Why every HE marketer should own more than one hat

Sarah De Guzman, Marketing Manager

From the woolly to the wacky variety, I've never really been a big fan of hats. No matter where I look or what I try I just can't seem to make it work for me. It's either the wrong size, or style, or in most cases the wrong price. Whatever the reason, it's always something extra to carry! But over the years I've had a change of heart, and have warmed up to the idea of an extra accessory, both literally and figuratively speaking.

Up until a few months ago, the marketing team pretty much took care of itself. We wrote and actioned our plans, we produced publications, and we worked towards our own objectives and corporate priorities. However, the scope of our role is always changing, and never more so than now. And that's why owning more than one hat becomes all the more important, whether you like the look or not!

Take a look below to see just how many hats a HE Marketer needs:

Everyday Flat Cap - business
as usual

The first hat of the day is the Flat Cap, otherwise known as the everyday hat - a must-have staple for any marketer. This is the run-of-the-mill, day-to-day operations that forms the back bone of any team and its output. From processing prospectus requests and crunching data, to formulating briefs and campaign plans, to monitoring budgets and platform performance, the daily role of a university marketer is a varied beast. Our day-to-day roles involve rolling out and implementing a series of marketing plans and initiatives, optimising and modifying existing work, whilst planning for, and working on, 3 consecutive recruitment cycles at any one time. Did I also mention juggling skills are essential?

Creative hat - brimming full of
inspiration and ideas

Without any doubt, a marketer will always need a Creative Hat. Whether it's conducting photoshoots to get that impactful image, writing dynamic copy to hook in the reader, or conjuring up new ways to reach an audience and appeal to their interests, there's always an element of creativity involved in a marketers day job. After recently writing a creative brief, I've spent some time meeting with three design agencies over the course of the last week, to discuss their artwork interpretations, and to shape the look and feel of our impending campaigns: Clearing and 2017 Annual. We've also just launched our 2017 Undergraduate prospectus, which has been 5 months in the making, and another creative outlet to showcase our points of differentiation, and market positioning. It's also been great to see that my More than a degree brain child has manifested itself as a brand-new section of the website, courtesy of our Marketing Assistant, Sara. Again, it presents another creative outlet to market the University and present a niche against our competitors.

Safari explorer hat at the ready - on an
Open Day discovery

A quick change of costume and it's on to the Safari Explorer Hat for us. Over the last few weeks the Marketing team has been working hard to promote Open Days as the perfect opportunity to discover more about university and student life, to both applicants and late enquirers alike. But we haven't just been supporting on the marketing frontier. It was all hands on deck recently, as we helped set up for the big event over at our Luton campus (and I gave the team, and our Head of Recruitment a master-class in the art of table origami aka folding the corners nicely, much to their amusement). We also manned the open day registration desks and were chatting with, what we hope to be the newest crop of students come September, and getting them to sign in, whilst talking them through the wealth of shiny new publications and information we had on hand. It was great to see all of the marketing materials that we produce being used and so warmly received.

Future-thinking - a digital shift

Back in the office, and there's another switch to be made. This time, we've got our Digital Hat on to complete the task in hand. Over the last few months the team has been undergoing a series of (very) early Monday morning training sessions to up-skill in the digital arena. We've been adding another string to our bow, progressing on from being a 'traditional' marketing team, and predominantly print-led. This has seen us leading on the implementation of Google Search, Display and Re-targeting, as well as driving forward the text, artworking and targeting for paid Social Media content.

Whilst all the extra work makes for a busy day, with us sometimes having to wear all hats at once, it definitely adds even more variety to our roles and makes us even more versatile and knowledgeable about our craft. We're well on our way to making the move from a traditional team to multi-tasking, multi-function and multi-platform marketers.

To make it in marketing you have to be able to adapt with the times and move within a constantly changing environment. For us, if something isn't changing, we're wondering why it's still standing still and why we're getting left behind. For us this has meant diversifying our skills and our remit to ensure optimum performance and results, even it if it has affected our head wear, or in my case, the previous lack there of.

A small but mighty team

I think this week’s post will be a quick one from me. You might think it’s the pressure getting to me this week, as we’ve just been nominated for an award for our blog in the UK Blog Awards 2016 (sorry for the not so subtle plug there). But in reality, it's maybe because things are ticking along - there's lot's going on as always; reports, plans, campaigns, conversion activity, meetings, print collateral, emails - OK I'll stop there! But there's not a lot of new things to report as quite often a lot of the work we do is ongoing. We're a small but mighty team!

So, what have I been up to since last time...

I’ve started to update our in-house style guide that I mentioned in my previous blog post. I’ve amended the format a little and added in some things that I think were missing from the previous version, using inconsistencies that I have come across when working on previous printed collateral. I’ll be sense checking it and then liaising with other teams in the department for their feedback – digital, comms, CRM, and the rest of the marketing team – anyone who writes or creates anything external facing for our audiences.

