a system that uses a variety of KPIs to accurately track the progression of the prospects’ journey from the first marketing touch point down to enrollment and matriculation stages in the admissions funnel and beyond.

How do you create strategies for such a long sales cycle?

Poor quality leads is a common struggle in the education space. In Akeel’s experience, the quality of a lead is directly related to the individual’s similarity to your ideal student, or persona. So, before tackling any other part of your marketing funnel, the first questions to ask yourself are: Are you attracting the right persona? Do your lead generation efforts reflect your persona’s goals and preferences?

Once you’ve gotten that out of the way, you can move on the daunting task of connecting the dots, i.e. tracking different touch points to gain full visibility of the enrollment cycle. Each stage of the funnel has its own KPIs, with the bottom funnel KPIs being the most important. This is because there are too many misleading early indicators of a high quality lead. Rather than focusing entirely on cost-per-lead, Akeel recommends devoting more attention to optimizing bottom funnel KPIs like cost-per-acquisition.

Why are tracking and attribution so important?

Another reason it’s so difficult to track the full enrollment cycle is because the required data doesn’t just come from one place. Many education marketers get their data from a number of systems: you have the student information system, CRM system, marketing automation systems, and the marketing platforms themselves. The solution is to create a database that collects data from all of these systems and ultimately allows you to see the final stages of each enrollment cycle.

Although Akeel has only been at the Flatiron School for about five months, he has already managed to slash their cost-per-acquisition by an incredible 75%. How did he do it? By improving tracking so he could see which marketing channels were driving the most applications and enrollments. In Akeel’s case, paid search turned out to be their top performing acquisition channel, so he optimized accordingly.

What is the purpose of a lead management system?

As vital as CRMs are for education marketers, they still have flaws like any other software tool. For example, while most CRMs do a wonderful job of collecting leads, they are not designed to determine the quality of these leads, or whether or not these leads are even real. An email asking for more information could be fake, but the CRM doesn’t know that.

Akeel solved this problem with a lead management system, which is the middleware between someone filling out a lead form and the data being entered into the CRM. There’s about a dozen reputable lead management systems out there, and some offer very different features than others. However, it’s important to remember that the main benefit of any lead management system is to simply weed out the junk so you can easily see which leads are more likely to covert.

Different Methods, Same Goals

Unfortunately, the technology that education marketers need has not evolved at the same pace as the education industry. For this reason,
Akeel had no choice but to create his own systems and processes for collecting information and tracking touchpoints. But while his methods were certainly unique, they were just another way to obtain the foundation for every successful digital marketing strategy: data. Education marketers must always remember that it’s the collection of data – not the actions you take afterwards – that usually requires the most effort.

All types of marketers share at least one objective: putting ourselves in the minds of our target audience.

This is particularly difficult for education marketers due to the length of the average enrollment cycle. Interests change as prospective students move through the marketing funnel. And the latest data on your education organization’s ideal student – or persona – can indicate a major shift in creative strategy. As education marketers wrack their brains to develop topics for content, they can’t help but think: “There has to be an easier way to figure this out.”

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What is empathy-based marketing?
• Which questions should you address in your content?
• Which types of content do different personas prefer?

This week, I spoke to Roger Welch, who is the VP of Marketing for EdTech company Springboard. This San Francisco-based startup offers career track courses on data, software engineering, coding, and UX. Unlike most other bootcamps, Springboard actually guarantees job placement for their students, or they get their money back. Springboard also works closely with recent graduates for several months to help them find jobs in their desired industry. Having such a career-oriented business model allows Roger and his team to anticipate the primary concerns of prospective students and ultimately understand why someone would be curious about a school like Springboard in the first place.

What is empathy-based marketing?

Empathy-based marketing refers to the act of providing critical information and answering logical questions for personas well before they are in the market for your services. This requires an understanding of the initial thoughts that trigger interest in a certain career path. At Springboard, for example, the majority of their students are working professionals looking for a career change. So, in order to utilize empathy-based marketing, Roger and his team must think about why someone would want to change careers, and why they would choose one of the career paths offered by Springboard.

In Roger’s case, he envisioned someone who is on their way to work and thinking “Man, I wish I could be going somewhere else.” Well, what kind of questions would proceed this thought? Maybe this individual would want to know how much time they’d have to invest in changing careers, or if it’s even possible to completely change careers at this age. Implementing these topics into content shows that you genuinely empathize with your persona’s dilemmas and are more focused on helping them than selling your services.

Which questions should you address in your content?

If you’re not sure which questions to address in your content, Roger recommends a simple but extremely clever strategy. Start with a fairly basic question, like, “What is data science?” If you enter this question into Google, you will see related searches at the bottom of the results page (“People also ask….”). It’s so easy that it almost feels like cheating!

This brilliant strategy can also provide different topics for each stage of your sales funnel. Someone at the top of the funnel might ask something like “How to get a career in data science,” whereas someone closer to the bottom might want to know “How to ace a data scientist interview.” Providing content for each stage of the funnel not only makes prospective students return to your website, but also establishes your reputation as a trusted expert in this career path.

Which types of content do different personas prefer?

An effective content strategy involves multiple channels: blog posts, podcasts, videos, infographics, etc. The type of content that your persona prefers largely depends on their age range. For example, while younger audiences clearly prefer videos, older audiences tend to prefer written content and long-form blog posts.

Odds are, your article or video is far from the only content a prospective student has encountered that day. This is why Roger recommends augmenting organic content with paid content. Someone who reads a blog post, for instance, should then be greeted with a display ad that conveys the same main theme as the blog post.

Marketers must connect with personas as people

Putting yourself in the mind of your persona means connecting with them on a human level. Roger and his team don’t just think about how someone becomes interested in a certain career path. They think about why someone would even start thinking about career paths in general. The deeper you go into your persona’s thought process, the deeper and more empathic your content will be.

Despite the undeniable value of omni-channel strategies, an education organization’s most important marketing tool is its website.

If the content is informative and engaging enough, it will be all a prospective student needs to decide that your school is the right fit. Creating content that gains serious traction, however, is no easy feat. Perhaps the biggest challenge is figuring out how to simultaneously promote your programs while providing genuinely helpful information for anyone interested in this career path.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What role does content play in a student’s research process?
• How should you choose your blog topics?
• Which channels should you use to promote blog posts?

This week, I spoke to Lauren Landry, the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at Harvard Business School Online (HSBO). Lauren specializes in content strategy, which is no surprise considering her background in journalism. As an education reporter for a Boston-based media company, Lauren frequently interviewed college students about their post-graduation plans. She learned why many students were focused on honing specific skills, and why some chose to pursue post-graduate degrees. Today, Lauren applies this firsthand knowledge to develop and distribute content related to both topics, which are still paramount concerns of incoming students.

What role does content play in a student’s research process?

Online search is the most popular method for discovering education organizations and programs. This is largely because about 90% of prospective students have no idea what school they want to attend before performing their searches. “No one just wakes up one morning and says ‘I know for sure that I’m going to get a business certificate from Harvard Business School Online,’ “ Lauren said. It’s a school’s online content that leads prospective students to this conclusion.

At HBSO, Lauren and her team create content that answers criticual questions for business students. Which skills will be most integral to their success? What kind of career paths would benefit from an MBA? The HBSO team also presents different types of content for prospective students at different stages of the marketing funnel. For example, a prospective student’s journey might begin with an alumni testimonial, followed by a long-form blog post, and then an E-book to push them to the brink of enrollment.

How should you choose your blog topics?

It’s vital to remember that blog posts are geared towards high to mid funnel leads. This creates the need for an equal (or nearly equal) volume of two types of posts: Those that cater to readers who have already chosen a certain area of study, and those that cater to readers who are almost there but not 100% sure. In the case of HSBO, an example of the former would be a post about achieving work-life balance. An example of the latter might be a post about the necessity of the skills acquired at business school.

But regardless of the post’s target audience, your number one priority should be providing helpful information, not promoting your school. Prospective students will not read blatantly promotional posts. They are more likely to enroll at schools that display a genuine desire to guide them along their educational journey.

Which channels should you use to promote blog posts?

After solidifying the themes of your blog posts, your next step is content distribution. Lauren’s team promotes their content through organic social media posts, email newsletters, and their loyal alumni base. They don’t pay to push traffic to blog content, likely because paid social media posts are usually designed for low funnel leads. Promoting content through this manner might also give the posts that self-serving vibe, which the team avoids at all costs.

Another crucial element of successful blog posts is SEO. Aside from following the easily accessible best practices, Lauren says the key to mastering SEO is patience. It takes at least three to six months for a single blog post to generate real results. If one of your posts isn’t performing as well as you hoped, Lauren advises revisiting it to make sure it is as SEO-proof as possible. The SEM saying “Don’t ‘set it and forget it’ ” certainly applies to SEO as well.

