S2
Episode 11
Certified Strategies for Higher Education Marketing
About This Episode
We look at how education marketers have adopted new strategies to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing climate for higher education institutions.
Alison Baumann | VP of Marketing, TCS Education System
Ben Masters | Sales Director, StackAdapt
Transcript
Episode Introduction (00:00:00)
Having that strong brand foundation, which then translates into a strong brand message really is what’s going to set you apart. And in an industry when so many of us are doing the same thing, the same programs, you really have to take a deep look at what is the value that you bring to that potential student.
How Agencies Thrive Introduction (00:00:28)
Curious to know what industry-leading marketers are looking to achieve and the ever-evolving digital landscape? The How Agencies Thrive podcast by StackAdapt is dedicated to helping the new breed of forward-thinking savvy, lean and mean marketers win in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Time to thrive.
Matt (00:00:56)
Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s episode. My name is Matt. I’m the host of How Agencies Thrive podcast, and I’m also the Education and Development Manager at StackAdapt. Today, we’re joined by Allison Baumann from TCS education system, and StackAdapt very own Ben Masters to do a deep dive into all things marketing for the higher education vertical. Now, before we get started, I’d love to hear from both of you to bring our guests up to speed on your experience in the programmatic space. So starting with you, Allison, tell us a little bit about TCS, how long you’ve been in the industry and what you consider to be your largest areas of expertise.
Allison (00:01:32)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Matt, for having me. I really appreciate it. I am Allison Bauman, the Vice President at TCS education system of marketing. TCS education system is a system of colleges and universities, nonprofit across the United States. We are made up of five communities cluster system office, and we work together collaboratively really to bring together each other’s expertise, systems together, working together from marketing it human resources, and really use our economies of scale and that expertise to advance student impact. Our system office works to ensure that the schools have the ability to focus on the students. And we really come together in some amazing ways. Our schools across the country consist of the Chicago school. They have locations all across the United States, Pacific Oaks College. They’re located in Pasadena, California and online. The colleges of law in Santa Barbara and Ventura, California, Saybrook University. They are actually an online university, one of the first ever who’ve just celebrated their 50th anniversary, and Kansas Health Science Center, home of Kansas Calm, our first osteopathic medical school in Kansas, and we’d love to be in a community together.
Matt (00:03:04)
Fantastic. Thanks so much, Alison. Now, Ben, you and I have known each other for a few years now, back when StackAdapt and all the employees could see each other in person. To bring our guests up to speed on your role at StackAdapt, could you just tell us a little bit more about what you do on the client-facing side, how long you’ve been in the industry, and some of your areas of specialization?
Ben (00:03:26)
Yeah, thanks, Matt. As you noted, the before time was fun where we used to be able to see each other in the office, but much like yourself, I’ve been at StackAdapt for three years now or over three and a half years. I’ve worn a few different hats at StackAdapt, first starting in the campaign management side of things then working my way into the account management side of things, the account executive sales side, and now I’m presuming the role of sales director so overseeing a team of account executives here at StackAdapt that are in charge of fostering relationships with brands and clients much like TCS and throughout my time at stacking up, I’ve really touched a whole bunch of different verticals, whether it be higher education, health care, CPG all those wonderful things. I’ve really found a home in higher ed having worked with TCS now for just about three years. So I’ve been able to absorb quite a bit of knowledge across all these verticals, but higher education has really been something I’ve enjoyed working with into.
Matt (00:04:29)
Absolutely, thanks so much, Ben. So now that everyone’s been properly introduced, I think we can dive into the episode. Now. I’m personally very excited for this one, because of all the verticals that were impacted over the last couple of years, marketing for education has definitely seen a major shift, largely in part to the fact that you know a lot of institutions had to entirely pivot their offerings in order to cater and most importantly, staying competitive both online and offline in their offerings. In Season One of the podcast last year, and this was during the height of the pandemic, we had the opportunity to do an episode with the Vermont Law School. And this was right as things kind of hit really hard in a lot of these industries. So I’m eager to see, you know, as time has passed from both of you what your thoughts are, on how things have transformed over time, and what we can look forward to in the future for this vertical. So to get started, sort of with the first part of this episode, I like to kind of shift our minds to, you know, reflecting a little bit on the last few years, and this is a bit of a three-part question. But from both of you, I’d love to know, you know, what was your initial reaction in 2020? When everything happened? And what did you assume was going to happen with the higher education vertical? And then, moreover, to you, Allison, I am interested to know, you know, what was the most major impact to the institutions that you were working with under the umbrella of, of your company? And then, you know, what was your role, especially as a leader in marketing to support these teams during this during this time, and, you know, provide them with the strategy and the know how of how to navigate?
