Education Marketer (Kyle Campbell)

It doesn’t matter where you get your data, university websites are the most trusted communication channel for students when making their study choices.

Kyle is joined by Guus Goorts, author of the new book Genuinely Helpful: A practical guide to effective university websites. They talk about why websites endure and what schools need to make sure that their is... genuinely helpful.

Ambassador marketing is no longer a secret weapon. The majority of schools are now either a) working with ambassadors or b) wishing that they could do so more. So how do you differentiate your peer-to-peer activity?

Joining Kyle is Stuart Smith, Director at IDP and Nik Higgins, Co-Founder at the Ambassador Platform

We share how the best ambassadors are helping students map out their future, and why schools should strive to be different with their ambassador marketing in 2024

This episode is delivered in partnership with The Ambassador Platform.

How do you measure the impact of content? If you're done with likes, shares and engagements - this one is for you.

Being a creator, influencer or content entrepreneur. These are the top careers young people want in 2024. So why is no university going after them?

Podcasting is a maturing medium and to stand out, you need to offer something different. The university podcast, This is Purdue, fits the bill.

Its host, Kate Young, is its full-time producer and creator, and having surpassed 1m listens on YouTube, joins us today to offer insight into how to get your podcast seen and heard.

In the age of niche digital media, entire series can be built from a university's subject area expertise. But are we missing a trick when it comes to winning attention?

Joining Kyle today is Robb Conlon, Founder of Westport Studios, a company making a name for itself in the higher education podcasting space.

Robb has produced around 2000 podcast episodes, across 30 shows with 10 of them being in higher ed.

We're all about to be taken to school.

Let's get on with the show.

Do you world-build with your content? Kyle covers a recent change in the channel “Lo-fi Girl” and what similar world-building activity looks like in higher ed.

Universities are no strangers to branding, but how many institutions are as willing to differentiate their product as much as they are to tweak their creative?

Today, Kyle is joined by Sarah Jones of University Compare and Donna Beardmore of University of Sunderland.

Sarah brings University Compare’s research on how young people perceive university brands.

Donna brings over two decades of higher ed marketing experience, as well as a bit of niche insight into how brand building impacts recruitment.

This episode is in partnership with University Compare

There isn’t a marketing director in existence who thinks peer-to-peer is a bad idea. However, students speaking with other students is now table stakes.

Today's show is taken from a joint webinar with Rebecca Roberts, founder of Thread & Fable, Kyle Campbell, founder of Education Marketer, and Madalina Marinescu of The Ambassador Platform (TAP). Based on TAP’s data, the three discuss:

• the topics students are most passionate about
• the most effective kinds of peer relationships
• the gap between marketer and student expectations

If you're interested in the pivot from social media to niche communities and the power of belonging, this one is for you.

This episode is sponsored by The Ambassador Platform.

As the initial hype around ChatGPT starts to clear, it’s making way for genuine questions around copyright, marketing operations and how education marketers should be using technology at scale.

Today, a special episode - I’m joined by Bart Carlor, Caroline Dunn, Troy Singer and Chris Rapozo to cover the gambit of ChatGPT, and why this technology should be front and centre of your marketing ops in 2023.

This episode comes courtesy of Hannon Hill.

Demands from graduate employers are shifting.

According to Indeed, attitudes and soft skills are valued SIX TIMES more than having a strong university degree.

Today, Kyle's joined by Charles Hardy, university partnership lead at Handshake, to discuss untapped opportunities for careers teams (and the advice young people need to hear about LinkedIn.)

Kyle takes a deep dive into the findings of Edified’s Experience Tracker, a benchmark for the state of student enquiry handling around the world.

Joining him are two voices instrumental in the report - Elissa Newall and Jennifer Parsons - for their take on what students expect and how institutions can deliver.

Kyle interviews Jacky Gurr, course director for (BA Hons) Content Creation at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. Half of the programme's students already have jobs and Jacky shares how she’s taken the degree to market, and why businesses are queuing up to employ her students.

A trip to a theme park prompts a different way to think about higher ed marketing.

It used to be good enough to put a student chat on your website, but the best schools (and ambassadors) are taking the medium to new places.

Today, Kyle is joined by Ciara McNally from The Ambassador Platform and two student ambassadors Victoria Lay and Ilya Smut for their take on the new peer-to-peer playbook.