Content is too important to ignore

It is no longer acceptable to forego blogging because of the required time investment. Today’s students won’t apply without sufficient information about their desired area of study, and blogs are the perfect way to give it to them. So, until you start or prioritize your school’s blog, you cannot say for sure that you are doing everything you can to grow your enrollments.

Many education organizations are finding themselves completely unprepared for the challenge of enrollment growth.

Their previous marketing strategies appear to have lost all relevance, thanks in no small part to the myriad of differences between millennials and their new audience; Generation Z. It seems that the only option is to start from scratch. But is this even possible? And how do you know which changes to make first? Maybe the key is accepting that a full-scale “reboot” isn’t exactly what your marketing department needs at this time.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Can you really start from scratch in education marketing?
• How to tackle long-term projects like a tech startup
• How to decide if you need outside help

This week, I spoke to Steven Miller, the Vice President of Marketing at Kenzie Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana. Unlike most of my other guests, Steven’s background is not in higher education. He actually comes from the tech world. Kenzie figured that Steven’s experience with startup growth would be a major asset in the reboot of their marketing team. And as a small town kid from the Midwest, Steven aligns with Kenzie’s mission of teaching software engineering to students who weren’t raised in tech-savvy communities. It’s safe to say he was up for the unique task of taking his team into the future by bringing them back down to Earth.

Can you really start from scratch in education marketing?

When discussing the development of Kenzie’s marketing processes, Steven doesn’t prefer to use the term “reboot.”
It’s not entirely accurate because it suggests that the organization’s new strategy has no connection to its previous efforts. No organization ever really starts from scratch, or develops a strategy out of thin air. If your organization had no previous successes, it wouldn’t be alive today.

That’s why step one for enrollment growth is usually figuring out what those successes are and optimizing your current efforts in that direction. But you can’t answer that first question without data. This was Steven’s first initiative at Kenzie: making sure the team was using the right tools for the tracking, reporting, and integration of data. Only after you’ve gathered sufficient data from all marketing channels can you turn your attention to high level strategies.

How to tackle long-term projects like a tech startup

It’s only natural for education marketers to be intimidated by the magnitude of their responsibilities. There’s so much information to gauge about their audience, and boosting engagement is no easy feat. Luckily for the team at Kenzie, Steven’s tech background taught him how to demystify large projects while staying on track towards long-term goals.

In tech, large projects are broken down into smaller, weekly tasks called “sprints.” This gives team members a clear picture of what they’ll be working on each day and ultimately prevents them from getting overwhelmed.

To monitor his team’s progress, Steven utilizes another management tactic from the tech world called “Standups.” These are daily morning meetings in which each team member reveals what they plan to accomplish throughout the day and how it contributes to their long-term goals. Standups also give team members the opportunity to share audience data that may be important to their colleagues. Odds are, if you think a piece of data is important, you’re right.

How to decide if you need outside help

Steven decided to outsource Kenzie’s paid advertising because it would give him more time to focus on the school’s brand identity and student experience. The content of your marketing materials depends on your goals for these two areas. If they are not properly developed, you won’t know which common themes to convey throughout each channel (search, email, social media, etc) or how to convey them. This decision also allows Steven to continuously optimize promotional content so that it further aligns with Kenzie’s target audience.

Lots of work, same steps

Revolutionizing Kenzie’s marketing department took a lot of work, but each stage involved fairly basic questions: Which tool should we use for collecting data? Should we outsource paid advertising or keep it in-house? Should we have meetings every day or once per week? Are we effectively communicating our brand identity?

These are the kind of questions you should be addressing if your department requires similar treatment. It’s crucial to remember that regardless of how much needs to change, you’re still looking for the same basic information as every other education marketer.

Of all the changes taking place in the education industry, few are more significant than the change in target audience. Education organizations currently face the challenge of engaging with the highly mysterious and highly misunderstood Generation Z. Not only do today’s prospective students require different methods of communication, but each engagement strategy must also be as personalized as possible. If you know how to talk to your school’s ideal student and where to talk to them, you’ve got a major competitive advantage.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What are the building blocks of a successful enrollment strategy?
• How should enrollment officers engage with Generation Z?
• What role will automation play in the future of education marketing?

This week, I spoke to Ken Boutelle and Michael Tolmie, who are the Senior Vice President of Enrollment Services and Managing Director of Marketing at National Education Partners in Scottsdale, Arizona. National Education Partners offers a multitude of services to education organizations looking to improve their enrollment efforts as well as their general operations. They help organizations with everything from retention to student services to internal communication. It’s safe to say that Ken, Michael and their colleagues have encountered every possible obstacle to enrollment growth.

What are the building blocks of a successful enrollment strategy?

At National Education Partners, one of their first steps towards enrollment growth is figuring out which metrics (starts, applications, etc.) are in need of the most improvement. Any goal becomes much easier to achieve when you can attach success to specific numbers. For many organizations, growing enrollments also means doing a better job emphasizing the programs with the most unique value propositions. It usually makes sense to optimize marketing spend in this direction.

However, it’s very difficult to obtain sufficient data without regular communication between departments. Ken and Michael revealed that the organizations with the most enrollment issues tend to do a lot of finger-pointing. The enrollment team says the leads are terrible, but the marketing team says the enrollment team just doesn’t know how to close them. Instead, these teams should be spending more time sharing data and creating strategies that make everyone’s lives easier.

How should enrollment officers engage with Generation Z?

Like most organizations, National Education Partners has seen a massive decline in the efficacy of phone calls. Today’s students are much more receptive to text messages. But in Ken and Michael’s experience, it’s the content the student sees well before they talk to admissions officers that really seals the deal. In other words, a student should be able to decide if this organization is right for them solely by looking at their online content.

The type of content that best suits the organization depends on their ideal student, or their most successful programs. Business students, for example, typically prefer to get their information from white papers. Education students, on the other hand, have shown heightened interest in podcasts. Organizations should also consider popular topics of conversation for different industries. One that comes to mind for education students is school safety.

What role will automation play in the future of education marketing?

A major contributor of enrollment issues in traditional education organizations is the high cost of attendance. Thankfully, one tool has the potential to decrease tuition costs while increasing enrollments simultaneously: automation. At the moment, students cannot gather all the information they need or get accepted into a school without the assistance of a human being. National Education Partners is exploring ways to change that by creating an automated, Amazon-like experience.

This solution will likely involve chat bots that are so advanced that they can answer any question and guide prospective students through the entire enrollment process. No more emailing back and forth, no more waiting for acceptance letters. Ken and Michael believe that organizations will see dramatic decreases in their cost per acquisitions as the need for human assistance decreases over time.

There’s no future without data

These predictions may seem rather drastic, but it’s important to remember that they come from hard data. Your organization may be in store for some drastic changes. But with the right data, you’ll know exactly what those changes are and which tools they require. Data is the cornerstone of any successful enrollment strategy. You simply can’t expect to improve enrollment efforts if you don’t know what’s hindering them.

Today’s education marketers have wildly different responsibilities than generations past.

Simply put, the job has become more important, and therefore requires the use of more advanced tools. One of the most sought-after tools in education marketing is CRM platforms. We know that CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management.” But what do these platforms actually do for education organizations? How can you choose the right option for your team? Before purchasing a subscription, you must first ascertain which additional resources you’ll need to reap the intended benefits of CRM platforms.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What are the main purposes of CRM platforms?
• What is the CRM on-boarding process like?
• Which CRM platforms are used by top education marketers?

This week, I spoke to Adam Stoltz, who is the Director of Enrollment Marketing at the University of Idaho. Throughout his 20-year career in higher education, Adam has worked with private and state colleges of all sizes and assumed a myriad of roles in admissions and enrollment management. As the task of enrollment growth became more challenging, Adam realized that he would have to look beyond the education space for help. He quickly discovered that one of the few marketing tools used by virtually every big company was CRM platforms.

What are the main purposes of CRM platforms?

Since education organizations technically don’t have “customers,” Adam associates the “C” in CRM with “Constituent” instead. This makes sense because education marketers must build connections with parents as well as students. The “Relationship” part is about connecting the dots between a prospective student’s interests and an appropriate major or program. Students don’t just want basic information about potential schools. They want to know what they will actually be doing in the classroom, and how many clubs and organizations relate to their interests.

Lastly, “Management” refers to the use of analytics to improve the entire digital experience. This data is particularly helpful in making it easier for students to access critical information and complete applications. “Without CRMs,” Adam said, “you’re just going on gut feelings.” In other words, it’s very difficult to detect the flaws of a school’s website and marketing materials without extensive analytics.

What is the CRM on-boarding process like?

CRMs are supposed to increase the efficiency of the enrollment marketing process. But this is only possible if the school has enough staff members to oversee the wealth of analytics and performance data CRMs have to offer. For example, the staff member who focuses on email campaigns will certainly not have the time to focus on admissions processing.

