Whether you're brand new to listening, or have been here since the beginning, you don't have to search for the best nuggets of information…
because they're all in this episode, hand selected for you!
In this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer, Troy Singer, Senior Account Executive at Think Patented, summarizes the 10 most useful moments on the show so far.
Featured on this episode:
- Juerell Smith on Marketing Alignment Leading Data Insights
- JP Spagnolo’s 2 Core Elements of Marketing
- Suzanne Petruch on The Power of Subtle Reminders
- Peter Ashley on Why You Should Invest in Video
- Colleen Garland & Janet Marsden on Managing Donors at Every Level
- Colleen Garland & Janet Marsden on Shifting Your Video Strategy to Fit Your Message
- Dan Freeborn on Getting Started as a Higher Ed Marketer
- Julie Balog on Strategies for Segmented Messaging
- Christy Jackson on Crisis Communication
- Kristi LaFree on Butler University’s Unique Approach to Direct Mail
Know of a higher education marketing change agent you’d like to hear on the show? Does your university have an interesting story to be featured? Connect with Bart Caylor or Troy Singer. If you’re not on LinkedIn, check the Caylor Solutions or Think Patented websites instead!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to The Higher Ed Marketer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
The Higher Ed Marketer podcast is brought to you by Caylor Solutions, an Education Marketing, and Branding Agency.
Transcript
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You are listening to the Higher Ed
Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals
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00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:11.910
in higher education. This show will
tackle all sorts of questions related to student
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00:00:11.949 --> 00:00:16.230
recruitment, don'tor relations, marketing trends, new technologies and so much more.
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If you are looking for conversations centered
around where the industry is going, this
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00:00:20.989 --> 00:00:30.739
podcast is for you. Let's get
into the show. Hello and welcome to
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the High Ed Marketer podcast. My
name is troy singer and I have a
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very special episode for you today.
We're going to make a bit of a
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format shift for today's episode and recap
the top ten most useful moments of the
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00:00:43.649 --> 00:00:47.770
show so far. It's kind of
like our best of whether you're brand new
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to listening or have been here since
the beginning, you don't have to search
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00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:55.759
for the best nuggets of information,
because they're all right here, hand selected
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for you. So, without further
ado, let's get into our list.
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Coming in at number ten is a
snippet from Darrell Smith in episode three,
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where he tells us that marketing alignment
should be the leading data insides for your
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institutions program let's have a listen.
So they're already tracking and giving you some
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sort of sense of what type of
engagement they're having, whether it's websites,
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landing pages, emails, text messages, but these are other data sources around
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campus that maybe emissions counselors understand,
they want to have and you want to
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work into your marketing communications. And
then making sure that the communication networks are
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there with those stay orders, you
know, having that and data analysts there
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with the counselors, at the personal
touts, with the Web Masters, with
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all the digital content experts in that
conversation flow so you can align all these
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skill sets together and have them moving
in the same direction when you want them
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to move so they kind of keep
in sync and then, once you figure
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out that process, keeping that process
repetitive. So that's always iterating, always
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cycling, because I'm sure you know
you want the messaging, the marketing messaging,
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to be as flexible as it can
when you want that, you know,
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message to change in shift. Next
up at number nine, we hear
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jpiece Bignolo's two core elements of marketing. By truly we've marketing starts in a
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couple of core things. One is
understanding your messages right. The messages are
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all about building relationships right. The
intent is to be able to strengthen the
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relationships with the purpose perspective students,
if that's the target market working with.
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In my role, you know,
I sort of serve both the prospective student
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audience as well as the other elements
of marketing on campus and in every one
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of those places it's about making sure
that you have strong relationships and being able
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to help people understand and to learn
from other people what it is that we're
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trying to do to create the right
messages right, and so I think that's
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really important. I'd say another part
of it is recognizing where your strengths are
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and also knowing where you need to
have partners and have other people take the
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weight and, you know, make
sure that they are able to express,
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you know, what it is that
they bring the table. And so,
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you know, I would say in
the role that I have, a lot
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of it is that ability to really
recognize what the needs are and make sure
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that we're organizing in a way that
we're using the strengths of those around us
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to be able to craft our message
in a clear and concise manner to the
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different audiences that we're trying to do
that with. In episode eleven, however,
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we get introduced to Suzanne PERTRUCIA's more
measured approach to High Red Marketing,
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where she reminds us that great marketing
is all about the subtle reminders. The
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other two people have been situated under
digital marketing so that we would have a
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digital marketing specialist whose primary responsibilities focused
on social media. That can take up
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such an Andre enormous amount of time
and it's not just a matter of going
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out and capturing what's happening that day. It really needs to be a strategic
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planful exercise so that we have a
full editorial calendar with it, but we
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also can be agile enough to be
able to pick up of the moment happenings
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on campus so that we don't miss
those things we need. In number seven
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is a little gym from episode twelve
and something that we all know all too
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well. A picture is truly worth
a thousand words, and we'll hear why
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we should invest in video, according
to Peter Ashley at Hanover College, and
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so we needed more video resources.
