Show, Don’t Tell: The Power of Video in Higher Ed Marketing

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:07.190 You are listening to the Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals 2 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:11.910 in higher education. This show will tackle all sorts of questions related to student 3 00:00:11.949 --> 00:00:16.230 recruitment, don't a relations, marketing trends, new technologies and so much more. 4 00:00:16.989 --> 00:00:20.230 If you are looking for conversations centered around where the industry is going, 5 00:00:20.750 --> 00:00:29.699 this podcast is for you. Let's get into the show. Welcome to the 6 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:35.810 Higher Ed Marketer podcast, where, each week we explore ideas and insights with 7 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:40.689 marketers in higher read that we admire. My name is Troye singer and I 8 00:00:40.810 --> 00:00:44.890 am one of the two hosts of this show. My cohost is Bart Kaylor, 9 00:00:44.969 --> 00:00:48.369 and Bart, I was thinking that I don't acknowledge this enough, but 10 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:53.039 you're working with colleges and universities, with their marketing departments, every day. 11 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:57.479 So if you would please give us a day or two in the life of 12 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.280 Bart Taylor, that's happened over the past week. Oh well, thanks, 13 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.950 Troy. I appreciate that and it's been a pleasure working with you on this 14 00:01:04.069 --> 00:01:08.150 podcast. I think for me this week, and I'm trying to kind of 15 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:11.950 manage this, I end up having a lot of a lot of zoom meetings 16 00:01:11.109 --> 00:01:14.709 and I'm, I'll be honest with them, getting a little zoom fatigue. 17 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:19.540 But it's a it's a pleasure and an honor to be able to build relationships 18 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:22.219 of a lot of the colleges and have them just reach out and say, 19 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:23.340 Hey, we've got this idea that we'd like to talk with you about, 20 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:27.340 or hey, we've had some challenges with the way that we're doing something. 21 00:01:27.379 --> 00:01:33.329 I had a conversation today with a with a client that's been utilizing firm for 22 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:37.370 for digital marketing and and we've done some digital marketing. I mean certainly we 23 00:01:37.810 --> 00:01:42.290 work with different different schools in different ways, but they were just curious about 24 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.650 how we might handle something. So it's just a matter of helping and and 25 00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:49.480 kind of navigating as a partner with these different folks to just be able to 26 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:52.480 help, you know, help them figure out the best way to do their 27 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.079 own high red marketing. And sometimes that's US helping and coming alongside some of 28 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.920 sometimes it's US giving some ideas of you know, hey, you got to 29 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:01.269 look into this or look into these other things, and I think that's part 30 00:02:01.269 --> 00:02:05.430 of what we'll talk a little bit with Susanna Day about. Thanks, Bart 31 00:02:05.549 --> 00:02:07.710 and you know it's not a secret that I admire the work that you do, 32 00:02:07.830 --> 00:02:12.590 as I get to see a lot of it as I execute it with 33 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:16.180 print mail and some of the strategy that you put forth, and I thought 34 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:21.939 it was good to try to spotlight it. And now, as you as 35 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:25.460 you talked about Suzanne, I'll turn the spotlight to her. Today's guest is 36 00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:30.610 Suzanne Pertruche. She's the vice president for enrollment and marketing that Presbyterian College in 37 00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:36.289 South Carolina and I know of her because of her Dayton roots. or She's 38 00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:40.530 done work here with the University of Dayton and now she's doing dynamic work at 39 00:02:40.610 --> 00:02:46.800 Presbyterian and, as Bart knows, for school is a typical school that both 40 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:50.639 of our companies work with. So we thought it would be good to highlight 41 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.000 her and have some of the people that we work with listen on how she's 42 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:59.949 doing dynamic things at Presbyterian. That's great. I'm excited to hear the conversation. 