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. 

Higher Ed Marketing Lab

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

We talk web accessibility with David Carpenter and Jennifer Garvey of Colorado State University. David is the Director of Operations and Jennifer is Assistant Director of IT for Web and Business Systems at Colorado State’s College of Health and Human Sciences. In this discussion, we shy away from the technical details surrounding accessibility, and instead focus on how to effectively align people and resources within an organization to get the work done. You’ll hear from David and Jennifer about some of the challenges they faced--and even mistakes they made--during their early web accessibility initiatives. And they share important lessons learned about how to more effectively engage both internal resources and external partners to get the work done. And perhaps most importantly, they detail practical examples of how they’ve integrated web accessibility into the fabric of their organization so that accessibility remains an on-going priority and not just a one-time project. This was a great chat with tons of practical insight. So without further ado, here’s my conversation with Jennifer Garvey and David Carpenter.

Leading Web Accessibility Initiatives at Colorado State with David Carpenter and Jennifer Garvey

Jason Buzzell is Director of Digital Communications at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I met up with Jason at the 2019 eduWeb conference to reflect on some of the most interesting ideas and themes we encountered at this year’s conference. We discussed: How to humanize digital experiences (which was the topic of a talk Jason delivered). We talked about why today’s students place such a high priority on authenticity and how schools are attempting to provide it. Some of the more interesting findings from RNL’s 2019 E-Expectations report, which was presented at the conference.  Connect with Jason on Twitter @buzzilinear. 

Humanizing the Digital Experience and more from eduWeb2019

The campus visit remains one of the most impactful moments in the college decision process, and there’s probably no one who knows more about the campus visit experience than Jeff Kallay, Principal of Render Experiences. His work on campus visits has been featured in numerous publications including the Chronicle of Higher Education, University Business Magazine, and the New York Times, and we were lucky enough to have him join us on the Higher Ed Marketing Lab podcast to share some of his best insights. We cover: why our complex digital world makes the campus visit more important, not less how Gen Z and their Gen X parents present new and interesting challenges to recruiters why rock star students don't always make rock star embassadors, and why your guides should never, ever talk and walk backwards.  http://www.renderexperiences.com/

Optimizing the Campus Visit with Jeff Kallay

We’ll be diverging a bit from our usual discussion around higher ed marketing to talk about leadership, which is a topic relevant to anyone who has to work with and through others. Joining us in that conversation is retired Air Force Major General, H. D. “Jake” Polumbo. Over his 34 year career in the Air Force, General Polumbo acquired a great deal of wisdom around how to lead and manage others, even under the most challenging circumstances. We talk about why leaders need to demonstrate compassion for their team the importance of leaders publicly owning up to mistakes tips for making decisions with limited information why character and integrity are essential for any leader. Near the end of the episode, I explain how you can get a signed copy of his book, Leadership at 30,000 Feet for free.  General Polumbo is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and over his career he has served in numerous positions of leadership around globe. He holds the distinction as the first and only U.S. Air Force general officer to fly the U2S in combat, completing twenty-one missions in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He is a co-founder of Two Blue Aces, a leadership and strategy consulting firm, and he currently sits on the Aviation Advisory Boards for the Business School of Hawaii Pacific University and Southeastern University, and assists with the operation of the Advanced Mobility Institute at Florida Polytechnic University. Links: twoblueaces.com Amazon: Leadership at 30,000 Feet

Leading with Compassion and Character with General H. D. “Jake” Polumbo

We'll be talking with Dr. Jennifer Sumner about people, process, and technology, within the University of Central Florida's online program. In this wide ranging conversation, we hear about UCF Connect, the university's success coaching program for online students. We hear how the university is leveraging SalesForce and other technologies to improve the student experience. We talk about ways they've helped build a sense of belonging for online students and how, despite the enormous size of the university, the UCF online team has fostered productive collaboration among dozens of stakeholders and departments. Links: echodelta.co/podcast

People, Process & Technology with UCF's Dr. Jennifer Sumner

If you've ever felt that public relations was a mysterious black box, then this episode is for you. We discuss public relations for higher ed with Barbara Pierce, president of Tipping Point Communications. Barbara has over 25 years experience leading global, national, and regional public relations initiatives, and she's worked extensively in higher education. We start by hearing Barbara's favorite definition of public relations, and then we jump into the major shifts that have drastically changed how PR is practiced in recent years. Barbara shares her insights into how marketing and PR teams can become better aligned, and she gives actionable advice on how schools can increase the odds of getting their stories picked up by media outlets. Towards the end of our discussion, we talk about how schools can better prepare for crisis communication scenarios before they happen. Show notes and transcript: https://echodelta.co/blog/a-public-relations-primer-with-barbara-pierce Tipping Point's website: https://www.tippingpointcomm.com/

