You Need an App: Why a Website Isn’t Enough

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:07.190 You are listening to the Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals 2 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:11.910 in higher education. This show will tackle all sorts of questions related to student 3 00:00:11.949 --> 00:00:16.230 recruitment, don'tor relations, marketing trends, new technologies and so much more. 4 00:00:16.989 --> 00:00:20.789 If you are looking for conversations centered around where the industry is going, this 5 00:00:20.989 --> 00:00:30.460 podcast is for you. Let's get into the show. Welcome to the Higher 6 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:35.810 Ed Marketer Podcast, brought to you by Kaylor solutions and thing patented. Again. 7 00:00:36.049 --> 00:00:40.409 We try to bring you each week people that we admire, that we 8 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:45.369 feel that are bringing value to the Higher Ed Marketing Community, and today is 9 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:51.640 no different. Someone that both Barton I are familiar with Jamie giblet from digit 10 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:58.039 storm, and they have mobile APPS for higher education that a lot of people 11 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:02.320 are talking about once they are familiar with it. Yeah, Troy, I've 12 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:04.790 really enjoyed getting to know Jamie. We met last year in the middle of 13 00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:07.909 the pandemic and we'll go into the story a little bit more on the on 14 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:11.950 the conversation, but Jamie has become a friend and we have done some work 15 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:15.189 together. So just to kind of be full, fully transparent with everyone, 16 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:19.900 but I really invited him to come on to talk about the idea of using 17 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:23.900 mobile APPs in Higher Ed Marketing. We do talk about their APP a little 18 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:26.700 bit, but it's more along the lines of how apps can work and how 19 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:30.859 marketers can use them. I'll be honest, I have probably sold away from 20 00:01:30.859 --> 00:01:36.569 apps over the past five or ten years just because I really didn't think that 21 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:41.170 they were necessary, especially if you had a mobile friendly website. But talking 22 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:46.250 to Jamie and learning more about how apps work today and also how affordable they 23 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:49.719 are, from when I had experienced thirteen years ago when we did a custom 24 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.519 AP for one of our clients, it really changed my mind and I really 25 00:01:52.599 --> 00:01:57.680 started to think through from a marketing standpoint of how this tool could be used 26 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:00.950 in the broader sense of a lot of a lot more of a marketing plan. 27 00:02:01.189 --> 00:02:05.269 So I'm really excited to talk to Jamie about that and to kind of 28 00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:09.150 hear his perspective. Thank you, Bart. Let's bring Jamie into the conversation. 29 00:02:13.349 --> 00:02:16.580 Is My pleasure to welcome Jamie Giblet into the conversation and I must warn 30 00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:23.219 everyone that he has a very thick Colorado accent. Welcome to the conversation, 31 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:27.300 Jamie. Thank you, troy. And also thank you, bought, for 32 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:32.090 having me. And yes, I cannot hide my Colorado accent. It always 33 00:02:32.129 --> 00:02:38.530 me wherever I got and I was actually just joking that someone was was driving 34 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:40.849 me sign that I had a nice Italian accent and nice accent from Alabama. 35 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:46.159 Said today it's Colorado, but if you can't pick it, originally from Australia. 36 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:49.000 Thank you. And if you would tell us a little bit more about 37 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:53.159 you and also, did you storm and your roll there? Absolutely. So 38 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:57.159 don't give me too much for to talk about myself, because I do like 39 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:00.270 to talk and talking about myself on my favorite topics. But I've been with 40 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:05.069 digi storm, we're software developing coming that was born in Australia for about five 41 00:03:05.110 --> 00:03:08.990 years and then at the start of last year had the opportunity to fly over 42 00:03:09.069 --> 00:03:13.900 to this great nation and set up an office in Denver, Colorado, and 43 00:03:14.020 --> 00:03:16.780 to the Colorado and accent. For better or worse, that just happened to 44 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:20.419 be timed with one of the weirdest times, and I'm modern history, with 45 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.259 the pandemic. So the first eight in months in this wonderful country have been 46 00:03:23.620 --> 00:03:30.169 unusual, but it's been unusual everyone everywhere in the world so there's no no 47 00:03:30.250 --> 00:03:31.689 difference. I