Allison (00:06:13)
I think, like many, the first reaction was, oh, now, how do we do this. And you know, that, of course, from a marketing perspective, as well as an employer, and an educator, all of it really coming together at once. Luckily, we quickly immobilized several different things across the system to ensure first and foremost that our students were taking care of the first thing to do, of course, is how do we ensure that students are continuing to be served continuing their education in the in the safest manner? Luckily, many of our schools were already online. So the transition to online was seamless. However, of course, you are taking into consideration how do you take what is aground currently happening on ground onto online? You mentioned a law school, our small colleges of law was not yet completely fully online. So they utilized our team at the system office to help bring their coursework online very quickly, without much much disruption to the students. Of course, then how do we then do this as a team? As a bunch of marketers coming together? How do we collaborate? How do we come up with, you know, great, great services and solutions? That normally we do together? I think you guys even mentioned, you know, what it was, like just going from office to office to talk to each other? So I think like, everyone, we figured out, how do we continue to do our work remotely. And luckily, you know, we are a bunch of problem solvers in general. So the team pulled together and, and solve problems and utilizing technology. We use, of course, chat quite often now between Slack and Microsoft, we definitely are probably talking more than we ever have in the past. But as marketers, the question was, what’s what’s going to happen? And what we did start to see was something that we all really didn’t quite expect. And our schools actually saw some great gains in terms of student interest as the pandemic started. Our programming is specialized in helping communities from psychology and health, etc. And we saw a very large uptick in interest, which I think the country saw, as people really looked to help each other. And so we also had the fact that people were home, people were at their computers, people were absorbing media and information. Very quickly, very often. Some people were on their phones until one 2am, who might not have been before. And this really created an opportunity for us to communicate and get our message to individuals who might not have had the time before. And so I think that change really took us back at first. And I think one of the most difficult things over the last two years is the prediction of what that then showed us. You know, we saw an uptick, is this going to be sustainable? Is this something that is going to continue? What we learned was that it was not, and just like everything else happening in the country, ups and downs ebbs and flows, really our marketing efforts, our recruitment efforts, saw the exact same thing, just like the rest of the country. A lot of highs and had a lot of lows, a lot of response, a lot of engagement, no engagement. And that’s really what we’ve been seeing over the last two years, it’s been very difficult to make predictions. But it has also taught us that we need to be nimble. And we need to be very, very much in tune with what is happening not only with our potential student, but in the country, and at any given moment, it can change. So my role really to ensure that I am leading with an open mind, and ready to predict any changes that we might have to make. The team itself has become, as I mentioned, more nimble than ever. We have been more flexible, and have really started to think outside of the box now, not only in what is going to happen tomorrow, but what do things look like in five years from now? What do we have to do to prepare? If what we think is going to work tomorrow doesn’t work in five months. And that really can make a difference in how you decide to deploy your marketing tactics or build a marketing plan. It really forces you to think differently. And forward, for sure.
Matt (00:11:23)
Thanks so much, Alison. Now, Ben, from your perspective, kind of on the StackAdapt side with a large book of higher-ed clients, what are some of the things that you notice were happening with these agencies? And what was your role, you know, working on the buy side to sort of educate and put everybody’s minds at ease?
