SPEAKER_00
You're listening to The Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals in higher education. This show will tackle all sorts of questions related to student recruitment, donor relations, marketing trends, new technologies, and so much more. If you're looking for conversations centered around where the industry is going, this podcast is for you.
Let's get into the show.
SPEAKER_03
Welcome to The Higher Ed Marketer podcast. I'm Troy Singer and as always with my friend and co-host, Bart Kaler. Today we talk to Owen Knight.
He is the director of admission engagement in the office of undergrad admission at Tulane University. This conversation is very energetic. You'll get to know him as someone that is not only knowledgeable, but has a lot of energy within him.
Our topic today, successful, relevant, and timely admission marketing techniques, plus a little bit about his journey as a recent reality TV star. Bart, I think I can speak for both of us that we really enjoyed our conversation and we learned from Owen as a result of the conversation.
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah. Owen brought an A game to the conversation today. I really, really liked a lot of what he talked about.
He spent a decent amount of time talking about vertical video, whether it's in TikTok or Instagram or YouTube shorts. But he also really interjected some things that are a little bit outside of the box in the way that you might think about, you know, confloan admissions marketing and enrollment marketing really has a great deal of thought in what he says. He's got a lot of really practical advice.
It was a great conversation.
SPEAKER_03
Here's our conversation with Owen Knight of Tulane University. Owen, we're going to ask you to kick off the conversation by sharing something that you've learned recently that you would deem either interesting or just worth sharing.
SPEAKER_02
Well, today I actually learned a new word. We were in the scholarship review committee for one of our creative scholarships, our full tuition scholarship, the Dean's Honor. And a student put in a project about the concept of the word Sonder.
I don't know if either of you have heard of this word, but it's the whole concept of the realization that when you're walking down the street and you pass by someone, you come to the realization that they are equally as important and have as full of a life as you do. And, you know, we move through life thinking about all these random people we see all the passers by and just think of them as these kind of side characters or just furnishings to our own kind of main character story, but that kind of realization that everyone has as interesting of a story as we do. So I thought it was pretty profound and interesting and not the word I hear every day for sure.
SPEAKER_01
Wow, I feel like we could mic drop right now and begin.
SPEAKER_03
Thank you. That's what I was thinking. That was what I would call interestingly deep.
Thank you, Owen. There you go. We have Owen Knight from Tulane.
Please let us know what you do, what your role is at Tulane so we can kind of give the foundation for our conversation today.
SPEAKER_02
Absolutely. Well, thank you guys for having me. Again, my name is Owen Knight.
I am director of engagements here at Tulane in the Undergrad Admissions Office. So that role was kind of born out of my interest in social media and engagement and working with a lot of our base here. So working outward facing with students, with school counselors, with parents.
So I oversee our video team, a lot of our social media communications and a lot about our visit experience as well.
SPEAKER_03
Thank you. And one of the reasons why we wanted to have you on the podcast, I guess I should say two reasons. Number one, you are an interesting human being.
And secondly, you are a wonderful content creator that does interesting things. So if you could go a little deeper in your role when it comes to content creation, but we just need to get this out there. You also have been on TV.
So if you would, to the degree that you're able to describe, please give our listeners that.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I guess I don't want to bury the lead here, but recently I was on a little old program called Survivor over on CBS. I was on the 43rd season. I won't say what place I got in case anyone wants to go back and watch, but it was a dream of a lifetime getting to go on the show.
I've been a fan for years. And if anyone's watching on video, you can see I've got a couple of survivor posters
SPEAKER_02
So I've been watching since it came out back in, you know, 2001, been applying for a few years and it all came to fruition this year. I was out there in May and the airing just wrapped up in last month, December 14th was the finale. So that was very, very exciting and juggling that with my role in the admissions office.
I got to thank Tulane for letting me go and letting me watch all the episodes and maybe take a sick day or two on Thursdays after the episode to watch it again. But yeah, as I mentioned, my title is engagement. A lot of what I do is outward facing and content creator.
That was a really generous title you gave me there, but I guess it is kind of true. We have done, I think, a very good job in the social media space with our Instagram and more recently our TikTok account in meeting students where they are. And especially during the peak of the COVID pandemic through 2020, really kind of churning out a lot of content on my own from my apartment and trying to synthesize these ideas about Tulane and about admissions in general, these college tips on a platform that the students were using.