guess here in the US everyone's been dealing with it, but 48 00:03:31.930 --> 00:03:37.930 finally now out on the conference circuit and getting to meet a bunch of amazing 49 00:03:37.969 --> 00:03:42.280 people out on the road and circling back, though. I'm the sales manager 50 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.199 here for digi storm in North America. So I saw I talked about myself 51 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.039 and then startlement conferences. So thanks for the question. A try. That's 52 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.960 why we have you here in tell everyone what did your storm does Fab. 53 00:03:54.120 --> 00:04:00.430 So we're literally in the in the middle of celebrating our ten year anniversary and 54 00:04:00.550 --> 00:04:04.990 so much so that I even got senter ten year anniversary little gift pack myself. 55 00:04:05.469 --> 00:04:12.699 So we've been making software force schools and education institutions, colleges universities, 56 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:18.379 for ten years and we specialize in creating beautiful mobile communication APPs that are uniquely 57 00:04:18.420 --> 00:04:24.449 positioned to help build community, aid in retention, aid in attraction and also 58 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:29.930 engage with alumni when it comes to hire red institutions. Well, thanks, 59 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:32.290 Jamie. This has been great. I I know that you and I met. 60 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:35.850 I think I met the other guys that digit storm. First we had 61 00:04:35.889 --> 00:04:43.839 a common connection on linkedin another school and in the Pacific Rim that I knew 62 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:45.879 the marketer of, and he's like, Oh, you've got to meet these 63 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:47.160 guys at digit storm. As a matter of fact, they're trying to set 64 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:50.759 up a shop and North America and in the United States and they're thinking about 65 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:54.750 Boston, they're thinking about, you know, all these different places and and 66 00:04:55.509 --> 00:04:58.550 so once, once you kind of landed, you and I had a chance 67 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:01.589 to kind of start to get to know each other, and so we got 68 00:05:01.629 --> 00:05:04.709 to meet face face last year, earlier this year, I guess, at 69 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:10.019 the Abah Conference in Orlando, which is one of the first conferences that actually 70 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:14.100 went back to you in person. So we spent a few days together. 71 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:15.500 Troy was there as well, and so we all got to know each a 72 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:18.660 little each other a little bit better. And I know one of the things 73 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:23.329 that I have had over the course of my career with with high reed marketing 74 00:05:23.889 --> 00:05:26.449 is just how many schools came up to me and said, Hey, do 75 00:05:26.529 --> 00:05:29.290 you think we ought to do a mobile APP? And you know, that's 76 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:31.930 been going on for, from my point of view, probably twelve years. 77 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.959 People have been asking me that and about twelve years ago I had a school 78 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.600 do that and I said yeah, let's figure that out and we spent way 79 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.560 too much money and way too much time on a custom map and that really 80 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:45.120 gave me just this bad taste of my mouth. And and I mean we 81 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:47.120 delivered it. It was it was a good product, but I just felt 82 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.350 like there was just so much more to it than what there needed to be. 83 00:05:50.949 --> 00:05:55.110 And then when I met you and you started show me your product, 84 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:58.790 douct that I was just just fell in love with it again and realized that 85 00:05:59.589 --> 00:06:02.709 not only the fact that you kind of you take care of everything on the 86 00:06:02.790 --> 00:06:06.779 back end, but also you've got kind of a content management system for the 87 00:06:06.939 --> 00:06:10.740 for the APP, that really the schools can manage on their own, and 88 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:13.860 that really fascinated me. So maybe we can just have a little bit of 89 00:06:13.899 --> 00:06:16.819 a conversation. Just tell me a little bit about how you see apps playing 90 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:20.569 into, you know, let's keep it to the higher ed space, but 91 00:06:20.689 --> 00:06:26.490 just how do you see that playing into the education experience for for students, 92 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:30.490 especially those students that are on campus? Absolutely, and thanks for reminding me 93 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:34.519 about the journey to come into this podcast today, because I was at a 94 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:38.639 conference last week and someone asks me how I ended up there and I said 95 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:41.959 I met this wonderful gentleman, but Kayla, and then I'll had you meet 96 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:44.720 