Ben (00:11:42)
Yeah, it was, much like everything. It was all up in the air for a little bit of time. I have some clients that have physical higher ed, campuses, and course offerings and things like that. However, working with TCS, we knew that it was the majority of the time online, which really came came to their aid quite a bit. So when it came time to discuss with TCS, what was going to happen, it seemed like we already sort of had this great plan in place the offering was ironclad, the infrastructure was sound, and it kind of seemed like it was business as usual for TCS and StackAdapt. And then when we started to sort of measure and watch the wave of, of people out there, take a second and actually think, “Okay, well, you know what, my job can now be done fully online. Or maybe my job isn’t what I thought it was going to be now that I’m working from home, let me refresh, let me restart and let me go and secure a diploma or a certificate or achieve a different level of education.” And that sort of really played into the success of TCS throughout the past couple of years is people were taking more time to invest in themselves. And that was something that we honed in on, and that was something that we tailored, our structure and our campaign strategy toward is to really help those people level up and invest in themselves throughout the pandemic. And the results spoke for themselves. So at first, it was a bit of, Oh, my goodness, everyone’s running around. But it seems like TCS was really built to flourish in this time.
Matt (00:13:32)
Now, still, in that frame of mind of looking back at the last two years, I’m interested to know from both of you how you think the industry reacted to this shift of, you know, having school pretty well in person most of the time, and, you know, had that supplementary online offering to then having little to no in-person offerings to now being sort of in this hybrid of online or in person, you know, depending on where you’re located and where that access is. Do you think the industry was even well equipped to handle this? Or was it a huge shift for everybody to kind of scramble and get these offerings up to spec?
Allison (00:14:12)
One of the things about this industry that is special. You know, I’ve been I’ve been doing it more higher ed marketing for over 20 years now. And I’ve been with several different types of institutions. It’s a huge industry that is very diverse, and very diverse in everything from of course programs and offerings to size, capabilities, history, how they do things, how they want to do things, how they can do things, resources that they have, etc. So when you really take a step back and look at it as a whole, how did the industry react? I would say very similarly in very diverse ways. There were some that were pretty cared, there were some who had the resources, and were able to turn on a dime. There were some who had no resources whatsoever and unfortunately, are in situations of closing, we’ve seen many close closings more than anybody would want to see, of course, and some, some stood still. And some have recognized the need. But also standing still, it’s one of the hardest things to do in higher ed is mobilize and prioritize you when you think about the industry and what they had to do during the pandemic. First and foremost, they had to focus on the students. And a lot of that in some instances, our schools don’t have dormitories. But many colleges and universities across the country who are housing students, one of our first thoughts was, you know, what do we do to keep the students safe? Do we send them home? Do we keep them here? So there was a lot that the industry was faced with as a whole. However, I think that many rose to the occasion sort of say, and really started to push through new things that I believe it’s been a long time coming in higher ed, higher ed has been on this kind of ledge of do I stay? Do I go? Do I stay doing what I’ve been doing? Do we go towards the new and in a way, a lot of our K through 12 has, whether it’s innovated or taken the new times, you know, I have two kiddos, myself and during the pandemic, the technology’s at their fingertips. And to think that the younger generation is now growing up with this technology, they’ll be moving into colleges and universities, before we know it. And as an industry, are we where we need to be? And I think that’s been a question for a very long time and the pandemic and the last few years really have forced that question. And more importantly, forced a lot of action for change.
Ben (00:17:13)
I agree with you, Allison there. And it’s funny that even you know, if we think back 567 years ago, when we thought of online education, it was a for me personally, I’m speaking areas, University of Phoenix that was just sort of the name that came to mind. And everyone whenever you thought of education, higher ed or post-secondary was physical in class, that was it. And anything else was sort of new and uncomfortable for people to think about. But then it takes a massive global event to sort of get people to snap into focus and say, Okay, well, we can actually execute this in any number of different ways. And then all of a sudden, online education really came back to the forefront and prove to everyone much like with a lot of jobs out there, that we can do these things from home. And it was a really exciting time, I think for people that were trying to juggle doing a job and also further their career by taking a night class or something like that, and, and everyone all at once sort of rediscovered how powerful and efficient online education can be. And then it was up to the institutions to actually come in and beef up their offering or double down on what they already had. And that’s what we saw with TCS is they actually really cemented their, their courses and their schools and provided people across the country with opportunities to increase their their knowledge and actually take that step forward. So it was an interesting sort of blessing in disguise, I guess, that really helped push online education back into the front of people’s minds.
