Starting a Community College and Marketing It

This episode of FYI uncovers the amazing personal journey of guest, Elise Michaux, as well as how she’s helped Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania carve out its niche.

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Who is Elise Michaux?

Elise Michaux is the Marketing and Communications Director at Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania.

In this Episode

Elise Michaux, the Marketing and Communications Director at Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania, joins FYI host Gil Rogers to talk about her unique experience in establishing a new institution during a time when many are closing. The challenges and also some of the unexpected benefits of being able to form everything from scratch. 

Their discussion covers the importance of supporting the local community, developing a distinctive campus voice, and creating processes with the student at the center. Elise emphasizes the value of authentic student testimonials in marketing, avoiding traditional and often sterilized messaging, and adapting to meet current workforce needs and market demands. 

They go over a compelling personal narrative about a student and how different places in Higher Ed would use the student’s story. Tune in for a compelling conversation about challenges, successes, and innovative strategies in Higher Education marketing and communications.

Listen to FYI on your favorite podcast platform!

Episode Transcript

Starting a Community College and Marketing It with Elise Michaux

Publishing Date: September 3, 2024

[00:00:00] Gil: Welcome back to FYI, the For Your Institution Podcast, presented by Mongoose. I’m your host, Gil Rogers. And today, I sit down with Elise Michaux. Elise is the Marketing and Communications Director at Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania. She has a unique perspective, helping to literally build an institution from scratch during a time when so many institutions seem to be closing. She talks about supporting your local community, as well as building a distinctive voice for a campus that didn’t have one. Let’s listen in.

Hey, Elise, how’s it going?

[00:00:40] Elise: Hi! Going pretty well. How about you?

[00:00:43] Gil: I’m doing lovely. It is really hot right now here in Maine. I don’t know how it is where you are.

[00:00:49] Elise: About the same.

[00:00:51] Gil: About the same.

[00:00:51] Elise: And I’m alright with that. Trying not to complain.

[00:00:53] Gil: Well, you know, it’ll be winter before you know it. And it’s one of those… in Maine, people think like it’s winter, like, 99% of the year, but it’s been pretty nice. You know, we had a lot of rain last year, but this year it’s a little more temperate, right?

[00:01:06] Elise: Yeah, about the same for us, too. We’ve gone through the, I’d say a roller coaster is the best way to describe it, like, a series of really hot days and then we get some good rain for a few days. But mostly, it’s been hot. So, I’ll take it because the winters are long and cold.

[00:01:23] Gil: Winter, winter is coming, right? That’s there. I feel it.

[00:01:27] Elise: I got to watch the new Game of Thrones.

[00:01:29] Gil: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I haven’t gotten into it quite yet. So, it took me forever to get into the original Game of Thrones. Like, I watched it, like, five years after everybody else. I was telling a friend about that. It was like, “Oh, yeah, I started binge watching Game of Thrones.” And she goes, “Don’t watch the last season.” I’m like, “Okay, I won’t watch the last season.” Still have yet to watch the last season. What I did is I created an ending in my mind and that is now the official ending.

[00:01:52] Elise: Well, it’s a disappointment. It was rough.

[00:01:54] Gil: That’s what everyone has said. So, you know what? I’m not doing it. So, we talked about the weather. For our listening audience, where are you? Where do you work? What do you do?

[00:02:05] Elise: Yeah. So, I’m in Erie, Pennsylvania, and I work at Erie County Community College as the Marketing and Communications Director. It is actually a brand-new college. We are turning three this month, actually.

[00:02:22] Gil: Out of the terrible twos! You’re out of the…

[00:02:24] Elise: Out of the terrible twos. And it has been the most challenging and rewarding portion of my career, thus far. Starting a college is wild. It’s everything you thought it would be, and everything you thought it wouldn’t be, at the same time. And so, as a person who is studying organizational learning and leadership, getting to apply that every day, to creating the processes and procedures, to beating against the idea, because you literally can’t say, “We’ve always done it this way.”

[00:03:04] Gil: Right.

[00:03:05] Elise: We love that in higher ed, right?

[00:03:08] Gil: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:08] Elise: And so, being able to fight against that and create processes and procedures that are truly seamless with the student at the center is equally frustrating because it doesn’t exist yet, but you don’t know it doesn’t exist until you run into it, but you get to create it. And that has been fun.

[00:03:32] Gil: So, how do you start a college? Does it come with, like, a CaDA instructions? Or does it come with, like, Lego instructions? What are, if you had to say, like, what you’ve had, what level of clarity do you have? CaDA instructions, Lego instructions, or somewhere in the middle?