A Public Relations Primer with Barbara Pierce

This is part two of a two-part episode in which we explore how the University of the Ozarks, a small, private, liberal arts university in rural Arkansas, has managed to consistently grow enrollment despite the challenges facing small private schools.  In this episode, Reggie Hill, Vice President of Marketing and enrollment at the University of the Ozarks and Amy Lloyd, Ozarks' Director of Marketing, continue to dig into the key factors that have allowed their institution to thrive; and in one case, generate a 30 percent year-over-year increase in enrollment. We hear what Amy learned when she started attending recruitment events, and how Ozarks has focused the recruitment and marketing activities for maximum impact, which included foregoing a traditional view book and replacing it with something else designed to generate even more impact. We wrap up by hearing how Amy and Reggie, productively, approach internal resistance to new ideas and how they focused on the long game. This was an incredible conversation that, I hope, will both inspire and challenge you as you think about your own marketing and enrollment efforts.  Links: ozarks.edu echodelta.co/podcast

Growing Enrollment at University of the Ozarks (Part 2)

Small, private liberal arts colleges face significant headwinds as they try to grow enrollment. Despite these challenges, University of the Ozarks, Arkansas' oldest private liberal arts university, has managed to buck this trend. In part one of this two-part episode, we talk with Reggie Hill, Vice President of Marketing and Enrollment at Ozarks, and Amy Lloyd, Director of Marketing. We touch on how Ozarks has better aligned marketing and enrollment, how they've taken smart, calculated risks in promoting the university, and we dive deep into the specific strategies they use to stay connected to the younger generation they hope to reach. Links: ozarks.edu echodelta.co/podcast

Growing Enrollment at University of the Ozarks (Part 1)

Marketers and enrollment managers are swimming in data, but making it digestible and actionable is easier said than done. In this episode, we talk with Ken Reaves, Director of Research and Strategic Projects at Southeastern University. Ken is an expert when it comes to combining hardcore data and research with creative storytelling, and he's got tons of advice for anybody looking to make their data more compelling and actionable. We discuss: synergies between marketing and institutional research the specific techniques and thought processes he follows to create compelling, story-driven narratives that bring numbers to life potential pitfalls associated with data-driven decision making how to nurture a more data-driven culture. As always, show notes for this episode and others can be found at echodelta.co/podcast.  Links: seu.edu

Making Data Meaningful at Southeastern University

Historically, CRMs have been seen as a tool for Admissions, but today's CRMs are capable of so much more. In this episode, Kris Hardy, Director of Web and Digital Marketing at Messiah College, stops by to share how the school's CRM has transformed their digital marketing efforts. We discuss: How the CRM has changed the way the marketing team interacts with their colleagues in other departments Specific challenges the Messiah team encountered as they began rolling out larger volumes of personalized, automated communication Smart tactics they've implemented on their website around personalization and how they gather leads. Connect with Kris Hardy: twitter.com/krishardy83 Website: messiah.edu

CRM-Powered Digital Marketing at Messiah College

Research suggests roughly 75% of students use word of mouth to help determine what school to attend, yet few schools have an intentional strategy for generating positive word of mouth.   In this episode, we talk with Daniel Lemin, co-author along with Jay Baer of a new book on the topic called Talk Triggers. Daniel lays out an actionable framework higher ed marketers can use to create the kinds of unique and memorable talk triggers students can't help sharing.  We discuss: What makes for a great talk trigger (hint: it's not about having a flashy gimmick) How to systematically create and evaluate your own unique talk triggers Lots of higher ed-specific examples to get your wheels turning.  Connect with Daniel: Websites: talktriggers.com and daniellemin.com

Engineering Word of Mouth with Daniel Lemin

Susan Baier's research focuses on uncovering how groups of people think and feel as they make important decisions, like selecting a college. We discuss specific ways schools have used her research to improve their enrollment and advancement efforts by better understanding critical attitudinal differences in their target audiences.

Uncovering Hidden Audience Insights with Susan Baier

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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