Engaging Students with Strategic Content Creation

This episode of FYI discusses the strategic imperative for engaging prospective students with content relevent to them.

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Who is Brian Piper?

Brian Piper is a recognized leader in content strategy and development. He is the Director of Content Strategy and Assessment at the University of Rochester. He is also the co-author of Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition: Break through the Clutter with a Different Story, Get the Most Out of Your Content, and Build a Community in Web3.

In this Episode

Brian Piper, the Director of Content Strategy and Assessment at the University of Rochester and the co-author of Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition: Break through the Clutter with a Different Story, Get the Most Out of Your Content, and Build a Community in Web3, joins FYI host Gil Rogers to talk about how to transform content marketing into a powerhouse for higher education. They discuss the recent skepticism surrounding the value of higher education and offers actionable strategies to address it.

Brian also talks about the challenge of breaking down silos within institutions to enhance communication and effectively measure marketing efforts, but also the ROI it could yield. Hear how personalized content and cross-departmental collaboration can revolutionize your institution’s approach to lifelong educational journeys.

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Episode Transcript

Engaging Students with Strategic Content Creation with Brian W. Piper

Publishing Date: June 11, 2024

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome back to FYI, the For Your Institution Podcast, presented by Mongoose. I’m your host, Gil Rogers. Today, I welcome back to the show Brian Piper. In his day job, Brian serves as the Director of Content Strategy and Assessment for the University of Rochester. However, Brian also recently wrote a book titled Epic Content Marketing for Higher Ed.

Let’s listen in and hear about his book and some advice he has for higher ed marketers.

All right, welcome back to FYI! I’m your host, Gil Rogers. And today, we are joined by Brian Piper, the Director of Content Strategy and Assessment at the University of Rochester. We’re here to talk about his new book, Epic Content Marketing for Higher Education: How to Connect with Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and Others to Build Trust and Reach your Institutional Goals.

Brian, thank you for joining us.

[00:00:57] Brian: Well, thank you so much for having me, Gil. It’s a pleasure. 

[00:01:00] Gil: Awesome. Well, so, Brian, you’ve been on the podcast before. We’ve talked about content marketing. I know one of the, and for our podcast viewers on YouTube, they see a book in the background, titled, Epic Content Marketing, on your screen. This is somewhat of a follow-up book, right, or an additional edition. So, I’d love for you to, first, for folks who have not necessarily listened to our prior episode, give us a little bit of your background, how you got to where you are, and then tell us a little bit about the next iteration of this topic.

[00:01:32] Brian: Excellent. So, I won’t go through the entire process because people can always go back and listen to the other podcast episode. But basically, I started as a website developer, but wasn’t super talented. So, they kept pushing me onto the content side of the website, content strategy, SEO optimization. Started doing that back in ‘96, and then, in 2013, I read the first edition of Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and thought, “This is what I want to do.” You can build trust with an audience by giving them content that is helpful for them. And eventually, they will grow into fans and, potentially, become purchasers, consumers of you, your content, your products.

So, then, I started speaking at various conferences, started talking at Joe Pulizzi’s conference, Content Marketing World. And in 2020, I got to spend some time with Joe and kept asking him when he was going to do a second edition of Epic Content Marketing. And he asked me to co-author that with him. So, that came out in March of 2023.

And working in higher ed, the whole time, I was writing the second edition and working on that, I kept thinking about all the opportunities that we have in higher education. We have so many stories among all our different audiences that we’re trying to connect with. And there just didn’t seem to be a lot of content marketing going on in higher ed.

And our entire reason for being is to pass along knowledge and to help people with their problems and to put people in better situations. So, I thought, this is a book that needs to be written. So, that’s when I decided I’m going to do another edition of this that is focused specifically on the higher ed vertical.

[00:03:21] Gil: Awesome. Yeah, and for a point of order for our podcast listeners, we’ll put the link to your prior episode in the episode notes. So, feel free to go back, listen to that one after this one, then come back and listen to this one again. And we’ll get into this nice vicious cycle of listening to Brian and I talk. And it will be great.