him. I'm like you just seemed to pop into my life. I can 97 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.509 remember and it's is to the stories. I didn't you and you just gave 98 00:06:47.589 --> 00:06:51.310 it. So thank you. Everything Click back into place. They're so great 99 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:59.709 question. I think in terms of being able to connect with your community, 100 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:02.300 and I'm sorry, sorry, from a student perspectives and not from the college 101 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:06.500 is perspective, feeling connected to the community that you're in is something that is 102 00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:11.779 really important. I think pre covid we all knew that. You know, 103 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:15.730 having a connected community was super important and it was important for retention, whether 104 00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:24.730 Your College, university or another education institution. But in this current post pandemic 105 00:07:24.810 --> 00:07:30.360 world, I think understanding the importance of community is is just even even more 106 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:33.079 at the front of mine. So for me there's there's plenty of wonderful things 107 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:35.720 that an APP can do, and not just a digittal map. As by 108 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.040 mentioned, he worked on an APP, a custom map himself, just over 109 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.879 a decade ago. So we're not the only providers out there. But the 110 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:47.230 thing that I think it's most important about an APP is it being a reflection 111 00:07:47.509 --> 00:07:53.589 of what your community is about is being about your your brand, about your 112 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:59.740 voice in a in a college or university, setting and fostering that sense of 113 00:08:00.060 --> 00:08:03.420 community. That AIDS in retention, AIDS in creating evangelist out of your students 114 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:09.500 so that they wanted to rave about your institution because they feel so connected through 115 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:13.009 a device that, you know, ninety five percent of the time, is 116 00:08:13.050 --> 00:08:16.129 either in their pocket or within our arms reach. I think that would be 117 00:08:16.129 --> 00:08:20.730 the key, the key thing for improving that experience for a student. It's 118 00:08:20.769 --> 00:08:24.889 just making them feel part of the community, no matter what's going on in 119 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:28.279 the outside. Well, with a pandemic or no pandemic, that can really 120 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:31.159 facilitate that. Yeah, that was one of the things that I think, 121 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:33.960 you know, as you and I got to know each other and as I 122 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.440 started learning more about apps and and kind of the modern version of them, 123 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:39.720 you know because, like I said, ten years twelve years ago, that 124 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:43.909 was a different flavor. But I think one of the things that I realized 125 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:46.549 and came to realize is that many times these apps are you know, we 126 00:08:46.629 --> 00:08:50.149 talked about hired marketing and so many times, and Nate Simpson from the gates 127 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:54.990 foundation a couple weeks ago was kind of reminding us of everybody kind of markets 128 00:08:54.029 --> 00:08:56.539 to these students and once they get there they're just kind of like, well, 129 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:00.460 we're done marketing to them and we move on. And I thought that 130 00:09:00.539 --> 00:09:05.419 was really an astute observation and I think that sometimes as marketers we think about 131 00:09:05.460 --> 00:09:07.659 okay, well, we really have a responsibility to market kind of all the 132 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:13.649 way from when there's a suspect or a prospect through inquiry to APP and then 133 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:16.570 accepted and then and then we get into the deposited and then matriculated. Well 134 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:20.730 then we go through the years of school. We've still got to do some 135 00:09:20.809 --> 00:09:22.330 kind of marketing to kind of help them understand that, hey, I made 136 00:09:22.330 --> 00:09:26.039 a really good decision, I'm here for a reason and I'm going to come 137 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:30.720 back after first semester freshman year. I'm going to come back after freshman year 138 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:33.200 and I've realized that. I think that the APPs really do a lot for 139 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:37.559 retention. Is that kind of what you're finding some of your schools are realizing? 