Winning Enrollment in the City of Lights: Insights from the AMA Higher Ed Symposium
If a quiet desert town can transform into a destination drawing 41 million visitors a year, Las Vegas is proof of marketing’s power.
This month, higher education marketers gathered in the Neon City for the largest conference of its kind, aimed at boosting enrollment, elevating institutional reputations, and improving the financial sustainability of colleges and universities.
The 1,800+ attendees of the American Marketing Association’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education represented 484 institutions from across the U.S. and 14 countries, making it the most popular conference to date. Sessions spanned a wide range of topics, including leveraging data-driven marketing, content strategy, digital and paid media innovations, engaging diverse audiences, AI, and more.
Paskill continues to invest in the largest higher ed marketing conference to build community within the industry and hear directly from institutions about the challenges they face and the solutions that can make a difference.
An idea exchange sponsorship Paskill led, “Winning Enrollment: Targeted Recruitment Strategies,” had full registrations on both days of the session, with representatives from community colleges, faith-based schools, private and public universities, graduate and undergraduate programs, and Ivy League institutions. The 60-minute sessions encouraged attendees to share openly about recruitment strategies, challenges, and opportunities for innovation.
“These students who want more from us… we keep them engaged by doing some things that are truly social,” said Stacy Oliver, Associate Communications Director at Ohio University, who shared insights from her group.
Her university has hired student influencers from existing leadership roles, such as tour guides and academic ambassadors, to create 100% organic content. These influencers post independently about their activities, including student organizations and events, and the content is sometimes repurposed for the university’s official platforms.
Nicola Brady, Senior Assistant Director of Student Recruitment at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, shared how they’re innovating recruitment by focusing on the student experience. “We’re actually working on developing personas based on the student experience they want to have, not just marketing for a specific program or college.”
While recruitment strategies differ based on budget, program or audience, one key takeaway was the importance of collaboration between admissions and marketing teams. Institutions that align their goals and appreciate each other’s roles tend to see better outcomes, regardless of their size or resources.
“No matter the institution, the context, or the challenges,” says Matt Magruder, Director of Admissions at Missouri State University, “the better admissions and MarCom work together—with shared goals and appreciation for each other’s roles—the better it is for the institution.”