Effectively Utilizing Your Website To Market Your College

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:06.320 The High Red Marketering podcast is sponsored by the ZEMI APP enabling colleges and universities 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:14.199 to engage interested students before they even apply. You're listening to the Higher Ed 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:19.519 Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals in higher education. This show will 4 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:24.399 tackle all sorts of questions related to student recruitment, donor relations, marketing trends, 5 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:29.160 new technologies and so much more. If you're looking for conversations centered around 6 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:33.399 where the industry is going, this podcast is for you. Let's get into 7 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:43.039 the show. Welcome to the High Red Marketer podcast. My name is troice 8 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:47.600 singer and I am here with Bart Kaylor, my co host, and each 9 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.759 week we interview higher reed marketers that we admire for the benefit and the betterment 10 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:58.320 of the entire higher d community. Today we talked to Joshua Charles. He's 11 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:03.600 the director of Web Governance and communications within the Office of Communications and marketing of 12 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:08.719 the rutgers business school. Today we talked to him about effectively utilizing your website 13 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:14.959 to market your college. And I'll just say it up front, Joshua is 14 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.599 an interesting guy and yes, he has technical ability, but he's one of 15 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:25.959 those people who work on a website that has marketing at the forefront and I 16 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.519 love this conversation with him. Yeah, it's such a great conversation. I 17 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:33.200 think that Joshua and I align so much on our philosophy, on the way 18 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:37.319 that we both think of content first and the user first, and I think 19 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:41.760 that Joshua does such a great job of articulating that and really articulating the things 20 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:46.560 that they've done at rutgers that I think really impact enrollment, really impact that 21 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:51.480 student journey and makes such a difference. And I think that I really listened 22 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.640 to what Joshua has to say and I don't care if you're a small school 23 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.640 or a big school, I think everything Joshua says can apply to you and, 24 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:01.959 uh, we're so fortunate have have people like Joshua Rutgers and and a 25 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:05.200 lot of the other schools that we've talked to to really be able to give 26 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:13.560 us this great information. Here's our conversation with Joshua Charles. Joshua Charles has 27 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:16.400 agreed to talk to us about some of the dynamic things that they're doing at 28 00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:23.560 the records business school in relationships with their website and how it's positively affecting both 29 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.879 enrollment, alumni, etcetera. Joshua, if you would tell us a little 30 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:32.120 bit about the business school and your role there? Sure. Thank you. 31 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:39.719 So my role at the business school is to oversee website operations and marketing technology, 32 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:45.719 and that's for the whole school. Are Our full school has ten thousand 33 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:51.479 students, four hundred faculty, a hundred and seventy five staff Um recently now 34 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.520 fifty thousand alumni over the course of the last several decades. Uh. And 35 00:02:55.639 --> 00:03:01.879 really for me and my team were thinking about how does the website fit into 36 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.120 the journeys for each of the different audiences that we have from prospective students, 37 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:12.039 current students, faculty, staff, Alumni, corporate partners, media, Um, 38 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.199 all of these groups. We want the websites that we have, and 39 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:17.919 there are multiple websites, to be able to to sort of serve the user 40 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:24.680 needs as well as to positively influence the business aspects as well. Thank you, 41 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:29.840 Joshua, and the reason why we had you on although we think of 42 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:35.639 what web master as being more technically minded that you have, but you also 43 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.879 are known for your approach of how you can utilize the website to positively affect 44 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:45.719 both enrollment as well as the entire student journey, and would like for you 45 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:49.080 to tell us a little bit about that, maybe, starting out with the 46 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.000 deliberate transition that the website made. Was it back in two thousand and fifteen? 47 00:03:55.400 --> 00:04:00.960 Yes, yes, so, originally I came to rutgers business school and 48 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:06.439 we had a rather static website that tried to do everything for everyone. It 49 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:11.479 was a single website and those only website the school had. And as we 50 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:15.920 decided to grow our team over time, fast forward to realize hey, we 51 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:21.120 need to have a mobile design because that's where websites were heading at that time. 52 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:25.879 And at the same time we're like, okay, this is an opportunity 53 00:04:25.959 --> 00:04:30.800 to rethink the purpose of a website altogether. Now for our school, our 54 00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:34.680 communications and marketing team has website operations inside of the team, whereas at the 55 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:40.319 time that was more commonly associated with I t because, like you mentioned, 56 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:45.040 websites first thing that folks think about is technical aspect, but to me a 57 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.959 website is a marketing platform first and foremost, and it has technology associated with 58 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:55.120 that, but its goal is to shape communications and marketing goals. So we 59 00:04:55.240 --> 00:05:01.160 used the website redesign process as a way to rethink the strategy of our website 60 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.680 so that, instead of a single site for every audience, we decided to 61 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:10.120 split it up. First thing, we need a website that is for external 62 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:14.199 audiences, primarily prospect of students, so that when somebody is searching full time 63 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:17.240 NBA content, for example, Um, the main website the one that we 64 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:20.639 really want them to go to, because we want to help that prospect of 65 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:26.360 student journey. We want those audiences to find the right pages and search engines 66 