And I got to say, it's been a heck of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01
I think everyone who listens to this, and you and I talked prior to the recording, is that we have a broad range of listeners. And we've got little tiny colleges that have 50 to 200 students. We've got large D1 schools out there.
We've got privates in between and publics in between. But I think one of the things that is pretty common for all of them is that all of them have a social media presence. Now, what we want to talk about that, that there's a whole host of different ways.
Some of them are just using it as a megaphone to just repeat their PR. Some of them are just using it as a reminder for transactional data. But you guys are really doing some really creative things there at Tulane.
And you kind of talked about it starting during the pandemic and you doing a lot of it in your apartment. But help me understand it and maybe kind of talk to the audience a little bit about how you're approaching it differently than maybe what you see some other schools that are doing it. I know that I want you to drop names, but there's a certain way that you're doing things in the way that you are students of the social media platforms that makes a difference at Tulane.
SPEAKER_02
I think that's a good way you framed it in that we are, I would never claim to be an expert on social media, right? Or never claim that I'm some sort of user.
SPEAKER_01
I'm not sure there's anybody that could claim that.
SPEAKER_02
No, no, that's exactly right. Because the way you said it, we are students of the platforms. It's constantly moving.
It's constantly shifting. And that's what makes it fun. The TikTok algorithm is such a fickle thing in trying to learn how to corral it and harness it to the best that you can is a constant challenge.
One day you might spend four hours editing a video and get three views on it. And another day you might just hit record for 15 seconds and post it willy-nilly and all of a sudden it blows up. So I've really enjoyed over really the past decade working with social media and watching it evolve and learning in different ways that you can use it.
Because I started with the admissions office when I was a sophomore at Tulane. Back in 2012 I started with the admissions office and that was the first time we were hiring social media interns. And it started with helping with the class of 2017 Facebook page.
It started with the creation of our Instagram account and watching this transition of it being a place where we just shared pretty pictures of the oak trees on campus. And now this really powerful medium to reach potentially millions of students has been really, really fun.
SPEAKER_01
Part of what I see happening is that because too many times the social media managers also have wear other hats. You wear a lot of hats but I think you've you're given a little bit more discretion to be able to focus in on social media the way that you all have. I think too many times social media is kind of seen as oh I got to post something today let me go out and post something really quick.
As opposed to really being the students of the social media platforms, being a student of knowing what's trending on TikTok, knowing what's you know what's trending right now, what songs. I mean I was listening to XM satellite radio the other day and they've got an entire station just for trending TikTok music. What they do is they basically go in and they figure out what's trending on TikTok.
You can go listen to it on Sirius XM. Brilliant move. But I think that that's part of what we've got to understand is why that's trending and how we can speak into that.
So how are you guys doing that?
SPEAKER_02
That has been something that is a constant challenge because as you mentioned I do wear a lot of hats. I'm still counseling my students from Georgia and Maryland. I'm still meeting with families when they come to campus so I really am appreciative for my team here in the admissions office as well as our student workers.
Just like how I said I was a social media intern as an undergrad. I've got a couple of undergrads that work the desk for us here in the office that are really kind of my conduits into Gen Z and their sense of humor and what's really kind of up and coming because as much as I enjoy spending time on the platform, I can't be on TikTok all the time so it is really nice having a couple spies in there for me kind of sending me sounds and trends that are going on. I really enjoy it as almost this like thought exercise or it's almost a comedy exercise.
It reminds me of, I watched this documentary series on Amazon Prime called Inside Jokes about the Just For Laughs comedy festival and the evolution of writing a stand-up set and how you kind of tinker with it as you go. And I think for me it's like the idea of writing a joke or writing a script for a TikTok is very similar to comedy in that way in that you are workshopping things and that you've got kind of this funny idea and you need to present the best way to package it. And it's been a really fun time just like having this exercise with my students of finding funny ways to relate whatever is trending to Tulane, to New Orleans, to college in general.
And I think we are fortunate in that we don't have to keep the content 100% to Tulane. A lot of what we do has been trying to be more in the corner of access and accessibility and trying to reach as many students as possible regardless of if they're applying to Tulane or not and just providing general college advice. And applying to college is such a daunting, I don't want to say universal, but a shared experience among a ton of teenagers and being able to reach all of them even if they don't apply to our school has been excellent.
SPEAKER_01
And I think that one of the things that I wanted to point out that I think you guys are doing well and the people that are succeeding on social media are doing well is that you are, you're getting that information out, but you're doing it in a, in a, what I like to call an edutainment way. You're entertaining somebody while you give them education.