140 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:43.350 Absolutely, and you've hit the nail on the head that the conversation doesn't 141 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:48.509 stop after that application. It's been improved and we've collected some some money to 142 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:52.700 enroll a student if the conversation ends there, there is a big risk but 143 00:09:54.779 --> 00:10:00.340 that that particular student is going to become disconnected and disengaged. So you've yeah, 144 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:03.580 you've absolutely now it. With say, with talking about retention. The 145 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:07.730 best admission strategy is always going to be undermined by attrition if we're not looking 146 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:13.690 after our student body and and keeping our existing numbers healthy. And that's why, 147 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:18.129 I think I've said this, said this previously, we don't stop selling 148 00:10:18.649 --> 00:10:22.039 to our student buddy, to our constitution chance, once they're in the door. 149 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:26.200 We continue to Oh my good Lord, I am just a popular person 150 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:31.080 today. I'm so sorry, another program bringing on my device. Sorry, 151 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.950 I did silence my main dem advice and someone's ringing me on a different one. 152 00:10:35.909 --> 00:10:39.950 So, yes, retention is something that I've found, especially working with 153 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:43.350 the high rate institutions here in the United States. So that they were looking 154 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:48.190 for is a tool to aid in that retention and keeping the conversation going once 155 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:52.820 students have been admitted through the door. So that has been a huge bit 156 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:56.100 of impact that I think we've been able to help facilitate, and I say 157 00:10:56.179 --> 00:11:03.500 we as in did you storm and kayless solutions through our interactions with with with 158 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:07.370 some institutions here in the United States. So yeah, a hundred percent recension. 159 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:09.570 So tell me, what are some of the features that you know someone 160 00:11:09.649 --> 00:11:13.250 would expect to find it an APP? I mean there's probably a lot of 161 00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:16.649 schools that are listening here. They've either considered it or they've they've tried it 162 00:11:16.970 --> 00:11:18.879 or they've seen other schools do it. And I mean there's there's a lot 163 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:22.320 of different things that can be on an APP. What do you guys find 164 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.039 is the most compelling for colleges and universities? So bringing to get often it's 165 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:33.669 bringing together the work that the college or university is already doing. So most 166 00:11:33.750 --> 00:11:39.389 colleges and universities have some form of blog or news feed that they're talking about 167 00:11:39.389 --> 00:11:43.070 activities that are happening around campus. All this is what one of our lum 168 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:46.620 is doing at the moment. Those sorts of inspiring, engaging story. So 169 00:11:46.740 --> 00:11:52.659 we're not looking to reinvent that or for US institutions that double handle that information. 170 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:56.980 So we'll bring in to the APP the the news news feed that's already 171 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:00.220 been used with that blog feed. So the benefit, though, is of 172 00:12:00.299 --> 00:12:03.610 having on an APP is the user can see which articles that have read and 173 00:12:03.649 --> 00:12:07.610 haven't read rather than jumping on the website that chief I've read everything here. 174 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:11.090 I'm not sure comes through. Categorize and it would let you know how there's 175 00:12:11.169 --> 00:12:16.200 three articles in alumni relations that you haven't read and then you read it and 176 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:18.960 let you know there's any two. So it's a huge one. Another one 177 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:22.759 is bringing through the calendar. So sometimes it can be a little difficult to 178 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:28.440 find that calendar of what's happening, whether it's the campus wide calendar or something 179 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.789 a little more niche. So just one section of the campus we bring together 180 00:12:31.909 --> 00:12:37.870 one or multiple calendars that are filterable into the APP. Super Popular Amongst the 181 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:41.870 institutions that we're working with you is just to have that one place for an 182 00:12:41.909 --> 00:12:46.340 updated, real time calendar. And then beyond that in smart integrations. So 183 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:52.659 before we talked about two integrations being the blog and calendar. I don't talk 184 00:12:52.659 --> 00:12:56.940 about smart integrations until I start talking about integration of the college management system. 