Aug 16th 11 Posted by Kati Davis

News IS Your Blog (& 5 Universities Running with the Idea)

Does your institution have a content rich, easily sharable news section of your site? If yes, feel free to stop reading. But, if you’re still only posting press releases in regular press release fashion, I can guarantee you’re missing out on valuable traffic. Your news is your blog. You don’t even need to call it a blog―just treat it like one. The idea is that there is a section of the site... read more

Jul 28th 11 Posted by Kati Davis

#StamatsSIM TeensTALK Takeaways

Yesterday a panel of 19 teenagers weighed in on many aspects of their college search at the Stamats Strategic Integrated Marketing Conference (aka #StamatsSIM). Fortunately, you didn’t have to be in Chicago to hear their feedback thanks to live streaming of the session from the wonderful people at HigherEdLive. There was a lively discussion on the back channel throughout the discussion. Here’s... read more

Jul 21st 11 Posted by Kati Davis

TeensTALK Panel to be on Higher Ed Live

Know what you’re doing next Wednesday from 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.? I wanted to share a little something that might catch your eye… If you’re a higher-education marketing or admissions professional, you need to know. And there’s no better source than a panel of talkative teens that ANY college or university would welcome with open arms. We’re gathering outstanding,... read more

Feb 22nd 11 Posted by Kati Davis

3 Program Page Approaches to Steal

Zappos sells shoes. Best Buy sells electronics. Netflix rents movies. Marketing a commodity online is much easier than marketing higher education, right? Wrong. The difference is that there’s a much longer “purchase” cycle in higher education. But over and over again students continually cite a single thing as one of the most important deciding factors: the program. Sure, college... read more

Aug 14th 09 Posted by Kati Davis

Are Your Web Site Users Navigating or Running in Circles?

As a Web strategist, each time I approach a new information architecture project, I struggle with one idea: Is audience navigation truly essential? How does having audience navigation impact visitor use of your site? Is the information and links they find by clicking “future student” redundant with that found under “academics” or does it act as a landing page to product links that point you... read more