Adam has seen many schools make the mistake of leaving just one or two people in charge of their CRM platform. You can tell a school doesn’t have enough CRM staff when one person is attempting to look at five computer monitors, he said. And even with an appropriately-sized team, the CRM on-boarding process is not short. The ideal time frame is nine months to a whole year, and that’s just to get the platform fully integrated into the day-to-day routine.

Which CRM platforms are used by top education marketers?

As far as specific CRM platforms, Adam personally recommends Salesforce Target X and Slate. Target X is the largest CRM on the market and is reportedly used by a great deal of Fortune 500 companies. This is primarily due to its cutting edge technology, and marketers are all about staying ahead of the curve. It’s also very easy to integrate Target X with Google AdWords. This allows schools to immediately begin optimizing based on applications and starts, rather than cold leads.

While Slate is not as robust as Target X, Adam says it’s definitely the most user-friendly. For this reason, he often suggests Slate to schools that don’t have the resources for Target X. Besides, Slate initially gained traction within the Ivy League system and was perfected based on the needs of these legendary universities.

CRMs won’t be very helpful without a team

While CRMs are an essential tool for any education marketer, they may end up doing more harm than good if your school isn’t prepared for the on-boarding process. Enrollment growth has become too challenging to be left in the hands of just a small group of people. The best digital services for your school depends on a variety of circumstances. But regardless of these factors, every marketing department needs a team.

Education marketers often make the mistake of putting too much time and money into generating new leads.

They fail to realize that all this work is essentially meaningless if their conversion rate doesn’t improve. It’s the leads who are already inside the sales funnel that deserve the most attention. Moving leads further and further into the funnel, however, is easier said than done. It takes a lot of creativity to convert a lead into a customer, or student. Education marketers must ultimately figure out what kind of information and outreach tactics prospective students need to seal the deal.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why conversion rate is so important
• What kind of content converts leads into customers?
• How marketers can stand out in their messaging

This week, I spoke to Dr. Kim Saxton, a Clinical Marketing Professor at Indiana University who specializes in quantitative strategy. Though she’s been at IU for about 15 years, Dr. Saxton also has significant experience working with large corporations and startups. Seeing what kind of campaigns actually work in the real world would have a huge influence on Dr. Saxton’s teaching methods. Her students are taught to use data as the inspiration for their ideas, and to break down their goals into specific metrics. This shows them that a strategy can only be called successful if they reach their most important numerical goals.

Why Conversion Rate Is So Important

When you consider Dr. Saxton’s background, it’s no surprise that she regularly lends her expertise to the marketing and admissions teams at IU. Let’s say the school is trying to recruit students for a new program. Dr. Saxton begins this challenge by establishing a series of metrics. The amount of people who have inquired about the program are her total leads. When someone from this group takes further action, like attending a live webinar or opening an email, that person becomes a high quality lead. The amount of high quality leads who apply represents a key metric for all education marketers: conversion rate.

If you don’t know your conversion rate, you don’t know how many leads you need to fill up the program. And when you don’t know how many leads you need, how will you know when you’ve spent too much money generating them? According to Dr. Saxton, 10% is considered a good conversion rate for a newer program. An older program, on the other hand, should have a conversion rate of at least 45%.

What Kind Of Content Converts Leads Into Customers?

Improving conversion rate clearly has a direct impact on a program’s success. Well, how do you do it? Dr. Saxton suggests thinking about the beliefs your ideal student must possess in order to apply, or the beliefs that stop people from applying. For example, let’s say you were tasked with increasing the amount of female applicants to an MBA program. Step one would be researching the beliefs that were stopping women from applying. Did they believe the program wasn’t affordable? Did they not know the long-term benefits? Were they concerned about balancing classes and full-time work?

The answers to these questions would inspire the content of your marketing materials. You could emphasize the program’s affordability by putting a cost calculator front and center. The long-term benefits could be easily accessible through video testimonials from female alumni, most of whom completed the program while working full-time.

How Marketers Can Stand Out In Their Messaging

Dr. Saxton has found that alumni success stories can be a highly effective tool for increasing conversions. They are especially effective, she said, when they don’t target a very specific type of student. In fact, the most visited content on IU’s website is a success story that could target prospective students who are interested in a variety of programs.

Dr. Saxton also noted that while prospective students need to hear about your school five times before taking action, that doesn’t mean you should simply send five emails. Instead, you should send five different forms of content, like social media messages or standard mail.

Anyone Can Generate Leads, But Few Can Convert Them

The importance of conversion rate is reflected in the difficulty of improving it. This is another reason Dr. Saxton centers her courses around conversion strategies. Lots of marketers can generate cold leads, but only expert marketers can increase conversions. It’s only logical that the most difficult work carries the biggest rewards.

The education industry is changing dramatically, but many traditional institutions are stuck in the past. Their marketing materials and enrollment processes have not been updated to accommodate Generation Z. Instead of relying on their reputations to drive enrollments, institutions must evolve to prove that they understand the needs of their students. After all, nothing turns off a prospective student more than a university that apparently believes it’s still catering to Generation X.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why traditional institutions cannot afford to resist change
• The biggest problem with traditional lead forms and applications
• How marketers can prepare for the AI takeover

This week, I spoke to Jim Fong, who is the Chief Research Officer at the University of Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). For most of his career, Jim was an analyst who studied data from the past. Over the past five years, however, his attention has shifted towards the future, and how higher education will be affected by the next economy. Today, much of Jim’s work involves sounding the alarm for traditional institutions who have yet to make the connection between user experience and enrollment growth.

Why institutions cannot afford to resist change

When you consider all of the changes taking place in education, most of them have at least one thing in common: taking prospective students away from traditional, 4-year institutions. Coding schools and bootcamps are on the rise, largely because they offer courses and concentrations you can’t find anywhere else. Aside from the STEM fields, the importance of a Bachelor’s Degree is decreasing in a multitude of industries. The point is, many students who would normally attend traditional institutions are instead seeking other options.

If traditional institutions do not mimic certain qualities of their competitors, Jim isn’t sure they will still be around in ten years or so. This includes offering online courses as well as certificates or badges for students who are interested in a very specific skill set, and have no use for courses outside of their concentration. In order to attract more types of students, institutions must make their most valuable courses more accessible.

The biggest problem with lead forms and applications

Many institutions are constantly updating their physical appearances with new dorms, fitness centers, or dining facilities. Their digital appearances, on the other hand, don’t seem to be getting the same amount of attention. Jim often sees landing pages that are extremely generic, outdated, and ultimately less welcoming than a prospective student would expect. Their lead forms and applications are also unnecessarily tedious.

In fact, Jim and his team recently conducted an experiment where they filled out lead forms for 20 institutions. Every single one, he said, was geared towards Generation X. For example, the form would ask for very personal information like previous employment or the student’s full address. Is this information really relevant? A lead form geared towards Generation Z should probably ask for nothing but a first name and an email address.

How marketers can prepare for the AI takeover

Jim believes that the automation of certain marketing processes will give marketers more time to focus on the creative aspects of their work. The advertisements that stand out will not just be especially stimulating or visually pleasing. They will tell a story and establish a real connection with their target audience. In other words, the education marketers of the future must focus on their most “human” skills. College is supposed to be a life-changing experience, and it’s up to education marketers to communicate the “story” of this experience to every prospective student.

It all begins with hiring the right people

There’s no way around it: traditional institutions have a long, rough road ahead of them. To ease the tension, Jim recommends starting small by hiring more of the right people in departments like marketing, admissions, or student affairs. In the coming years, these investments will likely prove to be far more lucrative than new campus infrastructure.

Many changes occurring in the education space can be attributed to the rise of vocational schools and bootcamps.

As the new kids on the block, alternatives to traditional colleges must go the extra mile to reach prospective students. Proving the unique value of your school, however, is a lot harder with more direct competitors popping up everywhere you turn. Vocational schools and bootcamps tend to get so caught up in expanding their reach that they ignore the need to differentiate themselves from the pack.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• The difference between brand and marketing
• Why some coding schools grow faster than others
• How to demonstrate core values through your brand identity

This week, I spoke to Amandine Aman, the Director of Marketing and Brand at Holberton School. In 2016, Holberton began as a single campus in San Francisco. Fast forward to 2020, when the two-year software engineering and coding school now boasts 9 campuses across the globe. That includes 4 schools in Colombia, 1 school in Tunisia, and its 2 newest schools in Tulsa and New Haven. How did Holberton achieve such explosive growth in less than 4 years? A good guess is Amandine’s ability to show prospective students why they should choose her school over the many others vying for their enrollment.

Why Do Some Schools Grow Much Faster Than Others?

As a branding expert, it’s no surprise that Amandine was quick to bring up brand positioning and messaging when asked about Holberton’s growth. Her team took the time to solidify Holberton’s core values during the school’s infancy. This allowed Holberton to direct their marketing efforts to the right people while emphasizing the school’s most unique advantages.

