Every November, millions of Americans slide a casserole dish into the oven: sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. It feels timeless—like something that must have come from a great-grandmother’s recipe box or some long-standing regional tradition. But it wasn’t. This beloved holiday staple exists for a simple reason: a marshmallow company needed to sell more marshmallows. […]
Category: Marketeering
From SEO to GEO: Why Higher Ed Marketing Must Evolve
For two decades, higher ed marketing has revolved around three familiar letters: SEO. We’ve built entire strategies around optimizing metadata, mapping keywords, and earning backlinks — all in pursuit of that elusive top search result. It’s worked. But the digital landscape is shifting beneath us. The next evolution isn’t about search at all. It’s about […]
Cracker Barrel and the Madness of Crowds
What a Logo Teaches Us About Leadership, Culture, and Symbols When Cracker Barrel unveiled its new logo this August, it likely expected a modest conversation about fonts and color palettes. Instead, it touched off a firestorm. Out went the familiar “Old Timer”—a man in overalls leaning on a barrel—and in came a stripped-down, text-only design. […]
Just a Community College? Not Anymore. The Marketing Shift We Need
Change is hard. Silos are real. But if we don’t bring people along with us — if we don’t share wins, ask questions, and make room for shared ownership — then we’re just making the job harder for ourselves.
It’s Time for Community College Marketers to Break Stuff
When you consistently show results, when you tell the right stories internally and externally, and when you build coalitions of forward-thinking colleagues, you can shift the culture. I’ve seen it happen.
The New Blueprint for Student Belonging [PODCAST]
On this episode, Keith Paul, Chief Marketing Officer at Northern Essex Community College, discusses student engagement and retention, and how to leverage data to improve student outcomes.
Marketers Are Bullshit Artists. Don’t Bullshit the Bullshitter.
There’s a fundamental lesson here that’s bigger than marketing: know your audience. Not in the theoretical, brand-deck sense. Really know them.
Personalized, Data-Informed Marketing: A Lifelong Engagement Imperative [The Evolllution]
In today’s rapidly evolving world, engaging learners throughout their entire journey has become a strategic necessity. Across Fortune 100 firms, teaching at a flagship university and stints leading marketing in community colleges, I have witnessed firsthand how traditional, one-size-fits-all approaches no longer suffice. Instead, personalized, data-informed marketing strategies are proving essential to connecting with and retaining […]
Everybody’s a Marketer: Musings of a Community College CMO
Here’s my proposal: let’s play to our strengths. Let’s work together, but maybe let marketing actually do the marketing. Trust me, we’ve got this.
Talking Shop: Marketing is a Contact Sport
Here’s a fun Q&A from a recent interview I did with CASE Currents magazine. CASE is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Read on… community college marketing
Appreciative Inquiry, Marketing, & ChatGPT
Appreciative inquiry can create high expectations among prospective students. Marketing efforts need to align with the college’s resources, capabilities, and academic offerings.
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