43 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:05.949 So let's get started. Well, let's bring Susanne in. Today's guest 44 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:10.909 is Suzanne Pertruche, vice president for enrollment and marketing that Presbyterian College. She 45 00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:15.819 is welcomed into the hired marketing podcast. Thank you, Suzanne, for joining 46 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:20.780 us. Thank you so much, Troy and Bart. I am very excited 47 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:23.659 to be here with you this afternoon. The reason why I reached out to 48 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:30.849 you is the size is Presbyterian College. It's a typical college that both barts 49 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:35.930 organization and my organization work with and we felt it would be useful to just 50 00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:39.569 kind of look into your organization, I here it's a high functioning organization, 51 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:46.120 and see how your current marketing department work. So if you would, if 52 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:52.759 you could first give us a glimpse of your role and Presbyterian College. I 53 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:58.110 came to Presbyterian College in two thousand and sixteen and for all but a month 54 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:02.110 and a half have served as the vice president for enrollment and marketing. And 55 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:09.629 at this institution that means the offices that are included in the portfolio are undergraduate 56 00:04:09.710 --> 00:04:15.099 admission financial aid, and we serve undergraduate as well as our graduate students in 57 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:19.660 financial aid, and then marketing and communications. We have the central office and 58 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:26.089 I know that today we're also going to talk about the specific enrollment marketing function. 59 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:32.209 So PC is a very small institution. We have almost one thousandree hundred 60 00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:40.199 total students, approximately a thousand of whom are undergraduates, and so we are 61 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:46.079 the smallest division one school with a football program in the whole country. That 62 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:49.199 makes us stand out in a different way, but it also puts some challenges 63 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:55.189 in front of us. We're very much focused on the liberal arts, the 64 00:04:55.350 --> 00:05:00.670 personal attention delivered by the faculty, the student experience, so all of those 65 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:06.139 things that one would be thinking about when looking at a marketing marketing program within 66 00:05:06.220 --> 00:05:13.180 a liberal arts education, but also then raising the questions of how do we 67 00:05:13.339 --> 00:05:17.699 differentiate pc in the market place, how do we stand out to prospective students 68 00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:24.769 when we are a very small player in a market in specially in South Carolina, 69 00:05:25.129 --> 00:05:30.610 that tends to be dominated by to state flagship institutions and a number of 70 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:33.209 regional publics? That's great. I think it's interesting. Is as kind of 71 00:05:33.250 --> 00:05:36.160 what you talked about, because I think you're right, a lot of folks 72 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:39.800 that we know are kind of in the same place that you are, small 73 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.399 to medium size college. Is a lot of them private like you are, 74 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:46.639 and trying to differentiate not only from the publics but also differentiate from the other 75 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.920 privates, I think is challenging and I kind of you know, as you 76 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.629 were kind of doing that introduction. Heard you talk a little bit about this 77 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:58.269 Central Marketing Organization and how critical it is to kind of Aligne because you're such 78 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:00.910 a small school, how critical and necessary it becomes to align all of your 79 00:06:00.949 --> 00:06:06.899 marketing in a way that can really impact that. The major driver of institutional 80 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:11.459 revenue and growth is enrollment. So tell us a little bit about that Central 81 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:15.259 Marketing Organization, how it came about and how that's going. It had, 82 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:19.850 as I understand, reported to enrollment at one point in time and went through 83 00:06:20.689 --> 00:06:27.410 a move that I would says fairly common in was situated in advancement and we 84 00:06:27.569 --> 00:06:31.329 made that shift again in two thousand and sixteen so that I would have the 85 00:06:31.449 --> 00:06:38.480 opportunity to take a look at central marketing and how it really fits within the 86 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:43.519 context of all of the needs of the institution. With really only two primary 87 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.949 sources of revenue, enrollment and fund raising, we're not the type of institution 88 00:06:48.269 --> 00:06:55.430 that has a significant number of alternative revenue streams and when I took it on 89 00:06:56.230 --> 00:07:01.500 we had four total positions in that office, one of which was empty. 