SPEAKER_03
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SPEAKER_01
Welcome back. Let's rejoin the conversation right here on the higher ed marketer. That's what's critical about these social media platforms that I think a lot of schools, one, are not brave enough to do, and two, not sure how to do that.
So how do you guys deal with that? Because I'm sure that that's come up sometimes.
SPEAKER_02
Absolutely. And I might have to steal that title. Edutainer, I'll put that on my resume.
You're welcome to it. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's the key.
I really do think, for anyone listening to this podcast, thinking about content creation or getting on these apps, I think there is a very fine line you need to tightrope with the idea of trying too hard and giving off the whole, the Steve Buschemi, how do you do fellow kids type of energy? You want to make sure that, yes, you are being approachable and meeting the students where they are, but the last thing you want to come off as to Gen Z is that you're coming off as trying too hard. So finding a way to provide something that they might not know or they're teaching them something or even giving them the tiniest nugget of wisdom, but in a way that will capture their attention, make them laugh a little bit. I think it only increases the positive feelings that go along with your institution if you're able to reach them in that way.
And like you mentioned before, I am pretty fortunate that I have a lot of leash to work with and a lot of leeway and I've built trust over the past five, 10 years in the office and that they know that, yes, I might push the envelope sometimes, but usually I know how to kind of when to stop. But I think for anyone listening who is either trying to add this to their own portfolio or manages someone who is trying to get into this space, I think you need to trust them. I really do think that having that confidence and that belief in your team that you can thread the needle is really important.
So it's, I keep saying it's fun, but it really is. I enjoy it so much and it's really fun for me too. It really doesn't feel like work when I'm tick talking for the office.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that's good. And I do want, I know we've talked a lot about tick talking before we get to the next question. I did want to get to clarify a couple of things.
Are you guys looking at any other social media platforms? Because I know that there's a lot of odd things going on at Twitter right now. We don't know where things are going with that. Tick talk, there's talk about a lot of states are starting to outlaw it from state devices.
So a lot of the state schools that are listening might be saying, okay, this is great. I would love to be able to do what everyone's doing, but you know what? I was just informed that I can't do tick talk anymore or we can't start that program up. What other platforms are you paying attention to or you guys utilizing as well?
SPEAKER_02
We aren't utilizing it as much as I wish we were, but Instagram Reels, I think, is a nice kind of middle ground where I'm noticing more and more. Those are getting pushed to my home screen. Those are getting pushed to my friends, my fiance.
She's just looking at Reels and Reels and Reels. And actually it's kind of a nice time to be thinking more about Reels because a lot of the trends you're seeing on Reels happened on tick talk a couple of weeks ago. So you can kind of chase that trend and catch it on tick top.
Maybe if you're a little late to the party on tick talk, you can then bring it to Reels and be on time there. And Instagram really is, to me in my head, kind of like the king of social media and really the top performer, the place where most people are spending their time. And I think Reels are going to continue to grow, especially with the uncertainty of some of these platforms.
We've kicked the tires on a couple of things over the year. I don't know if you remember Periscope. We looked at maybe starting a clubhouse at one point or another and it's been hit or miss.
But I think part of the beauty of this kind of line of work and this element of higher ed is the experimentation of it. And, you know, every once in a while you waste a little time and you get on a platform that doesn't take off much. You don't find an audience, but you can find a lot of diamonds in the rough or find them.
That's a big thing and be one of the first people there, too.
SPEAKER_03
To help achieve success within admissions specifically and the outreach that you do, you've spoken about the platforms, but we'd love to hear your philosophies on what you lean into, especially around quantity. That's something that I'm hearing, especially with these shorts that you need to post a lot. If you could expand on your philosophies at Tulane.
SPEAKER_02
I think I might differ from some other content creators because, you know, I'm not trying to become an influencer. I don't necessarily ever envision us having hundreds and hundreds of thousands of followers. So I air more on the side of I'd rather do it right and just post it when it's good and not go chasing something just for the sake of posting something.
However, I was listening to another episode of Yalls with Rob Clark that you did and he was talking about how he's doing two to four posts a day. For his institution and that that takes some serious legwork. So if you have the power to do that and the time to do that, more power to you.
But I think if you are like me and you have other things going on and you have other job responsibilities and social media is not 100% of your job description. I kind of lean more towards the side of trusting my students and taking our shots when they're going to count. But I know not everyone's going to agree with me and that's that's the beauty of it.
