Archive for 'Branding/Marketing/Recruiting'

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Focus.

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Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that if I try to do more than one thing at the same time, none of those efforts are done well. I’m probably not too different from most of you. So for me to be effective as a manager or a partner or a father, it’s important that I stay focused on one thing at a time. Multitasking isn’t the ability to do multiple things at the same time. It’s a rapid shifting between multiple things without dedicating quality time to any one thing. The key here is “quality.”

For the first five years of TargetX, we provided our email broadcast tool (now called eXpress) to many industries — higher education, ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, CRM

Do you have a Millennial problem?

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Even though I’m a proud card-carrying member of Generation X, I’ve grown to love and understand Millennials. But according to Advertising Age magazine, they don’t love McDonald’s, a brand to which I was extremely loyal in my youth. Ronald McDonald

As children during the 1960′s, we viewed McDonald’s as a rare treat. But as teenagers in the 70′s and 80′s, its Golden Arches drew us like moths to a flame. It was the place to gather after most high school and church youth group activities. It was for many in our generation, a home (with a red Mansard roof) away from home.

Well, times have changed. A recent article in Ad Age reveals ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Communication, Customer Service, Experience, Millennial Generation, Millennials

Making college fairs count

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Conference season is rapidly approaching for our team here at TargetX. Many of our folks will be traveling around the country meeting with current and future clients, presenting on higher ed industry trends and of course, showcasing TargetX products and services. NACAC college fair

As the conference planning coordinator, I’m very much involved in the process — from session proposals to final shipping (I know, super glamorous right?) – and I’m always looking for tips on how to improve our presence at tradeshows.

I came across a great article this week by Dan Roche in MediaPost, and that got me thinking about its value to all of you, our friends in ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Fall Travel, Spring travel

Maker’s Mark makes good

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Know your students. Apologize when you are wrong.

Last week, one of Kentucky’s finest, Maker’s Mark bourbon, made a huge mistake. In an effort to combat a possible shortage in their supply, they decided to water down their bourbon to meet the needs of their customers. What they experienced was a backlash that COO Rob Samuels referred to as the worst 4-5 days of his life.

This past Sunday, they reversed the decision and apologized to their customers, letting them know that they were heard loud and clear — no changes would be made to the recipe. maker's mark bourbonIt wasn’t a fancy apology, it was clear and to the point. ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Customer Service

If you’re not content marketing…

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If you’re not content marketing these days, you’re not marketing. That’s the battle cry of Joe Pulizzi, author, speaker and content marketing evangelist.

Six years ago he launched a marketing services website that has evolved into the Content Marketing Institute, aimed at helping organizations move away from interruption-based marketing and toward the creation of a content-centered strategy. Content that is relevant and valuable to readers, likely to generate a sense of trust, and perhaps over time, prompt them to buy from you.

“Basically,” says Pulizzi, “content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Communication, Content Marketing, Marketing, Student Recruiting

Brand shifts and yield in 2013

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Coming back from holiday break means that it’s time to kick into high gear your accepted student communications, yield events and many conversations with students and parents. It’s the time of year where the conversation shifts and families are getting serious about where they might go to school in the fall. It’s important for admissions (and the rest of campus) to start thinking about what message you want to be sending to those students in order to help them make a final decision.

My colleague Jeff Kallay passed along an article before the holidays, “A Brand Shift for 2013: From Aspiration to Inspiration” by Alan Snitow. It’s an interesting concept that I thought was worth holding onto and sharing at ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Change, College Recruiting, Communication, Communication Plans, Marketing, Storytelling, Student Recruiting, Student Yield, Yield

Hide not your talents

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“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”
-Benjamin Franklin

As we come to the end of what seems like a fast year, many of us take stock in what has been and what could be. We’ll celebrate the successes we’ve achieved, and for some, mourn the losses hoping for a better new year.

New Year’s Eve has become a special holiday to me — excited about the potential that lies ahead and what I could do to improve my life going forward.

Many people will do the same, but will focus on their weaknesses, trying to improve through starting a weight-loss program or joining a gym, cutting out the swearing, drinking less, being more ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Marketing, Professional Development, Student Recruiting

Is this message necessary?

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We live our lives in a rush. Don’t be late to work, hurry home… it’s exhausting! Five minutes to yourself can be a welcome gift.

As busy as we are in the professional world, imagine being 17 again. Going to school 7 hours a day (keeping your grades as high as possible to get into the perfect college), followed by working as many hours as possible to save up for college, to buy a car, to take a date to prom — participating in enough extracurricular activities to put on your college applications, studying all night, and still having an active social life.

So how do students process the messages that we send? Before you hit the Send button, think: Is this ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Email Recruiting, Marketing

Put the emphasis on social

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Building an arsenal of social media to reach prospective students? Got your Facebook page, Twitter handle, YouTube channel? Maybe Pinterest and Instagram accounts and Tumblr too?

It certainly makes sense, since research indicates that two-thirds of high school students use social media to research colleges and more than a third of those students use the sites to help decide where to enroll.