90 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:08.939 So I had three people very dedicated to the institution but trying to do a 91 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:14.259 tremendous amount of work with not much in the way of resources, and so 92 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:18.410 one of the big questions we had to begin to tackle was how were we 93 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:26.730 going to expand that office's capacity at a time when we were writing a strategic 94 00:07:26.970 --> 00:07:32.639 plan and fin linding that one of the accepted pillars of the strategic plan would 95 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:40.439 be sharing our story. So I always just cringe a little bit when I 96 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:44.389 hear someone say this, but that idea of the best kept secret, and 97 00:07:44.550 --> 00:07:49.350 truly it hasn't mattered the size of the institution where I've been or the relative 98 00:07:49.509 --> 00:07:54.990 market position. It's always talked about in the best kept secret, and I 99 00:07:55.149 --> 00:08:00.259 recently heard a candidate for a position on campus talking about his current institution as 100 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:03.819 the best kept secret. So, whether that was the actuality or not, 101 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:09.980 we had to try to fight against that and in many ways that meant producing 102 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:18.490 sufficient collateral in all forms and being able to tell stories and that would resonate 103 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:24.850 with various audiences, from prospective students and their parents to other influencers in that 104 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:31.319 college choice process through to current students and their parents, because we have to 105 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:37.039 remarket the institution to them every day. We can't simply assume that they've been 106 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:41.750 rolled and therefore they're going to have one hundred percent satisfaction. Subtle reminders of 107 00:08:41.870 --> 00:08:46.830 why they chose this institution and what it means to be part of this community 108 00:08:46.870 --> 00:08:50.990 are so important to them. But then, of course, continuing on through 109 00:08:50.110 --> 00:08:56.740 that student to alumni lifespan spectrum, making sure that we have alumni and other 110 00:08:56.899 --> 00:09:03.299 friends the institution foundations, all of which see value in supporting the type of 111 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:09.289 work that's happening here, so that they're going to contribute to the institution financially 112 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:15.929 and make future learning possible for students. Great and so how big is your 113 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:18.450 team right now? He said kind of when you got there was it was 114 00:09:18.929 --> 00:09:22.450 three. Where are you at now? When I arrived it was three, 115 00:09:22.929 --> 00:09:30.039 but there were four positions. As part of the strategic plan process, the 116 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:35.559 then president made a financial commitment to expand the size of that marketing team and 117 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.870 so we actually grew by fifty percent. At are high in the Central Marketing 118 00:09:39.990 --> 00:09:46.429 Office, we had a total of six individuals working there. Now, during 119 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:54.419 the pandemic, we were looking very carefully at cost considerations for the institution and 120 00:09:54.580 --> 00:10:01.019 so, through attrition, moved to a total of five individuals and we're currently 121 00:10:01.139 --> 00:10:03.700 in a state of flux, which we might might discuss in a little bit. 122 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:09.289 But that's central marketing office. At its high had six individuals serving a 123 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:18.169 variety of stakeholders on campus, with the biggest outside of our area being advancement, 124 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:24.639 but certainly campus life, academic affairs, the President's office, everywhere you 125 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:30.200 look on campus, and then also partnering carefully with our colleagues in athletics. 126 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:35.110 But there's such demand in the admission office. I will also share with you 127 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:43.110 that we have now two people who are dedicated solely to enrollment marketing and I 128 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:46.470 would love to be able to continue that line of the conversation with you. 129 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:50.259 Yeah, and we'll get into that. I want to clarify just a couple 130 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:54.940 things because I know that a lot of times I have a lot of my 131 00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:56.980 clients ask me. Well, you know, hey, we're college, were 132 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:01.220 small, we've got thirteen hundred students, we've got whatever it might be. 133 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:03.730 What do other schools have? I mean, do they have like a graphic 134 00:11:03.769 --> 00:11:07.929 designer? Do they have a writer? What? How does that marketing team 135 00:11:07.970 --> 00:11:11.169 made up of? Are they investing in social media? People? Tell me 136 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:13.090 about this. These five or six people that you've had plus the two additional 137 00:11:13.129 --> 00:11:16.090 ones that will get to about the pod. Okay, so if we look 138 00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:20.960 at the structure and keep it at the six, we have the executive director 139 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:28.879 of marketing and communications and then three people reporting to that director. We've gone 140 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:35.149 through some various iterations of this, but will focus right there for now, 141 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:43.230 so that we have a director of digital marketing, a director of media relations 142 00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:50.019 