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:30.240 and once they get onto the page that we want them to be able to 67 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:34.519 have a an experience that's tailor made for what their needs are. That specifically 68 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:39.199 means things like, Hey, here's an upcoming admissions event, here's how you 69 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:43.319 can go to sign up for um a newsletter, for example. Here's where 70 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:46.759 the admissions details are. And when you have a singular focus, it makes 71 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:51.240 it a lot easier to figure out what types of content and design can you 72 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:57.519 shape your website for in order to meet that specific users needs? And and 73 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:00.639 that's the at a very high level, that's the approach that we took with 74 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:04.199 the website back then and of course there's a whole bunch of other last to 75 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:09.920 that, but that is why we started to be much more strategic about how 76 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:14.879 we're going to handle sites going forward. I think that's such a great point 77 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:17.639 and I love the way that you guys approached that because I think too many 78 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:20.240 times, and what I see a lot of times, and Joshua, you've 79 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:25.279 been doing this and you probably saw this as well, is that the the 80 00:06:25.399 --> 00:06:29.399 website tends to be kind of this House that was built in the mid nineties 81 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:31.399 or early two thousand's and it's like, oh well, we need another room, 82 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:34.639 so we're just gonna stick on another edition and Hey, let's let's, 83 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:38.680 you know, have another story added on, and it just gets to be 84 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:43.120 this unwieldy beast. I mean sometimes I talked to clients and even small to 85 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:46.240 medium sized schools, they might have eight, ten pages and I'm like, 86 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.720 we don't need that for enrollment. We don't need that level of content sometimes 87 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:55.319 for just enrollment. And so I really I'm really glad to see you guys 88 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:59.399 have just kind of started from the question of what do we need per audience 89 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:01.959 for their jourse me and I think that's a really important, important thing. 90 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.879 So how do you do that? As far as when you start making some 91 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:09.279 of those decisions about the types of content. I think. I think you 92 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.079 made a good point that you know it's not it's it's a it's a tool, 93 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:15.600 it's and it has some technical aspects to it, but at the end 94 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.399 of the day it's it's a marketing platform and ultimately, a content platform. 95 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:25.560 How do you kind of make those decisions about the messages and the images and 96 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:30.560 how you're positioning those within the context of this tool? Sure, so, 97 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:38.399 I like to describe it as the intersection between fully understanding the audience and what 98 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.720 their journey and what their needs are and your organization's business cools. So Um, 99 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.600 splitting those in half. For the for the audience, it's where do 100 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:53.240 they read about Um business schools when they're looking for which college to enroll in? 101 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:56.920 Um, what types of questions are they asking? Is it related to 102 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:01.519 admissions, their their T P, a Um, the curriculum? What is 103 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:05.920 it that they're seeking and searching for? Those those why questions and then, 104 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.600 once you have a good understanding of what those are from doing marketing research, 105 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:15.600 perhaps having forms on your website we're asking for for comments or anything like that 106 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:20.240 so that Um folks that are getting to the website can just tell you exactly 107 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:22.720 what they're looking for. Um, your you synthesize all of that data and 108 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.920 then you map out, okay, this is what students are looking for for 109 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:33.000 each of the different programs that we have and here's what their journey looks like 110 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:35.480 before they get to our website, once they get to our website, once 111 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.639 they've had a chance to engage with maybe the program director or or staff or 112 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:43.679 other students, hopefully, Um, once you have an idea of what that 113 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.720 journey is and what they're looking for. And and that can be an editor 114 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:52.840 process because, Um, the reality is teams have very limited resources. So 115 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:56.039 no one is going to be able to have full resources to map out a 116 00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:58.240 full journey before they start. They it's something that you have to work towards 117 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.799 over time. But once you have that good understanding of what the audience is 118 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:05.679 looking for, what their needs are, so you understand how to meet those 119 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:11.360 needs, then you think about what are your own business goals, particularly enrollments 120 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:15.639 or or engagement or just getting your brand out there, and then you figure 121 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:18.799 out how do you map your needs along their journey, because at the end 122 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:24.000 of the day, the goal has to remain customer centric. Uh, and 123 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:26.679 from there that can give you an idea of this is the type of content 124 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:30.559 that we need to have on our site. These are the types of things 125 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:33.559 that folks are looking to engage with. And if sure, if you want 126 00:09:33.559 --> 00:09:37.639 to jazz it up with ambient videos and all sorts of things, those things 127 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:41.000 are nice too, as long as it doesn't get in the way of taking 128 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.840 action. Right. So, figuring out all of these details, and it's 129 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:48.519 complicated, but you need a team of folks that can help you. If 130 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:52.519 if that's available. If not, then by all means trying to network with 131 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:56.519 other parts of the university, particularly student student services, trying to pool internal 132 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:03.320 resources to figure these these detailed is out before I ever decide to make changes 133 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:09.200 