Having a fully-developed brand identity made the corresponding content much easier to create. In just a few months, Holberton had a completely new website, logo, tagline, and messaging strategy. Holberton’s international efforts were also fueled by Amandine’s experience as Uber’s former Head of Global Marketing. It was here where she learned the stark differences between marketing to international and local audiences.

What Is The Difference Between Brand and Marketing?

Marketers like to act. They prefer to devote more time to putting plans into action, and less time to the actual planning process. This often causes marketers to neglect the importance of branding, Amandine said. Shortly after starting her job at Holberton, she noticed that the marketing content of most coding schools and bootcamps looked extremely similar. Some of them were even using the same stock photos and pedaling the same, generic message: “Pick us because we’re the best.”

Branding allows marketing content to stand out. When developing Holberton’s brand identity, Amandine and her team discussed what makes their students feel like they belong at this school, as opposed to a top competitor. Anyone can post core values on their website. Prospective students, however, probably won’t care unless you also make a conscious effort to demonstrate those values.

How To Demonstrate Your School’s Core Values

One of Holberton’s core values is community. Thanks to Amandine and her team, Holberton’s website effectively portrays an environment where students truly feel at home. Not too long ago, the team even ran a “Thankful” campaign to put students at the forefront so they could share what they love most about Holberton.

This segues into rule number one for genuine and authentic content: raw interactions with current students. Instead of stock images or obviously-edited photos, schools should be using real photos of students in class or just going about their lives. Amandine also suggests taking advantage of student-made art. After all, no one understands campus culture better than the students themselves.

Put Students At The Forefront Of Your Content

Content stands out when it captures the personalities of the student body. This way, website visitors can quickly discern if they can or cannot relate to the school’s brand identity. But there can be no brand identity without an ideal student. As long as your ideal student belongs to a growing community, you won’t have to worry about alienating too many people with your content.

Traditional institutions are the most common subject of scrutiny for education marketers. But let’s be honest: online learning platforms aren’t perfect, either. There is a ton of room for improvement when it comes to their digital marketing efforts as well as the overall experience they provide to new students. Until these improvements are made, online learning platforms will continue their struggles with matching the brand awareness of traditional institutions.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What online learning platforms get wrong about SEM and SEO
• The science of effective CRO
• How online learning platforms can improve retention

This week, I spoke to Alex Atkins, who is the Head of Growth at the CXL Institute. Online learning platforms are all about teaching relevant skills for today’s workforce, including digital marketing. That’s where the CXL Institute is king. They recruit digital marketing experts to teach courses on various disciplines of digital marketing, like SEM, SEO, and CRO. Alex’s career has showed him the stark differences between what works for a traditional institution and what works for his peers. As “evolved” as online learning platforms claim to be, many are still stuck in the past in regards to the three aforementioned disciplines.

What Online Platforms Get Wrong About SEM and SEO

One of the biggest SEM mistakes Alex sees with online learning platforms is investing in location-based search queries. “It seems like a no-brainer,” he said, but it happens all the time. If a student wants to attend school online, then that student is probably going to include words like “online” or “digital degree” in their search. These are the kind of queries online platforms should be investing in, as opposed to those that feature specific locations or “near me.”

Another extremely common mistake for all types of institutions is failing to understand the value of SEO. Alex has personally seen more success with SEO than SEM, largely because he caters to an educated audience. Such individuals tend to trust genuine content over advertisements. Yes, it usually takes 2-4 months for an SEO strategy to gain traction. But once your content attains a high rank, you won’t lose that position anytime soon, Alex added. In this sense, SEO is like a steam engine: It takes time to get moving but once it starts, it never stops.

What is CRO and How Do You Master It?

By definition, CRO stands for conversion rate optimization. What this broad term really refers to, however, is the science of increasing conversions from website visitors. In order to master CRO, marketers must understand their website’s chief objective (i.e. purchasing subscriptions, filling out lead forms) and the actions visitors can take to move closer to this objective (i.e. watching a video, downloading content).

One popular CRO tactic that proved successful for Alex was simplifying the checkout process. The CXL Institute saw a 15% increase in conversions once it became much easier for students to send over the information required for signing up. Even the smallest tweaks in web copy or the layout of an institution’s payment policy can make a huge difference, Alex added.

How Can Online Platforms Improve Retention?

Thanks to orientations, faculty advisors, and on-campus activities, traditional institutions don’t have to worry too much about retaining new students. Online learning platforms, on the other hand, have to go the extra mile to keep new students from questioning their decision. To avoid this scenario, make sure new students can see the value of their purchase immediately after signing up. The benefits of choosing your school cannot be limited to what students have already seen on your website.

Students also favor schools that provide a human touch and genuinely value their enrollment. Alex accomplishes this by segmenting his audiences, instead of sending the same email to every lead. He also contacts prospective students through their preferred channels, like social media or messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Before crafting their messages, schools must take the time to find out what their ideal student’s preferred channel is in the first place.

Traditional vs. Online: Not So Different After All

Despite their many differences, online learning platforms can learn a lot from traditional institutions. Rather than dismissing their entire approach, online learning platforms should take note of how certain traditional institutions convey that they are indeed the best choice for their ideal student. The average teenager perceives college as an incredibly fun, life-changing experience. Online learning platforms should strive to replicate this perception if they intend to change the education space for good.

The biggest disruptors of the education space are all about breaking down barriers.

Think about it: What might stop certain students from getting the education they need to succeed? Maybe they can’t afford the tuition and expenses of traditional institutions. Maybe four years isn’t enough time to master the most relevant skills for their desired industry. One Utah-based vocational school decided to see what would happen if you eliminate both barriers. They knew, however, that they would only achieve their goals if they also focused on the primary objective of virtually every education marketer: making sure their schools accept the right students.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why income sharing is finally gaining traction
• How coding boot camps guarantee relevant skill sets
• How all vocational schools can ensure high graduation rates

This week, I spoke to Mo Reeder, the co-founder and COO of V School. Previously known as “Coding Campus,” V School is Utah’s first vocational school for coding and design. Like most other coding boot camps, V School places tremendous emphasis on post-graduate success, which is ensured through three main strategies. First, on-campus students are given free housing, transportation, and laptops. This significantly decreases the cost of attending. Second, students don’t graduate until they have secured a full-time job in their field. And lastly, students can elect to pay their tuition through the income-sharing agreement. That means you literally don’t pay a dime until you reach a certain annual salary threshold.

Why V School Students Are Much More Likely To Succeed

Income sharing revolves around the heightened likelihood of students obtaining well-paying jobs after graduation. This is only feasible if students learn the right skills for their industry, and hone these skills to the point of mastery. But how does the school know what these skills are? V School stays up to date about relevant skill sets through partnerships with tech giants like Google and Amazon. When these companies raise their hiring standards, V School updates its courses to meet new skill requirements.

And since V School students don’t have a time limit on their education (i.e. 4 years), they can spend as much time as they need to learn important skills. Many coding and design professionals would likely agree that 4 years is not always enough time to feel truly confident in your specialty. Traditional institutions also usually don’t offer courses as up to date as coding boot camps. This is why companies like Apple, Google, and IMB no longer require 4-year degrees for employment.

How To Prevent The Wrong People From Applying

The average V School student earns approximately $65,000 a year in their first job after graduation. Mo believes that traditional institutions would see similar post-graduation success if they had higher graduation rates. V School’s graduation rate is an amazing 90%, which Mo attributes to their 15% acceptance rate. Students do not succeed at vocational schools unless they are absolutely sure that this is the right career path for them. If a prospective student isn’t sure if coding or design is their calling, V School’s lengthy application process will guide them to a conclusion.

V School applicants must complete 40 hours of pre-course work and take a 2-hour assessment test geared towards problem-solving. Only those who truly love coding or design will have the motivation to conquer this process. After passing the test, the applicant is interviewed by V School’s Director of Education, who personally signs off on the acceptance of every single student.

Prospective Students Can Even Take Courses For Free

As for marketing strategies, V School has had tremendous success drawing attention through Instagram stories. V School also offers free coding courses, where prospective students can soak up hours and hours of meaningful content. The free courses aren’t a surprise, as V School intends to offer even more free programs in the near future, like food services.

Income-sharing and free housing have allowed V School to amass an incredibly diverse student population. When asked about his proudest achievements, Mo recalled a trip to Lebanon a few years ago, where V School staff taught coding to 150 Syrian refugees. The trip did not turn a profit but the staff didn’t mind, since they love teaching coding just as much as their ideal student loves learning it.

Income Sharing Is More Practical Than Risky

Income sharing seems a lot less “risky” when you realize how much effort these schools put towards post-graduate success. V School students are as prepared as possible for the workforce, which maximizes their opportunities for well-paying jobs.