and then a graphic designer, formally a director of creative services. The other 143 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:56.179 two people have been situated under digital marketing so that we would have a digital 144 00:11:56.220 --> 00:12:03.529 marketing specialist whose primary responsibilities focused on social media. That can take up such 145 00:12:03.529 --> 00:12:09.009 an Andre normous amount of time and it's not just a matter of going out 146 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:15.919 and capturing what's happening that day. It really needs to be a strategic planful 147 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:20.120 exercise so that we have a full editorial calendar with it, but we also 148 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:26.480 can be agile enough to be able to pick up of the moment happenings on 149 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.549 campus so that we don't miss those things. So the Digital Marketing Director had 150 00:12:31.669 --> 00:12:35.389 primary oversight of the whole area, with special focus on the web, and 151 00:12:35.549 --> 00:12:41.750 then the team member working with her social media but certainly assisting with other things 152 00:12:41.870 --> 00:12:48.980 including data analytics in looking at our efficacy in all of these efforts. And 153 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:54.500 then the director of media relations had the content writer, which was one of 154 00:12:54.539 --> 00:13:01.090 our added positions so that we could develop more stories to process quickly and to 155 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:05.169 make sure that we were pushing those through the website and other venues. But 156 00:13:05.289 --> 00:13:11.610 you had mentioned the magazine in an earlier conversation, thinking about the types of 157 00:13:11.809 --> 00:13:16.080 indepth stories that we would want to share in the magazine as well, and 158 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:20.879 we actually keep those two people so busy we could go with more people writing 159 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:28.110 for the institution, and so we've been pulling in alumni writers, faculty writers 160 00:13:28.149 --> 00:13:31.789 who want to make contributions. It's really one of those opportunities that we want 161 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:37.070 to harness the talents of others so that we can continue to tell those stories 162 00:13:37.190 --> 00:13:41.429 of the institution. Thank you for sharing that because I, like I said, 163 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:45.139 I think that sometimes there's people who say, well, I guess we 164 00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:46.659 need a Web master, we need a graphic designer, we need a rider, 165 00:13:46.740 --> 00:13:48.700 we need a video person, we need I mean, they can go 166 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:52.740 through and segment every piece of digital marketing, every piece of regular marketing, 167 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:56.690 and feel like I can't do that because I don't have a dedicated person, 168 00:13:56.730 --> 00:14:00.769 but it sounds like a lot of a lot of the philosophy at pc is 169 00:14:00.809 --> 00:14:01.690 to be a little bit more of you know, we wear a lot of 170 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:07.289 different hats. We take responsibilities for what we're doing and we lean into what 171 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:09.759 we're doing as opposed to, you know, trying to be just so specialized 172 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:13.240 that we can't reach across the island help out. I think that's a fair 173 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.919 characterization. Yes, great, wait, we talked a little bit. You 174 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.320 kind of we're talking that you wanted to talk a little bit more about this 175 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:24.789 embedded group within your admissions team and I understand that you're kind of calling that 176 00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:26.750 the satellite marketing pod. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, 177 00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:33.789 it really came out of my own experience at other institutions and I think I've 178 00:14:33.870 --> 00:14:41.820 been pretty fortunate to always have a dedicated enrollment marketing team and in fact that 179 00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:48.059 was my own pathway. While I started as an admission counselor and moved up 180 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:52.179 through several levels, I didn't become a director of admission. I became a 181 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:56.090 director of and the term used at the time was operations, but it really 182 00:14:56.409 --> 00:15:03.090 encompassed marketing and a all of the related areas and so it sits very close 183 00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:07.159 to my heart and my own interest and I was able to use that to 184 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:13.879 propel myself into other leadership roles than so I love the area. It really 185 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:20.360 builds everything together for me. But in coming to Presbyterian College, I was 186 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:26.870 watching what people in the admission team were actually doing and what their strengths were, 187 00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:31.909 and so someone who was with us was titled As an Associate Director of 188 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:39.899 admission, studied at Presbyterian College, had a degree in English, was tremendously 189 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:45.580 