Sitting on the AMA panel “Charting the Course: Marketing Momentum in Higher Education,” I was reminded that our work is about far more than impressions and clicks or even business results. In higher education, marketing is not about selling products. It’s guiding people through the journey that leads to one of the most consequential decisions of their lives. That realization came with a huge sense of responsibility, but also immense excitement. Because when we get it right, we not only fill classrooms and see great results in our KPIs, the effect of one student choosing the right path lasts a lifetime.  

This was evident as I thought through my answers to questions I was asked, as well as through some of what I heard from the other panelists. 

• Our journey and passions stemmed from a similar desire to educate and/or impact others.
• Some panelists had a deeper passion to stand true to the beliefs or core values of a university and help students and alumni experience those values in every piece of marketing that they receive.
• I was even reminded that it’s not always a volume game. Some universities need a smaller volume of students, so numbers may feel small, but the impact is still the same. 

Some of the unique challenges of higher education were some of my biggest takeaways. My initial thoughts going into the discussed included:

• The demographic cliff, or the projected steep and prolonged decline in the traditional college-aged population, has caused student enrollment numbers to shrink. With fewer babies born, there’s fewer high school graduates, the traditional prospective audience. Universities have had to find ways to expand the target audience with new formats (online, part time, certification, etc.) and expand the regions they pull from.  
• There’s choice exclusivity compared to other industries. The target audience can look at a ton of different options (universities and programs), but in the end can only choose one, including not going to college at all. The space is incredibly competitive.   And this competition exists within the same university across programs. Marketers have to be wise with their target audience decisions as well as create a unified strategy across programs to ensure limited cannibalization of their own spend. 
• The prospective student is making that key life decision, so the influencing factors are far greater than in any other industry. We have parents, teachers, counselors, industry thought leaders and more trying to guide the prospective student’s decision. Marketing strategy must include these important audiences so we make sure we’re in their conversation. 
• We can’t forget that Gen Z has new expectations. As we know from our Gen Z research, they are skeptical about higher education and are more ROI driven. We must ensure that we describe the value in higher education because they are more open to alternate paths. But they also want authentic and relevant information, so marketing cannot misrepresent the university and must provide glimpses into what the university would be like in real life.

But other panelists and audience members brought even more challenges in higher education to the table: 

• One member pointed out the difficulty in keeping a consistent depiction of who the university pools because the student population turns over every four years for undergraduate and every two years for graduate education. So in theory, you could have a completely new set of students every four years.  
• Current political shifts in education support have caused shifts in how we need to approach our work. This is true not only for general areas like budget cuts or balancing our messaging to balances taking a stand while remaining politically neutral, but even more so for research based universities where there’s even more volatility. Marketing in this environment requires highlighting impact while acknowledging the challenges of a constantly changing landscape.
• But the most interesting thing I’ve been contemplating came from an audience member who asked “How do we market the value of education with the scares happening right now around AI taking our jobs?” This question intersects with my work in higher ed and my work in technology and innovation. I love AI, and I believe that we will all still have jobs with it in the mix. However, I also know that our work will certainly change in the AI era. We will focus less on “doing” and more on “thinking.” Our roles will be about accomplishing a concept versus accomplishing a task. My perspective is that higher education will help us gain the experience necessary for the discernment of when and how to lean on AI.     

In other discussion topics, two that are near and dear to my heart were brought up: analytics and AI.  

When it comes to analytics, all panelists found this practice to be the backbone of a marketing strategy.  

• Every single person agreed that we need KPIs and regular reviews of those trends to validate we’re going down the right path. Test and Learn methodologies were common practices for nearly everyone to validate marketing effectiveness.  
• I believe and brought up that analytics is much more today than it used to be. Today, we can leverage text mining to inform the sentiment and user experience instead of relying on numbers alone. 
• Even more interesting was a conversation I had after the panel was over. A Marketing Analytics professor was explaining ways that we might even add KPIs or measurement into the standard student admissions pipeline (awareness → inquiry → application → decision → deposit → matriculation). He pushed my thinking to include retention after the first year, second year and beyond. He noted that there is a heavy correlation between a student’s engagement in the first 6 months with the retention for year 2.  It was an exciting prospect to consider the possibilities of being able to measure and ensure that our marketing is pulling in those that retain!

In the AI sphere, we’re not all in the same boat just yet.  

• I think we can all agree that AI is here, but some are more optimistic while others are more pessimistic.  
• What is certain is that we’re all using Generative AI to a degree, but a healthy debate came from thinking about how much human touch we need.  One thing is certain, humans are necessary to help craft new, unique stories.  AI can help those come to life more quickly, but we need to remind ourselves that humans connect with other humans.  So, we will anchor there.  

In closing, what did I gain from this experience?  

I realized that marketing in higher education is something I’m quite passionate about. I love that it’s so relatable, complex and impactful. It’s clear in the unique challenges of the higher education industry, but also the evolving landscape of AI that impacts all of us marketers.  

I was challenged with new thinking and it made me a smarter marketer.  

But more importantly, it challenged me to remind myself about the “why.” Why do I do this? It’s about more than butts in seats. It’s about the impact. Every campaign is a chance to influence someone’s life path, strengthen a community, or bring a university’s values to life.

So the “why” for my participation on the panel became even more of an “aha” moment. The “why” was not for others; instead it was for me. And, I would absolutely do it again.  

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