March… Yield season continues. And so does the quest for new applicants. Whatever your enrollment goal this month, may you have great success.
Notable Twitter Quote: “A request for information form does not need 10+ required fields and a dozen others.” Allison Turcio, AVP for enrollment and marketing, Siena College
2023 eduWeb Summit: Dates for the upcoming conference are July 18-20 in Washington, D.C. Check the 6 higher education professionals leading the program development at the 2023 Program Committee page.
Higher Education Connect 2023: Janus Boye’s first higher education conference last year in the U.K was a success. And he’s now planning the 2023 event. See the first 3 headline speakers and sign up for updates as the agenda develops at “Higher Education Connect 2023.”
Join 913 higher education professionals on the members-only Top Tasks: Higher Education Website Content group at LinkedIn. Join us at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8478858.
Follow along with 7,200+ people for my daily marketing updates on Twitter.
Forward this newsletter to a friend. Only email required here to subscribe for a personal copy.
And now, your March marketing news and notes.
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Cartoon of the Month: The “AI Pivot”
Tom Fishburne takes note of a new “breathless excitement” in the marketing world… the AI potential that’s replacing last years breathless excitement over the potential of the metaverse.
More on how to control excitement and manage expectations at “The AI Pivot.”
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Best Practices: When to Follow, When to Deviate
“Almost everyone loves best practices” writes Ann Gynn at the Content Marketing Institute as they offer a forward pathway that seems tested by others. But, she notes, there are times to question before following She offers guidelines on when to adapt in 5 “best practice” areas:
- Create content your audience wants
- Evaluate engagement metrics, not just views
- Write content to rank at the top of search engine results pages
- Use content metrics to understand your audience
- If you want leads, gate your content
Details on when to follow a best practice and when to deviate at “5 Misunderstood Best Practices in Content Marketing”
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Test-Optional Admissions: Thoughts of 440 High School Counselors
What do high school counselors think about test-optional admissions?
Jon Boeckenstedt at Oregon State asked counselors across the U.S. their opinion. He received responses from “about” 440 people for what calls “interesting but not definitive” results on 5 test-optional points:
- Students generally like test optional policies
- Having to decide whether to send tests creates stress for students
- Test-optional policies make a college seem less rigorous to parents
- Test-optional policies make a college seem less rigorous to students
- Parents understand how test-optional admissions policies work.
See how counselors agreed or disagreed with these statements at “What do counselors think about test-optional admission?”
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Website Reviews: Nielsen Notes on Strengths of 4 Sites
Nielsen Norman Group has just published a review of website design techniques at 4 different sites. None of these are higher education sites but this is useful to stay in touch with features this usability firm thinks are important.
The examples covered by Sarah Gibbons and Kelley Gordon:
- Comfortable Editing Experience
- Modular Grid
- Monochromatic Color Palette and Symmetrical Imagery
- Simple and Plain
Check the designs and comments at “The Anatomy of a Good Design: An Analysis of 4 Sites”
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Search Engine Optimization: ChatGPT for Keyword Research
How can you best use ChatGPT to improve your search results? That’s the focus of Tom Demers’ Search Engine Land article as he offers guidance to reap benefits while avoiding perils and pitfalls.
The approach: ask a series of ChatGPT questions, show the answers, and sort what is helpful and what is not. Caveats abound for the simple reason that ChatGPT has limited access to online data relative to SEO efforts and sometimes returns inaccurate results.
More on when it can be helpful and when it is not at “How to use ChatGPT for keyword research (with actual prompts)”
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Artificial Intelligence: What Marketers Need to Know
Most marketers are using artificial intelligence in their marketing programs. Not nearly as many are happy with the results.
To control expectations and use AI as effectively as possible, review the pros and cons outlined in a recent HubSpot review by Erica Santiago. This will work well both as a primer for marketing teams new to AI and as a check list for those who are already using it.
Erica’s review is divided into 6 parts:
- What is artificial intelligence?
- How does AI work?
- What are the four types of artificial intelligence?
- How Marketers Can Use AI
- The Pros and Cons of AI
- The Future of AI in Marketing
Pick the sections that will most benefit your efforts at “What is AI? What Marketers Most Need to Know”
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Artificial Intelligence: A Higher Education Webinar
Terminal Four will offer a webinar focused on AI and higher education on March 15.
“From copywriting, image creation, messaging, and lead generation to student retention and recruitment, we’ll run through how AI models can help you achieve your higher education marketing goals and drive enrollment.”
Register at “AI-Powered Higher Ed: Unlocking the Potential of AI Models for Digital Marketing”
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Video Marketing: 20 Stats to Know in 2023
If you like statistics and you like video marketing you will like much of what’s on this list from Daria Knupp at Personify. Two of my favorites:
- E-mails with videos have a 300% higher click-through rate than those without
- YouTube has surpassed Facebook as the most popular outlet for influencing consumer behavior.
Find more information for each of the 20 item when you visit “20 Video Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2023.”
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David Ogilvy: Top 200 Quotes for 2023
David Ogilvy often is cited as the godfather of modern marketing. He was a genius. Really.
Improve your marketing skills and those of your team as you browse through this listing of 200 Ogilvy quotes. My favorite just might be the 2nd one: “It is not creative unless it sells.”
Or maybe #204: “Most campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of objectives, and try to reconcile the divergent views of too many executives. By attempting to cover too many things, they achieve nothing.”
200+ more easy-to-browse quotes at “Top 200 David Ogilvy Quotes (2023 Update)”
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Most Popular in February Newsletter: Best Times to Post on Social Media
Terminal Four updated a 2019 report on the best times to connect with people using social media. Along with the update comes the caveat that there is no “silver bullet” for the best time for all audiences.
Specific times for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn are included with “best times” for social media “in general.”
Check the variations at “The best and worst times for universities to post on social media.”