Virtual Conference: Marketing in Higher Education

Keynote | Reputation Matters: Understanding How Students Perceive Your Institution in a Competitive Landscape

With options for higher education study increasing, prospective students are struggling with choice overwhelm. And an institution’s reputation plays a crucial role in student recruitment. However, understanding and measuring your reputation can seem daunting. How can you measure and quantify people’s opinions, feelings and perceptions of your brand!

The good news is, you don’t have to sit back and accept public sentiment. There are many opportunities to shape these perceptions as they are formed, and mold those that are already there.

And it all starts with research. Having a greater awareness of student perceptions, as well as understanding needs and barriers, is integral to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

We talk you through how you can take a consultative and data-driven approach to long-term reputation building through a deep evaluation of your brand. As well as insights, we will share a case study of how researching and measuring student opinions can help to inform your future communications strategies.

How to Build Experiences for Your Higher Ed Marketing Funnel

The “Higher-Ed Metrics Framework” is a step-by-step approach to aligning your school’s marketing efforts with its goals. In this session, you’ll learn how a metrics funnel works—and how to work the funnel. We’ll dive deep into one part of the funnel, and give you tools and resources to build and plan out your own.

In short, you’ll learn how to, in a clear and distinct way, escort students from prospects to enrollees to alumni. In each phase of the funnel, you’ll discover tactics to connect your work, data, and outcomes. Whatever your current challenge—e.g., growing enrollment, boosting graduation rates, increasing donations, etc.—mastering the Higher-Ed Metrics Funnel will make your daily work more meaningful and transparent.

Learning Outcomes:

• How to tie marketing outcomes to organizational success
• Identifying the right metrics for the interest phase of the funnel
• Avoiding common pitfalls with tools and data distractions
• Research methods that provide a solid foundation for decision-making

From Content Chaos to Scalable Success: How LMU Transformed their Creative Workflows

Managing content effectively is a challenge for most higher education institutions, where marketing and communications teams juggle vast amounts of digital assets across departments and schools. Loyola Marymount University (LMU) tackled these challenges head-on by implementing an AI powered Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, with the key goals of streamlining workflows, strengthening collaboration, and enhancing brand consistency. Join Greg Stewart and Ariana Keil, Marketing Manager at Canto, for this session exploring LMU’s journey to DAM success. They’ll dive into the university’s initial challenges, their strategic approach to implementation, and the key benefits they’ve realized—such as improved efficiency, creative workflow optimization, and stronger content security.

Join this session as they share:

• How Greg and his team structured a successful DAM rollout, including stakeholder buy-in and phased adoption.
• Strategies for driving ongoing user adoption and maintaining governance across teams.
• The measurable impact of DAM on collaboration, productivity, and content workflows.

Whether you’ve recently hit your content chaos breaking point, or if you’re already exploring Digital Asset Management, this session will provide helpful insights for how to take control of your digital assets and elevate your content operations. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from LMU’s experience and get expert advice on unlocking the full potential of DAM in higher education!

Elevating Campus Content: How Higher Ed Institutions Improve Experiences with Digital Asset Management

Join us for an inside look at how leading colleges and universities are leveraging Digital Asset Management (DAM) to tailor experiences across departments.

In this session, we’ll explore how:

• Higher ed institutions use DAM to centralize creative assets & streamline collaboration
• Empowering teams to deliver consistent, on-brand messaging
• Improving operational efficiency, and elevating the campus experience at every touchpoint.
  
• Whether you’re part of the marketing team or managing communications across multiple faculties, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to maximize your institution’s content.

Keynote | Revenue & Reputation: The Key to Sustainable Growth in Higher Ed Marketing

Today’s higher education marketing and communication professionals increasingly have an interconnected mandate to build and protect reputation while driving revenue. Traditional revenue streams have shifted or decreased due to market, demographic, or policy changes, while institutional and sector-wide reputations are being challenged daily. Both trends negatively impact short- and long-term revenue generation and increase expectations for marketing teams to deliver new revenue diversification and reputation management approaches. In this session, Bill Campbell and Teresa Valerio Parrot, 2025 co-chairs for the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, will discuss the pressures for marketers to deliver revenue and reputation growth and outline how they have incorporated these topics into the call for proposals for this year’s conference.

AI-Ready Marketing That Stays Human

Your perfect-fit students are scrolling past you because 93% of prospective students now use AI platforms to research educational options, yet many institutions remain invisible. Join Dave Hunt, Director of Enrollment Marketing & Communication, University of Kansas and Mike Bell, CMO, Everspring for an insightful session on balancing technical optimization with authentic brand expression to ensure your visibility. During this session, you’ll learn actionable strategies to: Create content strategies that preserve institutional voice while optimizing for AI Implement technical optimizations for enhanced visibility in AI search Apply proven strategies from real-world AI search success stories Build scalable frameworks for consistent, high-impact content Put our exclusive optimization guide to work immediately Don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn directly from a marketing leader who’s solving the same challenges you face every day—how to stand out authentically when everyone is fighting for the same digital attention.

How GVSU's Smarter Site Search Drove a 49% Engagement Boost

Grand Valley State University (GVSU) transformed its website search into a strategic marketing asset, increasing search click-through rates (CTR) by 49% and making key content more accessible to current and prospective students, faculty and staff. With nearly 40% of web visitors using search, GVSU’s marketing team recognized a major opportunity to improve engagement, support enrollment efforts, and enhance the user experience.

This session will reveal how GVSU leveraged real-time search analytics and user behavior insights to surface the most sought-after content and ensure students found the information they needed faster – all without relying on developers.
By the end of the session, you’ll know how to optimize your own university’s search function to improve content discovery, support enrollment efforts, and strengthen brand perception.

Key Takeaways:

• Data-Driven Search Optimization: Learn how GVSU used search analytics to identify visitor intent and surface the most sought-after content.
• Marketing Agility in Action: See how the marketing team quickly adapted search results, promoted key content, and made real-time updates—without waiting on developers.
• Immediate Impact on Engagement: See how simple search enhancements led to a 49% increase in CTR and improved user satisfaction.