This episode is sponsored by the Ambassador Platform.

We’re used to using ambassadors for recruitment, but what about retention? Is there a role for ambassadors in helping current students build that all-important sense of belonging?

Joining me for today’s show is Ula Polsky, Director of Global Student Engagement at Northeastern University.

Ciara McNally, Head of Customer Success at the Ambassador Platform

And Northeastern student, Tishya Bathija for a new take on how ambassadors can create belonging on campus.

This episode is sponsored by The Ambassador Platform.

Kyle speaks with Shiro Hatori (Director of Demand Gen at Concept3D) on how to create a private route to market with content marketing programmes.

Shiro Hatori

Full Sail University Twitch 

MIT Technology Review

Kyle speaks with Jay Rathell, Chief Media Buyer at Yamaro83 on how universities can use Facebook and LinkedIn ads to reach their enrollment goals.

Students are more talkative this Clearing. According to new data from Uni Compare, interactions across its platforms (including its Clearing app) are up 203%.

On today’s Education Marketer Live, I’m joined by Uni Compare’s founder and CEO, Owen O'Neill, to dive into the detail.

• Which subject areas are hot
• Why students are asking more questions
• Which universities are capitalising on trends

Uni Compare is home to one of the largest Clearing audiences on the planet.

I’m ready to learn a thing or two.

Let’s get on with the show.

Kyle speaks with Zack Busekrus on the changing nature of media and why vitality may soon be a thing of the past.

Today's episode comes courtesy of the Enrolify Podcast.

Kyle, Founder of Education Marketer, is in conversation with Gil Rogers, host of the FYI podcast and fractional CMO for EdTech start-ups.

Discover what actionable things you can be doing to better connect with a student audience, and what drives both marketers nuts about working in higher ed.

For higher ed, personalisation is a battleground of expectations. Organisations like Amazon and TikTok are placed on a pedestal, but the reality for universities is that it's not an equal playing field.

Today I’m joined by Toby Margetts, digital experience expert, and Julie Brettle, Chief Product Officer at Squiz.

We cover how generative AI is transforming personalised content, and frameworks for marketing personalisation in 2023.

With the threat of bans hanging over TikTok, would higher ed suffer if the app were to suddenly disappear?

Keystone Education Group

New Consider Report

Rival IQ

Working with youth audiences, it's tough to stay ahead of trends and know where your institution fits.

Today, courtesy of Hear It podcast, Kyle is in conversation with Rebecca Roberts, Founder of Thread and Fable.

Learn how institutions can remain relevant with student audiences, and what some are missing when communicating with young people.

Let's get on with the show.

The rise of creators is the biggest disruptor to higher ed marketing since social media. It’s impacting the career aspirations of students and changing how Gen Z interact with brands.

Appearing on the CRMProv Podcast, Kyle Campbell shares unobvious trends in the creator and content marketing industry, frameworks for thinking about your own creator marketing and why we need a completely new model for attribution.

You’ve heard of content marketing and content strategy, but what about content design?

As the quietest sibling of the content trinity, it may not have the mass following of content marketing but it is still critical for how students perceive your university.

Joining me to discuss its relevance in 2023 is Mei Ching Koon and Nick Condon, both from the company Squiz.

Mei is a CMO with an enviable background in CX and Digital Product Development

And Nick has done his time on the front lines of digital government service design, publishing and higher ed.

Kyle is joined by Samantha Fanning, Head of Digital Experience at UCL and Will Nobel, Director at Squiz to discuss AI, declining social media engagement and why websites are still the most trusted resource for students making study choices.

There’s plenty of material on the power of ambassador marketing, but relatively little on how to build a legendary team.

Today, Kyle's joined by Niall Horan, Global Student Admissions Executive at University of Galway, and Matt Pilling, Customer Success Manager at the Ambassador platform to cover:

• How to find the right ambassador talent
• Ways to structure peer-to-peer marketing operations
• How to manage students who are the face of your brand

This episode is sponsored by the Ambassador Platform.

It’s a common misconception that students don’t read their emails, leading marketers to believe that the effort outweighs the benefit.

But – they read them. They digest them. They make life-changing decisions based on them.