But a recent article in Inside Higher Ed offers this advice: “The number of social media accounts might not be nearly as important as what colleges and universities do with the technology.”

Reporter Alexandra Tilsley talks to some of the people behind the research, and they recommend that you delve into the findings and perhaps reconsider your social media strategy. While ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Facebook, Online Experiences, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

All digital all the time

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The country’s advertising elite just got a lesson on the dominance of digital.

Ad Age magazine hosted a conference in San Francisco devoted to the rise of digital marketing tools and techniques. On the opposite coast, Advertising Week filled five days of a New York conference with digital, mobile and social media marketing events.

There were several common themes that are worth remembering whether you’re recruiting students, engaging alumni or cultivating donors.

Digital is transformational. The many tools of the web don’t just represent another communication channel. They are a transformational force that requires organizations to rethink their entire marketing strategies.

Authenticity is paramount. It’s more important than ever to be honest, candid and authentic. It’s better to show ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication

Focus makes perfect

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In admissions — we present a lot. Open house, info sessions, high school visits — you name it and we’re presenting at it.

People think that the most important part of a presentation is to practice so that you can flow through the content effortlessly. With practice, you can study your notes and get your timing right and that’s important. But I’m putting a new spin on the old saying “practice makes perfect” and turning your attention to keeping the audience’s focus too.

Whether you’re an experienced pro at your institution, or a newbie in the admissions world — here are some points worth considering from Bruna Martinuzzi, author of “Presenting with Credibility,” when you start building out your next ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting

Campus Visit Talk: Jodi Bailey and Alfred University

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Welcome to the first of a series of posts related to the Campus Visit! Each month the Experience Team from TargetX will share with you a Campus Visit Tip, Trend and Talk. All of the “three T’s” are designed to give you a bit of insight into the work we do, the people we work with, and the places we pull our inspiration from.

Recognizing that so many of us learn from the stories of others, we want to give you a glimpse inside the experiences of our clients. Each month we will profile one of our campus visit clients with the hopes that you can learn from them and ...

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Categories: Blogs, Blogs/Diaries, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Experience, Storytelling, Student Recruiting, Student Yield

My baby, the marketer

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Having a new baby at home has led to a change in my reading habits. I never thought I would spend my time studying infant sleep patterns, best performing bottle warmers, or the finer differences between identical-looking car seats.

Brian Millar’s article “5 Things Toddlers Can Teach You About Marketing” seemed like a great opportunity to read outside the infant literary spectrum, but not too far.

Millar is the Strategy Director at Sense Worldwide, but during a two-year stint as a stay-at-home Dad, he found himself immersed in a culture that taught him some valuable marketing lessons. Yes, marketing lessons… from his children.

1. Emotional benefits sell better than rational ones. Ravioli was only a hit in Millar’s house after being renamed “pasta ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Marketing, Student Recruiting

Campus tours and the Gilligan’s Island dilemma

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As the “Token Millennial” in the TargetX office, I’d like to put you in a young adult’s shoes for a minute.

Imagine that you’re 22-years-old, getting ready to take a new job and moving from Vermont to Georgia. After discussing it with your family (and posting it on Facebook of course), what is the first thing you do?

You MapQuest it.

You want to see just how long it will take mom and dad to get to you if you need them. The results? 17.5 hours and 1067 miles, minimum. I guess if you need them you better plan ahead — no more weekend trips home to do laundry.

You’re ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience, Millennial Generation, Millennials

Improving customer (and student) loyalty

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In my early days as an admissions counselor, I knew that my job was to help students get into their best-fit school. However, if anyone had told me then that I was working in customer service, I probably wouldn’t have defined my role in that way. Looking back, that connection is much more clear to me now.

As lead trainer and a client services team member for TargetX, customer service and customer loyalty are a huge part of my job. That’s why I love the article “5 Ways to Take Customer Loyalty to the Next Level,” by Joanna Lord of Entrepreneur magazine. It had a lot of value for me and I see many parallels to higher ed. Here are a ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Customer Service, Student Recruiting

The golden rule of admissions travel

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It’s been 10 years since my first travel season and I’m a bit sentimental about my time on the road for my Alma Mater Elon University. In those 10 years — much of it now with TargetX — I have stayed over 1000 nights in a hotel, flown nearly 750,000 miles, and driven enough miles that I could be on Mars with Curiosity.

Over the course of my travels, I have picked up lots of advice. ”Don’t stress when things on the road go wrong… It isn’t about the amount of college fair cards, it’s about the quality… Never leave your college fair table early.” The list goes on and on…

There is one piece of advice that I received before my ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Fall Travel

Storytelling lessons from Pixar

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So what do a Pixar storyboard artist (Emma Coats), a songwriter (me), and a marketing or recruiting professional (you) have in common?

We are all trying to tell our authentic story in a way that our audience finds interesting.

Writer Cyriaque Lamar offers “The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar” — compiled by Emma Coats, a former storyboard artist for the CGI-focused movie studio who is now pursuing life as a film director.

This article has some great advice for anyone who is going to write anything… ever.