gifted and creative in the area of writing, and so he was doing a 190 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:50.409 large part of this. I thought let's recognize that in a specific way. 191 00:15:50.610 --> 00:15:56.169 We don't have to stay with this title of Associate Director of admission. He 192 00:15:56.289 --> 00:16:03.009 has an opportunity for advancement by being given a director title and let's make sure 193 00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:10.039 that we're really drawing attention to the the skill set and knowledge base that he 194 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:15.080 has with enrollment marketing. So he was the first person already physically embedded in 195 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:18.870 the office of admission, having been a member of the team for a long 196 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:25.509 time. So understanding the daily work and where some of the challenges are and 197 00:16:25.830 --> 00:16:33.820 opportunities and working with prospective students and their families and and counselors and other audiences, 198 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:40.019 and the volume of work was increasing significantly and if you'd like, I 199 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.659 can touch on why. That was the point where he said to me the 200 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:48.690 other year really need another team member. I could use a graphic designer, 201 00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:52.370 and so we were able to fight for and add that position. But in 202 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:59.490 hindsight that title was very limited and knowing what I know now, I would 203 00:16:59.490 --> 00:17:04.440 have started with a title along the lines of assistant director of enrollment marketing rather 204 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:12.319 than graphic designer. That doesn't begin to really cover what this person's responsibilities are 205 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:17.029 within the yeah. And and what are some of those responsibilities? Because, 206 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.710 I mean, I know that you've talked about in our earlier conversations using video 207 00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:22.750 for a lot of outreach during the pandemic, but is that? Is that 208 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:27.750 kind of what kind of came out of those those two embedded folks, they 209 00:17:29.029 --> 00:17:33.259 working together, have done a lot of the video and I will tell you 210 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:40.740 that that is not their background. So someone in our central marketing team did 211 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:45.970 study at the undergraduate and graduate levels video production and we have been able to 212 00:17:47.250 --> 00:17:52.009 use his skills for all types of other videos on campus. But in the 213 00:17:52.089 --> 00:18:00.839 admission video world. We have partnered with a local provider in order to help 214 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:07.559 us capture footage on campus and edit it with a somewhat tongue in cheek view 215 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:15.150 in many cases of the admission process. So we are the Blue Hose, 216 00:18:15.549 --> 00:18:18.069 and I didn't mention that when I was telling you a little bit about pc, 217 00:18:18.829 --> 00:18:23.509 but it is then the name by which our athletics teams are known, 218 00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:30.180 and we have appropriated that to include all students at the institution so that, 219 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:37.980 as we're describing that traditional liberal arts environment, what's this memorable piece that we 220 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:44.329 can use and actually extrapolate from there what it means to see yourself on a 221 00:18:44.490 --> 00:18:48.490 path that might be different than what most of your friends are going to be 222 00:18:48.650 --> 00:18:53.210 doing in the next year. And we also know that the admission process is 223 00:18:53.490 --> 00:18:59.319 highly stressful. So if we can have some fun during this still taking care 224 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:03.680 of making sure they know the key points of how they'll benefit from coming to 225 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:08.640 this institution, but to make it fun and enjoyable and to provide an experience 226 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.349 that's going to be memorable, we want to do that and so we've tried 227 00:19:12.430 --> 00:19:17.750 to make that flow into the video as well. Through much of the editing, 228 00:19:18.349 --> 00:19:22.869 scriptwriting, etc. So it's a combination of the talents of those two 229 00:19:22.950 --> 00:19:30.299 people in the admission office working with the actual video skills of our local provider. 230 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:33.339 That's great. I love how that partnership works out and I that's something 231 00:19:33.380 --> 00:19:37.299 that we talked a lot about on some of the blogs and things. So 232 00:19:37.380 --> 00:19:40.170 that's that's really good and I really appreciate the the inside and all that. 233 00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:42.890 I think it's some I think it's interesting to that your videos have been what 234 00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:47.170 I kind of Colin, you know, term edutainment. I think that, 235 00:19:47.329 --> 00:19:49.529 you know, generation Z, they want to be entertained as much as they 236 00:19:49.569 --> 00:19:52.799 want to be learning and educating. I think that's one of the reasons why 237 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.960 Youtube is such a popular channel for for that particular generation, and so I 238 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:02.240 love the fact that you've leaned into that and made made some of those admissions. 