Higher Voltage

Last spring, Butler University made headlines when they sent care packages from their mascot, Butler Blue III, to the dogs and cats of admitted students. In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, Kristi Smith, Associate Director of Enrollment Marketing at Butler University, and Michael Kaltenmark, Director of External Relations at Butler University, discuss this innovative approach to yield marketing, the genesis and planning of their dog- and cat-vertising campaign, why they felt confident taking a risk on this unique approach, and what the response has been like from current students, admitted students, and their parents.

Back in the 1980s, higher education institutions discovered a new way to reach student households at a fraction of the cost of television ads: name buys. Since then, name buys have morphed into a multi-million dollar industry, with colleges and universities across the country investing in the practice. But are name buys really the best we can do? In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, Jens Larson, Director of Student Communications at Eastern Washington University, shares his legal, ethical, and ROI concerns about list buying and identifies alternative marketing tactics he has used to build a more sustainable prospective student pipeline.

For most marketing professionals, producing an institutional podcast is something that has recently become a professional goal. Tim Cigelske is not like most marketing professionals. On this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, Tim Cigelske shares the ins and outs of his years-long run of producing three podcasts for three distinct audiences at Marquette University. We chat about the various levels of planning and formality that encompass Marquette’s podcasts, why podcasting is ripe for experimentation, and Tim’s lost opportunity to team up with NBA superstar Dwayne Wade.

You undoubtedly deal with myths about your institution. From assumptions about student loans, tuition, and acceptance rates, your audience can easily take rumor as gospel, to the detriment of your admissions and marketing efforts. But how you are addressing those myths? In Wisconsin, one support foundation is dishing out facts and ice cream, one scoop at a time. In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, Tod Pritchard, Director of Media and Public Relations for the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, describes how his team came up with the idea of touring the state of Wisconsin in a refurbished 1957 International Harvester Metro van, the impact of their #getthescoop campaign for UW-Madison, and the surprising medium that’s helping them spread the word about this unique marketing campaign.

Have you ever heard someone say “don’t read the comments”? Across the web, the comments section is often affiliated with trolls, who incite others through polarizing opinions and offensive language. But on the University of Georgia’s Undergraduate Admissions blog, the comments section is a treasure trove of prospective student insight, with blog posts that occasionally receive more than 300 comments from interested UGA students. In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, David Graves, UGA’s Senior Associate Director of Admissions Operations and Evaluation, joins the show to talk about the blog he has run since 2009. We discuss the challenge of keeping content fresh in a cyclical environment, the pros and cons of blending the personal and professional on Twitter, and how one person keeps up with so many prospective student questions.

Ahh, the website. At once an essential element of your marketing strategy and a massive resource hog. Jason Buzzell, Director of Digital Communications at the University of Nebraska Omaha, knows the conundrum well. Five years ago, he was tasked with updating a website that desperately needed an upgrade. But at an organization that prides itself on lean operations, devoting resources to a full-blown redesign wasn’t an option. His solution: iterative web design. In this episode, Buzzell shares how the University of Nebraska Omaha redesigned their website using a phased approach, how his team prioritizes projects, the key to avoiding a Frankenstein website, and the “next big thing” that might require a change in their approach.

You know your way around Facebook, Linkedin, and Google. But are you using their business platforms to their full potential? In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed podcast, higher ed marketer extraordinaire Matt Hames joins the show to talk about the business platforms offered by Google, Facebook, and Linkedin and why your institution should be using them. We also discuss Google’s new product announcement, and why it’s a game changer for higher education searches.

On campuses across the country, content strategists and creators are sharing new and exciting ways to communicate with key online constituents. And yet, those ideas often fall on deaf ears when working with internal campus stakeholders, who just want to do the same thing they've done for the past 10 years. Why won't they listen to you? In this episode of the Hashtag Higher Ed Podcast, Michael Powers, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, shares the value in moving from a conformance mindset to a collaboration mindset, turning client relationships into real collaborations.