[00:03:42] Elise: Oh, my gosh, somewhere in the middle. We have a lot of passionate people who are part of the organization who are making it run, making it happen. And that has been the key to our success. And a pleasure to be a part of, we’re working hard towards accreditation right now. One of the things that I have truly appreciated about our standpoint is the programs and opportunities that we’re going to present are always going to have the student and the career that they can get in mind, following them receiving that degree or certificate. We’re not just creating programs for the sake of creating programs. Again, our president’s mantra is build it different.

And so, that has been truly what I’ve seen and got to be a part of. And so, it’s challenging because you are trying to keep that in mind and at its core, and ensuring that’s happening for our students. But we recently had our secretary of policy on the state level visit our institution. And our students surrounded him and were speaking to all the things that you want them to say. They feel that sense of belonging. They feel supported by faculty. They know who to go to and the resources.

I mean, that’s what you always want folks, or your students, I shouldn’t say just folks, but students to echo. And watching that transpire without us telling them what to say was really, really cool. So, we’re making it happen.

[00:05:28] Gil: Yeah. I mean, that’s great. I think what’s interesting is, you watch the news, you look at mainstream media about higher education, and every other day there’s a college that’s closing, right? We feel for that, but I also think that there’s things that need a better spotlight on it, which is not all colleges are closing. In fact, we’re open in some, right? And I think there’s an opportunity to, and I feel like you hit the nail on the head where it comes to the approach to the programming, right? When you aren’t dragged down by 100 years of adding and adding-

[00:05:56] Elise: Come on.

[00:05:57] Gil: … just to grow enrollment. You’ve got your three years of, these are the programs that are needed. Community college, so I’m assuming hyper-focused on the needs of your local area and workforce and credentials and not just a traditional degree program.

[00:06:14] Elise: You got it.

[00:06:14] Gil: You’re a marketer, right? So, with messaging, let’s talk about the messaging bit of how you get that out there in your local community, relative to maybe a more traditional approach where you’ve got the 100 years of legacy brand name behind you.

[00:06:29] Elise: Right. So, that has been the fun part of my job. So, the task at hand for me when I first accepted the role was we have to educate a community on what a community college even is. Because remember, there had not been one prior to our existence. For-profit organizations had come and gone in the past. And so, there was a lot of fear and trepidation around us coming to town and coming to existence.

So, I felt compelled to ensure that we started with the messaging of, “This is why we’re here, this is why we’re here, this is how we’re going to do it, and this is why we’re different from our neighborhood institutions.” Our neighborhood institutions are private, faith-based, and we’ve got Penn State Behrend, which is a site branch of Penn State University.

So, how do we fit into all of that? And so, for me, it’s been getting quotes and testimonials from our students talking about their experiences. We recently had some students who graduated talk about how they’re going on to Penn State Behrend. And they wouldn’t have found that and been as successful to take that leap, had they not started at a community college.

So, again, tying the two and giving that message about why a community college exists has been key. And so, we’re using things like Snapchat, we’re using things like Instagram to do traditional things, as well as the non-traditional — billboards and commercials. But our students are… I actually just changed from me being the person as the voice to now shifting to our students on the radio spots, because they’re the ones who have those true testimonials, right? Not just the fancy, at least, saying what I’m supposed to say, right? We’re affordable, we’re accessible. Our professors took time to teach me over and over again, and it didn’t feel like I was ignoring them. And now I’m going to go off and do great things.

Like, that’s what it’s about. And I think that is what hits home for the learners that we’re trying to reach, right? That accommodation, that accessibility, that really makes a difference. So, it’s been fun to be at the helm of making the decisions on what’s going to work traditionally for us in the marketing sense and what is out of the box that’s going to reach the younger generation, too.

[00:09:13] Gil: Yeah. And you brought up a good point. And I like to, sometimes, bring things down to, like, the very foundational level because there’s a very wide range of folks that listen to this podcast, right?

[00:09:25] Elise: Absolutely.

[00:09:25] Gil: Working in higher ed for 34 years, you’ve got… 34 is a very precise number, 34, 35, whatever. But you’ve got people who are just starting out, right? And they’re just learning. And, you know, some people have a wealth of experience in marketing and understand why we do things a certain way. And then others, you know, wouldn’t have even thought about it.

And let’s… so, let’s talk about that student voice for a second, right? You mentioned transitioning from your voice and the institution’s voice to the student voice in your outbound messaging. Why is that so important to articulate the student voice and the student perspective for someone who might not have a background in marketing and might think, “Oh, we should put faculty on the air, right?” Which maybe there’s a spot for that, but I think…

[00:10:05] Elise: Absolutely, time and place.