Allison (00:18:58)
And in addition to online education, I’d probably add more diverse flexible options, right? Our schools have even continued they were before but now even more. So looking in different types of stackable degrees. How do we offer courses that people can take at certain times? And how does it transfer to other courses and other schools, and how can we build curriculum that is flexible, you know, higher education, the product that the degree, the coursework, the curriculum is very complex in within a university, how it’s built, where it’s taught, the timing that it’s taught. The, you know, goodness, I look at the academic experts, and they’re amazing. It’s almost sometimes like putting a puzzle piece together. When you think about all the courses a student has to take in a certain amount of time and and how that matriculates throughout the years and summer, you know, one right after the other, etc. And so building flexibility is not something that higher education has done much of and the work to do that can be immense. And you really need the expertise, the support, the focus, it’s one of the things I think, you know, Ben, as you mentioned, that TCS had done so well, and was able to just even magnify that for our schools, we have accreditation experts on hand. So when the schools are focusing on the coursework, we can help them in how to ensure that what they’re building in the course, is going to be able to be then submitted to the accreditor appropriately, it takes a lot of work, whether it is online or building that flexible program. So it’s something that is not an easy switch within, you know, product development, and one that takes quite a bit. So to be able to do it with as much support. And a quick amount of time as society is looking for quick changes, can be as big of a challenge. But but one that we’re happy that the system provides to our schools.
Matt (00:21:18)
You touched on something that kind of perfectly transitions into this next question. And that was the idea of sort of the perception of online schooling. And I mean, now it’s becoming something standard, that is, you know, equivalent to going in person and having that sort of real higher education experience, rather than, you know, something that was just seen as online, or maybe less than, but when I was researching questions for this episode, kind of about the higher ed vertical as a whole, one of the big tips that I found in a number of articles or guides or things, was talking about this idea of having a really firm grasp on your branding, and how, you know, as an education marketer, how your branding resonates with that target audience, especially as the space has become, you know, more and more competitive as the years go on. So, for both of you, I’m interested to know how you think that establishing a strong brand or having that, you know, correct brand messaging, has that truly become one of the most important things to be focusing on as a marketer during these times.
Allison (00:22:27)
You know, branding, branding means so many different things. And I think you said two things that really hit home, establishing a brand and the correct brand messaging, short answer both continue to be extremely important. It’s something that without a solid, brand Foundation, first and foremost, as an institution, you won’t know where to go. So when all of this change is coming, and student behaviour is changing, and demand for different programs are changing. Without a solid brand foundation, you as an institution will not know where to go. But with that solid brand Foundation, and what that means is we know who we are, we know what our differentiators are. We know what product and programming we can give a student to be successful. Knowing that information will give the institution a really strong roadmap on what new courses to develop, how to offer the best programming and flexibility, and how to help serve the larger community and society as a whole. Once these graduates leave the institution, and get a job and provide whatever they’re providing back to society, that is a strong brand Foundation. And without that, you will continue to struggle, especially in times like these, a brand foundation, then, of course, moves into your brand messaging. And yes, extremely important because now then, more than ever, the noise, the additional competition, which is a whole other topic. It’s thick, it’s heavy. And people are just like in any industry getting bombarded with tons of messages right now. And when you add in the last couple of years, they’re getting bombarded with political messages, health, public Matters, and then advertising just as much and having that strong brand Foundation which then translates into a strong brand message really is what’s going to set you apart. And in an industry when so many of us are doing the same thing. This same programs, you really have to take a deep look at what is the value that you bring to that potential student. And in something like higher education, everybody’s looking for a job they want they they want their degree to lead towards something, the majority. But now even, you know with with how things have been over the last couple of years, people want something a little bit more we’re finding, they want to help, they want to feel good, they want to contribute something different. I think, as Ben mentioned, this was a time of reflection where people I can, I don’t have to do what I was doing before now is my opportunity for something else. And it is the brand work the foundation work that really then will carry through advertising. In short, you can’t advertise something that then when that student either hits your website, or walks into your building, or sits on their first class, it all has to say the same thing. And so that brand message is not just about that advertisement, or the radio spot, or the banner that they see online or your social media posts, it’s truly the experience that they have, once they decide to engage with you, and that ensuring it’s consistent, and ensuring that you’re giving them value is really important.
