The reading and listening list for higher education marketers
In my mentoring work and chats with colleagues looking for their next job, I’m often asked: “Do you have any recommended reading?”
The answer is always “yes, and here’s what you should subscribe to from today.”
After completing a survey with 12 peers working in education, I was surprised to see that not one person could give more than an hour a week to professional reading.
Let that sink in.
Yes, the sample size is very small but it’s a warning sign that people in our industry are so time poor that they can’t carve out an hour a day for career development.
I wanted to see if my thoughts could be supported with a larger secondary dataset, but I couldn’t find anything specifically related to professional reading. There was, however, lots of content on the reading habits of highly successful people.
In short, the consensus is that if you read for an hour every day, you enter god-tier and are compared alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk and Barack Obama.
If you look at it from an opportunity cost perspective, an hour a day is a relatively small price to pay to be in the same league as giants.
So why not, eh?
The reading list
The best way to prepare for your next interview, job or conversation with someone influential is to always be preparing for your next interview, job or conversation with someone influential.
Here’s what / who I read and listen to regularly to say ahead in digital, marketing and education.
Higher education
WonkHE
The go-to place for higher education policy and deeper cut industry insights. Its associate editor David Kernohan loves a deep data dive and has a gift of making complex dry reports accessible and relevant to your day-to-day. They also have a podcast.
Havas People
An agency specialising in education marketing that puts out regular reports on the thoughts and feelings of young people. Right now, they are releasing the monthly report Life Interrupted that explores how students are navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and their changing attitude to their education.
The Student Room
The Student Room started life as a forum in the early 2000s and now is one of, if not the biggest, online student communities. As a result, it has access to first party data on demand, making it your ally for insights on Clearing, recruitment and general student sentiment.
Student Hut Covid-19 Tracker
During the day, it’s a hub for students to get guidance on university, but at night it puts on its B2B cape and shares weekly data on how its audience are feeling about starting university in 2020. Whoever thought of the Covid-19 tracker deserves a pay rise.
Natives
Natives’ weekly newsletter offers a good blend of student opinion and commentary on higher education marketing. You may be able to snatch a few gems from here, especially when they share what other unis have been up to.
Guardian Universities
The bread and butter of education insight from students, higher education professionals and columnists. It’s great for an overview if you have time for nothing else.
Marketing
Mark Shaefer
My cornerstone of marketing is based on Shaefer’s book Marketing Rebellion that positions the customer as the new marketer. Mark’s weekly post and podcast are thoughtful, entertaining and highly attuned to what a marketer needs to be today.
Content Marketing Institute
Daily articles and guidance on how to create content marketing that strikes a chord. Everything here is super accessible and you always feel like you are in good hands with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose’s fortnightly podcast This Old Marketing.
Joe Puzzlizi
This guy literally wrote the book on content marketing and shares a weekly newsletter exploring current trends, marketing wins and challenges. He feels your pain.
Ann Handley
I love the tone Ann strikes with her audience and the pacing of her content. She focuses on writing, marketing and how to navigate the ‘total anarchy’ of working in communications.
Social Media Examiner
Michael Stelzner and his team live and breath social media. Posting daily content as well as sometimes monthly reports, they also organise annual conference and are well respected by the social media management community. Stelzner’s weekly podcast is energetic, fun and suitable for all levels of social media expertise.
Digital and tech
Boagworld
When I was transitioning from general marketing to a digitally focused role, I spent a lot of time with Paul Boag. His podcast and blog explore the full range of digital topics, including content design, digital customer journey mapping and prototyping. This is a great place for those who want to pick up, and become knowledgeable of, digital very quickly.
GeekWire
The show’s slogan “what happens here matters everywhere” is fitting, because they cover developments from tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. This is a good place to go if you want to see how decisions in the tech industry are likely to impact user behaviour further down the line.
MIT Technology Review
You’ll be limited on how many articles you can read, but I recommend signing up to MIT’s newsletters on Economy and AI. The content is deep and gives you that extra layer of understanding on how business can benefit from recent tech innovations. You can either learn how the robots work or be replaced by them. Your choice.
Moz
If you’re not an SEO by trade and fear some technical aspects then this is a great place to plug a few gaps in your knowledge. Each week, their series Whiteboard Friday unpacks a complex topic and gives you key takeaways to makes a difference in your job.
Search Engine Roundtable
I don’t know how Barry Schwartz churns out a daily newsletter of this size and detail, but his insights and up-to-the-minute knowledge of SEO is extremely impressive. Checking in with his newsletter a few times a week will keep you UpToDate with the impact of algorithms and updates from Google.
Christopher S. Penn
Data, data, data. Chris crunches the numbers so you don’t have too, looking at trends in social media and consumer behaviour. Also, respect to his giant unsubscribe link.
McKinsey
One of the best places on the internet for digital leadership and market insight. The data these people have on consumer and workplace trends is awe-inspiring, it’s also presented in a digestible format. There’s lots here to support the decisions you make day-to-day and to allow you to feel more at home in conversations with executive teams.