[00:10:07] Gil: Yeah. So, what is the value of that student voice in that marketing messaging?

[00:10:12] Elise: The students are not going to sugar-coat. It’s that authenticity and genuineness that shines through, right? Yes, we’re tapping talent. It’s my job to find the students who are finding the good experiences. But the great thing is, almost every student that I talk to speaks so highly, and they’re so proud of being a part of this brand-new institution.

And so, when you have a student speaking about their experiences, that is more likely to resonate with exactly who you’re trying to reach, right? And I believe, I know, that that is going to go far for us. When I look at the measurements on the back end of things, when we have put forward these student testimonials, those are the YouTube videos that are the most watched. It’s not our faculty. It’s not our… yeah, that again, time and place. Those things matter. They’re a piece of the puzzle. But the more pieces that are part of that larger picture are our students talking about the experiences that they’re having. Because you hear the potential. You hear a story. You might hear a piece of…

We had a young man who has a criminal background who ended up being very successful at the college. He graduated. It was a turning point for him. He talks about how pivotal it was that he was a part of what we were doing at the college.

And so, when you hear that, you know that there’s other people like him that can get a fresh start by being a part of what we’re doing. And so, those messages, those stories resonate and go a long way versus just the cookie-cutter messaging. They know they can get a good education. They know that it’s right down the street. But how can I be a part of it? How does, how can I see myself as successful? And those stories do that.

[00:12:21] Gil: Yeah. And it’s interesting the… we just had this conversation about the student voice and student perspective. And five years, we’re going to still have the same conversation because it bears repeating to administrators, faculty to the leadership at the institution, because I feel like there’s a lot of times that pressure to sterilize the brand a little bit and not have that authentic voice.

[00:12:46] Elise: Come on.

[00:12:47] Gil: Because we want to protect the shield, right, and protect the logo.

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[00:13:43] Gil: So, I’m sure you’ve run into that at some point where, you know, you just mentioned a student who had a criminal background that went through the education of the institution and connected them to great opportunity. As a marketer of higher education myself, that is an amazing story and it’s delivering on the promise of what education can do and what it can unlock.

[00:13:59] Elise: Bingo.

[00:14:00] Gil: But for some more senior administrators at, maybe, other institutions, that’s not necessarily the story they want to tell. And it’s not the right, but that’s the way that it is. And so, let’s say in two years, a new president comes in, right, we’re now an established institution. We’ve graduated students. We’re now ending our, we said terrible twos, and now it’s, like, entering your fifth year. Five-year-olds are worse than two-year-olds. But that’s beside the point. What do you say to a new president that comes in and says, “No, we need to start looking and acting like everybody else?”

[00:14:32] Elise: That’s a tough sell, right? And the first phrase that comes to mind is the proof is in the pudding. The student that we’re trying to reach falls into this demographic. And so, it behooves us to ensure that our messaging and the image continues to be raw, continues to be authentic. People are looking for something that is real, because what has been done before is not necessarily been working, right? Why are our students who are of college age asking the questions about what this degree is worth? It’s a fair question to ask.

And I think one piece of the heart of that question is, does it lead to success? And I think, by thinking out of the box and keeping it raw and real, you keep yourself away from falling into that this is how we’ve always done it. And so, there’s something to going against the grain. And I believe that’s what this generation is calling for. Give us something different. Pique our interests in a way that resonates with me and who I am, because we’re all real.

So, that would be my first, I would obviously try to be very strategic in how I shared what I just shared, but because I get it. At the end of the day, there’s bills to pay. There’s ROI, right? What is the ROI? But if you fall too quickly on your sword, if you will, will you begin to backpedal unintentionally on your success?

[00:16:40] Gil: Yeah. And I think one thing you might have going for you, too, or not might have, you do have going for you, is I feel like, a lot of times, that pressure to have that, I like the term, “sterilized message,” [crosstalk 00:16:51].

[00:16:51] Elise: Yeah.

[00:16:52] Gil: Is it comes from having that long list of alumni who are used to things being a certain way. And when an institution tries to adapt its message for the new generation of students who are trying to attract for the longevity of the institution and the value of those people’s degrees, is they have to deal with the screaming, you know, screaming at cloud old man, right? And it’s like, you don’t have that baggage, right, of having addressed those types, and you’re not going to have that type of baggage for a very long time. By the time you presumably could have that baggage, it’s not going to be that kind of baggage because you have that opportunity of that culture being different for your institution than other schools. And I think that’s a competitive advantage, moving forward, when it comes to your messaging and differentiation. Is that something?