Matt (00:26:29)
Allison, there was something that you just said there where you’re talking about that sort of that experience and how they engage. And Ben, I’d love to hear from you about this as well. But as far as I understand, when everything happened, there was sort of this mad dash for institutions to kind of up their game with their technology. So making sure that that landing page is up to spec or maybe offering virtual tours or ways that people can engage with the brand without physically being there was this, you know, something you saw a huge uptick with was this something that that TCS sort of dove into on the technology side to engage with potential students.
Allison (00:27:10)
So yes, I think that we were very lucky that in advance of the last few years, we were already looking towards engaging our potential students in technology. Years ago, when I started at TCS in 2013. Our content was predominantly sitting in magazine publications, printed publications, right. Over the last few years, we’ve created blogs that all of that printed content has gotten moved into, that have been extremely successful. And that they’re not just blogs that people that sit there for people to wait and come and read the content. But we very much use it in our advertising and directing individuals back to the content that they’re looking for in that help educate them, you know, whether they are thinking about going to further their degree in those topics of the content, and or if they’re professionals in the industry and want to continue to stay current on what people are talking about with the content. You mentioned landing pages, virtual tours, we’ve had virtual tours in our website platforms for some time. But I also did see of course, an influx in them. But one thing that we saw a big change in is events, right? So people whether they’re admissions events, or orientation events, or seminars that used to be very much on campus events moving online. And we even have, we have several international programs, TCS brings our schools together to, you know, have some internationalization. And we even had a large study abroad where multiple individual students and facilitators and professors went overseas that now saw as an event online, and those online events, whether, like I said, admissions all the way through seminars, we saw greater attendance online than we ever would be able to see on ground one, it opened it up to a much larger audience, someone who might not have wanted to driven the California highways during rush hour. Now just was able to jump on a Zoom. So events was very interesting in change, you know, of technology. I think that in addition, we’re seeing more and more as the months go on the need for different types of technology to continue to even evolve. And that is something that we at TCS in the marketing department is spending a lot of focus on how are individuals interacting now in comparison to how they did two years ago So two years ago, when things were already changing, technology was becoming very, you know, popular and more frequent. Maybe an institution had a really strong text messaging program, right. But now, individuals have spent so much time in their homes, on their computers, other industries have adapted to speaking with them in different ways using technology. So someone didn’t have to see someone, right. But health care, health care, we don’t go into the doctor’s as much anymore. Even if you are healthy and your doctor’s offices open, you have an option to have a telehealth visit. Or I just spent two hours talking to Delta Airlines via chat, two hours all on chat from problem to solution to booking. So what does that now mean for higher education? How does someone who is interested in furthering their education learn about the information that they want, speak to admissions representative, maybe even apply, and let’s take it even a step further register for their courses and take their courses, all from one seating in their home, just like they might do with any other industry. And that is something that I think higher education is still, we still need to do some research, we still need to find new technologies, and really see how does the potential student want to be engaged with all the way through? So taking it in that step first, marketing? How do they want the information? How do they want to obtain the information that kind of give me the information about your institution or your program, but then even taking it a step further, and old ways of maybe speaking to someone or walking into a building really might be of the past now?
Ben (00:31:56)
Yeah, Allison, you bring up a ton of really crucial aspects there. And in focusing on the marketing side of things, that’s where that’s where we’ve seen a huge shift. And at the end of the day, now it’s it’s in the hands of the consumer or the applicant or the student to, to pick what they want. And they really have a buffet of options at their disposal. And it’s really up to the brand to differentiate themselves, like you mentioned. And that’s where developing incredible content like I know TCS does. That sort of differentiator is what allows brands like TCS in their schools to really set themselves apart. And then when you marry that with a well-tailored marketing plan and approach, that’s where we start to see institutions separate themselves from the pack. And that’s sort of where we’ve noticed this shift occur. It’s marrying content with sound strategy to really give students an idea of what you have to offer instead of just information overload, which is something that we’ve all been subjected to in our daily lives, whether it’s picking a meal, a meal kit, delivery service, or trying to figure out what shoes to buy, or where to go to school, it’s just there’s so many messages coming at you from all these different angles, and trying to cut through the noise and figure out who’s going to give you the best opportunity is is pretty difficult. And that’s where we rely. We rely on partners like TCS to really give us that information and make and make it easy to provide students with such an easy choice.