to the website, because otherwise that just creates a situation where we're just changing 134 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.559 things for the sake of changing things. It's again, Um, I know 135 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:16.200 it sounds complicated, but just thinking about the user journey, first and foremost, 136 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:20.519 your business needs. How do you merge those things together? And then 137 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:26.279 from there that can help determine the content the design. Um You can talk 138 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.919 about like, okay, these are the technical things that we need in order 139 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:33.360 to make this content work, Um, and that is ultimately how we produce 140 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:35.759 it and, of course, you know again a web player design. Took 141 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.559 US two years to do all of that. So it's a process, but 142 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.919 that's we believe in that process, so that's what we stuck with. We 143 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:45.720 talk a lot about it on this show. Schools are really struggling today to 144 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:50.120 make the same at spen work. CPMS are up eight nine year over a 145 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:54.759 year. On facebook and instagram. Our College clients are no longer looking for 146 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:58.279 rented audiences. They're looking for an owned community where they can engage students even 147 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.879 before they up. Why? This is why Zemi has become so crucial for 148 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:07.480 our clients. With over one million students, close to ten thou five star 149 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:11.480 ratings, consistently ranked as one of the top social lapps and recently one of 150 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:16.279 Apple's hot APPs of the week. There simply isn't anything out there like it, 151 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.639 and we have seen it all. Zeem me not only provides the best 152 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:22.960 space for student engagement, but the most unique and actional data for the one 153 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:28.600 sixty college and university partners. We know firsthand from our clients that Zee me 154 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.519 is a must have strategy for Gen z check them out now at colleges dot 155 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:41.559 Zem dot com. That's colleges dot Z E M E dot Com. And 156 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:45.080 yes, tell them Barton Troy sent you. I like that. We had 157 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:48.120 um Jay bar on the episode on the hired podcast a few weeks ago and 158 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:50.320 hey, you made a big comment, and one of if you read any 159 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:54.159 of his books or follow any of his his materials, he really makes a 160 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:58.480 big, big push that the fact that you know we need to answer the 161 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:01.080 questions that people have. I mean it goes back to being customer centric, 162 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:05.879 you know, prospective students centric, and you know, doing the research and 163 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:07.759 understanding those and sometimes, I know I talked to some of my clients and 164 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.159 working with the enrollment team or with student services and saying, what are the 165 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:16.279 questions that people ask? You know, if you took those questions, you 166 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:18.440 could probably come up with fifty of them over lunch Um. If you took 167 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:22.559 those questions and then, you know, flipped it around and wrote a five, 168 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:26.000 d seven, fifty word essay that answered those questions and did a little 169 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.000 bit of keyword research. You just had a blog strategy ready for a year 170 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:31.799 and you've got a lot of really good content. So a lot of times 171 00:12:31.799 --> 00:12:37.799 I think that understanding the customers needs the journeys, understanding ways to get that 172 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:41.279 content in front of them and and and start providing that to them. I 173 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:43.919 think it's it's such a such a valuable thing and I'm so glad that that 174 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:48.399 you guys are doing that and that you've got kind of a process in place 175 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:52.159 that you've been explaining some things as well. So well as you think that 176 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:54.480 through. I know one of the things that I'm even looking at your website. 177 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:58.279 You guys have outcomes on there and I think it's one of the big, 178 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:01.519 big things that students are looking wars. You know, if I'm going 179 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:03.759 to invest in this, what's going to be the outcome for me at the 180 00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:07.519 other end? How did that messaging kind of get positioned with the alumni? 181 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:11.759 I mean certainly the alumni are your success stories. How did you guys use 182 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:13.960 that as part of the redesign? UH, sure, so it's it's a 183 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:20.480 great question. One of the interesting approaches to the specific language that we have 184 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:26.039 on the website, particularly outcomes, particularly for business students. That is something 185 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:30.519 that we found not only on the prospect of students side, when they're asking 186 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.440 questions of admissions. These are some of the things that come up about okay, 187 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:37.600 if if I am looking at rutgers business school, like what are some 188 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:43.120 of the career outcomes for me and finance or or accounting or supply chain management? 189 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:46.960 And then when we have those conversations directly with students or with student services 190 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:50.480 who are having the conversations anyway, you start to hear the same questions about 191 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.120 what are the outcomes, what are the industries? What are the specific names 192 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:56.720 of the companies? What are some of the job titles? And then you 193 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:01.639 have those those conversations with alumni and they're saying the same thing. We realize, 194 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:05.519 okay, prospect of students are asking questions about this, current students are 195 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.440 asking questions as they progress through their own journey. Alumni who are filling those 196 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.480 roles and are coming back and sharing their experience with experiences with other students, 197 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.480 they're saying the same thing. So for when we have that level of alignment 198 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:20.679 and again for for business school students. I can speak for for math and 199 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.200 