Education marketers must understand that for today’s students, the question of “Which school offers the best education?” has essentially been replaced by “Which school offers the best tools to start my career?”

Many parents would likely agree that their education did not adequately prepare them for the real world.

In order to save their children from the same outcome, parents often choose education organizations that focus on highly relevant skills. They want their children to learn the most critical skills for tomorrow’s workforce. An organization that specializes in fulfilling this need would almost certainly have a major competitive edge. But how can that organization be so sure that its students will be successful, regardless of what tomorrow’s workforce looks like?

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why parents are concerned about traditional education processes
• The skills elementary schools should emphasize in marketing materials
• How disruptive organizations can get the word out

This week, I spoke to Grayson Mass, who is the Chief Communications Officer and Vice President of Sales for the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS). AoPS Academy started as an online school in 2003 and has since expanded to ten physical learning centers. Approximately 17,000 students are currently enrolled in AoPS online courses, with 7,000 enrolled in their physical locations. AoPS also writes, publishes and distributes its own textbooks and software. While traditional education revolves around rote memorization, AoPS gives students the mental tools required for solving unfamiliar challenges in any subject area.

Why Rote Memorization Is Losing Relevance

Today’s parents want their children to be more prepared for the challenges lying ahead. Well, one of the biggest challenges of virtually any job is unfamiliar problems with no clear solution. It’s inevitable: Regardless of which job you end up in, you’re going to face tasks that take you out of your comfort zone. Conquering these obstacles requires confidence, creativity, perseverance, and patience. You can’t give up when your first tries don’t work.

Rote memorization, however, only teaches children to apply what they already know. Jobs that don’t involve new challenges can be filled by robots, and are therefore expected to be phased out in the near future. This is why AoPS’s primary focus is teaching students how to react to new challenges. The curriculum’s alternative approach to math encourages out-of-the-box thinking and experimentation. Students often have to test out multiple types of solutions before finding the answer. This takes time, but the most critical challenges cannot be solved right away.

Turning Math Into A Comic Book Adventure

It’s natural to question AoPS’s learning model. Kids hate math, right? What could possibly make them want take on increasingly challenging problems? AoPS turns math into an adventure with Beast Academy, an educational comic book series that has become a smash hit at elementary schools across the US. Kids love Beast Academy so much, Grayson said, that they sometimes ask their teachers to skip recess so they can continue learning.

Beast Academy’s success proves that contrary to popular belief, elementary school students are hungry for challenging tasks. They want to solve puzzles and are resilient enough to not get frustrated. Organizations just have to portray the tasks in an engaging manner that couldn’t be more different than a traditional textbook.

How AoPS Connects With Skeptical Parents

As for promotional strategies, AoPS builds buzz through two methods. First is word of mouth referrals, which come in spades when your organization produces real results. The second method is speaking tours, which AoPS conducts before opening new physical locations. These events typically begin by posing questions to the parents in attendance, like “How many of you often face new problems at work?” or “When you face a new problem, how many of you get it right on your first try?”

Welcome to marketing 101: Don’t lead by talking about your product; talk about the problem it solves. AoPS connects with local parents by establishing the importance of being able to conquer new challenges. This is followed by the assurance that if children can acquire this skill, they’ll succeed at anything in life.

Everyone Just Wants To Be More Prepared

It seems that parents of elementary school students aren’t too different than college students. Their main concern is making sure they choose an organization that understands the requirements of the workforce. Education marketers must show parents and students that their organizations can provide a sense of certainty as we move towards an increasingly uncertain future.

There’s marketers, and then there’s storytellers.

Members of the latter group often say that their job is to teach, rather than sell.It’s easy to imagine why this mindset would be particularly advantageous for an education marketer. After all, today’s students don’t just want basic information about potential schools. They want a myriad of reasons to believe that this is indeed the right school for them. Thus, education marketers must master the art of storytelling and show prospective students how this experience will change their lives.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• The difference between marketing and storytelling
• How to educate prospective students through marketing materials
• The most effective marketing channels for spreading your story

This week, I spoke to Tony Vlahos, who has been the CMO of ExecuNet for nearly 13 years. Though this is Tony’s official title, he believes that “Chief Storyteller” is a more accurate description of his job. This makes sense, as Tony’s ability to create and spread compelling stories has grown ExecuNet by an amazing 2,300% since he joined the company. ExecuNet is a learning company for senior level executives seeking advice about everything from leadership to career changes to new positions. Much of Tony’s tremendous success can be attributed to his central goal of showing his target audience that yes, ExecuNet can be that transformative experience they’ve been searching for.

What Is The Difference Between Marketing And Storytelling?

No one likes to be sold to, especially senior level executives. They don’t want to see promotional offers for professional advice. They want to know if ExecuNet is truly worth their time. This is why Tony centers his efforts around the outcome of joining ExecuNet. He emphasizes what the results have been for other people, and what makes this community so special. In other words, Tony tells the “story” of what will happen once the individual joins ExecuNet, based on other stories that have unraveled thus far. He simply tells the truth, and senior level executives are smart enough to discern a genuine invitation from a deceptive marketing ploy.

In fact, that’s what Tony calls his cold emails: invitations. There’s no “call to action,” because Tony’s goal is not to get the recipient to make a purchase or fill out a lead form. Instead, he asks recipients to attend an ExecuNet webinar or live talk, completely free of charge. “I come from the Grateful Dead school of marketing,” Tony said, “I believe in giving things away.” In this case, giving something away for free only helps Tony show potential members what the ExecuNet experience is all about.

The Power Of Strategies That Stand Out

Another reason Tony’s approach has been so successful is the power of referrals. People trust the opinions of their friends and relatives over any form of advertisement. The idea is to give people a reason to refer you. Well, can you remember the last time a cold email invited you to a webinar or live talk for free? Can you remember the last time a cold email offered to change your life and seemed fairly confident that this would actually happen? These moments are rare enough to stand out, so much so that you’d probably relay them to your friends.

Tony’s email strategy stands out because it has more heart than any advertisement you’ve ever seen. And you can’t build a long-lasting community like ExecuNet if new members don’t feel connected to your organization. “You can trick people into signing up,” Tony told me, “but if you have truth and soul, people will trust you and stay with you.”

How Education Marketers Can Become Storytellers

One of the biggest mistakes made by education marketers is only communicating basic information. Their websites and other marketing materials merely say “Here’s what our program is, here’s how much it costs, here’s when you can sign up, etc.” Today’s students are much more likely to choose schools that attract interest most effectively. Education marketers can accomplish this through two essential elements of Tony’s strategy: First, they must emphasize the many benefits of choosing their school, and explain what makes their school special.

Secondly, marketers must back up their claims by featuring success stories of former or current students. Did they make new friends? Did they love their professors? Tony frequently tells potential members of ExecuNet that every current member was facing the exact same dilemma as them before they joined. Education marketers must do the same by showing prospective students that they have similar interests and goals as their most successful former students.

You Must Truly Believe In What You Are Saying

Like other elite education marketers, Tony’s success is fueled by his genuine belief in his organization. It’s time to dig deep into your organization and see what makes it special. When you communicate these things to prospective students, they’ll be able to tell that unlike the other marketers vying for their attention, you actually believe what you’re saying.

A term we hear quite frequently in the education space is “disruptor”. But when something gets thrown around so loosely, it’s easy to lose track of its original meaning.

Simply put, the central purpose of disruption is meeting the student’s needs more effectively. Education organizations must look at the traditional school system and ask themselves, “What parts of this just don’t make sense for today’s students?” Many organizations would likely agree that the biggest problem with the traditional system is that it does not adequately prepare students for the ultra-competitive workforce.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• How traditional course programs inhibit specialized skills
• Why stackable credentials are so appropriate for today’s students
• Why the classic “college experience” is still crucial for incoming freshmen

This week, I spoke to Scott Schwab, co-founder of Bottega, the first regionally accredited “Bootcamp” school. Bottega was inspired by Scott’s own experience as an undergraduate business student. He attended college to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. But in those four years, Scott never wrote business plan, pitched a business idea, or did anything to prepare him for the reality of starting a business. This just happens to be the main focus of Bottega: giving students the exact skills they need to succeed after graduation.

Students Want Specific Skills, Not General Knowledge

College is supposed to help students develop the most relevant skills for their desired industries. But it’s very difficult for students to do this when they are required to break their education into semesters and take completely unrelated classes simultaneously. A student looking to develop a specific skill might only be able to take one relevant class per semester. And how do universities even know which skills are most relevant for each industry?

Bottega offers logical solutions for all of these dilemmas. Thanks to their partnerships with industry leaders, Bottega courses are directly influenced by the current job market. Students take highly specific courses so they can focus on building the most relevant skills as quickly as possible. Proficiency in a specific skill is eventually confirmed through a special credential. The student then focuses on becoming proficient in another skill, and then “stacks” each credential to build a degree-like certification.

