Why higher education brand management is your best bet for fighting the image problem

Colleges and universities looking to win over prospective students have never faced a tougher environment, with strident critiques of higher ed having become commonplace in the media. Social channels, in particular, by giving anyone and everyone—including our detractors—a megaphone, amplify their messages like never before. 

In this context, higher education brand management–historically an afterthought for many institutions–takes on new and grave importance. A strong reputation in the market, painstakingly built up through your efforts, is the only force able to prevail in the face of profound and widespread skepticism regarding higher education, including doubts regarding the value of a degree from your institution. 

What is higher education brand management? 

Higher education brand management is the work of defining, protecting, and consistently communicating who your institution is to prospective students, parents, faculty, donors, and the public. Unlike a one-off campaign, it’s a commitment that compounds over time, and right now, that commitment may matter more than any single marketing tactic.  

How higher ed branding and direct marketing work together 

As essential as it has become, brand work can be difficult and expensive, and it can therefore be a challenge to reconcile with other pressing priorities. In particular, it can be tough to figure out resource allocation between direct marketing for recruitment and work on your brand. 

The good news is that the two are mutually reinforcing. Excellent direct marketing is the most effective way of getting your brand in front of prospective students and other key audiences. It builds equity in your brand, which is key. And brand work gives you the right messages to use and the creative expression that is so important to ensuring that those messages resonate. 

How to prioritize brand work in your enrollment marketing strategy 

That said, even given the virtuous circle they form, you should assign brand work and direct marketing different weight when it comes to prioritization. 

While it is true that brand work is your best bet for altering higher education brand perception and students’ attitudes toward college-going more generally, direct marketing should remain the foundation of your recruitment-marketing work. 

There are good reasons why the blocking-and-tackling aspects of student recruitment—name buys, email campaigns, mailers, digital ads, on-campus events, etc.—get so much attention from admissions teams. With a proven ability to deliver results and an ever-growing ability to personalize, direct marketing enables you to rapidly adjust to changing circumstances. The right way to look at brand work is as a means of further boosting the efficacy of a fully dialed-in direct-marketing program. 

Strengthen your higher ed brand management strategy

Higher education brand management works best when strong brand positioning and strong recruitment marketing reinforce each other. If you want a practical framework for defining, activating, and sustaining your strategy, download our insight paper, Brand Management for Enrollment Leaders.

Take your higher education brand management strategy further 

Higher education brand management is only as effective as the marketing behind it. EAB’s Enroll360 helps institutions translate brand strategy into real enrollment outcomes by combining data-driven campaigns, recruitment platforms, and expert partnership to outperform the market at every stage of the funnel. See how it works.  

Madeleine Rhyneer

Vice President of Consulting Services and Dean of Enrollment Management

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