engineering and things like that, but for business school students, we realize, 200 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:30.559 okay, that is a great content opportunity. This is an opportunity for us 201 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:35.679 to be able to look through our data. Um asked alumni where they've went 202 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:39.080 that, whether that is ninety days after graduation, whether that's five years, 203 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:45.600 ten years, have a wide variety of alumni come back and give us their 204 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:50.679 experiences. Hopefully there's a process in place to collect that information. That sometimes 205 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:56.080 can be a challenge because we can't assume that alumni are just going to reach 206 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.879 out to us whenever they want to. So it's important to for the alumni 207 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:05.440 offices development to maintain relationships over time so that when it comes to asking these 208 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:09.039 sort of questions about the experiences, so that we can go back and write 209 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:13.279 about that content and those outcomes on our website and our marketing materials on our 210 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:16.559 billboards along to eight and all of these other roads in New Jersey. Um 211 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.440 We're a relying on facts, um, but be we're basing that off of 212 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:26.720 real experiences from our alumni and from the questions that the students are looking for 213 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:30.240 while they're in the program as well as the questions that project of students are 214 00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:33.519 looking for as they begin their own journey. And again it's it's a great 215 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:39.679 opportunity to Um to have those content ideas come from that audience. Joshua, 216 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:46.720 what's wonderful to hear you talk about the specific user audiences, whether it's prospective 217 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:52.039 students alumni, but could you describe to us how you've positioned the website to 218 00:15:52.200 --> 00:16:00.679 address the entire student journey? Yes, so that the thing that we decided 219 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.840 to do is think about again, as we were talking about before, you 220 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:08.279 know, first identifying what all all of the different audiences are. But from 221 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:12.840 there, how do you create website experiences and, I would say, sort 222 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:18.799 of navigation paths along the way to support all of these different audiences? So 223 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:25.519 the first thing that we did during that website re design process is split our 224 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:30.159 original website into a prospect of student and that's our main site, and then 225 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:34.720 we have a now a separate site specifically for current students, faculty and stuff, 226 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:41.120 and we're thinking about what the alumni pieces right now. We decided that 227 00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:45.639 sure, we can have some information about, hey, here's how to update 228 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:49.080 your contact information, or here are some really cool stories about things that have 229 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:52.919 been going on in the school lately, and an alumni can come to that 230 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:57.120 part of the website and find information. But for them we actually want to 231 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:04.039 create a more engaged in experience. So we're developing this platform that allows alumni 232 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:07.720 to log in and engage with each other and it's it's much more personal that 233 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:11.759 way. So it's not more of a hey, come to this the static 234 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:15.559 website and read about information that everyone has access to. Here's your your personal 235 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:19.640 section. Instead, that's specifically for our BS alumni. So for us we 236 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:25.880 decided our main website is going to be the prospect of students space and our 237 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:30.480 internal site is going to be for current students along their journey and then this 238 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:34.759 separate log in platform specifically for alumni. That's going to be their space and 239 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:38.240 along the way we need to just make sure that we are on the same 240 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:44.039 page, just communications of marketing with student services office as well as the alumni 241 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:48.119 group, so that we're all aware of the types of content that's going to 242 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:52.079 be helpful along each of those three stops, Um, and at the same 243 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:56.839 time making sure that we are just allowing each of the audiences at any point 244 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:00.519 in time to ask questions, to engage and things like that. So it's 245 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.559 a it's a trifecta approach. and Um, you know, outside of those 246 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.759 three groups, again we we have, uh, the media, journalists and 247 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:11.599 things like that, um on our main website as well. But you know, 248 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.000 with the students. It's it's it was just very important for us to 249 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:18.240 think about every step along the way and to make sure that they're not silo 250 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:22.519 even though the three stype of websites, there is communication and experiences that are 251 00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:26.960 connected across those from the types of content that we create as well as the 252 00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:33.279 relationships that we have inside the school between the stakeholders who manage the different audiences. 253 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:37.279 I like that because I think it's so important. You mentioned the silos 254 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:41.720 and we've talked to several guests on the show about just the ideas of silos 255 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.200 and it came up the other day. Someone was talking about silos and they 256 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:47.839 were like, oh, we don't have silos, we have cylinders of excellence, 257 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:51.799 and they were they were being serious about it and taking pride in that. 258 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:55.319 But I think that the idea of really being able to allow people, 259 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:00.000 Um, allow prospective students, alumni, the different audiences, to be able 260 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.720 to what I would almost call some personalization, being able to, you know, 261 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:07.079 go to the content and go to an area that's going to be more 262 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:11.680 about their needs, as opposed to forcing them into a generalized area to be 263 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:14.880 able to then have to find their you know, to meet their needs. 