So we had a chance to hire a
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new videographer and I was able to
hire two videographers because we great final candidates.
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That I made the case that he
we will put these these guys to
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work quickly, and we did and
we hired both and one is a young
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woman who graduate from Depaul University,
one is a gentleman who greased and graduate
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from Hanover, and so, having
those two perspectives, both very talented videographers
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and photographers and within a few months
they created more than a hundred plus videos
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on campus life, generating like a
hundred thousand views very quickly, everything from
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campus dining to Greek life to a
series we've created called beyond the classroom,
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where we take either a music program
or even a kinesiology program and take it
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outside the classroom and show what goes
on in that program that doesn't just happen
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in the actual room. You know
that for one program there was a whole
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focus on the using the natural setting
up Hanover to go on hikes and look
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at count waterfalls and to identify bugs
and different things like that. Number six
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is a huge challenge for dealing with
donors because, honestly, when someone drops
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an eight figured gift on your donor
program, it's hard not to treat them
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like the favorite episode thirteens, calling
garland and Janet Martson at Kenyon College,
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have you covered on creating the proper
management of these donors? In addition to
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just knowing that intuitively, we had
under taken a study with a the group
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called the art and science group to
really understand our our constituency donor motivations,
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what was working, and so we
knew that there was a risk and when
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associating a gift of this magnitude,
that somehow your other donors would sit on
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the sidelines and applaud but not necessarily
see how it was impacting now. So
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that's definitely it formed our strategy and
fortunately we had a group that that met,
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including Janet, every other week for
about nine months trying to think through
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carefully, if this gift were to
come to fruition the way we were hoping,
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how would we be prepared to roll
it out? So it's definitely a
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team effort to be prepared for the
messaging. Calling Nin Janet get a second
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mentioned here with tip five, by
sharing their way of shifting video strategy to
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fit the message your institution wants to
set. And the piece I would say
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that became very apparent, though,
was just the importance of video and the
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increase use of video and photography because, as we've been talking about, like
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the place is so powerful and when
alumnic see photos and images it immediately brings
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them back, it tugs at an
emotional connection to the place and worry,
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but in ways that words alone can. So we did indeed increase our use
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of video for things like this big
gift announcement, which of course we couldn't
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do in person, but other things
that we did as well in terms of
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we renamed our big Athletic Center for
a very beloved and wellknown alumnus. That
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was all done through the use of
video, and so we tried to really,
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as Janet said in the beginning,
appropriately share good news but in the
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context of what was going on in
the world, and that required just what
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felt like a near constant pivoting and
adjusting and, you know, waiting till
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the last minute to make sure everything
was, you know, just right to
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that moment when it was going to
be released. I mean it in number
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four, some of you might be
just getting started in the arena of high
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read marketing and Dan Freeborn at Northern
Michigan University has this advice for your journey.
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Find more from Dan in episode fourteen. I took what I knew from
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that and understanding the main touch points
that students had with the university throughout the
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enrollment process really just helped me build
a shell of what our email communication was
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going to look like. So,
looking at when they submit an application,
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they should probably get something initially confirming
that we receive their application, what their
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next step was. Same with after
they were admitted, making sure they knew
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what their next steps for enrollment where. So building out content related to those
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specific action steps was my key point
and that allowed me then to rest a
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shirt that they were getting the main
points delivered to them, the main pieces
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of content that needed, and then
from there I was able to kind of
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step up, take a step back
and look more at that information at a
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whole and was able to develop the
communication plan much further than building out and
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filling out those gaps in between the
pieces of messaging there. So it did
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take a lot of time, but
I think taking it in bite size chunks
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was the most with the key for
me to be able to do this successfully
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resting a shirt that they had the
main points out there, and then every
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so often, maybe every six or
eight months, I would introduce some more
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content to build out these campaigns and
flows. That way we're into our top
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three tips and our bronze medalists for
this is episode number nine with the University
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of Kentucky's Julie Baylog. Her insight
into creation of segmented messaging for prospective students
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is tremendously valuable, showing how creating
unique messaging for each student creates an opportunity
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for transformation. So what we did
is, for instance, we've created an
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oped, a joint oped with some
of our other universities across the state,
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and so we're publishing those with other
university present presidents from our president. We
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also are creating some social media assets
and we are going to push those out
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and then, working with our there's
a person on Jay Plant and staff,
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Marque, who specializes in media pitching
and he's going to help us by reaching
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out to small town newspapers, radio
stations and TV stations across the state to
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really share listen, we need college
is possible for you, but it has
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to start with filling out your fast
but and at the end of the day,
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this is one of those things where
I like to say where the University
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for Kentucky Not Just University of Kentucky, because at the end of the day
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we just want these students to understand
that they that going to college can be
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transformational for them and and if they
don't come to UK, that's okay.