SPEAKER_01
Well, based on that, let me ask you a quick question because I don't think we ever covered this. I mean, a lot of people also I hear say, well, I would love to do what Owen's doing. But, you know, if my board gets word of that or if that major donor saw that dance that somebody did, I'm not sure that that would go over well.
How does that work out for you guys?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, well, fortunately, I don't ever dance. Because I would lose a lot of money if I did do that. But I mean, I acknowledge and I will say I am an interesting person to talk to about this because I am so fortunate that I work at Tulane and I work at my alma mater.
I work at a school that is not afraid to not take itself 100% seriously all of the time. Right. Like we know we're a great school. We know we provide a world class education, but we also know we're fun.
Like it's we live in New Orleans. Like it's there's this natural lightness to the Tulane experience and kind of this lack of cut through nature amongst our students and this this kind of air of authenticity that I think was very refreshing for me when I was looking at the school. But it also kind of translates into our office culture a bit.
So I am very, very privileged in my role that I am able to push the envelope a little more. But to folks who maybe are struggling with some red tape in their roles, I would I would like advise them to try to sit down with their manager or one of the higher ups and just have a real conversation. Show them some case studies, show them some examples of the success and remind them that you are ultimately selling an experience.
Right. Like higher education, getting your degree. Like, yes, obviously a big part of it is the piece of paper at the end and the classroom hours you'll be getting.
But so much of the college experience is spent outside of the classroom and it's the friends you make in the restaurants you eat at and the places around campus you're walking to and leaning into that in an approachable way. I think is equally if not more valuable than just touting academics all the time. So I think you need to really find a way to relate to the students in a way that is of course appropriate.
But I don't think you need to hamstring yourself from having fun and still being able to provide the messaging in the way that you want.
SPEAKER_01
One question that I have kind of in relation to that and going back a little bit what you said earlier, you know, obviously you've got multiple hats that you're wearing and we haven't gone into all of your roles and we can certainly do that and maybe have you come back on another, you know, another, another episode and just in full transparency. We were introduced through the college tour. You guys, you know, had had worked with them and Alex and everybody and great, great team over there.
But one of the questions that I have specifically going back to maybe some of the social media is how are you using. I mean, since you can't pay attention to tick tock all the time, are you using students to help you with this? Do you have do you have a group of students that you work with there in the enrollment office that help with the social media?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I have some incredible student workers that work under me here and honestly, I don't even view it that they're working under me. Like I am buddy buddy with these kids. Like they're really incredible.
And like you said, I can't be scrolling tick tock at all hours of the night. I mean, I had a very busy fall with the show. I'm traveling a lot for work.
I'm trying to plan my wedding. Right. I just can't be on there all the time. But our student workers, they're they're incredible.
So I mostly work with our admission interns. These are we have about 20 of them that work in our office. They answer the phones at the desk.
They answer the general emails. They help read our visitors when they come to campus. And that's a role I had when I was an undergrad and we're constantly picking their brains in terms of our marketing emails.
We're talking to them about, you know, surveys that are going out swag items we can mail to students. And that just kind of naturally flowed into social media trends, messaging and just trying to the spaces we're trying to use there. So I trust our students a lot.
And I know that they are kind of my my inside look into kind of the Gen Z way of thinking. And I love Gen Z a lot. I think they're very sharp.
I think they're very self aware. I love their sense of humor. I think that they are doing the best that they can with this kind of uncertain time that they're living in.
You know, so many of them were robbed of their high school graduation ceremony or their freshman orientation. And I think they've taken it in stride and are trying to cope with humor. And it really speaks to my sense of humor as well.
So I have a lot of fun working with our students.
SPEAKER_01
I'm glad to hear that because I think that there's an opportunity there that it's kind of a built in focus group and it's built in, you know, expertise that everybody has. I mean, I don't care again what size school you are. You have that generation around you and you can you can leverage that to bounce ideas off of and and do those things.
And I guess without going into too much detail and giving away too many secrets, what's your process like? I mean, do you guys meet regularly just to kind of come up with ideas or is a little bit more organic than that? Or are you willing to share any of that?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, absolutely happy to share it. It definitely is a bit more organic. Honestly, I wish I had more structured meetings with them.
But the thing is so much of what we do is by the seat of our pants. And I think that's just the nature of virality and how the internet works. Like I remember one of our most successful marketing emails ever was about the Popeyes chicken sandwich.