264 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:18.000 I really think that's a really good approach to to how you do that and 265 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:22.960 I applaud you guys on that. Help me understand a little bit too about 266 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:26.839 Um. How do you help the transition between you know that that you know 267 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:33.079 matriculated student. I mean they've been on the they've been on the public website 268 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:36.880 through their journey. They you know, go through Orient they go through orientation. 269 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:40.759 Now they're now they're an enrolled student. Now they're being introduced into that 270 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:45.200 new intranet for for enrolled students and then, you know, once they graduate, 271 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.680 you've got a lot of students now. You know last week, a 272 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:49.759 couple of weeks ago, they've graduated. Now they're moving into more of that 273 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:55.119 extra net for alumni. How do you kind of communicate that, that transition 274 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:57.880 that makes it very natural and easy for them and not kind of like a 275 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:00.720 shock to the systems ay well, I'm used to this, why am I 276 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:06.240 changing now? Yeah, so that's Um. That has been one of the 277 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:11.119 most interesting sort of journeys just for us as a as a school, because 278 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:15.640 you look across the entire record university system, I think we all, all 279 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.720 of the different web teams, are trying to to make sure that the transition 280 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:25.599 from a prospect to an admitted student Uh to a an enrolled student and just 281 00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:27.839 what that experience looks like, not just from the website but from all of 282 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:34.160 the different technical platforms that students have to see once they become a student Um. 283 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:40.200 The thing that I think is critical to the success of that is communication, 284 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:44.720 communication, communication, and what I mean by that is that Um we 285 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:49.759 are communications and marketing. There's separate team teams for every single program in the 286 00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:55.519 school. Now that is twenty plus. We have to be able to think 287 00:20:55.559 --> 00:21:00.599 about what are all of the natural ways that a student may seek information? 288 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.160 That may be phone calls, that may be using Google search to find information, 289 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:08.039 whatever shows up there. That could be emails, bulletin boards that are 290 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:12.680 in the office and the Internet. From there we think about, okay, 291 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:15.839 here are all of the ways that students may naturally look for information. How 292 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:21.039 do we make sure that in each of those different areas we are placing the 293 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:26.319 correct information about what they should be looking for in those places? And that 294 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:32.519 is going to require a lot of regular communication between the folks who manage the 295 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:37.920 websites and the folks who are helping with internal communication inside of the school, 296 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.960 which is usually the Dean's office. UH, too. Just make sure that 297 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:45.559 we are communicating in a two way conversation, not one way, a two 298 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.160 way conversation with each of the programs to say, okay, here, here 299 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:51.640 are all of the different websites that we have, this is why we have 300 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:55.319 them, this is what they're for for your students. This is where you 301 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.839 should be sending them if they have questions about the curriculum, career management, 302 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.599 Um, anything like that. Just make sure that in orientation Um, once 303 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:07.880 they become enrolled in each of the classes, maybe that in their LMS, 304 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:12.000 for example, a canvas or blackboard that the faculty are are communicating. Hey, 305 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:15.000 this is where you go for resources. It's part of the syllaby. 306 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:19.960 Every main document that they see, um, their regular email communication that they 307 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:23.279 have from the professors, from their staff, when they go into their offices 308 00:22:23.319 --> 00:22:29.000 to speak to their advisors. Everyone is on the same page about what is 309 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:33.279 the quickest way to access information that is helpful for a student to be able 310 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:40.359 to complete their their classes and their time at rutgers in a reasonable and fast 311 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.200 process. Um, it has to be. That has to be the goal, 312 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:48.119 uh, and in order to do that that means that sure that we 313 00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:52.519 oversee the website, but a huge part of our job is also internal communication 314 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.000 and what we can't just think about ourselves as just the content design and the 315 00:22:57.039 --> 00:23:03.680 tech folks or the website. It also has to that plus internal stakeholder Um 316 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:07.640 collaboration, I would say, and you know that it's it's it's not always 317 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:11.799 going to be easy when you have that many groups that that have to be 318 00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:17.480 on the same page, but we can't sort of set a little bar because 319 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:22.839 at the end of the day, the stakeholders are our students and anything that 320 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:27.039 we don't do well or is miscommunicated affects their experience and when their experiences affected, 321 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:33.240 everyone's experience is affected. So we have to make sure that, um, 322 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.640 these sort of things are well communicated and that that really relies on strong 323 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:42.160 leadership to be able to make sure that everyone is working towards shared outcomes. 