So, for the layman who might be listening, right, who is, kind of, new in their role or, maybe, trying to reinvigorate their efforts when it comes to demand generation for their institution, we’ll call it, right, we’re in an interesting time where, if you read the mass market headlines, demand for higher education is declining. And yet, every institution reports, you know, record breaking number of applications every year. So, clearly, something’s got to give. But for an institution who’s looking to grow their enrollment, you can help with, and this is toward the beginning of the book, help with defining what content marketing really is.

[00:04:14] Brian: Yeah. So, there, I mean, 

[00:05:10] Gil: Yeah. And one of the things posted on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago was, you know, in my role outside of a podcast host, I advise ed tech companies on strategy and marketing. And one of the things we talked about and I’ve worked with one of my clients on is the idea around you get more when you give, right?

And I think that’s a lesson that a lot of people have heard and learned but have a hard time applying. And I get it, right? There’s a lot of value in your insights. And for an educational institution, there’s a lot of value in your product, which is the educational content that your students are consuming to further their skills, further their career, but a good content marketing strategy is employing exactly that, right? Giving away some of your intelligence, giving away some of your experience and your insights, with the understanding that, over time, that’s going to develop trust, right? And trust in your brand is then what makes it so that when someone needs something and you’re the one that provides it, they pick up the phone and call you or they go on to your website in a more modern analogy, I guess, is probably a better term to use.

So, I’d love for you to, kind of, help people to understand from a strategic perspective why there’s such an imperative to really lean in on content marketing, specifically, for higher ed institutions.

[00:06:29] Brian: Yeah, content marketing is really all about building relationships and building trust. And there’s such a need for trust in our society. And we see that there are a lot of challenges that higher ed institutions are facing. And one among those many challenges is, you know, people just don’t see the value, sometimes, in higher education.

There’s a lot of conversations about whether it’s worth it, especially as the prices continue to go up. And there are some employers who aren’t making degree requirements, you know, a mandatory part of their hiring process.

So, creating that trust with your audience is critical. And the more we can do that before, you know, a student actually comes to us or a new faculty comes to us, and the more we can get our personality, our brand out there in the world in a way that is a trustable, reliable source of truth, I think that’s critical.

And as institutions, we have so many different ways that we can showcase that trust and we can build those relationships by connecting people with the right audience by helping them out with that very useful, valuable content and just being a resource for them. Whether or not they end up coming to our school or donating or being involved with us, we just want to be able to provide that information and help them in their journey at whatever point they’re at.

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[00:08:43] Gil: I think one of the things you mentioned is the trust in just the value of the investment. And I think one of the challenges that institutions have right now is that, in this economy, in this market, families are looking at cost benefit, right? And it’s the challenge is that, yes, a company might take bachelor’s degree requirement off of a job description. But at the end of the day, they’re going to be looking at the skills that are required for that role. And they’re going to be looking at the experience that that person has. And so, what’s a way to demonstrate that, is with a credential, right?

And so, that credential may not be a bachelor’s degree, it might be stackable credentials, it might be certificates, it might be… but at the end of the day, higher ed institutions are still uniquely qualified to be the ones who are delivering that curriculum and delivering that, just in different modalities. And I know one of the quotes that I submitted, self shoutout, right, is that, as preferences for modality are shifting, institutions can’t just focus on the traditional tried-and-true first-time full-time undergraduate student, right?

And so, in that context, and we’ll get to alumni and faculty and all that stuff in a moment, but for student recruitment and engagement, what are your thoughts around that exact challenge, right, when all of our systems and all of our culture is around communicating and marketing to a traditional full-time first-time undergraduate student, but that’s going to become less and less, or should become less and less, of a share of the overall pie, right? And so, what would you recommend institutions who are caught in that bit of a challenge?

[00:10:13] Brian: Yeah. I mean, and the nice thing about content marketing is it’s a long-term strategy. It’s not something where you’re pushing out a campaign, you’re creating a whole lot of content all at one time and just trying to flood the market with your push messages. It’s really about thinking long-term about who your audiences are.