239 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:04.960 You know, process videos more, a little bit more tongue and cheek 240 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.990 and Educat, you know, entertaining, rather than just making them all this 241 00:20:10.109 --> 00:20:11.230 is the process, this is how it's going to be, because that's going 242 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:15.190 to that's going to differentiate you by adding a little bit of that entertainment and 243 00:20:15.269 --> 00:20:18.710 from what I understand from my focus group before. You know, students at 244 00:20:18.789 --> 00:20:22.420 home, my children to in college now and to still in high school, 245 00:20:23.019 --> 00:20:27.180 they really want to be. They notice and they pay attention to those schools 246 00:20:27.180 --> 00:20:30.099 that are entertaining them as much as they're educating them. So I appreciate you 247 00:20:30.180 --> 00:20:33.700 saying that. So try. I know you had a couple questions you wanted 248 00:20:33.700 --> 00:20:36.049 to kind of dig into. Yes, and it was along the line of 249 00:20:36.089 --> 00:20:38.329 the video. I know that they leaned into it this year and I think 250 00:20:38.369 --> 00:20:42.369 one of the reasons why is because of COVID. So we'd like to know 251 00:20:42.369 --> 00:20:45.970 if you could describe how that is made a difference in a way that you 252 00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:52.480 promote the school and do you see some of those changes lasting even after you're 253 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:56.799 able to bring prospective students back on campus? So one of the videos that 254 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:03.119 we had created before we went through the big change at this time last year 255 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:07.950 and having to be remote, not only in how education was delivered on campus 256 00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:14.549 but and how we interacted with prospective students and families, was an offshoot of 257 00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:21.140 the old MTV cribs, and so we have pcing cribs and it's funny because 258 00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:26.819 you can really feel now the timeline for the original show, from which we 259 00:21:26.019 --> 00:21:33.490 so liberally borrowed, because sometimes I'll hear our admission counselors asking are visiting students 260 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:37.730 if they're familiar with MTV CRIBS and they're not. The parents like, they're 261 00:21:37.809 --> 00:21:47.279 not there like. But the student we featured has such tremendous energy and he 262 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:52.920 in fact recently was a contestant on American idol, so you can imagine the 263 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:59.920 kind of entertainer that I'm talking about. He did an incredible job and that 264 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:04.549 actually was able to be repurposed because, of course, at this time last 265 00:22:04.549 --> 00:22:11.910 year we weren't having on campus visits. We reopened for visits in late August, 266 00:22:11.109 --> 00:22:17.180 early September, but we are limited in what we show. So it's 267 00:22:17.220 --> 00:22:21.819 not the visit of old where they're going in all of the key academic buildings 268 00:22:21.940 --> 00:22:26.980 and the dining facilities and the residence halls. We in fact don't take students 269 00:22:26.019 --> 00:22:32.049 in any residence halls right now. We want to be particularly respectful of those 270 00:22:32.170 --> 00:22:36.970 students who are living on campus and their health and safety. So as part 271 00:22:37.009 --> 00:22:41.730 of our admission presentation we show this video and it allows people, in a 272 00:22:41.930 --> 00:22:47.559 fun way, to have a glimpse inside some of the residence halls, whether 273 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:51.960 it's a facility they might live in right away or something they wouldn't experience, 274 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:56.720 such as our newest buildings, our apartments, until there are perhaps in their 275 00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:00.750 junior or senior year at the institution. So we don't have to cover as 276 00:23:00.750 --> 00:23:07.549 much physical ground and we can also maintain covid protocol when we show that. 277 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:14.619 But certainly there have been other videos and we intentionally drive students to videos through 278 00:23:14.660 --> 00:23:19.140 other types of communication so that we're really looking at this layered approach and will 279 00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:26.900 soon be launching a new platform that will allow us in fact track who's viewing 280 00:23:26.289 --> 00:23:32.930 the video, so we'll have an opportunity to understand more about the students viewing 281 00:23:33.049 --> 00:23:37.930 habits, what things are resonating, how that informs future production. But perhaps 282 00:23:38.130 --> 00:23:45.559 more importantly, how can our admission counselors take that information and of course not 283 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:49.400 say to somebody, well, I know you watched whichever video five time. 284 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:53.400 Little creepy, a little creepy? Yes, too much big brother, but 285 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:59.430 how can they take that information and begin to shape their conversation with their student 286 00:23:59.950 --> 00:24:03.750 about what they know that students