Kyle joins UCAS's director of marketing Dave Penney and its campaign manager Jack Taylor to determine, once and for all, if student email is dead.

View the report

Kyle is joined by Paul Napleton, Head of Digital & Marketing Automation at UEA (and fellow Nintendo fan) to discuss what universities can learn from Super Mario.

Your 5-minute Clearing update, including an overview of Results Day, popular subjects by search and growing popularity, and examples of universities doing good marketing.

YouTube is introducing an ad-free video player for educators, plus a “distraction-free” way for students to watch.

For universities creating educational content, the new player will remove:

• ads
• external links
• recommendations

Put another way:

Educational content is about to get an unfair engagement boost.

I speak with Nathan Monk, Founder of the education agency SMILE on how higher ed can approach YouTube and create a new recruitment pipeline.

Some of the most-cited reasons content strategies fail are either a) lack of consistency in delivery or, b) stakeholders not being on the same page… but we often forget both of those are a result of problems with governance (the frameworks, structures, and processes to manage content.)

Today, Kyle's joined by Ed Braddock (Chief Customer Officer at Squiz) and Greg Sherwood (Chief Technology Officer at Squiz) to share how you can get governance on the table and design processes to promote, rather than inhibit speed.

Which universities are winning when it comes to community marketing?

Joining Kyle today on the podcast is Amy Parker-Johnson and Joe Woodcock from The Student Room.

Both bring their knowledge of how universities can genuinely connect with students, and what taking a community-first approach can do for your recruitment.

Where higher ed could be missing a trick with "try before you apply" courses.

Further reading and show notes

Offical university LinkedIn accounts are the only ones seeing growth. Read

High-achieving young people (apprentice example) on LinkedIn. Look

What do students need from a virtual tour, and how can you make your experience memorable?

Today I’m joined by Shiro Hatori, Director of Demand Gen at Concept 3D. When it comes to virtual tours, Shiro in an expert in students' expectations and how can design experiences that leave a lasting impact.

Spoilers, a lot has changed since 2020.

Kyle joins Ruth Dale and Rebecca Roberts on the Behavioral Change Marketing Podcast to discuss how schools can strive to be different in 2024.

Higher ed, your followers are about to be worth a whole lot less. Now the social media OGs are pivoting to discovery, your audience will be hearing a lot more from people they DON’T follow, rather than the brands they do. Are you ready for the new state of higher ed social?

Today, I'm joined by Jaymie-Leigh Baker, social media professional and recently turned academic to chart a course. Jaymie-Leigh has worked for Anglia Ruskin University and University of Essex, and shares how social media plays a key role in mental health support, plus why going viral isn't necessarily the best metric.

Kyle shares two tips for speakers and exhibitors hoping to attract an audience at higher ed conferences

Where do the most viewed links on Facebook lead?

TikTok.

Let that sink in.

In its recent “Widely viewed content report” (catchy) Facebook reveals TikTok accounted for 35.9 million views in users’ feeds. Despite significant downturns for Meta, Snap and YouTube - TikTok has had an incredible year:

*It’s set to become the no.1 destination for new internet culture
*Was (at one point) the most viewed website on the internet
*Achieved 3x the engagement of Instagram
*Took a bite out of Google’s search traffic
*Got us all talking about discovery
*Made every social OG copy it

Today, to discuss the future of the app, I'm joined by University of Chichester's social media lead, Mikki Collins. 

Kyle shares how generative AI in search engines could start to eat higher ed's lunch.

A year ago, Kyle woke up to the power of LinkedIn for reaching a higher ed audience. He's not the only one.

Andrew Plant (Senior Business Director at QS) and Kyle share their experiences of getting started on LinkedIn:

*How to scale your ideas
*Ways to grow your following
*Pitfalls to avoid as new creators
*Why you should go all in for 2023

This week on the Education Marketer Podcast, Kyle speaks with Adgen's Drew Crawford on why silos are the fastest route to killing your budget, campaigns and course portfolio.

Is your virtual campus tour reaching its full potential? Today, Kyle is joined by Victoria Littler, chief commercial officer at Revolution Viewing, to learn how students actually use virtual experiences.

Not all is as it seems.

Kyle is joined by UCAS's senior insight lead Jo Richards and principal insight consultant and Megan Edwards for a dive into the unlikely ways students are thinking about their subject choices.