So, let’s look at the non-traditional student. What are the problems that they’re facing? What are the challenges that they have in their life? Why are they thinking about going back to school? Or if they’re not, what could you do to encourage them? Here are certification programs we have. Here are alternative online courses that you can do in the evenings where you don’t have to commit to coming onto the campus every day that fit into their lifestyle. And then just start putting out content about those particular challenges and how there are options out there. There are ways to overcome those challenges. There are ways to progress your career after you’ve been in a job for 15, 20 years. There are still things that you can do to increase your knowledge, increase your skills, and help yourself progress down your career path.

And it’s just about finding out where those different audiences are going to be and then putting those messages out on those channels consistently. And it’s just a matter of making yourself be a resource for them. You can still do all your traditional push marketing and really focus on your traditional undergraduate students. But I think it’s critical that we start thinking long-term about ways that we can help these other audiences. And the best way to do that is by putting out content that helps them.

[00:11:51] Gil: Let’s dial in on alumni for a second, right? I feel like there’s a cultural missed opportunity in higher ed in a lot of respects with personalizing engagement. You know a lot about your alumni. You know what college within your institution they graduated from. You know their GPA. You know what classes they took. You know what clubs they were a part of, for the most part, in many respects. So, you know what interests that they had when they were there and what they didn’t, how they enjoyed their experience.

But then, at the end of the day, for many institutions, the end game is just to get a donation every year, right? And that’s a huge missed opportunity when it comes to continuous engagement. Because you could, if you could imagine, and I’ve had many conversations, one past guest we had on was Charlie Melichar from Melichar Consulting. We spoke about the fundraising pyramid and how you have the large base of recent alumni at the bottom who are just starting out, that the goal for them is not necessarily to get them to give a big contribution, but to help them feel involved and help them be a part of the community. And then you got the tippy top. Those are the people who are getting ready to put the school in their will and put their name on a building and all that sort of fun stuff. But then you have this huge group in the middle that is completely underserved, completely underutilized. And maybe, those are the folks that don’t donate 50 bucks a year when they see the alumni newsletter but have capacity to donate 500 bucks a year, right?

And so, I think that that’s, you know, an area where, for institutions, the challenge is that the gift officers at the school and the alumni coordinators and all the people who work in those offices don’t have the bandwidth to try to nurture and engage that giant group in the middle. However, there are ways to, kind of, scale that engagement and create a culture of community and a culture of continuous development, you know. As an institution, again, we’re uniquely qualified to be presenting skills and helping people upskill and helping them stay engaged.

So, from an alumni engagement perspective, what are some of your thoughts on some tactical things that an institution might consider when they’re trying to build a communication, build a content marketing plan to keep that audience specifically engaged?

[00:13:55] Brian: Yeah, and a lot of that is looking at… it all goes back to figuring out what your audience pain points are, what their roadblocks are, what problems are they facing in life, what problems are they facing in their careers, and how can we provide information, how can we provide content, how can we provide resources that will help them with that?

So, whether it’s putting out an article about other networking opportunities that they can have to connect with other alumni within the greater institutional network or whether it’s about lifelong learning opportunities that the institution may create, there are a lot of institutions that are creating programs specifically for this, where it’s open to all alumni, all students, all faculty, where they can come in and learn about new topics. You could come in and learn about AI, where, you know, there’s no fee as long as you’re part of that community. And it’s really showing the value to all of those institutional members, that there is value in this community, that there are offerings, that we do support you. There are ways for you to help existing students by providing mentorship opportunities.

I think there are a ton of opportunities that we’re just not taking advantage of. And you mentioned that the amount of data that we have on our alumni would be so easy to take that data and figure out how to pair them with new students or how to create opportunities for content around those areas of interest that are shared by particular groups.

I think we can do a lot more targeting. And, you know, AI is going to help us with this. It’s going to help us be able to aggregate that data and pull that data together so that we can see these areas of interest that we can better focus on create better, more helpful content about, and then figure out how to distribute that to make sure that we’re reaching those audience with it.