324 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:45.839 Yeah, I think that's great. There's a book that I'm reading that I've 325 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:49.039 been recommending lately, called good services. It's by Lou down. He's the 326 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:55.200 he's in charge of a lot of the service design in the UK and uh, 327 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:57.480 I really like it because he's doing exactly what he kind of maps out 328 00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:02.680 a process for what you're talking about is that not only can we just do 329 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:07.359 the things that we typically think of design, like websites and communications and things 330 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:11.400 like that, we actually have to design the service around that so that, 331 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:15.000 you know, if we're thinking about a student, how do we remove all 332 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.960 of the challenges that they have to succeed? And I really like the fact 333 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:22.359 that you guys are really trying to do that by communicating with all the different 334 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:26.799 departments and and how that works. And and I think that's challenging for a 335 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:30.839 lot of schools. I mean I work with some smaller schools and uh, 336 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:33.079 and I know that with with all schools, I know it's the case, 337 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.519 but especially with smaller schools, there's always this challenge about restrained resources. I 338 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:40.759 mean it's like, Hey, we don't have enough people, we don't have 339 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:44.480 enough budget, we don't have enough time. Everything is is kind of a 340 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:48.720 little bit of a constriction. I mean how do you how do you kind 341 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:53.160 of maximize these results with your with trying to manage these restrained resources? I'm 342 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:56.359 sure that you guys ran into it even with I mean even with the top 343 00:24:56.440 --> 00:25:00.279 name business school. I mean it's not unlimit it. You have to work 344 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:06.759 within, within, you know, within some boundaries. Yeah, you're you're 345 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.240 exactly right. Uh, you know, it's it's always, Um, I 346 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:15.000 feel like the the every other week question that that comes up in terms of 347 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.880 like, okay, we have a lot of ideas, we we go on 348 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.400 walks, we have internal conversations in person on Zoom uh, and that's just 349 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:27.319 our team. And then there are the multile meetings that I have with various 350 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:33.079 groups from like executive education to I t and just to make sure that we're 351 00:25:33.079 --> 00:25:38.240 all trying to to work towards shared outcomes. The reality is we're always going 352 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:45.359 to have restrained resources and I think sometimes where it gets overwhelming isn't thinking about 353 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:48.759 like, Oh, these are all of the different things that that we have 354 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:52.000 to do. Um. That may be the case, but at some point 355 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:57.559 we have to accept what our strengths are and maybe what we have to kind 356 00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.359 of let go or, at the very at least, say, you know 357 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:04.640 what, here's our calendar, these are the things that were that we're excited 358 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:08.599 about, that we're proud to try to achieve, and these other things. 359 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:14.000 It doesn't mean that they're not important, but it means that we don't want 360 00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:18.200 to burn out our employees to try to ask them to work fifty, sixty 361 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:22.039 hours in order to to just check a box, to be able to say 362 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:25.640 that, hey, these fifty things that we set out to do this year 363 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:29.200 that we would like to do Um, we're going to do them no matter 364 00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:33.319 what. Like that. That can't happen. Like we can't try to Um 365 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:37.319 make the school be perfect in every way, shape or form at the expense 366 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.440 of the employees, because the employees are central to the student experience. And 367 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.160 again, like if when the student the staff side of things doesn't work well, 368 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:52.200 it ultimately impacts Um, the students. So what I try to do 369 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:56.160 is to decide, okay, like, for for example, this summer we 370 00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:00.200 were we recently mapped out here are the five areas that we will like to 371 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:03.279 focus on for each individual on our web team and decided okay, one of 372 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:10.400 those is going to be specific customer journey content, revamping of our graduate programs 373 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:14.000 and just at least thinking about how do we make sure that the content is 374 00:27:14.039 --> 00:27:18.079 fresh and that we're more accurately speaking to the needs of graduate prospect of students 375 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:22.119 in the age of covid because that is significantly different than it was two years 376 00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:26.480 ago and our web content may not be up to date. And for each 377 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:30.279 of the individual individuals on our team, we say these are the five areas 378 00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:33.119 that we're going to work towards. Now it would be great to be able 379 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.440 to say at the end of that yes, we nailed everything, but it's 380 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:40.960 more about just working towards goals that we would feel proud of. And we 381 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:42.759 can, we can make adjustments as we go, but I am not going 382 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:51.000 to Um sacrifice these these uh, these these Um, these long goals at 383 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.720 the expense of the staff. And you know, those are hard conversations because 384 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.079 at some point you might have to have a conversation with your director or your 385 00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:02.599 Dean about what the prior parties are. But those are conversations that we in 386 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:07.200 leadership positions have to be willing to have because again, just as we say, 387 00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:12.599 websites are not um for everyone. Um every goal may not be achievable 388 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:17.000 and we have to decide, as a school and as leaders, what are 389 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.000 the things that are absolutely most important to us, what is it going to 390 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:23.119 take to do those things? Are we staffed enough to be able to execute 391 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:27.759 those and what's second tier, third tier priorities. They could be stretched goals. 