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They just need to find the place
where they can get that transformational experience.
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Our number two tip comes from episode
eight and you and see Charlotte's Christy Jackson.
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It's one of the most pointed pieces
of advice about marketing and communication.
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For anyone who has to interact with
the public. Crisis Means Different things depending
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on your experience and your institution.
After the institution that I was working at
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announced closure, I was in conversation
with the president of another institution and we
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were talking, talking about what had
happened and how it had happened and the
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response, and this person was trying
to empathize with me and they said to
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me, you know, I get
a crisis is so hard. I understand
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what you're going through. Last year
the Health Department gave our dining hall a
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be writing and this person minute with
every good intention and to them, to
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them that was a crisis because they
had they had never really experienced that level
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of scrutiny before and their students were
upset. The families were upset. They're
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paying for this money, for these
dining plans and you're giving my child subpar
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food, and it was awful for
them in the moment they were in it.
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Now, for me and others of
my colleagues who have perhaps experience something
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that's a little more intense, we
would say that's probably a Tuesday right.
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A be health writing on a college
campus elly Tuesday. You need to address
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it as an issue, but you
can manage it. It's not. It
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is not a seismic potential, seismic
chef for your organization if you don't handle
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it correctly. Finally, at number
one is the snippet from episode five,
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Christy Live Free and Butler University's truly
unique approach to getting some beloved family members
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involved in the higher a journey.
Phido usually doesn't have a say where a
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student chooses to attend, but by
interacting with prospective students pets, they create
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a whole new layer of connection with
their prospect but I think this will be
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the fifth year that we've done this
campaign and we call it our pet comflow
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and it's exactly what sounds like we
send direct mail to the dogs and cats
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of admitted students with a little piece
of Butler gear and that note just reassuring
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them that blue is going to look
after their human and have their humans back
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and be there for anything they may
need at Butler and there's so many things
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about this campaign that I love.
You know, of course everyone loves getting
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their gear and the personalization factor is
really fun, but I think the I
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think the piece that makes it most
successful is that message, the message that
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we're kind of subtly sending in that
piece that we've got their back and they're
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going to find a family, a
Butler and that community that the high schoolers
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are often looking for, and we
have just found it. That really resonates
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with the Butler way and resonates with
who we are as an institution. The
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real gold in this campaign too,
I think, is the awareness piece.
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So the yield part of it great, fantastic be awareness those is the piece
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that's a little bit harder to measure, but we have found is that for
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every family who receives the piece,
they tell their friends, their neighbors,
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their co workers, etc. and
they're often posting to their own social accounts.
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So that piece we've been really pleased
with to just knowing that were able
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to get the Butler brand in front
of a whole bunch of eyeballs. But
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yeah, the first time I pitched
it rightfully. So there were some questions
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about what do you want to do
and how are we going to do that?
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But we have a lot of fun
with it and it's by far one
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of our favorite, our favorite campaigns
to execute. That rounds out our top
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ten tips for the show so far. We're looking so forward to continue to
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bring you great guest and content to
help your High Reed Marketing Journey. I'm
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00:14:35.750 --> 00:14:41.860
troy singer. Thanks for listening.
The High Red Marketer podcast is sponsored by
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00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:46.940
Kaylor solutions and education, marketing and
branding agency and by thin patented a marketing
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execution, printing and mailing provider of
hire its solutions. On behalf of my
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00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:56.490
cohost, Bart Taylor, I'm troy
singer. Thank you for joining us.
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You've been listening to the Higher Ed
Marketer. To ensure that you never miss
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00:15:03.250 --> 00:15:07.879
an episode, subscribe to the show
in your favorite podcast player. If you're
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00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:11.399
listening with apple podcasts. We'd love
for you to leave a quick rating of
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the show. Simply tap the number
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Until next time,