You know, when the whole debate was coming out, whether Popeyes or Chick-fil-A had a better chicken sandwich. We just sent out a quick email that had a survey. It's like, which do you prefer? Same thing happened with the Yanny versus Laurel, that audio clip.
Did you do you all remember that? Yeah, the Yanny versus Laurel. It was this robotic voice saying Laurel, Laurel, but some people heard it as Yanny. And we were all at the desk like, listen to this.
What is happening? What is happening? And we're all just like, what if we just put a poll up? Like what if we just send an email real quick? So so much of it is organic and natural. And I know one of my flaws as a professional is kind of I am more prone to improvising. And I have a very structured calendar and things.
But sometimes I need to force myself to do that. So I think my advice to anyone listening would be to have maybe monthly check ins or bi-weekly check ins and just kind of see how things are going, maybe get some more boilerplate scheduled content out there. But also just like have that room for flexibility.
Have your door open, be open to the students popping their head in and say, hey, I saw something funny. Do you think we could do something with this? Because you never know. And and like you said, they are experts.
Like at the end of the day, no matter how much time I spend on Instagram or Tik Tok or how however many memes I'm in on, I'm still 30 years old. Like I am not right in the same algorithm as these kids. So yeah, using them to your benefit is tremendous and making them feel heard and valued.
I think has taken me a long way.
SPEAKER_03
We've talked about social media a lot. Would like to know about video. You also oversee the video.
What goes on and how things are created. Is that true?
SPEAKER_02
That is. Yes. So here in the admissions office, we've got a creative team and we are so, so fortunate to have a very talented video producer working with us. His name is Stuart Sox.
Nobody ever contact him. Leave him alone. But viewer is incredibly talented.
He's been with us for a few years now and he's done a few documentary features and he's just got this really nice ability to tell a story. Really good sound bites through the interviews he conducts. And so we as a team have really done this kind of synthetic job of meshing our email communications with our videos and finding ways to use points through the admissions calendar for different calls to action and then packaging it in different ways.
So when we know, OK, August 1st is coming up. Our application is about to open. Let's get a big nice, sexy video to put together to really get kids excited about the two lane experience and Stuart will work with us.
We'll do brainstorming meetings. We'll talk with our students and we'll put something together and then package that into emails and then make a vertical version for TikTok and then utilize that in a myriad of different ways to then reach people in the mediums that are appropriate and send it off to counselors and parents as well. We are very fortunate that we saw the value in investing in that team and bringing a lot of our copywriting, our email marketing in-house.
And along with that came our video team as well. And that's been a lot, a lot on my plate, but I'm so fortunate that not only Stuart is very talented in his craft, he's also extremely organized and can manage a lot of those projects for me.
SPEAKER_01
That's great. I think that, like as you said, I think when we talk about the language, especially for traditional undergrad, Generation Z, video has to be part of the playbook and the fact that you've got a very talented producer there that can help you guide that. But even I often tell people, I said, even, you know, don't use that as an excuse because sometimes I'll hear, well, we, we just couldn't find somebody to do videos.
So we're just not going to do video. And I always hold up my phone and I say, you know what? Your what's in your back pocket is more powerful than what they had in a broadcast studio 15 years ago. So there's really no excuses.
You can go to Amazon and buy a $15, you know, lavalier mic that plugs in, you know, go stand by a window or get, you know, get a ring light and just get it done. And so I have to believe that you guys see that already is that that is the, that is the language that students want to hear. They want to be able to watch a video and they'll watch a two minute video quicker than they will read a two page article.
I mean, that's that's the way that they're going to be.
SPEAKER_02
Video is the medium that the students are using. Video is such a versatile tool as well. And so much you can do so much in terms of changing the tone and choosing music and figuring out a way to tug on the emotions that you want to hit and package it correctly.
And it just gives you so many more options, I think. And I completely agree. Their students are much more open to it, receptive of it.
And then you can even get into the whole space with promoting your videos or pushing them out and getting them in front of more people. And if you're producing good stuff, you might end up with those random applicants that just happen to see one of your videos and and check out your website from there.
SPEAKER_01
Just out of curiosity, because I know that you guys understand it and understand content and video and social. How many pieces do you think that you get out of one piece of content out of one video?
SPEAKER_02
That's a great question. I've got to say at least like three to six, maybe like we can really repackage these things and use them for different events and different times a year or just to update them and tinker with them year over year. It's been extremely helpful and to have this library in our back pocket of content that we all own and all the raw files and everything and being able to swap things out or add things in or reshoot and then just send it out the next year.