185 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:01.250 So we've we've been doing some work with popular here in the US to pull 186 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:07.370 through key information from the the popular platform into the APP natively, so users 187 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:11.370 don't need to log on to the web platform or log on to the popular 188 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:16.120 platform they can get there to do is their information from populate and directly through 189 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:20.720 their branded campus APP. Those three things probably the top three tiers and then, 190 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.549 mixed from that, things like notices, push notices, so being able 191 00:13:26.629 --> 00:13:31.110 to send, I'm sensitive, information to remind your alumni they've got that reunion 192 00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:35.950 event coming up this weekend and then there's a giving activity happening to start for 193 00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:41.389 it. And then reminding perspective students that applications are closing in three weeks time, 194 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:46.259 or just sending out something to let prospective, current or alumni students know 195 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:48.899 that you're still thinking about them and that you have some sort of message for 196 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:52.820 them. That's something it's been a real, I guess, game changes for 197 00:13:52.860 --> 00:13:56.289 the institutions that we're working with so far. Yeah, one of the features 198 00:13:56.330 --> 00:14:00.490 that I really like is, you know, if you've got all these different 199 00:14:00.769 --> 00:14:07.049 news events or even information about like sports or different activities. You know there's 200 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:09.320 obviously a lot of student activities and depending on the size of your institution, 201 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:13.720 you might have a lot of a little, but being able to go into 202 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.000 the APP and then be able to choose, Hey, I want to be 203 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:20.639 notified or I want information about these things that are of interest to me. 204 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.509 So, you know, if I'm really not that keen on, you know, 205 00:14:24.669 --> 00:14:26.950 knowing when the the crew club is going to be rowing on the river, 206 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:31.389 I don't have to click on that one. But if I'm interested in 207 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:33.909 knowing when the football team is going to do something or even when the next 208 00:14:35.110 --> 00:14:37.429 play is going to be, I can. I can go into the APP 209 00:14:37.509 --> 00:14:41.779 and customize that setting so that that's the information that comes to me. So 210 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:46.460 I think that's a great way to engage with parents, even alumni. Obviously 211 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:50.779 they can get the feeds about alumni perspective, students can get the feeds about 212 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:54.889 perspective students and current students can stay up on the clubs and activities that they're 213 00:14:54.929 --> 00:14:58.090 most interested in. So I really like the fact that your platform really provides 214 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:03.809 just the ability to customize, not only from the school standpoint, on the 215 00:15:03.889 --> 00:15:07.759 back end, because I know that you have different levels of engagement in your 216 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:13.759 schools. Can Choose to buy the CMS integration or the or the student portal 217 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:18.919 information integration or they can do different customization parts, but you also allow that 218 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.029 in the hands of the users, to which I think is so, so 219 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:24.269 critical. Now I think that you know, we've talked a lot of other 220 00:15:24.309 --> 00:15:30.309 guests about personalization and about making sure that Gen Z and and the upcoming Gin 221 00:15:30.350 --> 00:15:41.980 Alpha really understand. But this is what I love looking with you, because 222 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:48.620 you are able to articulate the cue, beaches and benefits of my app better 223 00:15:48.659 --> 00:15:54.769 than I am. That is exactly it's so true, and that that self 224 00:15:54.929 --> 00:15:58.649 personalization that a user can have is to stop something that we jot really called 225 00:15:58.690 --> 00:16:03.769 death by candy crush push edification. So if anyone has ever been it's really 226 00:16:03.929 --> 00:16:07.080 candy crush and if you don't play it for half a moment, it will 227 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:08.720 send you a notification and then another one and then another one, to the 228 00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:12.399 point where you delete brandy crush from your phone. So the idea of self 229 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:17.120 personalization is to bus point. If I don't if I don't want know when 230 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:18.870 the rowing clubs getting up at four in the morning to go for a row, 231 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:22.350 I can just turn off anything to do with the rowing club and that's 232 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:26.389 I okay. I just want push notifications about basketball, track and field, 233 00:16:26.710 --> 00:16:30.710 what's happening with psychology, and I'm also interested in what's happening with the social 234 00:16:30.750 --> 00:16:34.220 mixes. So there the four things I'm going to get pushed entifications on