Download the Project Next Generation Report

The pivot to community is real. In recent months, all major social platforms have dropped community-based features, but what strategies can you use at your institution to leverage them?

Today, courtesy of the Marketing Tales podcast, Kyle speaks with Chris Rapozo about community marketing and why universities need to be involved.

Kyle interviews ZeeMee's head of marketing Harrison "Soup" Campbell, and its CEO Vanessa Didyk about what makes for great community marketing in 2023.

It’s shaping up to be a tough Clearing More students are going into confirmation and Clearing holding an offer, up from 89% to 92% this year.

Also, higher tariff institutions have made 4% more offers than they did by this time last year. Come A-level results day, there could be a lot less to play for.

However, knowing what students want, current subject demand and how to rise above the noise won’t hurt your chances.

It’s time for a Clearing special.

Joining Kyle for today's show is the founder and CEO of Uni Compare, Owen O’neil.

Owen brings insights from over 40,000 Clearing students navigating their choices:

• Regions where students are most likely to change their minds during clearing
• What matters to students when choosing a course in Clearing
• Content gaps and where institutions should focus
• Week-by-week demand across 91 subject areas
• Students’ comms and channel preferences

The student is now the marketer. It's a powerful idea, but often oversimplified. Today I share the one thing most universities are missing when it comes to student-to-student marketing. And how you can take advantage.

Sources mentioned

Unibudy report

Kyle interviews Jaime Bradford, head of recruitment operations at DMU and Helena Torree, marketing manager at NCUK, on what to watch out for in 2024. Topics covered include AI (duh), new ways to think about peer-to-peer and proven methods to make an impact at the middle of the marketing funnel.

One of the quietest threats to higher ed? Millennial parents. Here’s a generation that got degrees on mass, only to leave university and fight for free internships. That sucks. It’s the sort of story you TELL YOUR CHILDREN.

The oldest of Gen A are now 12 years old. In 6 years they will be rocking up to study. In 4 years, most of them will be attending open days.

How do you plan to educate their parents on what university is today?

Speaker: Kyle Campbell, Founder of Education Marketer

Kyle is joined by Phillip Smith, Founder of Education Marketing Agency (no relation 😉) to talk about adding urgency to comms, the future of education and what we can learn from new providers entering the market.

Guest: Phillip Smith

References: Digital Marketing Institute, Main Street Vegan and Mr Beast at East Carolina University

Kyle hosts a conversation on adding AI to higher ed marketing ops, featuring Nik Higgins (co-founder of the Ambassador Platform) and Priyank Mistri (Digital Marketer at Fanshawe College.)

Kyle joins Bart Caylor and Troy Singer of the Higher Ed Marketer to discuss how to build a recruitment pipeline from digital channels.

MIT Technology Review

Full Sail University

Anglo-American University

The first rule of podcasting is that it takes 12 to 18 months to build anything that could be regarded as an audience - unless the podcast is Tales from the Departure Lounge.

Today, Kyle is joined by the show's hosts, the two higher ed legends, Andrew Plant and Nicholas Cuthbert, sharing their story of how they went from zero to 10,000 downloads in just 10 months.

Listen to Tales from the Departure Lounge, a show about travel for international student recruiters.

Six months on from the launch of ChatGPT, university marketing teams are now using generative AI in their workflows.

On today’s episode, Director of Demand at Concept 3D, Shiro Hatori, and I discuss a new kind of content ops.

This episode comes courtesy of the Higher Ed Demand Gen Podcast.

Kyle speaks with Volodymyr Manoilo, founder of Studentspeak, an organisation helping students discover their ideal degree based on what inspires and makes them happy.

With the sun setting on cookies, how can first-party data be used with media for additional touch points, scale and reach?

Brian Jones

Troy Singer

Ring Digital

Jonathan Sabarre, Marketing Director of Newcastle University, and Kyle discuss the latest digital media and content trends impacting higher ed marketers.

A year or so ago you couldn’t move for the phrase “hybrid events," but since then the landscape has changed dramatically with most universities returning to in-person activities…

But is this what students want?

Joining me today is Jon Cheek, The Founder of Uni Taster Days. Based on the tens of thousands of events published on unitasterdays.com, Jon shares what we need to be doing to win students’ attention.