What About Students Who Haven’t Chosen A Career?

Despite Bottega’s stark differences with traditional universities, Scott believes there is still tremendous value in the classic “college experience.” After all, not every college freshman knows what they want to do with their life. They find their path by taking courses in a wide variety of areas. But once they do find their path, Scott says students should be able to “drop in and drop out,” or take individual courses whenever they like. They shouldn’t have to wait several years to take a very important course, or be required to take courses that have nothing to do with their specialty.

Another major focus of Bottega is internships. Since course loads are based on the job market, students are put into internships so they can learn which skills are losing or gaining relevance and decide which courses to take next. In Scott’s opinion, this is a huge reason why a great deal of Generation Z is considering alternatives to traditional universities. Today’s students want real world experience, so universities must build relationships with industry leaders and offer internships as courses.

Nowadays, Industry Exposure Is Just A Few Clicks Away

The fact that Bottega even exists speaks volumes about how different today’s students are compared to generations’ past. It is now fairly common for a high school graduate to have a specific career in mind. Why? Think of how much information is at their fingertips. By the time they graduate high school, today’s students have already been exposed to a myriad of industries.

Education marketers must remember to treat their audiences as if they have clear career expectations. Prospective students need schools that understand their priorities. Your marketing strategies should always strive to convey the message “We know what you really want out of this experience.”

Today’s students don’t just search for schools. They shop for them, and most shoppers probably wouldn’t make a purchase based on the advice of an “admissions counselor”.

What these students need are sales associates. In order to meet the demands of prospective students, admissions teams must adopt the same skills as salespeople who close deals over the phone and online. If your admissions team can’t close, a great deal of your marketing efforts could go to waste.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• How the role of admissions staff has changed as of late
• What to look for when hiring for admissions
• Preparing your staff for a vastly different selling process

This week, I spoke to Jennifer Blair, Enrollment Specialist for Hack Reactor at Galvanize. With over 20 years of experience in the higher ed enrollment space, Jennifer knows what can make or break an admissions team. She believes that enrollment issues can often be attributed to admissions teams not having the resources or training to handle their newly extensive responsibilities. Before developing sales strategies, admissions teams must examine a number of data points to better understand the task in front of them.

Are Your Prospects Receiving The Attention They Deserve?

To determine if an admissions team is undersized or inefficient, consider what goes into the total conversion process. How many points of touch does the average prospective student need before sending an application? How many hours of work does the staff member usually have to put in to make this happen? Once you have those numbers down, you can examine the number of applications per staff member and number of new students per staff member.

Jennifer says that admissions teams frequently make the mistake of thinking that once an accepted student sends their first deposit, the student no longer requires any more outreach or information. But admissions officers must now be involved in the entire student lifecycle to prevent the student from re-thinking their decision or transferring later on. Prospective students are also more likely to convert when they only have to speak to one person throughout the enrollment process, Jennifer added.

The New Standards For Enrollment Officers

Since the job of enrollment officers has gotten so much harder, the hiring process should be more rigorous. To determine if a candidate is the right fit, Jennifer suggests looking for five paramount qualities that she calls her “Fast Five.” At the very top is autonomy: Has candidate exhibited the ability to make decisions on their own and conquer adversity? Have they studied abroad, volunteered, interned, etc.? Next is communication, both written and verbal. Enrollment officers must be able to evoke kindness and compassion through all forms of communication.

Maintaining an air of comfort is especially difficult when approaching sensitive topics, like financial aid. If an enrollment officer
has personal experience with financial struggles (quality number 3), prospective students in a similar situation will feel a connection to the school. Number four is competitive drive, or the candidate’s experience with sports, music, and other competitive endeavors. By far the most important quality, however, is number five: Does the enrollment officer truly believe in the school’s mission? Jennifer says prospective students can spot a lack of authenticity a mile away, so enrollment officers must speak from the heart.

How To Teach Enrollment Officers To Sell

“You play like you practice” reflects Jennifer’s view on training admissions staff. Telling new staff members to read a script and role play with each other won’t prepare them for conversations with today’s students. Instead, they must hone on their ability to tailor their pitches to each student’s individual characteristics. After all, people tend to like people who are much like themselves. Enrollment officers must therefore take their time building a rapport with each student, which typically starts with asking personal questions, rather than just telling the student about their school.

Since it’s often difficult for enrollment officers to critique themselves, Jennifer recommends placing a mirror on their desks so they can see how they look when they speak to prospective students. Like an expert salesperson, enrollment officers must ensure that they are always selling, not telling. A great way to see if they are doing is recording themselves, Jennifer says, and paying close attention to their first impression.

Marketing Isn’t Just Up To The Marketing Team

In the world of sales, the aforementioned skills are viewed as “common sense.” But not to enrollment officers, who are essentially doing a completely different job than what they’re used to. If schools want to grow their enrollments, they must accept that their marketing team is not the only department that needs to evolve. This overarching goal will remain out of reach until all of its components are in sync.

Education marketers face the daunting task of introducing marketing concepts to organizations that don’t sell traditional products or services.

One of these concepts is identifying an organization’s central mission. Education organizations must mimic the biggest companies in the world and allow their mission to shape their brand, unite their various divisions, and ensure wise spending decisions. Many education marketers believe that becoming more data-centric and cost effective begins with schools accepting that they are indeed “brands” like every other company.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• How to put together the framework for an institution’s brand
• Common mistakes schools make about metrics
• The importance of cross-team collaboration

This week, I spoke to Krista Smith, the Director of Marketing at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. With over 15 years of experience in the education space, Krista is familiar with every component of a successful education marketing strategy. She’s helped institutions improve brand messaging, attribution models, and their overall understanding of metrics. Step one in Krista’s process, however, is oversimplifying the brand. Institutions must never lose sight of the “Why?” behind their enrollment efforts. After answering that question, institutions can align all channels and marketing materials with their identity and ideal student.

How Should Institutions Frame Their Brand?

Today’s students shop for colleges and degrees the same way they shop for clothing. Thus, the same things that make a clothing company (or any famous company) stand out should be prioritized by education marketers. For example, famous companies are typically associated with unique color schemes and images. They tend to have their own jingles or type of background noise in their advertisements as well. If an institution doesn’t have its own visual or auditory identity, it can easily get lost in the crowd.

The language institutions use must also cater to their target audience. When Krista worked with a cosmetics school, she specifically told them not to use the same formal language of a business or medical school. The distinct voice and keywords featured on an institution’s website have been integral to numerous success stories from her career. These institutions enabled their websites to clearly communicate everything they had to offer and ultimately provide maximum value to their ideal student.

The Dangers Of Relying On “Vanity Metrics”

When it comes to data, Krista says that many schools simply don’t look deep enough to draw meaningful conclusions. They are too focused on “vanity metrics,” which appear to indicate strong performance but are actually very misleading. An institution might only look at website traffic instead of reviewing additional data to see where this traffic is coming from. It’s similar to only looking at gross inquiries without acknowledging that many of them could be duplicates.

Obtaining meaningful data is much easier with a sophisticated attribution model, Krista added. This can show you the exact point in your application process where prospective students decide to give up or move forward. Without a sophisticated attribution model, a school might cut brand awareness to save money without realizing the effect it will have on organic traffic and paid media costs. If your institution is just starting to track attribution, Krista recommends the last touch model. You’ll be able to see if a new student’s last point in a lead funnel was a Google non-branded campaign, third party email campaign, etc.

Why Marketing Teams Cannot Isolate Themselves

Lastly, Krista made it clear that an education marketing team cannot reach its full potential without cross-team collaboration. She quoted Hewlett Packard co-founder David Packard: “Marketing is too important to be left to marketing department.” In Krista’s opinion, an education marketing team should be “connected at the hip” with the school’s admissions team, student services team, alumni team and more.

When teams do not communicate, she explained, they often point fingers at each other about issues like lead quality or the admissions process. Leads might increase while enrollments remain stagnant because the marketing team did not prepare the admissions team for an upcoming boost in activity. That’s why Krista believes that if an institution scales one team, it must scale its partnering teams, too.

No Marketing Strategy Is One-Dimensional

Krista’s most successful clients understood that education marketing is a holistic, multi-layered endeavor. “They didn’t just want to make pretty pictures and brochures,” she said. With so many moving parts, you can’t count anything out when developing your institution’s general strategy. Enrollment growth is, after all, a major achievement. Education marketers must remember that such goals are only within reach when all channels, systems, and processes have been optimized for top performance.

Texting has proven to be an essential component of many successful education marketing strategies.