and 235 00:16:34.379 --> 00:16:37.379 emergencies, I'll still get emergencies. We don't want to be able to turn 236 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:41.980 emergency notifications off, but yeah, I can cureate my own experience so I 237 00:16:41.139 --> 00:16:47.019 don't have death by candy crush notifications and want to delete the APP from my 238 00:16:47.169 --> 00:16:49.610 phone. Right, right point right. I know that there's a lot of 239 00:16:49.649 --> 00:16:52.970 APPs out on the market and I know that and I tchoys going to ask 240 00:16:52.970 --> 00:16:56.570 another question here in a second, but I just wanted to kind of let 241 00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:00.809 everybody know that I was amazed at some of the ways that the way digit 242 00:17:00.850 --> 00:17:04.559 storm is is very sensitive, I would say too smaller schools. I know 243 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:08.079 that. If I'm not correct, please correct me, but I believe in 244 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:11.240 Australia you guys kind of started with the with the private schools, kind of 245 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.160 the K twelves and and I know that there are a lot of them, 246 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:18.390 are called colleges in Australia, but for us here in the United States and 247 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:22.109 North America we would see them more as private schools and a lot of times 248 00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:26.349 private schools are smaller. Then you'd have public schools. I really appreciate that 249 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:29.549 digit storm kind of has carried that over to the way that they handle their 250 00:17:29.589 --> 00:17:33.380 higher ed market with their APP, because there's very competitive pricing. We're not 251 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:36.819 going to get into it today on the on the show, but that's something 252 00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:40.420 that if you are a small school, I know I've got several clients that 253 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:44.970 I've kind of introduced Jamie to that our schools that are under three hundred students, 254 00:17:45.609 --> 00:17:49.009 and they've they've really been a maze that they could actually reach the shelf 255 00:17:49.170 --> 00:17:53.970 to do an APP through digit storm and I really appreciate that because sometimes one 256 00:17:55.009 --> 00:17:59.319 of the most popular blogs on my on my website is marketing on a small 257 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.720 shoe string budget, and I would say that, you know, the the 258 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.519 APP that digit storm can provide can certainly, you know, fit within that. 259 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:10.440 But I would also say that, you know, if you haven't considered 260 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:14.230 an APP, whether it's digit orm or somebody else, certainly take a look 261 00:18:14.269 --> 00:18:17.789 at that because I do think it's going to play in well to to retention 262 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:21.910 and some of your other efforts as well. So, Jamie, for those 263 00:18:21.950 --> 00:18:26.069 who aren't that don't have an APP and they're considering it, what would be 264 00:18:26.180 --> 00:18:32.700 the one, the first or second thing that you would advise them to do? 265 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:36.779 Word to look into or what's the first step. Yeah, absolutely, 266 00:18:36.819 --> 00:18:41.650 and often when I speak to institutions that that, and I say institutions because 267 00:18:41.690 --> 00:18:45.049 as bought set at first, I Guess Niche was k twelve independent schools and 268 00:18:45.089 --> 00:18:48.089 it's Ray. We built the very first APP for a school in Australia ten 269 00:18:48.130 --> 00:18:52.170 years ago, which is why it's a ten year universary of building apps and 270 00:18:52.490 --> 00:18:57.400 software for schools. But often when I'll speak to a college, university or 271 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:00.720 school and then not a hundred percent short than it did an APP, it's 272 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:06.000 because they say hey, I just read my website and it's mobile responsive, 273 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.240 and I'm like, you know what, right, I am sorry, happy 274 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:12.430 that you a website is mobile responsive and I know, but you build some 275 00:19:12.710 --> 00:19:17.750 free, pretty nice mobile responsive website, which is awesome because if you don't 276 00:19:17.750 --> 00:19:22.470 have a mobile responsive website in this day and age, you're you're really not 277 00:19:22.750 --> 00:19:26.660 treating more than sixty percent of your traffic the right way. So like, 278 00:19:26.819 --> 00:19:29.339 Hey, look at works on Mobile. Why do why do I need an 279 00:19:29.339 --> 00:19:32.380 APP? And you know why? I totally get that. It's great because 280 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:37.140 having a mobile responsive website means that when we link to things on your website 281 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:38.369 from the APP, they're going to look great in the APP, which is 282 00:19:38.569 --> 00:19:41.289 which is awesome. So that's why I love when people have a great website. 