“To create emotional connection, we have to be able to uncover the shifting hopes, dreams and fears of the audience.”
Interview with Rebecca Best, Head of Marketing at Nottingham Trent University.
The “What education marketers are saying” series shares insight from marketers working in the education sector, whether that’s for universities, agencies or student communities.
Interview
Kyle: Leading remotely beings its own challenges, what advice would you give to less experienced marketing managers doing this for the first time?
Plan in virtual one-to-ones and encourage cameras to be on. Working in isolation can have a huge impact on productivity, motivation and stress levels. Visual cues, gestures and expressions helps you understand someone’s state of mind.
Not having easy access to your team can be unsettling, but the enemy of this is micro-management. Manage expectations, outcomes and limits - not tasks.
Make use of messaging tools over calls where appropriate. Especially if all you need is a quick confirmation or clarification, make technology work for you.
Encourage contribution and celebrate achievement. Remote working can be hard, let people know they are valued.
Kyle: What existing film title would you give your last virtual open day?
Rebecca: Field of dreams.
Kyle (Education Marketer): Covid-19 has forced universities to tear up their marketing playbook, what’s working right now?
Rebecca: We’ve reduced face-to-face and tactile products, switching to digital only forms of recruitment campaigns and comms.
This narrowing has focused the whole university on the importance of digital – not only for marketeers but right through to academic staff.
Our academic colleagues have engaged with marketing to deliver webinars, live chat, as well as reusable and on demand content, which in a standard cycle would not have been possible.
Kyle: All your higher education marketing roles over the last 11 years have focussed on student recruitment. What have you learned?
Rebecca: There is no silver bullet. You must stay curious about your audience - 500,000 people across the UK are in no way a homogenous group.
To create that emotional connection we’re all looking for, we have to be able to uncover the shifting hopes, dreams and fears of the audience.
Our job is to distil, to show what the University experience would look like, so they can make an informed choice.
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