American universities are not the only ones struggling with change these days. Sharply rising tuition and increasing competition from abroad have schools in the UK relying on marketing like never before.

For a higher education system that has hummed along since the 12th century, aggressive marketing was something other industries had to worry about. But that is changing, says Britain’s William Annandale, and he offers five predictions for the future of higher education marketing that may have relevance for those of us in the colonies:

Differentiate or die. “All HEIs [higher education institutions, as they're known in the UK] need to think clearly about their proposition and how they differentiate themselves. Importantly, this should be addressed from the perspective of target audiences: an outside-in rather than inside-out approach.”

You have to spend to win. “Investment in higher education marketing and communications…will grow by at least 50 percent over the next five years, as more staff are recruited and more budget is allocated to promotional activity.”

Recruit outsiders. “Many marketing staff in HEIs are home-grown…. Recruit from outside the sector to access a new and different skill base, take on learnings from other markets and try to move your marketing to a different level.”

Adopt CRM. Already used by some institutions, Customer Relationship Management needs to be adopted more broadly. And instead of first choosing a CRM technology, it’s far better to spend time creating a recruitment strategy and then finding the technology that best fits the strategy.

Measure ROI. “As investment increases, HEIs will need to focus more attention on outcomes…and where resources are best deployed. Ask yourselves: If you don’t know how to measure the effect of an activity, should you be doing it?”

Read Annandale’s “Five predictions for the future of higher education marketing.”

Read more about our authors.  Ray Ulmer, VP of Communications at TargetX since 2000, has been involved in higher education marketing for more than 25 years, including serving as executive director of communications at La Salle University and director of public relations at Drexel University. He has also worked in corporate marketing and advertising.