392 00:28:27.799 --> 00:28:33.799 It would be nice, but if it comes at the expense of the 393 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:37.000 staff morale and what they can do and they're sacrificing their nights and weekends away 394 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.480 from their family, that's that's a no go um. So again it's it's 395 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:45.799 not easy, but we have to have conversations about what's realistic and what's feasible 396 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:51.759 and those conversations need to be had from leadership standpoint and once you have them, 397 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:56.279 they need to be abided by Um as we continue to work towards the 398 00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:59.799 goals for the school. Yeah, I like that and it goes right with 399 00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:03.160 what you said earlier about the idea of having those conversations, having those I 400 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:07.640 mean it's it's in today's Day and age. I don't care what industry you're 401 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.519 in. I think the more and more that we talk, the more and 402 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:15.880 more that we can have those conversations, the more critical it is because you 403 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:18.680 know, it's it's not the way it's always been. It's so dynamic in 404 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:22.960 every aspect of what we're doing and you know, it's a lot easier to 405 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:26.039 do a lot more things than we used to be able to do, and 406 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:30.119 so I think that there has to be hard decisions made, conversations had, 407 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:34.559 priorities developed, because at the end of the day, we just cannot do 408 00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:40.319 everything that we want to because sometimes that limited resources, just time, time, 409 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:44.720 and it stuff. Joshua, in every episode we ask our guest if 410 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:48.200 there was a piece of advice that they could leave either for their colleagues and 411 00:29:48.279 --> 00:29:56.799 maybe, in your instance, your marketing colleagues, that our listeners could implement 412 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:02.640 immediately or soon after listening to the episode. What advice or piece of advice 413 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:11.039 would you offer? The first thing that comes to mind is, uh, 414 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:17.240 networking internally, and what I specifically mean by that is trying to find people 415 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:22.839 that can help champion your ideas, because sometimes you might come up with like 416 00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:26.000 a change to a workflow for first student services, or communication, the marketing 417 00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:30.160 or I T. whatever the subject may be, and that idea has to 418 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:34.400 be shared with a one of the deans who has to make the ultimate decision 419 00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:40.200 about how you move forward with something and they have so many other responsibilities and 420 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:44.759 things that they have to think about. Um In in my experience, the 421 00:30:44.839 --> 00:30:48.720 things that are helpful and the conversations that I end up having with staff from 422 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.039 other rucker schools about like hey, I have this challenge in in my school 423 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:56.119 and I just wanted to know what you think, or every things like that. 424 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:02.759 We talk about try to find other folks who can buy into an idea 425 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:07.279 so that the more different individuals are talking about your vision, your goals to 426 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.960 senior leadership, about things that you would like to see happen in the school 427 00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:15.480 and and and or your team, the easier it is for those things to 428 00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:19.400 have success. Uh. So, for example, if we're thinking about, 429 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:25.160 hey, you know, we want salesforce to really be the platform that is 430 00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:29.519 going to be helpful to to manage prospect of student data, current student data, 431 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:33.200 corporate partners and all of these other audiences. But you now we're really 432 00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:37.119 not there yet and that's a very expensive proposition. Um, it's one thing 433 00:31:37.160 --> 00:31:41.279 if it's just the I T director that's saying that. It becomes a different 434 00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:45.240 thing when it's the I T director and it's communications and marketing and it's exact 435 00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:48.960 ad and its alumni relations and everyone is on the same page talking about things. 436 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:52.960 Over time, it then becomes the idea of the dean. Andy're like, 437 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.880 okay, all of these different folks are saying like this is important and 438 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.480 important thing. This is maybe something that we should move forward with Um. 439 00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:02.839 Well, we'll, we'll get the right stakeholders to to make it happen. 440 00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:08.240 I've tried to approach several times on on things that Um would be helpful for 441 00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:12.640 the school as a whole, even though they're not necessarily communications and marketed, 442 00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:15.640 things like the building and of an Internet to create that personalization for current students, 443 00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:20.880 for example, and it has ultimately worked. Now we still have to 444 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:24.079 figure out implementation, but we got the idea agreed upon by our our deans 445 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:30.039 to move forward with, because we're having conversations with different stakeholders around the school 446 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:31.920 about, Hey, this would be a great idea, and the more people 447 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:36.720 talk about things, the more they can they can work out. So my 448 00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:42.839 advice is to Um just really spend a lot of time on networking and helping 449 00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:45.519 each other, for folks that are either within the same school or, if 450 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:49.960 you work on a larger university, folks that are across the campus, so 451 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.359 that that that collective change can be really powerful instead of it just being your 452 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:59.119 voice that's trying to change something. Thank you, Joshua. Is Very well 453 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:05.079 said. I'm sure that there will be people that would like to contact you 454 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:08.400 after this podcast is listened to. What would be the best way for our 455 00:33:08.440 --> 00:33:17.440 listeners to reach out and connect with you? I think the fastest way is 456 00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:22.519 linkedin. If you search for Joshua Charles Um Um I'm I believe it's Linkedin 457 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:28.640 Dot com forward slash Joshua Charles um or on twitter. You can find me 458 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:30.599 there as well, and those are the the easiest ways to find him. 459 00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:35.720 I'm always happy to chat about anything website related, leadership related, higher I 460 00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:40.200 related, I don't care. I feel like we can't look at different schools 461 00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:44.440 as competitors all the time. We're all working towards the same goals in different 462 00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:46.920 ways, and the more that we as a community can help each other, 463 00:33:47.160 --> 00:33:51.079 I think we're all better for it. Thank you, when you've reminded me 464 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:53.519 that you are a wonderful