283 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:47.569 But the key thing is is being able to reach out to people and 284 00:19:47.730 --> 00:19:52.170 engage them in a time sensitive manner. That's probably the number one thing that's 285 00:19:52.210 --> 00:19:56.799 different from having a real time calendar on your website and having facebook and instagram 286 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:02.039 posts and having posts on your blog. It relies on the user to go 287 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:06.359 and check those things out, whereas if you've got an APP and it doesn't 288 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:10.789 come from digistorm, it comes from your college with your branding. It will 289 00:20:10.910 --> 00:20:15.750 pop up on the users lock screen saying basketball training this evening has been moved 290 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:21.190 to seven PM and it will show up on my phone actively, rather than 291 00:20:21.230 --> 00:20:23.900 me having to go to the website, navigate to the athletics page. Is 292 00:20:23.980 --> 00:20:29.220 Basketball still on, or check the dreaded email, which maybe I check once 293 00:20:29.299 --> 00:20:32.220 every couple of days, if you know my personal email, if I'm being 294 00:20:32.259 --> 00:20:37.250 totally honest. So yeah, it's that active engagement with time sensitive information that 295 00:20:37.650 --> 00:20:41.410 tends to be the Aha moment for most people that are of course. Yeah, 296 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.049 and the fact that there's no cost to send out a push so for 297 00:20:45.170 --> 00:20:48.970 orready doing SMS. Great, great, you doing SMS. That's an active 298 00:20:48.970 --> 00:20:53.319 way to reach your audience, but you'll be paying a per sms or her 299 00:20:53.559 --> 00:20:59.400 bulk by of SMS cost, push notifications costume nothing other than the cost of 300 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:03.200 the APP, which is part mentioned. We're pretty reasonable. There would clients 301 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:04.470 and normally taken aback in a good way. That I oh, is that 302 00:21:04.589 --> 00:21:08.750 it? I'm like, I'm clean everything. So yes, so, yeah, 303 00:21:08.789 --> 00:21:14.869 no cost to send out those active engagements with your perspective current alarm. 304 00:21:14.910 --> 00:21:18.660 Even faculty. We've got I'm not sure if I'm meant to mention instruction. 305 00:21:18.700 --> 00:21:21.339 If you download the man of university APP, there's some public stuff and then 306 00:21:21.339 --> 00:21:23.660 they've got a faculty section where they have some videos on training some of their 307 00:21:23.700 --> 00:21:27.220 new faculty on how to use systems at Manor University, of which I thought 308 00:21:27.299 --> 00:21:30.660 was cool. I hadn't seen that before. They made some custom vimeo videos 309 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:36.009 that we integrated into the APP for their faculty. So you can also talk 310 00:21:36.130 --> 00:21:40.490 with your faculty by the APP. The great question. Thank for Jamie. 311 00:21:40.529 --> 00:21:44.730 As we wind up the episode, is there a topic of the APP or 312 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:48.519 something that you would like to leave with everyone that we didn't inquire about or 313 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.240 we haven't discussed the the power of the two of you being greater what you 314 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:55.599 do. You've kind of covered all those key points and, like I said 315 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:59.200 before, that wasn't in jest, but it's really good at articulating what the 316 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:03.670 APP is is really useful for in higher ed I think the last piece of 317 00:22:03.869 --> 00:22:07.829 like to leave people with is you do not need any coding knowledge at all. 318 00:22:08.269 --> 00:22:11.869 If html scares you, have ex mail scares you. If any of 319 00:22:11.910 --> 00:22:14.990 that does, or even if it doesn't, working with us, we look 320 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:18.700 after all of the development, all of the design and we give you a 321 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:23.019 beautiful, intuitive content management system to send out those push notifications. If you 322 00:22:23.099 --> 00:22:27.299 can send an email, you can be a guru at sending push notifications by 323 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:30.970 your own APP. And probably the last thing I'd love to leave people and 324 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:33.170 we need to make these episodes longer because it's been a little too much fun 325 00:22:33.170 --> 00:22:37.009 to be wrapping it up now, but I can second last thought there. 326 00:22:37.490 --> 00:22:40.769 But yeah, thanks for having me on. It's been a it's been a 327 00:22:40.809 --> 00:22:44.319 pleasure and I'd love to chat to anyone out there in podcast land that's, 328 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:47.039 you know, halfway interested in like, Jeez, I hadn't thought about an 329 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:49.839 APP. Would love to chat to you or encourage you to talk to Detroy 330 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:53.200 or to Bart. They can also point you in the right direction, even 331 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:56.279 if it's not did you stom but think about an APP in your ecosystem, 332 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.829 for sure. Thank you, Gami, and we appreciate that. But if 333 00:23:00.910 --> 00:23:03.589 someone would like to contact you directly, what's the best way for them to 334 00:23:03.670 --> 00:23:07.109 do so? Yeah, come and hang out in Colorado with me. I'm 335 00:23:07.109 --> 00:23:11.430 usually on the ski slopes in winter, so you can find me there or 336 00:23:11.509 --> 00:23:15.259 hiking. So come find me out hiking. If that sounds too hard, 337 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:18.299 which is fair enough, you can grab me on Linkedin. It's Linkedin and 338 00:23:18.339 --> 00:23:25.099 I'm Jamie Giblet, Jamie GIB ltt. If you don't want to find me 339 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.289 on Linkedin, you'd rather just email me. Then you put whis want to 340 00:23:27.289 --> 00:23:33.609 grab a pain and paper. It's it's the same thing. Jamie Dot giblet 341 00:23:33.049 --> 00:23:38.450 GIB ltt at. Did you STORMCOM? You can go to my website. 