Allison (00:33:49)
You know, Ben and to piggyback on that, and what TCS, our marketing team, where we look for that information are those who know it best, and it is a good sound practice to never shy away from speaking to your subject matter experts, we have amazing professors who have worked in the field who are still doing work in the field, who still see you know, patients and are very in tune to what is happening in their industry. And so, our content, we look to them, and we are very open, and you know, patient to anytime they can give us to spend with us to discuss and or whether they go straight or we write for them and interview with them, you know, because that content is it is so real and relevant and what is happening. And you know, we have professors who are, you know, part-time professors who still work in the field somewhere and are able to get really great perspectives and stories directly from them that really to your point, and it’s what our potential students are looking for on when you can bring that thread all the way through, and then be able to hand it to a partner like StackAdapt is saying, hey, get us into the areas that we need to be so that our potential students can see this content is a win-win for all.
Matt (00:35:23)
Fantastic. Well, thank you to both you I think now is a perfect time, we’ll take a quick break. And when we come back, I think we can transition into talking more about strategies and key takeaways that marketers can be employing in 2022. As you know, as these prospecting campaigns start to ramp up for the upcoming academic year, so we’ll take a break, and we’ll be right back.
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Matt (00:36:23)
Welcome back. In this half of the episode, let’s talk strategy. Allison and Ben, starting with awareness-based campaigns, what are some strategies and tactics that you both would recommend that education marketers focus on in the coming months?
Allison (00:36:39)
So yeah, you know, I think I think you mentioned from from a brand brand awareness perspective, I think that it’s important to have a nice balance of multiple tactics right now, I think very much. So digital is, is definitely the place where our eyeballs are, it’s where people are really consuming the majority of their content, whether they are shopping, or they are reading the news. And I think that what might have been a position to billboard for me in the past is definitely going to be more of a billboard online. I think that in addition to really ensuring that individuals see content where they are, ensuring that remarketing is something that we also really think is going to be important over the next year, as things continue to get more competitive. And individuals are going to at least in our industry hear from a varied amount of colleges and universities all vying for their attendance at their location. Nonetheless, online, it’s really important to ensure that your prospective student doesn’t only see your message once or twice, but multiple times. And the message needs to ensure it’s tailored to where they are in their process of moving forward with higher ed. So retargeting digitally is something very important, at least to us. And that is, again from anyone who has landed on your web page. And it’s just thinking about it all the way to so who someone who might have already spoken to an admissions counselor or applied, ensuring that they continue to see our message, we will continue to really look at other traditional ways of advertising as we have in the past. But our first priority, which I think many should be is definitely in the digital space where everybody is consuming their content.
Ben (00:38:53)
Yeah, I would tend to agree, Allison, and when we’re talking about awareness, the thing that that seems to be lost is a lot of people opt for this spray and pray approach, where they’re just saying, “Okay, this is an awareness-based campaign, we’re going to go out, and we’re just going to turn the fire hose on and see what comes back to us.” And in some cases, you know, for the Cokes and the Amazons and the Nikes of the world, yes, you can do that. More, we’re talking awareness but of course, for a lot of other partners out there, you have to be a bit more cognizant and conservative with your dollars and when we’re talking when we’re talking about sound advertising and marketing. Your strategy is only as good as your audience profiles and your audience targeting, and I think that is a huge reason why TCS and StackAdapt have worked so well together over the past few years is both sides of the equation have come together and shared So many great ideas on what the prospective student looks like, okay? Well, we can find those prospective students here and there and show them this message across these different channels, X number of times, at different days and sequences to really deliver that sound message. So people hear the word awareness, and they and they kind of get excited, but there’s a lot more that goes into it. And it really does take quite a handful of people to put together a thorough and intensive plan to ensure that your dollars are really being put in the best places at the best time to be seen by the right people.
