We talk with Dr. Chuck Bamford about crafting smart competitive strategies to differentiate your school in a crowded marketplace. 

Higher Ed Marketing Lab

Differentiating Your School Through Smart Strategy

In the fourth and final episode of our VP Summer Series, we talk with Kevin Kropf, EVP of Enrollment at Drury University, about generational theory and managing teams that span multiple generations.

Managing a Team That Spans Four Generations

In part three of our VP Summer Series, we talk with Brad Pochard, AVP for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions at Furman University, about building collaborative relationships with colleagues across the campus. 

How to Win Faculty and Influence Staff (and Athletics)

As a senior leader, you need a strong working relationship with your board. Unfortunately, there’s no manual for how to do that. As a result, most leaders end up learning through experience (read: observation, hard work, and some painful mistakes). In our latest VP Summer Series podcast, we sit down with Joel Bauman, SVP of Enrollment at Duquesne University, and Karen Foust, former EVP of Enrollment at Hendrix College, to talk about the finer points of building collaborative, productive relationships with board members. We discuss: Important ways board members can differ in their approach to the role Tips for effectively communicating the complexities of your work Why trying to be the smartest person in the room can backfire with board members The right way to go about delivering bad news How to respectfully nudge a board member back into their lane when they start to overreach. 

Trusted Advisors: Working Well with Your Board of Trustees

This is the first installment in our VP Summer Series, a podcast mini-series focusing on the unique challenges facing senior enrollment and marketing leaders. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the role of the Vice President--how it differs from other roles someone would occupy on the way to a VP-level position and what it takes to be a strong candidate if you’ve got your sights set on a VP-level job. Joining us in the conversation is Mary Napier, Principal Consultant at Napier Executive Search. We're also joined by Echo Delta’s own Laura Martin Fedich, who will be co-hosting each of our VP Summer Series podcasts.

Becoming a VP (Or Becoming One on Another Campus) with Mary Napier

In this episode, we talk about financial aid leveraging—the common, but sometimes controversial, practice of using data-driven approaches to inform how schools award financial aid. Joining us in the conversation is Echo Delta data scientist and consultant, Dr. Jimmy Jung. As a higher ed veteran with over 20 years of experience, Jimmy has successfully led enrollment management at multiple institutions around the country and has consulted internationally in the areas of marketing, program evaluation, data analytics, and student success.  We start by covering the basics of financial aid leveraging—what it is, how it works, and the kinds of data schools use to inform their financial aid models. Then, we dig deeper into the impact of financial aid leveraging, including improving net tuition revenue, controlling discount rates, and how it can help schools uncover hidden insights about their institution and the students they hope to attract. We wrap up by talking about some of the criticisms of the practice and hear Jimmy’s thoughts on the ethical and responsible use of financial aid leveraging.  This was a fascinating conversation full of essential information for anyone looking to understand more about financial aid leveraging.

Financial Aid Leveraging with Jimmy Jung

The quality of input you deliver on creative work can be a make or break factor that helps your team reach new creative heights or sends them spiraling into uncertain territory. Echo Delta's Creative Director, Rachel Newell, joins us to talk about how to deliver the kind of feedback your team needs to reach the full potential. 

How to Give Better Feedback on Creative Work

Tracking and attributing marketing activities in the real world is far from straightforward. In this episode, analytics consultant and agency vet, Chris Sietsema, explains how analytics-savvy organizations get it right.

Marketing Analytics: How to Build Your Team's Credibility and Data Savvy

We sit down with Will Patch, Enrollment Marketing Leader, at Niche.com to talk about strategies for more effectively engaging parents during the college search process. We start our conversation with a review of some key findings from a recent survey the Niche team conducted with parents, then we dive into concrete steps schools can take to engage parents more effectively.

Strategies for Engaging Parents During College Search

Liz Gross, CEO of social listening agency Campus Sonar joins us to talk about all things higher ed social media and her new book, Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy: A Guide for College Campuses.

Getting Your Campus Social Media Strategy Right

Echo Delta's Senior SEO Strategist, Catherine Reich, joins us to discuss the long-term trends shaping organic search today, along with a major algorithm update Google will be rolling out in 2021.  As an episode bonus, Catherine has developed a guide you can share with your web developer to optimize your site. The guide is available for download in this episode's show notes at EchoDelta.co. 

How to Optimize Your Website for Search in 2021

In this episode, we talk with Matt Sluzinsky, Director of Web Strategy and Services at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. While Mayo Clinic is one of the most recognizable names in medicine, many are surprised to learn the clinic also provides over 400 academic programs ranging from entry-level certificates to elite residency programs. As part of the school's efforts to raise awareness about the extraordinary range of opportunities available at the college, Matt and his team partnered with an outside firm to create a series of journey maps to better understand how different types of students engage in the decision-making process and how to better tailor the college's online content to support prospective students in their journey. According to Matt, the results were illuminating and helped to energize his team's efforts as they set about a full-scale redesign of the college's website. Backed by fresh, compelling data, his team was able to focus their efforts on developing the specific types of content they knew would have the greatest impact on prospective students, including the creation of a comprehensive online healthcare careers guide. In this episode, Matt outlines the process his team used to create the journey maps and shares specific examples of how the journey mapping process informed his team's work.

Journey Mapping at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

In this special episode, we talk with President Richard Dunsworth of the University of the Ozarks about the impact of COVID-19 on his school. From leadership in times of crisis to wide-ranging operational changes to the long-term impact this global crisis could have on the institution, we explore how one school is coping with profound and rapid change. 

Responding to COVID-19 at University of the Ozarks

Podcasting ranks right up there with influencer marketing and AI as one of the most hyped marketing trends over the last few years. But what’s really involved in launching a podcast, what’s the potential pay-off, and is it too late for your school to jump on the podcast train? We tackle these questions and more in our latest Higher Ed Marketing Lab podcast. Joining us is Jenna Spinelle from Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Since 2018, Jenna's produced and promoted the Institute's Democracy Works podcast, and she's got great advice for anyone considering starting one.  You'll hear: Why podcasting has become such a hot medium over the last few years Whether or not it's too late to start your own podcast How to set realistic expectations for exposure and listenership How to pick the right topic for your podcast And smart ways to make the workload of podcasting more manageable. 

Podcasting at Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy with Jenna Spinelle

In this episode, we’ll be talking about social media, and specifically, what do when you suspect it’s time to sunset a social media account that’s outlived its usefulness.  Joining us in the conversation is Rebecca Stapley. As former Assistant Director of Social Media at Nazareth College, Rebecca has first hand experience managing social media at her school and engaging with colleagues in other departments who want to or maybe already are running their own accounts on behalf of the school.  You’ll hear from Rebecca about: The key questions internal teams should asking BEFORE they start a new social account How to approach colleagues when you suspect their social media accounts could use some help and how to do so in a way that minimizes defensiveness And the specific process she used to wind down a set of alumni social media accounts at Nazareth College and integrate them into the school’s main account. 

How to Gracefully Sunset a Tired Social Media Account with Rebecca Stapley

Engage with some of the brightest minds in marketing and higher education to uncover practical insights you can use to level up your institution’s marketing and enrollment efforts.

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Higher Ed Marketing Lab

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