interest or points of concern might be? And 287 00:24:03.910 --> 00:24:10.339 we do that certainly with other things are digital stats. What are students doing 288 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:12.859 on our website? How long are they staying? How often are they visiting 289 00:24:12.980 --> 00:24:18.740 certain pages? So it all goes to further inform the conversation and to hopefully 290 00:24:18.859 --> 00:24:26.450 make those conversations a much tighter part of that relationship building process that ultimately results 291 00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:30.529 in having a student come to PC as a future blue host. I love 292 00:24:30.650 --> 00:24:34.890 that and I love the fact that you are leaning into those analytics and and 293 00:24:36.970 --> 00:24:38.519 and I love the fact that you're telling us all of this because again, 294 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:41.720 it goes back to you know, a lot of the folks that I work 295 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:45.799 with are small schools like yours, almost identical, and the demographics as far 296 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.000 as the size and you under two thousand type and so many times I think 297 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.950 it's like, oh, we're so small, we're not a state university, 298 00:24:52.029 --> 00:24:55.509 we don't have a big department. But I love the fact that you are. 299 00:24:56.109 --> 00:24:57.789 You know, you're still doing a lot of really good things. I 300 00:24:57.829 --> 00:25:02.710 mean use utilize in the video, utilizing the statistics, analyzing what's going on. 301 00:25:03.349 --> 00:25:04.309 You're doing a lot of smart marketing and that's a lot of what I 302 00:25:04.390 --> 00:25:07.700 try to encourage folks is to look at how you can be smarter with what 303 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:11.019 you're doing. Yes, we all have a limited budgets. Yes, we 304 00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:14.180 would all love to get to where we think we need to be, but 305 00:25:14.259 --> 00:25:15.779 what can you do with what you have? And so I think you know, 306 00:25:15.940 --> 00:25:18.980 plaud you and your team for for doing that and doing that well. 307 00:25:19.019 --> 00:25:26.289 So so tell me a little bit about you know where where you think it's 308 00:25:26.289 --> 00:25:30.049 going to go soon and and what your plans are here for kind of the 309 00:25:30.089 --> 00:25:33.450 next year or so. Well, I appreciate, first you mentioning that team 310 00:25:33.529 --> 00:25:38.599 and I want to use this opportunity to thank them because I think that's a 311 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:45.000 big part of the success that we have and I could not sit in a 312 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:49.230 room alone and do this without the people I'm fortunate to work with. And 313 00:25:49.390 --> 00:25:53.869 so part of this process is making sure that we build trust so that when 314 00:25:53.910 --> 00:25:59.390 they get some creative ideas and want to take some risks, I can give 315 00:25:59.430 --> 00:26:03.670 them the freedom to do that and to have a very good sense of what 316 00:26:03.869 --> 00:26:07.420 those results are going to be. So I think we need to continue to 317 00:26:08.259 --> 00:26:15.579 be risk takers and COVID has probably changed things permanently. We've been fortunate to 318 00:26:15.619 --> 00:26:19.569 be in an environment where we could invite guests to campus again, but, 319 00:26:19.690 --> 00:26:25.930 as I mentioned, they're not experiencing everything that they would have. Before the 320 00:26:26.049 --> 00:26:33.599 pandemic we were in a great place to be able to very quickly offer online 321 00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:38.759 programming for students, from our own information sessions to participating in college fairs and 322 00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:45.279 high school visits to one on one appointments. We still offer some of those 323 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:52.630 virtual opportunities, but for for our type of institution, we feel strongly that 324 00:26:52.789 --> 00:26:57.549 the inperson piece works better and we hope that we'll be able to return to 325 00:26:57.710 --> 00:27:03.900 that. But I think that in many ways, as institutions have cut travel 326 00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:08.940 budgets and looked at whether or not the big college fairs will return, we're 327 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:15.970 going to have a blend probably going forward between that in person experience and the 328 00:27:17.130 --> 00:27:22.410 delivery of virtual experiences for students and we need to find the best ways to 329 00:27:22.569 --> 00:27:29.650 allow them to consume information at their own time. So even before the pandemic 330 00:27:30.039 --> 00:27:34.200 we wanted to have not just a virtual tour but a self guided tour. 331 00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:38.079 I think the next piece of that you'll see is people who are able to 332 00:27:38.200 --> 00:27:44.910 do that with virtual reality goggles. And how does that augment the tour and 333 00:27:45.109 --> 00:27:49.789 make it richer so to the extent that we can focus our limited resources on 334 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:56.069 things that are going to tell a richer story to those students. That's how 335 00:27:56.269 --> 00:28:03.339 will prioritize our personnel and financial resources. That's great. That's great, Suzanne. 