[00:17:44] Elise: Absolutely, absolutely. You’re hitting the nail on the head. And that’s why this has been very fun. I mean, think about all the things you just mentioned that make us unique in where we are. Even being at a community college in the state of where higher education is right now, we are capitalizing on that, not in a way that is about the almighty dollar, but I think it is we started at just the right time. Post-pandemic, where people are asking questions about what is the worth of a four-year degree, you can do it cheaper with us, right, and still lead to that same success. And so many of our students have gone on to four-year institutions, and we’re very proud of that. A lot of them have gone on to the workforce. We’re very proud of that. All of the welders who crossed our stage last year to receive their certificate had jobs before they even crossed the stage. That’s what it’s all about. And those are the messages we’ll continue to work in and tout, so that more people come and be a part of the great things that we’re doing.

[00:18:58] Gil: That is an amazing perspective. And I feel like it’s, again, fresh by virtue of the fact that your institution is fresh.

[00:19:05] Elise: Yes.

[00:19:06] Gil: Let’s give advice to other folks now. So, we’ve talked about how you address the bad president that comes in and wants to change everything, which is a not likely scenario. But, you know, it helps to, kind of, think through these things strategically for your institution.

[00:19:20] Elise: Absolutely.

[00:19:20] Gil: Let’s talk about the people in your position at established schools that are trying to lead the effort towards refreshing the brand, as well as reintroducing the institution to the local market, in response to everything that’s been going on over the past couple of years in higher education, right? You’re down graphic cliff. You’ve got issues with the perception of value and questions of the perception of value. These are things most institutions are trying to tackle or grapple with, as long as they’re not in denial, which there are some of those as well. But if they’re not in denial and they’ve accepted the current state of reality, it might be just they want to make change but they don’t know how, right? And so, if you were plucked from your current institution and put in a new institution and challenged with refreshing the institution’s brand approach and reversing these types of trends, if you could wave some magic wands, what are some of the magic wands you would wave to give your department and your team a fresh start?

[00:20:21] Elise: There’s an old adage, especially in student affairs, that we meet students where they are. And if we do that, again, in authentic and genuine ways, not something they’ve seen before or they can see any other place, that is what’s going to resonate with this student, this new student that we are seeking out. And so, does that mean doing dances on TikTok? Not necessarily.

[00:20:54] Gil: It should.

[00:20:55] Elise: I mean, I’m not going to oppose it, right? But what I would say is that, how can you talk about, in a fresh way, what someone like me who has a degree in English literature, how can you bring that down in a way that an 18-year-old, 19-year-old will see the benefits of that, a degree like that? That sounds so boring, right? But the great things that I’ve been able to do with said degree have put me in spaces and places with people that I never, in my wildest dreams, would have imagined.

And so, that would be my first task. And also, are we revisiting the programs that we’re offering in a way that does relate to this and is still relevant to the job market in which you’re trying to place these students? I would say most likely, yes. It’s part of review. It’s part of keeping up accreditation. Okay, check the box. Okay, well, then how can you put it to that 18-year-old, 19-year-old in a way where it’s like, “Oh, this communications degree, this marketing degree, this engineering degree is not just me sitting in class five days a week, learning and consuming. I’m going to be able to take this out and with me. And it’s going to have an impact, not just on my paycheck, but the people with whom I connect.”

And so, that’s the task that’s on our plate. We have to be able to relate it back to what the current needs are. And if we can find ways, and there’s many creative ways to do that, the world is our oyster.

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[00:23:39] Gil: And I think you mentioned it earlier, too, part of the benefit for you all is that you got to really start with your why as an institution. And when you’re able to articulate your why clearly, it makes everything else a lot easier.

[00:23:54] Elise: Fall in place, absolutely.

[00:23:56] Gil: And one of the things that we have to acknowledge is that, for many institutions, no amount of messaging exercises are going to make their course offerings align with changes to the workforce, changes in those needs and market demand. And so, the institution, as a whole, has to listen to marketing and say, “Hey, just like in any other industry,” when I work in ed tech and, like, when I work with companies, a lot of times, it’s, you know, we can’t just come up with a new slogan and a new ad campaign and try to drive awareness. We’ve got to really think about, does the product meet the needs of our customers? And if it doesn’t, we have to make changes there first. Then, back to the marketing messaging. And so, I feel like there’s, and I’d love for you to share some of your experiences with helping people outside of marketing understand the role of marketing and the TikTok videos and the Instagram ads and the billboards.

I like to say, at a lot of companies that I’ve worked with, marketing has always been, like, the party planning committee, right? Like, we’re the ones that we plan the booth at the conferences and the reception, anybody thinks marketing does. But it’s a lot more than that when it comes to helping the institution understand what’s going on in the world, right? And so, what are some of the things you do to help articulate that?

