Higher Education Marketing

09/04/2026

Applying to a school is a major decision, but prospective students often compare the process with the digital experiences they receive in other areas of life. Slow responses, repeated questions, conflicting information, or unclear next steps can reduce confidence before an application is completed. 👩‍🎓

In this clip from “One System. Total Control: The Future of Enrollment Management, Scott Cross explains why institutions need current digital platforms and connected communication practices. When marketing and admissions teams share context, they can respond more consistently, reduce unnecessary friction, and provide timely guidance throughout recruitment.

Institutions reviewing their applicant experience can get in touch with HEM to continue the conversation: https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/contact

09/02/2026

Is your school visible when prospective students use AI tools to research programs, admissions, costs, and study options? Measuring AI citations, brand mentions, answer accuracy, referral traffic, and conversions can provide a clearer picture than Google rankings alone. Discover how schools can evaluate AI search visibility and connect it with meaningful enrollment outcomes.

Learn how schools can monitor AI citations, brand mentions, answer accuracy, and enrollment-related visibility across ChatGPT, Google, and other platforms.

08/31/2026

Personalization can make student recruitment more relevant, but relevance depends on how institutions collect, interpret, and use information.

First-party data, such as program interests, event registrations, communication preferences, and inquiry history, can provide useful context because students share it directly through institutional channels. 🔐

A privacy-safe approach begins with purpose. Institutions should request only the information they need, explain how it will be used, provide meaningful choices, and protect it throughout its lifecycle.

Segmentation can then support timely communication without relying on invasive tracking or assumptions that weaken trust.

💭 Consider how clearer consent and stronger data practices could improve your institution’s personalization strategy: https://higher-education-marketing.com/contact

08/28/2026

Digital marketing strategies cannot be applied identically across every education sector. K-12 and high schools often communicate with both students and families. Colleges and universities may manage longer consideration periods, multiple faculties, and complex application stages. Language and career schools can have frequent intakes and different lead-response requirements.

In this clip from “From Leads to Enrollments: How to Track Real Marketing ROI in your CRM,” Scott Cross explains how HEM adapts platforms, CRM workflows, and measurement frameworks to each institution’s operating model. The aim is to connect marketing activity with the outcomes that matter in that specific recruitment environment.

🔗 Education leaders reviewing whether their digital systems reflect institutional needs can get in touch with HEM: https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/contact

08/26/2026

A low cost per lead does not always mean a paid campaign is delivering enrollment value. Offline conversion tracking helps schools connect Google and Meta advertising with CRM outcomes such as qualified inquiries, completed applications, deposits, and enrollments. Learn how stronger conversion signals can help your school make more informed paid media decisions.

Learn how schools can connect Google and Meta ads to CRM outcomes so bidding optimizes for qualified applicants, deposits, and enrollments, not form fills.

08/24/2026

AI can help higher education teams respond faster, organize inquiries, personalize communications, and identify where prospective students may need support.

Yet efficiency alone does not create confidence during a major life decision. 🤖

The strongest recruitment approach treats AI as a support system for people, not a substitute for them.

Routine tasks can be automated, but complex questions, sensitive circumstances, and moments of uncertainty still benefit from empathy, judgment, and genuine conversation.

Clear disclosure, responsible data use, and timely staff handoffs help ensure technology strengthens the student experience.

Consider where AI could create more time for meaningful human interaction in your recruitment process: https://higher-education-marketing.com/contact

08/21/2026

Authenticity describes how content represents an experience, while user-generated content identifies who created it. A school can produce content that feels genuine, while a student can create UGC that offers an independent perspective. The concepts overlap, but they serve different roles within a content strategy. 🤳

In this clip from HEM’s webinar on UGC and authentic school marketing, Scott Cross discusses why both matter. Institution-led content can provide accuracy, structure, and context. Student and alumni contributions can add personal detail, social proof, and perspectives that official messaging cannot replicate in the same way.

Higher education teams considering how these formats fit together can get in touch with HEM: https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/contact

08/19/2026

Can your admissions team handle the next surge in inquiries and applications? Capacity planning helps schools anticipate recruiter workloads, overdue tasks, response times, and enrollment bottlenecks before intake activity peaks. Learn how enrollment systems and CRM data can help teams plan resources and maintain consistent student follow-up.

Use enrollment data for capacity planning, forecast admissions workload, identify staffing gaps, and prepare your team before the next intake.

08/18/2026

January enrollment campaigns are often judged by what happens close to the deadline, but their effectiveness depends on work completed months earlier. Schools need time to prepare useful content, align landing pages with ads, build follow-up workflows, monitor performance, and keep marketing and admissions working from the same plan.

HEM’s webinar, “Start January Enrollment Campaign Now: How to Build a Coordinated Strategy that Has Time to Work,” will outline a 120-day campaign model from August to December. It will explain how early setup supports later acquisition and nurturing, when activity should intensify, and how analytics can guide decisions before the final enrollment period.

The session is intended for teams responsible for January starts that want a more connected planning process across channels and departments.

Add the webinar to your calendar and register for the session that matches your time zone.

🔗 Register here:

Session 1. Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. GMT / 2:00 p.m. CET.: https://landing.higher-education-marketing.com/webinar-august-2026-uk/europe-start-january-enrollment-campaign-now-how-to-build-a-coordinated-strategy-that-has-time-to-work

Session 2. Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.: https://landing.higher-education-marketing.com/webinar-august-2026-na-start-january-enrollment-campaign-now-how-to-build-a-coordinated-strategy-that-has-time-to-work

08/17/2026

Search visibility no longer guarantees a website visit. Prospective students can find program details, deadlines, locations, reviews, and answers directly within search results, AI-generated summaries, maps, social platforms, and video feeds. 🖱️💭

For higher education marketers, this changes what meaningful performance looks like. Website sessions and last-click conversions still matter, but they tell only part of the story.

Search impressions, branded demand, profile activity, content engagement, assisted conversions, and CRM outcomes can provide a broader view of how visibility influences student decisions.

🔗 Consider where zero-click signals could add context to your institution’s reporting: https://higher-education-marketing.com/contact