342 00:23:38.490 --> 00:23:42.519 Do you stim my calm or and I'm sorry, sorry that my phone ring 343 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:48.519 earlier. Two zero, six, four, three, five nine five, 344 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:52.759 and there will the different ways to contact me. Kind think of another one 345 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.559 right now, but hey, if I do all I'll be shut let button 346 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:57.269 for I know, and they can get that out to you well. Three 347 00:23:57.349 --> 00:24:00.509 is a charming thank you so much, Jamie. You're always a pleasure to 348 00:24:00.630 --> 00:24:03.829 talk to and I look forward to the next conference we get to see one 349 00:24:03.829 --> 00:24:07.670 another face to face. Likewise, try free chate you for having me own 350 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:12.180 bond. Thank you, as always, a pleasure to chat with both of 351 00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:17.299 you today. Yep, thank you aren't do you have any closing comments? 352 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:18.900 Yeah, I would just go back to kind of a lot of things we've 353 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:22.059 talked about. I mean, you know, we're talking about APPS, we're 354 00:24:22.059 --> 00:24:23.970 talking about mobile APPS. You and whether it's an apple, whether Samsung, 355 00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:27.210 android, there's all kinds of options in the things that you can look at 356 00:24:27.329 --> 00:24:32.609 and look for are ways that you can enhance not only your recruitment but just 357 00:24:32.769 --> 00:24:34.369 your you know, this can be used for development, it can be used 358 00:24:34.410 --> 00:24:38.240 for retention. There's no limit to how your school can use it because, 359 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:41.759 especially, like we talked about, being able to segment and have the audience 360 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:45.759 be able to choose their experience, a lot of applications, you know, 361 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:51.519 pardon the Pun, for this type of tool in your tool chest and I 362 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:53.349 would really encourage you to kind of look at this and and I know that 363 00:24:53.470 --> 00:24:56.430 a lot of schools might shy away from it because they think, oh, 364 00:24:56.470 --> 00:25:00.190 an APP would cost a lot of money. Well, you know, don't 365 00:25:00.230 --> 00:25:02.670 shy away from it because, I mean I like I said earlier, this 366 00:25:02.710 --> 00:25:07.859 is something that's reachable on a lower shelf for smaller schools and I know, 367 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:10.660 I think it could really make a big difference for some of the smaller schools 368 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:11.779 that we work with as well as large schools. I mean, you know, 369 00:25:11.859 --> 00:25:14.740 you might be a larger school and say, Hey, you know, 370 00:25:14.859 --> 00:25:17.700 we have an APP. We had a homegrown one, the developer left. 371 00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:21.140 It's hard to keep up to date, whatever that might be. Maybe it's 372 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:22.730 time to kind of grow up and find a firm that can help you with 373 00:25:22.809 --> 00:25:26.369 that and manage that on your behalf. And and so just because we're talking 374 00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:30.970 about smaller schools, it's not to say that, you know, digit storm 375 00:25:30.569 --> 00:25:33.970 certainly can handle larger schools as well. So it's kind of what I would 376 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:36.759 say. Just make sure you can take a look at it and again, 377 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:38.240 if you have questions, let us know, and Jamie's always available as well. 378 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.039 Thank you. Bard. The High Ed Marketer podcast is brought to you 379 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:49.710 by two companies, KBA solution. Sparts company that provides marketing strategy and branding 380 00:25:49.829 --> 00:25:56.349 advice and work to hire Ed Marketers, and thin patented, a Marketing Execution 381 00:25:56.470 --> 00:26:03.670 Company specializing in printing, mailing and digital advertising. On behalf of both Bart 382 00:26:03.750 --> 00:26:08.299 and I, thank you for joining us. You've been listening to the Higher 383 00:26:08.299 --> 00:26:12.460 Ed Marketer. To ensure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the 384 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:18.460 show in your favorite podcast player. If you're listening with apple PODCASTS, we'd 385 00:26:18.539 --> 00:26:21.849 love for you to leave a quick rating of the show. Simply tap the 386 00:26:21.849 --> 00:26:25.490 number of stars you think the podcast deserves. Until next time,