This makes sense, as today’s students absolutely despise talking on the phone and can easily spot generic, scripted emails. The education space, however, is notoriously resistant to new marketing tools. Thankfully, one forward-thinking research company has created a texting platform that helps institutions ensure that their first texting at-bat is a home run.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• Why texting is so valuable for student engagement
• The largest barrier for the mass adoption of texting
• How texting can increase efficiency in multiple elements of your organization

This week, I spoke to Mike Kochczynski, the Assistant Director of Client Success at Mongoose. One of the leading Ed-tech providers, Mongoose helps institutions improve communication with a platform called Cadence. Nearly 500 institutions have used Cadence to text prospective students, current students, parents, alumni, and even faculty members. In addition to explaining how Cadence works, Mongoose shows their clients how to craft their messages while staying compliant with regulations like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

How Do Institutions Use Texting Platforms?

Texting is undeniably the preferred medium for all communication. Unlike emails and physical letters, research has revealed that nearly 100% of texts are actually read by their recipients. Thanks to Mongoose, all types of higher ed institutions can now use texting to improve lead retention, alumni participation, and their application completion rate. Cadence mixes one-on-one engagement with the scalability of automation to send the right amount of messages at the right intervals. Mongoose’s clients often use Cadence to send reminders about networking events and application deadlines along with crucial information about financial aid.

Why Texting Is The Most Efficient Communication Channel

Arguably the biggest reward of using Cadence, however, is the massive increase in overall efficiency. Cadence accomplishes this in at least two ways. First is the amount of time schools can save by replacing phone calls with texts. In one of Mike’s previous positions, he literally had to make over 100 phone calls per day. With Cadence, outreach and engagement specialists don’t have to waste full days attempting to communicate with prospective students and parents.

The key word here is “attempting.”

It’s not as if schools have to worry about most of their text messages going ignored. Think about it: A prospective student or parent probably wouldn’t give an institution their mobile number if they weren’t seriously interested in that institution. Cadence filters out prospective students who aren’t interested so institutions can focus on those who are deeper into their marketing funnel.

Bringing New Technology To A Notoriously Outdated World

Encouraging the education space to adopt texting into their marketing efforts hasn’t been easy. A great deal of the space is still stuck in outdated engagement methods. Mike and his team would love to spend more time teaching these schools the various advantages of Cadence. But the reality is, there’s no point in trying to convince people who don’t want to be convinced. When asked about the primary indicators for success with Cadence, Mike said enthusiasm and trust. His most successful clients believed in the power of texting and were confident that their guides at Mongoose knew what they were doing.

Patience is another important quality for success with Cadence. When new clients express skepticism about the platform’s effectiveness, Mike sometimes quotes the football film Remember The Titans: “Our offense is like novocaine. Give it time, and it will knock you out.”

Never Forget Your Main Objective: Making Lives Easier

Speaking to Mike reminded me that aside from growing enrollments, the main objective of companies like Mongoose is to make their clients’ lives easier. Institutions all over the country are currently facing major obstacles, from funding cuts to new regulations that inhibit recruitment. Despite these concerns, Mongoose shows institutions that one critical aspect of their jobs (student engagement) is in fact getting easier, not harder. Education marketers must remember that this is their main objective as well. We are only succeeding when we are making our clients’ lives easier in every way possible.

Unlike previous generations, today’s students view college as an investment.

They often choose the school or program that presents the highest likelihood of a strong salary after graduation. One San Francisco-based college is particularly confident in its students’ post-graduate success, and has a rather unorthodox way of showing it: The college literally does not get paid until its students have secured well-paying jobs. It’s called income sharing, and yes, it really works.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What income sharing means and how it is implemented
• What is stopping traditional institutions from using similar payment models
• What the success of income sharing means for the future of education

This week, I spoke to Jeremy Rossman, co-founder of The Make School. As a young computer science student, Jeremy quickly learned that app developers were making the real money. When he got to MIT, however, he found no app development classes in sight. Jeremy therefore became an app developer on his own, and since no one else was teaching it, he started a summer app program in Silicon Valley. That program would evolve into the Make School, the first institution in recent memory to use income sharing for long-form academic programs.

What is Income Sharing and How Does It Work?

The concept of income sharing has been around since the 1970s. In some countries, college graduates are able to use income sharing to pay back their student loans. But no one had brought it to the US education space before the Make School. The computer science college has been using income sharing since 2014, when it officially became an alternative to a traditional institution. At that time, income sharing was so unheard of that the Make School’s founders had to draft their own agreements because they couldn’t find a lawyer who was familiar with it.

Here’s how it works: Make School students do not have to pay a dime of their own tuition (room, board, etc.) until they get a job that pays at least $5,000 per month ($60,000 per year). The Make School then takes 20% of the former student’s pre-tax salary for five years. That comes out to approximately one year’s worth of the former student’s five-year salary. If the former student stops earning at least $5,000 per month, the deductions stop. There’s no interest or late penalties, so the college makes no money if the former student is not reaching that monthly threshold.

Why Do Other Schools Balk At This Brilliant Idea?

Out of all Make School students who achieve Bachelor’s degrees, 90% get full-time jobs shortly after graduation. The average salary of a former Make School student is reportedly over $100,000. Critics say that this is just because the school focuses on computer science, but Jeremy disagrees. He believes income sharing could work for numerous programs, like nursing, education, or journalism.

So, why haven’t other schools even thought about implementing it?

Jeremy says it’s primarily because schools aren’t willing to begin the daunting endeavor of re-examining their cost structure. If they did, they’d find that much of their investments go towards frivolous things that are not tied to student success. And once the school determines it cannot afford income sharing, it must then ask itself: Why aren’t our students making decent salaries after graduation? As you can see, this problem has quite a few layers.

How The Make School Found Its Ideal Student

The Make School’s growth is also attributed to its unique marketing approach. In the past, the school strived to obtain as many applications as possible by shortening its local funnel. Their data, however, showed that their ideal students need more information before applying. The Make School now focuses on supplying plenty of information at the top of the funnel, and has even lengthened its application.

In the coming years, the Make School plans to build schools in new cities and expand its on-campus facilities. Despite the increasing popularity of online learning, Jeremy doesn’t expect the on-campus experience to lose relevance anytime soon. In fact, a myriad of Make School courses emphasize the value of person-to-person collaboration, since it’s undeniably essential for post-graduate success.

Schools Must Prove They Are A Worthwhile Investment

What Jeremy does expect is a heightened awareness of financially-unsafe programs. More and more students are adapting the aforementioned investment perspective. Education marketers must take note and prove to prospective students that their programs are indeed worth the cost. It’s time for institutions to think about why certain programs are now known as a luxury, instead of a necessity.

Marketing to today’s students is completely different than marketing to previous generations.

The sheer volume of these differences can be very intimidating to marketers trying to understand their target audience. How can you possibly keep track of every new standard you have to meet? The solution is to break the expectations of prospective students down into just a few categories. This gives you a clear set of rules to follow when developing engagement strategies to suit your ideal students’ needs.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• The factors prospective students consider when shopping for institutions
• How to make your institution more appealing to prospective students
• What so many institutions get wrong about engagement

This week, I spoke to Kayla Manning, the Vice President of digital marketing, recruitment and online program strategy at Ruffalo, Noel and Levitz. Kayla has been in the higher education space for just over a decade and currently helps colleges and graduate schools with lead generation, lead nurturing and retention. After studying the preferences of today’s students for many years, Kayla compiled her most important findings to create the 4 Pillars of Expectation and Engagement. Each pillar outlines the different ways students engage with institutions as well as what students like to see when choosing where to attend.

People Shop For Schools Like They Shop For Clothes

Pillar number one is the Rise in Consumer Mentality, which denotes that students are now shopping for schools, programs, and degrees as if they were shopping for material items, like clothing. In the past, students decided which institution to attend based on the institution’s reputation, their family history, or simply where their friends were going. Today, however, students are basing this life-changing decision on a number of specific factors. They are searching for certain types of degrees, the cost of certain programs, and even how much money they will most likely earn after graduation.

Last year, Kayla noted, 71% of 200 million Google searches for graduate programs did not contain the institution’s name. Instead, these searches were centered around factors like degrees that offered the best value or job security.

This is just more proof that institutions need to prioritize digital marketing. Institutions must know what their ideal students are searching for and make sure their ads are showing up for search terms that are relevant to their programs.

Students Have Questions, So You’d Better Have Answers

Pillar number two, Instant Gratification, goes hand-in-hand with the shopping approach. Since prospective students are asking more questions, institutions must clearly answer these questions on their websites. Remember, young adults absolutely despise talking on the phone. It’s your job to give them all the information they need so they don’t have to call. Kayla suggested accomplishing this through the live chat feature or social media, depending on what your top competitors are using.

Instant gratification also applies to inquiries or notions of interest. Of all students who shopped for more than one institution last year, Kayla said, 88% chose the institution that responded or made contact first.

No One Likes Generic Emails And Websites

Speaking of communication, prospective students have a particular distaste for generic emails. That’s why pillar number three is Personalization and Customization. Emails to leads should acknowledge how far the individual is in your marketing funnel. Let’s say a prospective student enters data that shows interest in a specific program. That individual would not want to see an email that acts as if nothing has happened.