[00:15:50] Gil: The challenge being, to point the culture of “Dear, first name” letter being the level of personalization that we have. And I think we’ve beaten that horse to death over the number of conversations that we’ve had, but that’s not personalization. That’s table stakes, as far as just reaching that person and addressing that person.

Personalization is understanding who that person actually is and tailoring and communications based off of those and having timely interactions. I remember back when I was an admissions counselor, it was this revolutionary idea to have a section of the view book be tailored to what major that student had indicated they were interested in on the inquiry card at the college fair they filled out, right? And this was like, all that is is mail merge printing, right? And then, so… but at the time, and this is dating myself and how old I am, at the time, that was a huge, huge advancement, right?

And kudos to the groups at the time, but we’ve moved beyond that. And I think that there’s a reality of needing to ensure that we’re continually adding value to our interactions, to students, parents, alumni, faculty, whoever it is, you know. We have a responsibility as educational institutions to help them to develop further.

And I feel like one of the things that, you know, we’ve spoken about this on the past podcast as well, is educational institutions are in a unique spot where you have this treasure trove of content and materials that you can give away for free and still generate value back to your institution, because again, if you can get that $50 donor to give $500 or even $55, right, if you can get students to increase yield of your enrollment by one-percentage point, if you can get increased alumni giving overall by one-percentage point, these are huge numbers when it comes to overall ROI on those efforts.

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[00:18:32] Gil: I’d love for you to talk a little bit about measurement, right, when it comes to how institutions should really be thinking about that, because it is a long game, right? I think there’s so much of this, like, need for immediate return and saying, “Okay, well, how many donations did we get off of that one event, or how many enrollments did we get from that one think piece,” right? And that’s not necessarily the way we should be thinking about it.

[00:18:53] Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I have a lot of institutions reaching out to me and asking me, “What should we be measuring? What should we be looking at? What data should we be collecting?” And I always say, it depends on what your goals are, what you’re trying to accomplish.

And, you know, you really have to break it down. So, first, you have to really clearly understand all your levels of goals—your institutional goals, your school goals, your department goals, like, each one of those. And they have to be aligned. And then you can start looking at, all right, what are the objectives of this content marketing strategy? What are we trying to accomplish? And you break those down and do your key results. Then, you can start looking at those key performance indicators, those KPIs that you are going to pull together based on various different metrics.

So, if you’re just looking to increase brand awareness, then it’s fine to use those vanity metrics of, like, page views and search rankings. But if you’re looking to increase enrollment for a particular program, of course, you’re going to, you know, measure enrollment. But people are always saying that it’s very difficult to measure the impact of marketing and especially content marketing. But there are lots of different ways that you can do that. So, you can set up tracking within your pages to look specifically at how many viewers that come to this pages are following through on our call-to-action to go visit our department pages or go look at particular programs, and then how many of those are converting or asking for more information? How many donors do we get clicking on a story from a social post that we do that eventually filter through and donate more money?

But part of the problem of that is that, as higher ed institutions, we tend to be very siloed. Our data tends to be segmented out in lots of different spaces across the institution. So, a lot of times, it’s very difficult to pull those numbers together. So, it’s a matter of working interdepartmentally. You know, we work very closely with admissions and advancement so that we can understand what they’re trying to accomplish, how they’re tracking that, what we can do to influence that, and then if we can see as we drive more traffic to their pages, to their programs, if there’s an increase in enrollment or admissions or whether or not they’re getting more donations. So, it’s just a matter of figuring out specifically why you’re measuring something and what you’re trying to prove with that measurement, and being able to connect those numbers to that final goal that you’re trying to reach.

[00:21:27] Gil: I love how you brought up working cross-departmentally, right? And I think that one of the sections in your book, you talk about breaking down silos. And I feel like one of the big opportunities that is presented in the whole world of content marketing for higher ed, specifically, is that you’re naturally breaking down silos at each phase of the process, right? Because you’re not the faculty member who’s in charge of the marine biology department, right? You’re simply, and I’m sure Rochester probably doesn’t have a huge marine biology department, but you are helping to evangelize that program and you’re helping to communicate that message. And the faculty member is not the expert in what the cadence of the communications need to be and what different channels they need to use to be able to talk about their program.