Here are my three favorite rules from the article:

#2 “You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, ...
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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Chevy looks to Disney to improve the dealership experience. What does your admissions office look like?

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I’ve often said that much of our automobile brand experience doesn’t just take place in the car but in the dealership. It’s where you buy and get your vehicle serviced that often manifests the brand experience. This is why back in the 90′s I bought Infiniti(s) — they created well designed dealerships (and were early providers of the now near industry-standard roadside assistance and loaner vehicle).

Similarly we often say that your admissions office or visitor center space is the first, often the longest and last impression of your school. The importance of the campus visit and campus visitors are both on the increase. This crucial first “impression” is why so many schools are investing in new or renovated spaces. (Continue Reading

Categories: Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff

Think outside the box

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Here at TargetX, we’re in full Xpert Summit mode (for those of you that don’t know, that’s our annual users group event) so it’s only natural that it would be mentioned in today’s RM.

We’re busy preparing to bring our clients, prospects and friends together next week to discuss trends in higher education, day to day challenges and thinking outside the box.

Many of our presenters are clients, working with our products and services. And while they come from colleges and universities across the nation, they all have one thing in common — they are bringing with them the knowledge and expertise on how to do things differently (why else would we have chosen them to present at our event;) ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Change, Marketing, Xpert Summit

WPI videos and Oxy website get it right

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Next month we’ll be in Las Vegas for our Xpert Summit and many of our clients will be presenting about technology, the campus visit and recruitment marketing.

But I want to take a moment to highlight some new recruitment marketing creative work by a few other TargetX clients; Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Occidental College (Oxy).

WPI videos
I love them because they tell a story, cut through the clutter and say something definitive. The animation is such a departure from the normal voice-over and standard shots of campus.

WPI “Rowbots”

WPI “Special Delivery”

OXY Website
Oxy launched ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Videos, Website, Websites, Xpert Summit

Is McDonald’s keeping it real? (Well at least in Canada.) And can your school?

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Earlier this month TargetX hosted our Xpert Summit at the most inauthentic or least-real place on Earth; Las Vegas.  Every form of civilization (represented by some themed hotel) has gone to the desert to die out there. (But that’s a whole-other rant.)

I’m going to talk about a McDonald’s marketing effort that I like. I need to first qualify and say that growing up as a teen in Florida, McDonald’s was the hangout for my high school and church youth group. So I’ve consumed my fair share. But like Las Vegas, I’m now not a fan.

Let’s connect Las Vegas and McDonald’s. Both might be the symbol or poster child of everything wrong with America. Both are fabricated, processed versions of originals, ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Customer Service, Social Media, Social Networking, Your Website

Time to start asking “why?”

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As admissions professionals, we often go about doing things the same year after year…after year. We continue to do search the same way, we are still producing thousands of full-color glossy view books that we know students throw away, and we are still hosting the same events the way we have done them for years — no matter the outcome.

In today’s market where there are decreasing numbers of high school students, increasing options available after high school, disappearing budgets, reduced staff levels, more demands by your prospective students, more applications and more visitors, it is time to start asking “Why?”

I know it sounds like a simple question to ask but often we get caught up in the ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change

Sometimes the answers are simple

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This year marked my 18th NAGAP conference. For my acronym-challenged friends, this is the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals. My first presentation, in 1994 in San Francisco, was entitled “What is WWW?” Oh how the times have changed.

Over my career in higher education, I’ve attempted to bridge the divide between the undergraduate and graduate recruiting efforts — bringing the lessons learned recruiting an 18-year-old to the world of recruiting adults. However, I received pushback on a regular basis from the graduate professionals with claims of “we’re different” or “we don’t have the resources they have” or “we don’t have the same issues.”

Then came those pesky Millennials to their graduate program interview and campus tour with ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Graduate Recruiting, Student Recruiting

Ch-Check it out

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Yes, that’s a Beastie Boys song title. While some may scoff at the idea of learning something from three guys who go by Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock — their 25-year career, international fan base and 2012 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is certainly no joke. And higher ed would be smart to listen up — there are serious lessons to be learned from this Brooklyn rap trio.

“The Beastie Boys Guide to Brand Storytelling” by Kimberly Bordonaro identifies seven elements that explain why their loyal following over the years didn’t happen because they got lucky. It happened through a unique blend of what the kids today would call “sick” rhymes, funky fresh beats, and for ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Marketing, Storytelling

Marketing is like sex…

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Why?  Everyone thinks they’re good at it!

All joking aside, it’s true. Everyone from your brother to your boss has got their own definition of what marketing is and what makes it great (or horrendous, or remarkable, or offensive, or inspired…)

So much so that it can make it quite difficult for someone in my shoes to be confident my team and I are hitting the mark.

If you’re feeling my pain, then don’t miss this list of “10 Companies with Insanely Great Marketing.”

Of course you’ll glean insights from legends like Apple, Nike and Geico (I confess, I can’t get enough of Maxwell, the pig who cries “weee weee weeeee” all the way home. Never gets old.)

But as much as we all have ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Marketing

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