Allison (00:40:36)
Ben, you hit on a really great point, you know, as a nonprofit, organization and schools that are relatively varied in size, you know, budget is something that we were always, you know, has how at top of mind there, right now everyone needs to be smarter about what they’re doing. And you’re very right, that takes a lot of great different minds together. There, there has been that past approach it especially when it comes to brand as the more eyeballs the better. But that doesn’t necessarily always produce the results, the way that that we all can either afford or really want to ensure that you’re getting your message to the right people. Right. So agreed. I think it’s wonderful when you can have a partner, who can bring your set of expertise and knowledge into a room, and they can throw back theirs as well and really pull together something that is really poignant and targeted.
Matt (00:41:42)
Ben, I’ve got a question I wanted to direct over to you. But you know, you’ve talked a lot about the relationship that StackAdapt and TCS have had over the years in terms of programmatic as a whole, you know, what do you think in terms of programmatic being widely adopted throughout the higher education space? And, you know, what are some benefits that you could speak to, that are related to this vertical, you know, for overall campaign strategy?
Ben (00:42:08)
I think now, in 2022, more and more people are adopting programmatic, especially when we’re going down the chain, looking at medium and smaller smaller-sized institutions, I think there was a time when programmatic was sort of gate, gate kept from people, and it was only for those that had the time and resources to expand into it. However, that’s sort of where StackAdapt came into play. And, really, I guess, took advantage of that market inefficiency, we were able to provide that access and seat at the table for for anybody who wanted it. And I think now programmatic has, of course, become an integral part of any diverse and intensive marketing plan. So when we’re talking about higher education, programmatic is, it’s a stalwart, it’s a pillar of these plans, because a lot of people leverage search and social and things like that. However, those are more mid to lower-funnel tactics where you’re, you’re grabbing the low-hanging fruit, but what happens when you’ve exhausted all of those leads? Well, you need a partner to go out there and to qualify a highly set of vetted users. And that’s where perks like StackAdapt can come in, and really make life easy for a TCS or another higher ed institution, is because we have that ability to not only qualify users, but also provide reporting back on that and tie into an existing reporting function with the actual education institution like TCS, and then when we’re talking about seeing your message and ensuring brand is aligned and thorough. That’s where having the ability to say okay, well, we have podcast ads going here, and then we have CTV, and we have display and native and digital out-of-home all tied in together being shown to the right people. And then retargeting users and creating sequential messaging, that’s really where programmatic starts to set itself apart from other channels. And then when we feed things in simultaneously to then serve up those users to the mid or lower funnel channels. That’s where we start to really understand the true value that programmatic brings to the table.
Allison (00:44:26)
And Ben mentioned one word that many of us, definitely, marketers, but probably how you read marketers like qualify, the more qualified potential student that you can be able to get into a communication flow within the university is that much more valuable? Everybody’s time is tight, maybe people don’t have the staffing that they used to have. And whatever resource may be right, being able to deliver inquiries who, who have been targeted to who we know, have a really high potential of conversion. And matriculation is very important for so many reasons. And definitely to Ben’s point, one that I see programmatic can bring.
Ben (00:45:27)
I agree with you, Allison, on that. And that’s this was something that we’ve spoken about in the past is, there are only so many people that you can have calling and following up on leads. And there’s only so many times that someone wants to see their phone ringtone from a recruitment counselor, or something of that ilk. So being able to work with a programmatic partner who can work off of specific sets of data that say, Okay, well, we’ve reached these people, they’ve shown interest. However, they haven’t actually submitted any sort of information or a financial deposit. What else can we do to remind these users of the brand that they’ve already engaged with? And that’s where programmatic really, once again, is able to widen its stance and strengthen its position is that we’re able to, again, work with our partners to say, Okay, well, we have this data set. Let’s leverage this tactic. Okay, well, we’ve actually shown display banners and videos to users at the top of the funnel, X number X number of users have actually shown interest, and either filled out a form or spent 25 seconds on site, let’s go ahead and retarget them with a native advertisement that is traditionally tailored to them that has a fully customizable message that says something much more intense and direct than the actual banner or what the video does. And this is all, once again, what programmatic does so neatly and tidily. And that’s where we’ve really created this sweet spot with TCS is developing these these intensive plans that are directly tailored to different users at different points in their journey. And that’s how we’ve been able to see such great success.
