Higher Education

Customized Solutions

Close your eyes for a minute. Think back to high school. What do you remember? One summer, at band camp? The homecoming game when you scored the winning touchdown and you were carried off the field by your teammates? The night you and your friends sat out under the stars at a bonfire and swapped your life’s dreams? Or that one teacher who stayed after school with you every day for a month to help you understand geometry? Or was it all those view books, postcards, letters, offers, emails, phone calls, and pennants you received from every college or university within driving distance? 

It wasn’t the latter, that is for sure. It was one of the others, to be sure. Or another memory so seared into your brain that it has had a lasting impact on your life. One smell, one song, can bring it all back in an instant. It is the memories — the stories — that grab and hold our attention, our hearts. The storytelling engages our brains in such a way that makes a place unforgettable. It can build it up to almost epic portions, if done well. 

And that is what Marketing Works does very, very well. We tell the story of your institution to your prospective and current students, their families, guidance counselors and coaches, donors and alumni in a voice and tone, in language that resonates with them through channels they naturally engage with and make them want more. 

We weave these stories for institutions of higher education, just like yours. We make your campus come alive for students who are in the next county or thousands of miles away. We make it easy for your brand to shine through and take center stage for them, and leave them wanting more. And then we give it to them in a carefully articulated marketing strategy meant to get them through the recruitment, admission, and yield process with ease. We also plan for melt strategies, Orientation, Welcome Week, and some check-ins the first month. We also plan a segue to retention/rerecruitment strategy for both the students and parents. 

We don’t use templates. We don’t use rubber stamps. We don’t rinse and repeat. When telling your unique story, Marketing Works takes the time to listen, understand, and create a strategy that works with your budget, your campus culture, and provides you precisely what you need to get where you need to be. All while addressing each specific audience through their channel and using language that will resonate with them. 

Brand Activation Strategy

We reveal your value proposition and the reason it sets you apart. Then, we unleash it — transforming your reputation by saturating the right markets with the right messages, moving your audience to take the appropriate (and anticipated) action. 

Vying for attention and engagement in higher education is a hyper-competitive proposition. Today’s students no longer adhere to a linear progression from engagement to enrollment. Today’s prospective students are incredibly savvy, brand-conscious, and have more information at their fingertips daily than any previous generation.

 We don’t ascribe to the "more is more" philosophy. We don’t promise increased enrollment by sending it to the masses through one primary channel. We tell your story to the right person at the right time through the right channel. We get it. We want you to be successful. 

This is not a one size fits all approach.

Your marketing solutions will be as unique as your institution’s story.

 

Build Your Enrollment Marketing Solution

Brand Strategy

The market is saturated with “everything to everyone” marketing. Marketing Works equips you to step out of the herd by revealing the core story that sets you apart—and unleashing it. In the midst of all the noise, we transform your reputation, saturating the right markets with your authentic story, told in the right way, moving your audience to care—and to respond.

Marketing Strategy and Execution

Powerful marketing begins with confidence and understanding. Marketing Works has the tools to gather the data that matters most—and the expertise to know exactly what it means for you. From there, we empower you to act with absolute clarity by reimagining, deploying, tracking, and refining every element of your marketing efforts. 

Small college concierge

Having partnered with small colleges throughout our history, we recognize that small colleges are facing unique challenges—we intend to deliver the innovation required to best support the small college community.

With our small team, we are nimble enough to be a small college concierge, serving the small college community through specialized products designed to better support the needs of small institutions and project teams assembled not only for their talent, but for personal and professional small college backgrounds. 

We are a partner. We deliver the results you seek by delivering the answers you need, arming you with the research and insights to make strategic choices that move the needle. Then we work alongside you to turn those strategies into transformative action.

HERE'S HOW.

Brand strategy
Some of the most powerful answers are the ones only you can give. We help you define your institution’s true sense of self, equipping your key stakeholders with the strategic tools to bring clarity to your messaging.

  • Brand story and positioning
  • Brand identity
  • Brand training 

Digital marketing
Whatever audience you want to reach, this is where they live—and it’s where we thrive. We are digital pioneers, not just following best practices but defining them, putting you ahead of the curve and delivering measurable results every time.

  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Pay-per-Click
  • Social media marketing 
  • Online display marketing
  • Tracking and attribution
  • G4 Analytics

Marketing Strategy
We reveal your unique position in your unique market, identifying strategic opportunities to build a marketing plan that will engage the right audiences, in the right ways, at the right time. This goes beyond marketing best practice—it’s custom marketing strategy shaped to your goals.

  • Marketing operations 
  • Communication analysis 
  • Strategic marketing planning
    Segmentation strategy

Creative
We bring your brand story to life in compelling, unexpected, authentic ways that stand apart and inspire your audience to respond, to connect, and to act.

  • Print and digital creative
  • Brand identity and standards
  • Creative campaigns
  • Photography and video
  • Creative consultation and training

Website Development and Design
As your preeminent marketing, enrollment, and digital strategy tool, your website deserves a strategy that is data-driven, story-focused, user-tested, search-engine-optimized, and ADA-compliant. 

  • User Experience Design
  • Content Strategy
  • User Research
  • Technology Services

Let's collaborate and take your institution/business to the next level.

Let's talk.