In a record-setting event, more than 1800 people attended the annual AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education held in Las Vegas this month. The 2024 conference provided attendees with knowledge and strategies from keynotes, sessions, panels, and workshops. There was also plenty of time to share coffee, drinks, and business cards. Most importantly, there were helpful insights gleaned from experts and peers alike:
5 AMA Key Takeaways about Higher Education Marketing
1. Is It Time to Rebrand Higher Education?
With the majority of Americans no longer believing that higher education is worth its big-ticket price tag, there was a lot of discussion at the AMA Symposium about how to better position the value of a degree. From keynote speakers to fireside chats, the message was the same: it is time to reshape public perceptions.
To that end, Utah’s Board of Higher Education launched an initiative to reeducate the public about the benefits of higher education. In their presentation, Amanda DeRito of Utah State University, Nikki Koontz of Southern Utah University, and Chris Nelson University of Utah shared their campaign to emphasize their institutions’ affordability, along with the individual ROI and overall economic impact of a college education.
2. How to Differentiate When Schools All Say the Same Thing
As difficult as it is for the sector to raise its brand, it can be even more challenging for individual schools to appear truly unique. The affordability factor that the Utah system raises is used by hundreds of schools. But so are claims of innovative programs, passionate faculty, state-of-the-art facilities, diversity and inclusion, vibrant campus life, and high job placement rates.
The dilemma isn’t easily solved but you can start from a foundation of authenticity. Sessions provided suggestions about how to do a photo shoot that makes your university look and feel uniquely yours and how to use current student stories so future students can picture themselves at your school. Keynote speaker Steve Robbins, Ph.D., emphasized the social-neuro science behind the critical need for inclusion—so make students feel like they belong. And Rohit Bhargava offered up five secrets to differentiate your higher ed brand:
- Stand for something
- Share the unexpected truth
- Find workarounds
- Embrace the conversation
- Expand your audience
3. Students Crave Personalization in Marketing
It can’t come as a shock that kids who were told how special they are for a generation don’t feel very special when they’re targeted with generic messaging. Director of Content Strategy at the University of Rochester Brian Piper noted that less than 18 percent of students feel like messaging is personalized to them. And that’s a problem.
But there are plenty of solutions that can make students feel like they’re your top priority. Piper noted that it’s not just the message, but also the messenger that matters. Whether it’s an email or text reminder, your communication with students should be personalized to them and coming from an actual person. And all of your content should be relatable, conversational, and written in the second person.
4. Artificial Intelligence for Higher Education is Here to Stay
Although AI no longer headlines the news every day, it remains at the forefront of higher education marketing. Sessions delved into how AI can enhance personalization, streamline operations, and improve student engagement. Whether you use AI tools to help bid and optimize digital campaigns, create outlines and personas, or repurpose, retarget, and redistribute content, it’s no longer a nice-to-have. You need to use AI or you will lose out to the competitor institutions that do.
5. Using Digital Marketing Data to Compete for Online Students
Saving the best for last: CloudControlMedia General Manager Christopher Roberts and long-time CCM partner Steven Rutt from Abilene Christian University Online provided more than 100 AMA attendees with a well-defined roadmap to attract and enroll online students using data. Highlighting the success the partnership has achieved for ACU Online—more than 20% year-over-year growth for three consecutive years—Chris and Steven shared actual data and the methodology that has fueled those double-digit enrollment increases.
Among the points the pair stressed were the need to:
- Allow the agency to be an extension of your institution’s marketing team
- Set achievable enrollment goals
- Translate goals into detailed plans
- Build effective and efficient digital media strategies
- Test, adjust, and improve digital media for ongoing success
“It absolutely is a partnership,” said Chris. “Steven and his team are savvy about the data and how the process works. The results we achieve are due in large part to the partnership we have.”
What seemed to resonate most with the audience was the detail of the data ACU Online and CCM rely on to make decisions. Using a feedback loop generated through the CloudControlMedia Platform and connected directly to the ACU Online CRM, the two teams use down-funnel data to make media-buying decisions that have the potential to yield the best results. Equally important, they can continually test and adjust plans and campaigns.
Are you looking for a digital marketing partner that can drive growth? CloudControlMedia is a performance marketing agency maximizing results for our clients. And the great example we shared at the AMA conference? We’re happy to share it with you. Contact us today to sign up for our upcoming whitepaper.