Allison (00:47:07)
You know, one of the things that I think also stands out different in higher ed, and how programmatic can benefit in comparison to other you know, industries, we all have in our industries, you know, very different consumer profiles. And the potential student, definitely to one brand, can be so many different individuals, when you think about how many programs a college or university offers, and whether even degree level within that, right, so if I, I might have 25, we have more than that at the Chicago School at 25. Programs, I have a master’s and a PhD, the profile of each one of those potential students by program can be so different, and so complex, and how each of them are consuming media, what they’re watching, how long, what time they’re watching, etc. So being able to work a tactic that can make sure that we really are getting the data for each one of those consumer segments is really important, and in higher ed, you can have hundreds, hundreds, if not more, really even just working towards one, one start, you know, one, one academic start.
Matt (00:48:30)
So thanks so much to both of you for that. And, you know, this pretty much puts us at time. And as we close the episode, I want to end on this note of getting some thoughts or opinions from both of you on what you think the future is going to look like, for higher education. You know, we could start with, you know, the 2022 2023 academic season and feel free to go beyond that. But what do you think will have the biggest impact on successful marketing for higher education marketers? And you know, further to that, are there any emerging trends that marketers should be paying attention to in the coming years.
Allison (00:49:10)
I think the future of higher ed is going to look very different. I think institutions as a whole will look different from our earlier point of how many students are on campus versus on the ground, and why they then come to on ground. That doesn’t necessarily mean the on ground buildings will not be there, but what they come to those buildings for will be different. I think the biggest impact, you know, from a successful marketing campaign and in plants are continuing to really understand the potential student and Research and consumer insights more than ever. And the way to obtain that information, you can obtain it through your results. The information gathered through very, very much a benefit of digital marketing and or additional research, always having your finger on the pulse of the communications, what people are saying, reviews, social media, and how they’re responding. I think that having that information, real time and frequently is really going to be what makes or breaks your future campaigns and initiatives. And I think from marketing, what else is out there? What’s coming next, I think, continued digital AI and technologies that engage quickly. And again, meeting the potential students where they are, nobody wants to go looking for information anymore. Everybody expects to see it. So as a marketer, you have to be prepared to show it and be ready. So that it’s there when someone doesn’t realize that it’s going to be there in front of them.
Ben (00:51:14)
I think as you’ve mentioned, Allison, earlier, the adoption of new techniques and new tactics and new placements is going to continue to develop, whether it’s moving away from linear TV and diving directly into CTV and OTT, or even the reemergence of out of hope is coming back, we’re starting to see that. And that’s something that we’re paying attention to it StackAdapt as well. People are really interested in actually emerging with advertisings these days, and being immersed around it, and we’re starting to take notice. At the end of the day, marketing advertising is always going to be present, it’s always going to be around, but it’s being able to efficiently tailor it to the right people and deliver it at the right time. And the proper cadence is going to continue to be the biggest challenge, finding the balance between not being annoying and being just enough, is going to be crucial for advertisers. And that’s why we run things like brand lifts and ad effectiveness studies to actually get an idea of what our users are telling us and how often they want to engage with advertisements and where they want to engage with advertisements. So being able to develop and distill insights down in a matter of seconds to deliver hard-hitting facts is going to continue to be what provides institutions like TCS that competitive edge to move forward and continue to provide the best-in-class experience to their students.
Matt (00:52:54)
Perfect. Well, thanks so much, Alison. Thanks so much, Ben. It’s been fantastic to have you both on the episode here. And to all of our listeners. I hope that you found this episode as insightful as I did, and on behalf of StackAdapt, we wish you nothing but success in your upcoming higher ed campaigns. And, as always, we’ll see you in the next episode.
Outro (00:53:18)
Thank you so much for tuning in. This has been the How Agencies Thrive podcast. If you like what you heard, then there’s three things that you can do to support the show. Number one, subscribe. Number two, leave us a review. And number three, share our podcast on social media or with anyone who might find value in this content. If you have questions or feedback, we’d love to learn how agencies or brands work with StackAdapt, find us at www.stackadapt.com. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