[00:25:14] Elise: It’s a very good question. For me, it’s keeping students at the center, right? So, many of us has been drawn to this college because we believe in student success and keeping things affordable and accessible. And if I can weave what we do into the heart of what is tied to that accessibility and that affordability, then I can get the people who are outside of marketing to understand how the two connect.

And if we start, like you just said, like, if we start from there, that helps everything else fall into place. And so, it can be challenging at times, but not necessarily in a bad way. I don’t want to give that connotation, or that impression, maybe, is the better term there. But that’s the skill. That’s the time spent outside of the meetings, trying to figure out how to curate that messaging so that people do understand the role that we play in the larger strategic plan and the larger goal of getting students to come and be a part.

One of the coolest things that I have gotten to do was, so I run the back end of our website. I said, we have to get a “Schedule a visit” button on the site, because if people come and see the magic, see how the sausage is being made, right, they’re more likely to come and want to be a part. And so, when you invite them in, that is how folks are going to be like, “Okay, I can see and feel myself here.” And so, that was a lift with myself, our IT team, our recruiting team to say, “Okay, how do we get these parties to, kind of, play?”

But at most colleges, again, that’s something that’s already been established. That’s not new and exciting, right? But for us, it was. And we saw how that translated into folks coming and signing up and applying and being a part of the college. Does that help answer your question? I feel like there’s so many ways I could go with that.

[00:27:38] Gil: Yeah, and I think a big part of it, too, is for institutions, there’s research that’s been done around maturity model for marketing in higher ed and how, you know, find your seat at the table in the president’s cabinet one day, right? That’s a, as you’re building an institution, everyone’s in everything. That’s an advantage for you that many others might not have, is they have to really help to articulate the value that marketing has on higher ed. I had an interview with Stephanie Geyer a while back now here on the podcast, and I’ll put a link to it in the episode notes, so you people have to listen to both podcasts now.

[00:28:12] Elise: Oh, I love that.

[00:28:13] Gil: She comes from a world where, you know, when she started working in marketing in higher ed, marketing was like a dirty word in higher education, right? It was like sales, and it was like advertising your college was bad because you look desperate. I remember working in…

[00:28:26] Elise: Yeah, yeah.

[00:28:27] Gil: Advertising was like an evil thing. Why would we do that? We look desperate and look spammy and look… and now, everybody does it because it’s a viable strategy for engaging your audience, and you’d be silly not to, right?

And so, I think that you make a great point around just being a part of the process. And I think if we keep the students at the center of these decisions and these conversations, then you’re offering programs that make sense. You’re retiring programs that aren’t. You’re reaching them on the platforms that matter to them. You’re stopping [crosstalk 00:28:57], right? And it’s all about listening to your “customer.” And who is the customer here? It’s the [crosstalk 00:29:03]. So, if you keep that at the center, you’re already in a great spot.

[00:29:07] Elise: Right. And another thing, if I may add on to that, or, adding to the schedule of visit and it being accessible to students all times of the day helped us to address inclusivity. This is another soapbox I can get on because of my research topic and my passion behind DEI. If we’re really going to talk about the “I” in DEI, thinking about our student who might be working that shift work has the opportunity to just, doesn’t have to necessarily correspond via email. Just click a couple buttons and can see the times that might be available for them to come by. Or it’s seeing where we’re going to be out at that table where they can talk to one of our recruiters at an event that they may have already been planning to attend. Again, meeting students where they are should be at the heart of the majority, if not all, of decisions that we make, especially now.

[00:30:10] Gil: Absolutely, absolutely. So, Elise, I appreciate you being here. I appreciate all your time and your insights.

[00:30:17] Elise: Thank you!

[00:30:18] Gil: For folks who want to get connected with you, continue the conversation, pick your brain, what are some of the best ways for folks to connect with you?

[00:30:27] Elise: Well, as a marketing person, I’m on all the platforms. So, please, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all of it.

[00:30:41] Gil: MySpace, Friendster.

[00:30:42] Elise: Oh, my gosh. You’re pulling on my heart strings there. But yeah, all of those pieces. I’m on there frequently, not just because of work, but because I try to keep in touch with other folks as well. And so, I’d love to chat with whomever took the time to listen to us chat it up today.

[00:31:01] Gil: Awesome. Well, and for our podcast listeners, we’ll put, Elise, a link to your LinkedIn in the episode notes to make it easy for people to get in touch. So, Elise, thank you again so much for your time. I appreciate you being here. And to our listeners, we will see you next time on FYI. Bye!

[00:31:17] Elise: Thank you. Bye!

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