It can end up, it seems like a big investment at the beginning, but I think in the long run, it really can save you a lot of headaches as you're trying to, you know, pivot on a dime and really meet a deadline or figure out an upcoming event. Like a couple of years ago, we had this random idea for a Mardi Gras inspired ASMR video and we've gotten so much play out of that. And that's just one little example that is very topical.
SPEAKER_01
I have to imagine, I mean, putting it on the website would be one, making it vertical for for social media. It could be two and three, you know, being able to create a GIF out of it or dropping something on an email could be four and five, being able to meme it and create something out of it for other things. I mean, there's just so many ways to go and you can even then transcribe it and turn it into a blog post.
I mean, there's a ton of ways to do it. And so I kind of use that as an example to encourage everyone to, you know, really make sure that you're, you know, leaning into video and then leaning into, you know, making things evergreen and keeping it moving forward. So that's great.
Thank you. Thank you. I want to appreciate that.
SPEAKER_03
Owen, if you could close our conversation today by offering an additional thought or idea that could be implemented right away.
SPEAKER_02
That's a lot of pressure to say. Like, I don't know if I am qualified to give one overarching piece of advice, but I think I mentioned it earlier. I think trust and communication is so critical in these roles.
And I think listening to your team and just trying it like you never know what could happen. And I think having the confidence in whoever is running your social media to let them breathe a little bit and not worry too much about the red tape and let them try to be successful in this and just utilize your students, utilize whatever tools you have in your toolbox to meet the students where they are, because ultimately, like I said, college is such an immersive experience over the course of four years. And it's so much more than just the name brand or the degree or whatever.
Like you really want to capture the essence of your institution and synthesize it in a way that is very digestible to people. And I think social media is such a great cheat code that we have for that. So finding a way to, you know, get out there and put yourself out there and just see what happens.
You never know when that one video could blow up for you.
SPEAKER_03
Owen, thank you for putting Mike Drop bookends on our conversation today.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, that's right. It's very generous. Thank you, Troy.
SPEAKER_03
How would someone best contact you if they would like to follow up with you?
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, my email is just O Knight, OK, and I, G.H.T. at two lane dot E.D.U. We are on social media. Obviously, we are only at two lane on both TikTok and Instagram.
All right, only a two lane admission. You can just Google us and find us. And I got to give a quick plug since I did talk about him so much.
Stuart Socks, our videographer, he has a couple documentaries. One's called To Decadence With Love. Thanks for everything.
And then he's working on another one right now about the Always Lounge here in New Orleans. So I want to shout out Stuart as well.
SPEAKER_03
That's great. That's wonderful. Thank you for a wonderful conversation, Owen.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, thanks guys for having me. I really enjoyed it. It was fun.
SPEAKER_03
Bart, what are your thoughts before we end the podcast?
SPEAKER_01
I think Owen brought brought an A game to the conversation today. I really appreciated a lot of the very practical examples of what he and his team are doing at two lane with with social media, especially with some of the vertical trends that are going on with TikTok and Instagram and what you can also apply to YouTube shorts. I think that there's a lot of really good content that we talked about, especially in just the way that video can be used and the philosophy of kind of being a team, leaning into your students, leveraging them as co-creators and co-developers of this stuff and really kind of leaning into their strength of just who they are, I think is really important.
And there was one small thing that he said that I just want to kind of amplify a little bit that I really liked. I think that too many times admissions offices, we get so reliant on just the common flow that's already built into the either the search process or built into, you know, post application. I really like the fact that he and his team are really kind of getting impromptu and they're sending out these fun surveys.
They're getting students engaged in a way that's beyond just traditional transactional emails that go out or the testimonial emails that go out or the faculty emails that we all have in our comm flows, but simply just going out and saying, Hey, what do you think about this? What's the survey doing that? That's going to get you noticed and it's going to you're going to end up being an email that they're looking for rather than the one that they're waiting through with the other 250 emails they get every day from every other list buy in the country. So really like that idea. And I think that's one that I'm definitely going to keep in mind myself.
SPEAKER_03
Thank you, Bart. The higher ed marketer podcast is sponsored by Kailer Solutions, an education marketing and branding agency and by Ring Digital, providing precisely targeted, programmatic ads to customized audiences. On behalf of my friend and cohost Bart Kailer, I'm Troy Singer.
Thank you so much for listening to our podcast.
SPEAKER_00
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