The final pillar, Authentic and Genuine, emphasizes that engagement should never feel scripted. Prospective students value interactions with current students for this exact reason, Kayla added. Several institutions she’s worked with have turned current students into social ambassadors who answer questions on the school’s behalf. The institutions’ websites play recent footage of students hanging out on campus, as opposed to scripted, outdated videos. For maximum authenticity, Kayla says, have students film themselves walking through their dorms and post on social media.

Different Priorities Require Different Strategies

A central theme of Kayla’s four pillars is understanding that different types of students require different engagement strategies. Business students should not be marketed to like nursing students, just like students seeking the classic “college experience” should not be treated like students seeking the best ROI. But you can’t figure out which route to take if you don’t know your ideal students’ priorities. Your first step should therefore revolve around the foundation of the four pillars: extensive research.

If we truly wish to maximize the power of education, we can’t just limit it to academia.

Education does not end when you receive your master’s degree. People need to consistently learn new skills to stay up to speed with their industries. It’s a never-ending journey, and Udemy is here to prevent the workforce from falling behind. Thanks to the leading disruptors in the education space, learning a new skill is just a few clicks away.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• How Udemy takes education beyond the school system
• The role of AI in Udemy’s new student experience
• Udemy’s innovative approach to entrepreneurship and business growth

This week, I spoke with Llibert Argerich, marketing director at Udemy, the largest online learning platform in existence. Llibert has a bold but undeniably pragmatic vision of the education industry. He believes that in just ten years, “the world of education will be completely different than what we have today.” This vision stems from the fact that new skills must be learned continuously and efficiently. Udemy’s constantly-updated library of over 130,000 video courses is the perfect solution.

Skills Are Only Relevant For So Long

According to a recent study by Deloitte, the average skill has a half-life of just 5 years. “In technical jobs like web development,” Llibert says, “a skill’s half-life is 18 months.” Education marketers are no exception. “The way Udemy markets itself right now is nothing like a year ago,” he added.

Udemy’s 40 million students are on YouTube 4 to 5 times a day, taking courses in everything from coding to design to public speaking. That comes out to approximately 500-600 videos being watched at a time.

“One Udemy instructor with one course will reach more students than a traditional university professor in their whole career,” Llibert remarked.

Since all Udemy courses are on video, Llibert and his team center their video advertising content around clips of instructors at work. The courses are also updated every month to keep up with their rapidly evolving subjects. SEO specialists must frequently adapt to new algorithms, much like developers adapting to new software. Udemy’s 50,000+ instructors even work with tech companies to create courses about a week before new tools or resources are publicly released.

Not Sure Where To Start? Let A.I. Be Your Guide

The founders of Udemy are well-aware of how intimidating it is to venture into a new discipline. There’s so much to learn. How could you possibly know where to start?

Udemy solves this dilemma with AI. Instead of browsing through thousands of courses, new students are asked a series of questions about their individual goals. Udemy’s algorithm uses this information to recommend the most appropriate courses. Once the student finishes these courses, the AI will then recommend the most logical next steps.

“If someone has taken a course in PPC, for example, then they are also probably interested in regression planning,” Llibert clarified.

The courses are essentially grouped together to accommodate different career paths. There is always a next step because Udemy students never stop learning!

Everything An Entrepreneur Needs In One Place

When you consider the variety of courses offered by Udemy, it’s clear that learning new skills is just a part of their objective. The platform is also striving to become the go-to, step-by-step guide for entrepreneurs. Virtually everything an entrepreneur needs to know can be learned on Udemy.

Someone looking to start a new business might begin with courses related to finding an initial customer base. Appropriate subjects would likely include the fundamentals of AdWords, Facebook marketing, or web development. Once the business gains traction, the student would move on to courses related to scaling website traffic efficiently while maintaining a low CPA and CPL. This would be followed by courses in customer retention, re-marketing, or managing multiple teams.

Rejoice, new entrepreneurs: The path to startup success is finally right in front of your eyes.

Is This The Next Stage Of Human Evolution?

Speaking with Llibert gave me a glimpse into the future of education. It revolves around the acceptance that people cannot evolve on their own.

Everyone needs a teacher. If Udemy can change the relationship between education and the global workforce, the next stage of human evolution may be closer than we thought.

For many education organizations, growing enrollments begins with growing their website traffic.

Well, what if I told you I met someone who managed to grow his university’s web traffic from 5 million annual visitors to 37 million? What if I told you it took him less than six years to make that jump, and that his university’s website was ranked among the top 1,500 in the world for traffic?

In this episode, we’ll explain:

• Which highly underrated marketing process led to these massive achievements.
• Which tools and strategies you can use to better understand your audience’s behavior.
• How to make your university stand out in search results.

Today, I spoke with Martin Sickafoose, the digital marketing director of Purdue University. Martin is a former web development manager with over 15 years of experience in the digital marketing space. He attributes much of his success to one of the oldest and most misunderstood tricks in the book: Search Engine Optimization, a.k.a. SEO. That’s right: The same process that countless marketers have written off as “dead” helped Martin revolutionize his university’s web traffic.

What Good is a New Site if No One Can Find it?

About nine years ago, Martin was tasked with building a new website for Purdue. The university had big ambitions for this project, but Martin felt that his team didn’t have enough data to get started on content. They needed to find out what their various audiences wanted to see, and how each audience preferred to use the website.

It was time to let Google Analytics determine their next move. Martin reviewed data from Google searches as well as the Purdue website’s internal search engine. He found that the most popular search topics varied dramatically throughout the year. For example, while prospective students dominated the fall searches, a great deal of summer searches were performed by parents who were looking for directions to campus.

The message was clear: Martin and his team would have to continuously modify the homepage in order to accommodate the most popular searches for that specific time. This made the website equally accessible to each audience, from current students to donors to research partners.

Focus On What Makes Your University Unique

Another integral element of SEO is unique content. Thus, Martin focused on what sets Purdue apart from their top competitors, as well as credentials that would surely catch the eye of prospective students. He highlighted Purdue’s exceptionally funded STEM research programs, and their inclusion in the Wall Street Journal’s list of the top five most employable student bases.

“People think SEO is dead. I don’t think it’s necessarily ‘dead.’ People have just beaten it up quite a bit”

He then recalled being asked to lend his talents to the website for Purdue’s graduate school. Before taking action, Martin decided to see how the graduate school’s 17 biggest competitors were using SEO. It turned out that 14 of them were not using it at all.

“Even if you’re not doing it, it still affects your business,” he said of SEO.

The Best Software for Mining Student Data

As for specific tools, Martin used BrightEdge to determine which keywords were being searched most frequently within the Purdue website. BrightEdge also showed Martin which pages prospective students were landing on after certain searches. He would then modify those pages to direct the prospective students back into the pipeline for en rollment.

Like any forward-thinking marketer, Martin could not ignore social media’s potential for valuable student data. He used Brandwatch and Hootsuite to find out what kind of people (journalists, students with massive followings, etc.) were mentioning the university on social media, as well as which pieces of this social media content were gaining the most traction.

It’s the combination of multiple tools, however, that allows Martin to learn the different touchpoints prospective students are going through before entering personal information. Speaking about the Purdue alumni club, he named Google 360 and Salesforce’s marketing cloud as two of the many tools that gradually unveiled the journey from former student into official club membership.

Education Marketers Have to Be More Patient

Believe it or not, it’s not technical knowledge or an aptitude for web design that separates Martin from the rest of the pack. It’s patience.

Martin was able to leverage SEO to this degree because he had the patience to wade through lots of data and do what it told him to do. He discovered the aforementioned software tools because he had the patience to see which options best suited his needs.

The success of Martin’s strategies reminds us that the greatest rewards usually go to those who sacrifice the greatest amounts of time. If you devote this much attention to the holes in your web traffic, you’ll climb the Google ranks like every other data-driven marketing sensation.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode number 0 of the grow enrollments podcast show, this is your host Benjamin Arabov.

The mission of our podcast is to provide actionable insights for education marketers looking to grow their enrollments. Whether you work for a university, trade school or e-learning platform, there is something for everyone to learn!

We interview the most innovative and experienced marketers in the education space, such as CMOs, marketing directors, university presidents and academic entrepreneurs to discuss topics like:

• Education Marketing strategies
• Data utilization
• The Future of Education
• Trade VS Traditional
• Automation
• Disrupting education
• Enrollment funnel optimization

… and many more topics related to the ever-evolving education industry.

Additionally, we expose some of the leading EdTech and education B2B service providers that are designed to grow your organization even further.

By creating a community that brings meaningful knowledge to education marketers, we can together help enroll more students and ultimately change more lives through the power of education. I hope you enjoy my podcast!