336 00:28:03.420 --> 00:28:07.180 Thank you so much for giving us such an in depth and sincere look 337 00:28:07.259 --> 00:28:11.259 into what you're doing and as parts set all along, I think it's going 338 00:28:11.299 --> 00:28:14.369 to be helpful for a lot of our listeners who are wondering are we doing 339 00:28:14.490 --> 00:28:18.609 things like others are, or even creating ideas of some of the things that 340 00:28:18.730 --> 00:28:22.690 they can look into and implement. And along that line, we end every 341 00:28:22.730 --> 00:28:26.440 episode of our podcast by asking our guests is there a new idea or something 342 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:32.400 intriguing either you're doing or something yet you recently read that you would like to 343 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:36.480 share? That might be helpful as for others to implement here in the next 344 00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:44.549 thirty to sixty days? Well, thirty sixty days makes it challenging. I 345 00:28:45.670 --> 00:28:56.099 have seen so many types, types of marketing tactics being looked at. For 346 00:28:56.420 --> 00:29:02.940 me, I wanted to get a much better understanding of how others are perceiving 347 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:07.099 our brandon instead of just looking at the aspects of social media, we can 348 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:14.450 see engaging with a partner for true social listening. I think that that piece 349 00:29:14.529 --> 00:29:19.769 might be something that schools could look at in a short time frame to determine 350 00:29:21.569 --> 00:29:26.599 how those conversations are taking place, what the depth is and to identify the 351 00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:33.119 types of holes they may be missing through their current capabilities, to at least 352 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.480 ask the question, is it worth investing with a partner to be able to 353 00:29:37.589 --> 00:29:45.109 have a much bigger picture of where we are as an institution in terms of 354 00:29:45.670 --> 00:29:48.789 our social presence? So that that would be one thing that would come to 355 00:29:48.910 --> 00:29:55.180 mind. It's something that we're engaged in now and I'm anxiously awaiting the results. 356 00:29:55.460 --> 00:29:56.660 Yeah, and I just want to add to for the listeners. Is 357 00:29:56.700 --> 00:30:00.420 that Susan you're talking about kind of these platforms. He's listening platforms, which 358 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:03.619 I think are great, even as a short term, and you might already 359 00:30:03.619 --> 00:30:07.730 be doing the Suzanne's just going to google and doing some Google alerts. So 360 00:30:07.849 --> 00:30:11.529 anytime there's a mention of your name, the school's name, you know, 361 00:30:11.609 --> 00:30:15.410 anything that has to do with the school, you can put in a something 362 00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:18.329 in Google that says anytime somebody mentions this sends send us an email, and 363 00:30:18.769 --> 00:30:22.000 that's a really good way to at least be able to be aware of what's 364 00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:26.440 being said online about your institution. In a way that is is better than 365 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:30.319 being blind, and so, Suzanne, thank you for mentioning that. Oh, 366 00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:34.680 you're welcome. I appreciate the question and wish we had many more hours 367 00:30:34.750 --> 00:30:40.549 to continue to throw those thoughts together, because the world of technology, I 368 00:30:40.670 --> 00:30:45.549 think, presents us with limitless opportunities. Yes, that will be careful what 369 00:30:45.670 --> 00:30:48.349 you ask for, Susanne, because Bart and I plan to do this podcast 370 00:30:48.470 --> 00:30:52.980 for a long time, so we may be inviting you back for a second 371 00:30:52.019 --> 00:30:56.579 and third conversation, but we do really appreciate your time that you gave us 372 00:30:56.579 --> 00:31:02.940 today. You mentioned cool videos and a lot of other things. If someone 373 00:31:03.059 --> 00:31:07.650 wanted to reach you to get an indepth look at what you're doing, especially 374 00:31:07.730 --> 00:31:11.849 those videos, if they are up there public, how would the best way 375 00:31:11.890 --> 00:31:15.089 for them to reach you be? Well, somebody wanted to reach out to 376 00:31:15.210 --> 00:31:22.039 me, I would say that email would probably be the easiest opportunity, and 377 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.400 my email address is the first initial of my first name and my full last 378 00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:33.710 name, so it's S P e T. Are you, Sch at Presby 379 00:31:34.470 --> 00:31:41.670 prees by Dot Edu. I'm available on Linkedin. They certainly are welcome to 380 00:31:41.750 --> 00:31:45.549 find my information on the school's website and if they want to see some of 381 00:31:45.630 --> 00:31:52.619 those videos, beyond the blue dot org is our admission micro site. Perfect. 382 00:31:53.019 --> 00:31:56.380 Thanks, against Suzanne. We appreciate you off in your time in wisdom 383 00:31:56.539 --> 00:32:00.609 so we may share it with others. And, as I end every podcast, 384 00:32:00.849 --> 00:32:06.970 with our commercial. The High Ed marketer is sponsored by Taylor solutions and 385 00:32:07.170 --> 00:32:12.690 education marketing and branding agency and by Think, patented, a marketing, execution, 386 00:32:13.049 --> 00:32:16.359 printing and, mainly provider of high it solutions. On behalf of Bart 387 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:22.039 and, I thank you for joining us in your continued support of the podcast. 388 00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:28.039 You've been listening to the Higher Ed Marketer. To ensure that you never 389 00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:31.750 miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player. If 390 00:32:31.789 --> 00:32:36.430 you're listening with apple PODCASTS, we'd love for you to leave a quick rating 391 00:32:36.470 --> 00:32:39.390 of the show. Simply tap the number of stars you think the podcast deserves. 392 00:32:40.109 --> 00:32:40.950 Until next time,