Do students want "authentic content" from their university? The data might surprise you.

Further reading from today's episode

The New Consumer Survey

The KeyStone Education Group

Universities love search. Your typical institution will see between 35% and 55% of its web traffic arrive via organic search.

But now with generative AI providing personalised content directly in search engine results - is the status quo under threat?

Joining me for the first in a series of special episodes about what matters to higher ed digital teams, is Squiz:

- John-Paul Syriatowicz (Co-Founder and Executive Chairman)

- Julie Brettle (Chief Product Officer)

Let’s get on with the show.

Despite the world's pivot to digital, location is still a top deciding factor for students when making study choices.

Today, I'm joined by Laura Allen, Social Media Manager at Staffordshire University, to share new ways to think about destination marketing and practical steps for raising the profile of your university's location to affect recruitment and reputation.

52% of Gen Z trust generative AI enough to help them make informed decisions (Salesforce.)

Kyle shares what this means for traffic to your university website.

Most students don’t attend open days, and even those who do, expect (and use!) some kind of virtual experience to enhance the occasion.

Joining Kyle to discuss the data is Jonny Harper, Chief Technology Officer at Revolution Viewing. Jonny brings over a decade’s know-how in building digital experiences that convert, including:

*When personalisation is most effective

*How to scale your content efforts

*Best practice for UX design

This episode is in partnership with Revolution Viewing.

Kyle interviews Jo Marshall, 20-year copywriter in the higher ed niche. Jo shares the top higher ed copy cliches and why schools should think about getting their academics on LinkedIn.

I speak with Alison Turico on The Application Podcast about how universities can use LinkedIn to grow their audience and recruit more students.

Kyle speaks with Brian Piper Director of Content Strategy at University of Rochester and also the co-author of the book Epic Content Marketing. If you're a university marketer with e a content remit - this one is for you.

Brian Piper

Epic Content Marketing

This episode, the guests set the agenda. Kyle joins Allison Turcio, Gil Rogers and Teege Mettille on 1:1 student marketing, antiviral content and the crunch of US higher ed.

The episode is courtesy of the FYI Podcast.

How distinct is your messaging?

It’s not uncommon to see academic expertise, industry links or international reputation cited as USPs. But they’re not that unique, are they?

USPs should be remarkable and memorable. But how do we make that happen?

According to psLondon, representing student values in your marketing could be the answer.

Its new report covers 133 universities and reveals 19 overarching values shared among students. And their values differ wildly, depending on the institution they attend…

Today, I’m joined by psLondon’s brand strategists, Kendra Rogers and Alex Causton to learn how we can upgrade higher ed brand marketing and create messaging that strikes a chord with your audience.

—

Further reading

Distinctive postgrad messaging, driven by student values

Why desperation in student recruitment marketing isn’t working

Copyright laws, data protection... Here's what you should be thinking about when using AI for content creation in higher ed.

Kyle interviews Kris Achten, marketing lead for KdG University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Over four years, Kris has built KdG’s marketing function from just 2 people to a high-performing team of content, email marketing and international recruitment experts. Hear how he used email marketing to double applications and why the School has only recently invested in social media.

Kyle looks at the state of alumni newsletters: Where we are, what needs to be done and how to create a newsletter that alumni look forward to receiving.

In today's episode, Kyle is interviewed by the Keystone Education Group on the Higher Ed Chats Podcast.

If you're looking for a good snapshot of the state of content and community marketing in higher ed, or just some fresh ideas and new perspectives - this one is for you.

According to Niche’s Spring Junior Survey, three years ago 81% of prospective students said that weekly emails were acceptable - but today, it’s just 39% (!!!)

It’s not much better for social media.

The tolerance for high-frequency content has halved within the last year.

Even higher ed darlings like Instagram have seen a 26% decline in the number of students viewing official university accounts.

Something needs to change.

Joining Kyle for this month’s Education Marketer Live is Marcella Collins.

Marcella has previously grown her own education marketing business, now heads up strategy at Hybrid and isn’t afraid to call out “inauthentic” content when she sees it.

Kyle's also joined by Julia Hurtado, the face of Uni Compare's content marketing and who has the playbook for connecting content with ROI.

Let's hope Kyle can keep up.