But what they really are good at is delivering their material and teaching students and inspiring students to be and do their best work, right? And so, you’re at the beginning of this entire process. You’re already breaking down silos with the academic side of the house. And then, downstream, water stream, marine bio, we’re getting there, but downstream what you are then connecting the dots across different departments—admissions, marketing, communications.

And so, for many, though, the biggest challenge is building those bridges and making those connections, right? So, what are some methods that you use when you’re trying to work on something and maybe you’re running up against a wall or you’re running up against a silo that is really working hard to be… people are protective of their work. They might not understand what you’re trying to do. And so, what are some things that you do to break down those barriers?

[00:22:59] Brian: Yeah. And it goes back to content marketing works internally as well. So, it goes back to figuring out what their problems are, what their roadblocks are, and how you can help them with those. So, one of the keys to effective content marketing for higher ed is being able to collaborate across the different groups. So, you’re not duplicating content. So, you can find opportunities for cross-promotion and collaboration.

And a lot of times, that starts off with offering to help. So, if we’re going to, you know, work with a particular school or a particular department, we’ll offer to come in and do a content audit forum and just make SEO recommendations or help them set up dashboards for their analytics. And then, along the way, we’ll start talking to them about the broader content marketing strategy and how we can help them create content. We can help them rewrite some of their course descriptions in a way that may be more relevant to their particular audiences, and really just offering to provide a resource or a center of excellence for them that will help them do their jobs better, help make things easier for them. We’ll show them tools that we’re using. We’ll set them up with access to their data that makes it easier for them see the impact of the work that we’re doing.

A lot of times when we do a website redesign for a department, we’ll include a page in their dashboard that actually shows them the impact that the redesign had on their traffic, on their, you know, time on page, all those sorts of metrics that they’re looking at and paying attention to. So, it’s really, it goes back to the heart of content marketing, is making yourself a valuable resource and providing information and content that’s going to be helpful and useful to them.

[00:24:45] Gil: Yeah, you’re building trust with those internal groups to then help them build trust with their external group, right? And I think that’s marketing in a nutshell, in a lot of respects, right? One of the things I’ve written about and spoken about with just your marketing plan in general is you can’t just execute your marketing plan and expect it to succeed. You also have to communicate internally and market your marketing plan so that the internal constituents who are really the ones who are going to be helping with implement it are on board as well. And so, building trust with that internal audience to be a part of that creation of that content and the distribution and the measurement of that content is huge.

And I think, you know, put your sales person hat on and say, you know, you go to the faculty member and say, “What if I could help you find 10 additional enrollments for your program next year? Would that be something that you’d be interested in being a part of?” For the most part, a lot are going to say yes, right? Some might say no, but we don’t care about that. The good ones say yes, they want their program to grow because they know that that means funding, and it means that they can continue to do their work, right?

So, Brian, I appreciate you taking the time and being on the podcast again today. I reserve the right, when you have another edition of the book to have you on, we’ll continue this conversation. But for those, again, who might not be connected with you already, what are some of the ways that they can get in touch with you?

[00:26:02] Brian: You can go to my website, brianwpiper.com, or you can connect with me on LinkedIn or most other social platforms @brianwpiper.

[00:26:12] Gil: Awesome! And for folks who want to pick up a copy of your book, I was blessed to get a super awesome advanced digital copy, my print copy is in the mail, where is the best place for them to pick up a copy of the book?

[00:26:24] Brian: You can also grab copies of the book at brianwpiper.com.

[00:26:27] Gil: Awesome! Fantastic! All right. And the title of the book, Epic Content Marketing for Higher Education: How to Connect with Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and Others to Build Trust and Reach Your Institutional Goals.

Brian, we thank you again. And we will see everyone next time on FYI. Bye!

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