In this episode, Dr. Sarah Holtan talks to Sarah Maio, who is the Vice President of Marketing and Communication for the Wisconsin Center District. The two Sarahs discuss how most colleges are seeing a decline in enrollment and how selective colleges with strong brands saw enrollment increases. The big questions they tackle today are: What is ROI of a strong college brand and what does it take to get there? And more importantly, what does a strong college brand look like? They discuss strategies that could save higher education and debate the merits of a strong college brand.

Sarah Maio believes that the best way to measure a brand is indirectly through employee retention and turnover, sales, and annual employee engagement surveys and shares her strategy for building a strong brand focusing on starting with the employees and ensuring that they are engaged with the company, which then leads to higher sales and less turnover.

Tune in to listen to more of Sarah Maio's advice for colleges looking to boost their overall public image and her thoughts on marketing and brand development to create ambassadors, a college's marketing budget, reevaluating campaigns, and how she advocates with surveys of key stakeholders to get feedback on where they could improve.

Episode Highlights

11:22 - So, realistically, this type of brand development and administration is measured indirectly and for us, it's measured in employee retention and turnover. It's measured in sales, and it's measured in annual employee engagement surveys, which we issue to our staff to check in with them and see how we are doing.

15:56 - I think the biggest bang for your buck is surveys, and finding enough people to be statistically relevant in your key audiences. So, talk to your staff, talk to your alumni, and talk to your current students. Let them tell you where you are, and find the moments that are really special and that are different.

21:44 - It's not hard anymore to follow people digitally, and it's not that expensive either. Are you making sure that people who are your customers now are going out and that they're feeling your brand, too? Your current students, because they are going to go out and be absolute brand ambassadors for you.

Contact

Sarah Holtan, PhD

LinkedIn

Website

Sarah Maio

LinkedIn