At an industry conference earlier this year, a presenter commented that “nostalgia isn’t a strategy,” a clever take on “hope is not a strategy.” The bittersweet longing for the past when the public believed in the power of higher education does not serve us today.
The presenter’s comment reminded me of an education reporter I heard speak to a room full of higher education marketing and communications leaders. My peers were asking what they might do so the media would help change the public perception of higher education. The reporter replied that the media has no responsibility to be higher education’s cheerleader, especially since the way higher education has marketed itself (or not) contributed, in part, to that perception.
Yearning for the past will not make the future what we need it to be. What do we need to do? How do we become better cheerleaders for ourselves and equip others to do the same? How do we reeducate people on higher education’s purpose? Consider these ideas:
1. Do not cut your magazine budget.
Financial pressures are real, and you may need to make tough decisions. The magazine seems like an obvious one to cut, either completely or stop printing and move online. Resist the urge! Your magazine celebrates the impact of faculty research and alumni achievements like no other platform. It may be the only gift your community receives without having to do anything, including searching and clicking. It cultivates donors, showcasing them to everyone who receives the magazine. It is a key place where the stories you tell are 100% under your control. It is a unique calling card when you meet with new partners.
To maximize that gift’s impact, make sure your magazine tells stories and does not just report news. I review a lot of alumni magazines and continue to be amazed how many of them primarily fill the pages with short news pieces versus in-depth narrative stories. Further, the design often just uses photographs with the school’s colors on every page.
Use your magazine to display how your school’s imprint is everywhere. Alumni are making the world a better place and research is solving complex problems. The institution’s depth and breadth have an important impact.
2. Allocate any leftover budget money to marketing.
The authors of “Where Did All the Ads Go?” shared that, in just eight years, the advertising spending of higher education institutions fell by over $600 million. Even before that significant drop, the amount of money higher education spent on marketing was so comparatively small that it had minimal impact on changing public feelings. In the past, when the public understood the value of higher education, the industry got by. However, now that people need to be reminded repeatedly what the value of higher education is, to open their minds to hearing individual institution’s stories, the industry spends even less than it used to. Remembering back when that was not necessary is not a strategy to move forward. Today’s meager investment is not enough to generate affection.
Consider, then, particularly in this moment of hiring freezes and budget cuts, increasing your investment in marketing by committing any budget surpluses in other areas to marketing. A colleague recently shared that the large bank he worked for did just that. Any remaining dollars at the end of the fiscal year were reallocated to marketing as an investment in what grows the business. It creates a virtuous circle where increased investment pays for more marketing, which in turn helps to shift the narrative in ways that might open doors to more resources.
3. Recognize marketing and communications as more than a cost center — staff it that way.
In most institutions, marketing and communications does not have any direct responsibility for generating revenue outside of tuition with enrollment. The department is often a line function under administrative services. Further, or perhaps because of, many of these understaffed departments cannot effectively serve an institution of their size. One university I talked with, serving a large urban population with over 11,000 students, had just four staff members.
To justify distributing leftover money to marketing, let us demonstrate how the function contributes to the bottom line and then educate others. Big data, particularly for digital campaigns, provides metrics, but in most institutions, people do not perceive marketing as a revenue stream. When asked to share specific measures of why my work realizes success I often feel like I am answering with smoke and mirrors. When I worked at Wharton, my team developed the campaign brand architecture which successfully met its goal of $1 billion. At my current institution, this fall’s incoming class broke last year’s all-time high. What specific success can marketing claim for both of those achievements?
As we work to answer that question, in partnership with our talented faculty, let us also:
- Quit referring to the work as magic, as in, please work your magic on this press release. Implying it’s magic makes it sound easy. It implies that we just wave our magic wands as opposed to doing real work.
- Recognize your marketing teams are professionals who know the industry. Listen to them! Just because you consume media does not mean you know what is best. They are the experts – that is why you hired them.
- Understand those skills and abilities vary just as in other areas of the institution. I have worked in places where people thought my team were interchangeable. That is, if the photographer cannot attend the session just send the graphic designer or the writer with a camera.
4. Be real about what you communicate because of internal politics versus what you do for external audiences, and work to grow the % of time spent on the latter.
Even just 5% more of the marketing department’s time spent on external audiences will help move the needle. With limited resources – most of these departments have too few people and too much work – focusing on external messaging over internal, politically driven communications will have more impact.
Make sure the head of your department is more than a mouthpiece. Use them as a strategic brand manager shaping the story of what your institution is becoming, versus merely sharing what others think is important. Many students search for colleges by name as opposed to location or major. That means prospective students, and their families, need to know your name before they even begin.
5. Widen what you will share and be open to telling a real story.
Part of the reason that education reporter said the media does not have to be higher education’s cheerleader may be because most of the time we want to control the narrative. We have had fantastic enrollment success, but we do not want to share why because competition might copy us. We want coverage of the ribbon cuttings and the big gifts that paid for them but are not willing to talk about how that new program is doing a few years in. We are working hard at creating external partnerships but do not want people to know where because they may come in and take over. So then where is the story? How will people understand the resilience and ingenuity of higher education if it always sounds like we already know everything?
Further, the public does not really understand how higher education works, which is part of why it is so critical of high tuitions alongside high endowment balances. When we start explaining what we do and why, we will find more cheerleaders that get it, which leads to the last point.
6. Equip alumni and friends to be your cheerleaders.
One major reason I work in higher education, despite all of today’s challenges, is alumni. In the years I spent marketing and fundraising in community-based nonprofits, “everyone” could be a friend. We first had to find people with a potential affinity and affiliation for our cause and/or organization and then the demanding work began. In higher education, a significant percentage of the alumni base loves their alma mater and affiliate because they believe in the mission and the power of higher education.
Create strong and specific engagement programs, with clear entry points to volunteer, for donors across your giving base. Annual giving donors provide an evergreen foundation to cultivate while principal gift donors can champion campaign priorities.
Tell stories that highlight alumni pairing with faculty on research. These stories will help others see how higher education contributes to the greater good.
Start with graduating students. My colleagues at Wharton created an alumni orientation experience just before graduation, a clever play on words, to make them aware of how to be an engaged graduate.
These strategies will result in more brand ambassadors in the outside world. What we push out will be more real, more consistent, and will help find us more people willing to champion higher education — the cheerleaders the media never promised to be.
Katherine Primus joined an episode of Higher Voltage to discuss more about how to build your own cheering section with host Kevin Tyler. Watch or listen to their episode here.
