Higher Ed Marketing Lab
Engage with some of the brightest minds in marketing and higher education to uncover practical insights you can use to level up your institution’s marketing and enrollment efforts.
- Update frequency
- every 27 days
- Average duration
- 38 minutes
- Episodes
- 52
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Campus Visit Trends: Insights from the 2025 CIVSA Conference with Jeff Kallay
Just back from this year's Collegiate Information and Visitor Services Association (CIVSA) conference, Jeff Kallay joins the show to share what he heard and what campus visit professionals across the…
Do You Actually Have a Strategy?
HEML host Jarrett Smith explores the essential elements of strategy. Learn how strategy differs from activities like planning and big-picture thinking, why strategy doesn't begin with goals, the impo…
Empathy-Driven Leadership with Jaime Hunt
Jaime Hunt, a veteran higher ed marketing leader, consultant, speaker, and author, joins the show to talk about the principles of empathy-driven leadership she outlines in her new book, Heart Over Hy…
High-Impact Podcast Storytelling with Alex Grodnik
Alex Grodnik joins the pod to discuss storytelling, podcasting, and how universities can create one-of-a-kind content that captivates audiences.
Banishing Blah Blah Content from Your .EDU
Host Jarrett Smith dives into the pervasive issue of 'blah blah content' on college and university websites. He identifies two main types of ineffective content: generic content that lacks creative p…
Building Better Agency Partnerships with Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown, EVP and Co-Head of 160over90, joins the show to talk about fostering more effective relationships between institutions and the agency partners they hire.
Ryan and Jarrett discuss:
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How …
How to Evolve Your Campus Visit in 2025
W. Kent Barnds and Jeff Kallay join the show to discuss important behavioral shifts in how prospective students approach college visits and implications for the year ahead. Along the way they explore…
The Problem with Enrollment Management (And How to Fix It) with Laurie Koehler
Enrollment management veteran, Laurie Koehler, joins Jarrett to talk about the challenges facing enrollment management and key ways the practice needs to evolve.
They discuss: -How the practice of …
Championing Small Colleges with Scott Novak
The challenges facing small private colleges are very real—but they’re not the whole story. In this episode, we talk to Scott Novak, former CEO of Underscore and Chief Development Officer at Carnegie…
Politics and College Choice with Grant De Roo
We recently conducted a nationwide survey to understand how college-bound students factor politics into their decision. We packaged it all up into a report, Politics and College Choice: How Students’…
How to Craft Clear Messages that Win with Ben Guttmann
Jarrett sits down with author Ben Guttmann to discuss practical ways to simplify your marketing communication strategies. An expert on simplicity, Guttmann explains why simplicity is essential if you…
Why Sales Shouldn’t Be a Dirty Word in Admissions
Student recruitment can only happen if you sell your institution well. But because higher ed typically avoids the word “sales” like the plague, admissions counselors miss out on key skills they need …
The Performance Marketing Trap
Explore the "Performance Marketing Trap" with Jarrett as he discusses the pitfalls colleges experience when they over-rely on so-called performance marketing channels to advertise. Learn why brand ma…
Amplifying Student Voices on TikTok with Morgan Goodwill
TikTok is the platform of choice for many of today’s prospective students, but consistently executing relevant and engaging content is a challenge many colleges and universities are still trying to o…
Modernizing Enrollment Management with Geoff Baird
Geoff Baird, CEO of EnrollML, shares pragmatic insights on how to evolve enrollment management. Discover how understanding market share, addressing foundational weaknesses, and leveraging data and te…
Optimizing the Campus Visit with Will Patch and Jeff Kallay
In this episode, we dig into the results of a fresh survey from Niche, exploring the campus visit from the perspective of students and parents.
Joining the conversation is Will Patch, Senior Enrollme…
Countdown to Google Analytics 4 with Chris Sietsema
Analytics expert Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital gives us an update on the current state of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). We discuss some of the most important differences between Universal Analy…
Engaging New Audiences on Reddit at the University of Georgia
We talk with Rod Guajardo, Senior Director for Integrated Media Communications at the University of Georgia about how the university has been using Reddit to reach new audiences with science and rese…
Building People-Powered Brands with Jennifer Holland
Many institutions include brand building in their strategic plans, but making those aspirations and reality is often challenging. Brand development expert, Jennifer Holland, argues the best way to bu…
The State of the Campus Visit with Jeff Kallay
The campus visit is a make-or-break moment for traditional undergrads, but as campuses have emerged from the pandemic, the return to campus tours has been anything but business as usual. In this epis…