Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference – WOW!
What a week! Graduate school professionals from across the country gathered last week in Boston to join Stamats and other higher education experts for a great conference. I feel fortunate to have participated in a great couple of days of conversation. While we were all impressed with some excellent presentations, great data, and goals to aspire to, the best part of the conference for me was the extraordinarily impressive audience of people who attended the conference and engaged in discussions. They truly brought terrific depth to our time together.
We wrapped this year’s conference up with an audience led “Key Take-a-way” session that really did a nice job of summing up the ah-ha moments of the conference. The discussion gave us all something to think about as we traveled home. If you weren’t able to join us the list below will at least provide you a taste of our discussion. If you were at the conference, I write this as a reminder to you—don’t lose these good thoughts.
- The Web is an absolute necessity and a key marketing tool for graduate programs
- There has been an undisputable rise of for-profit education programs in the graduate school marketplace. The change in competition has impacted our landscape.
- There is a creativity to the use of social media to reach out to prospective and current students as well as alumni
- The importance of customer service with this expectant population
- Facts (data, stats, and numbers) can be your best friends when making decisions or trying to convince others of the decisions that need to be made
- When it comes to enrollment, the school who gets there first often has the best opportunity to convert the student
What is happening in higher education today is, at times, a bit concerning to think about. During the course of the conference we explored a number of very challenging issues that were not always easy to learn about or discuss. However, I was truly encouraged by the commitment, determination, intelligence, and entrepreneurial spirit of the professionals I had the pleasure of spending a few days with. Thank you for attending the conference and sharing with us the benefits of your mistakes and victories and the lessons learned from each.
Want to join another great conversation? Check out Stamats’ Adult Student Marketing Conference in San Antonio, TX, February 23–25!
Photo by Darcie