follow. So I would put it out there to 465 00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:58.920 our listeners, even if you don't feel compelled to connect with Joshua, at 466 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:02.559 least follow him because you share a lot of great content. And thank you 467 00:34:02.680 --> 00:34:06.000 very much for that and thank you for being a guest on the High Reed 468 00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:12.320 Marketer podcast. Thank you for having me, Mart do you have any final 469 00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:15.400 thoughts? You'd like to share with us. Yeah, I just want to 470 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:17.199 say thank you again, Joshua, for being here and I really wanted to 471 00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:21.679 point out a few things that Joshua said that I think we're just so critical, 472 00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.239 kind of the nuggets as we kind of walk away. You remember that 473 00:34:24.280 --> 00:34:29.199 the website is not, you know, this isn't your grandfather's website. This 474 00:34:29.239 --> 00:34:30.320 is uh, this is, you know, we have to think of it 475 00:34:30.360 --> 00:34:37.840 in three the idea that we're all more about content and more about marketing than 476 00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:40.559 anything else. Uh, you know, quit. You know, so many 477 00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:45.119 people still talk about html and talk about all this other things. The website 478 00:34:45.159 --> 00:34:47.639 is a tool. There's technology out there that you should not have to worry 479 00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:52.360 about, you know, being a tool. It's, you know, the 480 00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:53.239 the idea. I mean, Troy, you use the word, you know, 481 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:57.920 the term web master earlier. That's probably a term that can kind of 482 00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:00.960 be retired because I think it's really a marketing and content tool and I think 483 00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:05.400 josh has done a great job of explaining that. I think another thing that 484 00:35:05.480 --> 00:35:08.199 Joshua said kind of in passing that I want to make sure everybody remembers, 485 00:35:08.199 --> 00:35:12.039 and I think this is a tip that that you could also go out and 486 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:15.880 do, uh, this afternoon, is figure out a way to organize and 487 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:20.400 collect and manage your outcome stories. Um, you know you're gonna have to 488 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:23.159 work together with your with your alumni group, with other people on campus, 489 00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:29.800 probably with your faculty, because really students connect back through their faculty to share 490 00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:32.440 their updates, to to share what's going on in their life. And if 491 00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:36.280 you can have a way that faculty know that, Hey, I just heard 492 00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:42.119 from you know, Eric from the class of and he just updated me on 493 00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:45.440 what he's doing and it was a fascinating conversation. They need to know a 494 00:35:45.480 --> 00:35:49.440 place that they can either tell somebody or put that into a document or a 495 00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:52.840 form that you can then manage that and be able to go back and look 496 00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:55.280 at that and and be able to sort that and organize that. So it 497 00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:59.360 could be as simple as just having a set of Google docs and a folder, 498 00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:01.440 but some way that you can manage that, I think is really important. 499 00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:05.159 And then I really also like the fact that, you know, having 500 00:36:05.199 --> 00:36:07.840 some personalization. Troy and I've talked many times with different guests about the importance 501 00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:13.800 of personalization for our perspective students and I really like the way that Joshua and 502 00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:16.480 the team at rutgers has really looked at how to segment and personalize that experience 503 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:20.960 for the different levels of the students and where they are in their journey. 504 00:36:21.320 --> 00:36:23.239 I think that's important. And then I think the final things that I really 505 00:36:23.239 --> 00:36:28.320 heard a lot about was, you know, just that communication. You know, 506 00:36:28.360 --> 00:36:30.239 we talked about you know, many times we're marketing and communications, but 507 00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:34.800 we fail to communicate with each other and with the rest of the campus, 508 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:37.800 and so I think it's important to, you know, hear what Joshua said 509 00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:40.199 about the ways to his team communicates with one another's that, you know, 510 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:45.440 the walks, the meetings, the Huddles, the way he communicates regularly with 511 00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:49.800 those outside of his particular team, with other, you know, other areas 512 00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:52.400 of campus and other areas within the business school, as well as just, 513 00:36:52.519 --> 00:36:57.920 you know, with limited resources, sometimes communicating and coming up with some brainstorming 514 00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:01.760 and ideas together you can often find ways to solve a problem that maybe you 515 00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:05.599 hadn't thought of. Because, I mean, I was talking to someone yesterday 516 00:37:05.960 --> 00:37:08.000 the idea of, you know, preparing a bunch of uh, you know, 517 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:12.679 printed materials going forward. Well, there are, they're creative ways to 518 00:37:12.679 --> 00:37:15.320 do that with digital printing now that you don't always have to think about, 519 00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:16.920 well, we're gonna have to buy a whole skin now instead of and we've 520 00:37:16.920 --> 00:37:21.480 got to make a decision tomorrow. Now there are ways to kind of think 521 00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:24.039 about that and be a little bit more creative in the way that you're approaching 522 00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:28.559 those problems and getting get together with a lot of people can often, you 523 00:37:28.599 --> 00:37:31.119 know, find those those solutions. So thanks again, Josh with. This 524 00:37:31.159 --> 00:37:37.400 has been a wonderful conversation and welcome to have you kept back anytime. Thank 525 00:37:37.400 --> 00:37:42.920 you. Thank you. Both the hired marketing podcast is sponsored by the ZEMI 526 00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:47.880 APP enabling colleges and universities to engage with their future students at scale before they 527 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:55.639 even apply, and by the Kalis Solutions Group and education marketing and branding agency 528 00:37:55.800 --> 00:38:00.239 and by Think, patented, a marketing, execution, print and mailing provider 529 00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:05.960 of Higher Ed Solutions. On behalf of Bart Kaylor. I'm troy singer. 530 00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:12.159 Thank you for joining us. You've been listening to the Higher Ed Marketer. 531 00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:15.440 To ensure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your 532 00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:21.320 favorite podcast player. If you're listening with apple podcasts. We'd love for you 533 00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:23.840 to leave a quick rating of the show, simply tap the number of stars 534 00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:27.840 do you think the podcast deserves? Until next time,