The UCAS convention season is fast approaching, so I’ve been liaising with the recruitment team to ensure we’re armed with collateral for all of the events that we attend around the UK, as well as planning the collateral we’ll need for the UCAS convention that we’re hosting at our Bedford campus on 20-22 June. This will be the third UCAS convention we’ve held on campus and each year the recruitment team are building on the success of the previous year’s event, with each year getting bigger and better. We welcome thousands of students and schools through our doors so it’s a key time for us!

I also helped out at yesterday’s open day – the first time I’ve been able to support the recruitment team during an event. I was working on the CATS registration desk at our Luton campus – scanning people in and giving them a rundown of the day’s events.

Some positive open day feedback

As well as the above, I've been working on different conversion activity – emails, print collateral and so on – this time of year is crucial for us, so we're working on pulling out all the stops. 

And finally, I’ve almost finished two more evaluation reports – the first time I’ve been a head on reports in a wee while.

Speak soon,

K

Another exciting week in the Marketing Department!

It's been an exciting week in the Marketing Department as we've officially signed off the 2017 UG prospectus and UG mini prospectus for print! A lot of work goes into the prospectuses including design briefs, photography, liaising with academics and much more, so it's really great to see it all come together. I know I've said it before but I can't wait for you all to see it!

In my previous post I mentioned that I was working on a project called "more than a degree". I've been out and about around campus over the last couple of weeks meeting students and staff across various projects including the Law Clinic, the Sports Therapy Clinic and the Students' Union. There's so much happening at UoB that people may not know about and I've found it really interesting to actually have the chance to speak to some of the people involved in certain projects and hear about their passions, and how these extra-curricular activities are influencing their studies, and, in some cases, providing them with experience for their future careers. The "more than a degree" section should be live on the website in a couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled! 

As part of a the "more than a degree" project I went to watch one of the industry talks at the School of Art & Design. The talk was by graphic designer, Jonathan Barnbrook, (who happens to have grown up in Luton!), whose work includes various projects with the late, legendary David Bowie, and Banksy's Dismaland. The talk was really interesting and gave the students some great insight into what life in industry may be like!

Some of you may have heard that from September 2016 PG students will be entitled to student loans to help support their studies. I'm very excited for this as it provides an opportunity for more students to further their studies and their passions. If you want to find out a little more about the PG loans you can watch our video here.

I've also been helping Kylie with the Open Day plans, sending emails to our applicants and enquirers to let them know about our February Open Day. Open Days are a great way for potential students (and their families) to come along and experience what life at Beds may be like and to take a tour of our campus and accommodation. They're also a good way to find out a bit more about our courses and even meet current students. 

Passage from India

Eat your heart out Bernard Matthews

The last nut roast and turkey have long since been despatched to the back of the freezer and Christmas and New Year are distant memories. We’ve already passed UCAS’s January admission deadline (don’t worry; there’s still plenty of time to join either Bedfordshire or another university next year) and we – that is the wider Marketing, Admissions, Recruitment and Communications team - are furiously signing off prospectuses and talking to potential students about how we can help them onto their dream course.

I’ve been trying to balance helping Marketing colleagues and those elsewhere across the University and not getting in their way, while setting up applicant surveys, both for those who have accepted an offer from us, and for those who have chosen a different institution. It happens.

No, not the new LRC in Luton....this is Hampi

And I’ve also just got back from an indulgent holiday in India (Mumbai, Hampi, Mysore and Cochin). As I booked all the transport and hotels myself, I spent a huge chunk of time on arrangements, fending off auto rickshaws and staying healthy, and being overawed by some of the things I saw and places I visited. India, for those who haven’t been or haven’t heard, is an incredibly intense country. I wonder if the first time UKvisitor can ever really be prepared to take on the heat, the poverty, the dust, the traffic, the tendency for things to ‘work’ ‘differently’, the bureaucracy, the careful arrangements around securing drinking water, the local customs, airport customs, the veg vs non-veg, A/C vs non A/C and the cavalier approach to health and safety. I managed to stay in tip top physical condition, although at times, was mentally exhausted. From what I saw, however, India is a truly great, beautiful and incredibly friendly country. And chaotic. Thoroughly recommended.

One thing that being in India did reinforce was the desire of people across the world to widen their experience, typically through learning and/or travelling. I’d be exaggerating if I said I ‘roughed it’ at any point in my journey, but in Mumbai, Mysore and Cochin, there were numerous and often very prominent adverts and offices extolling the virtues and wisdom of studying abroad. And it wasn’t just the locals, backpackers, too, never seem that shy of recounting their own tall tales and shaggy dog stories about the dangerous and obscure places they’ve struggled through.

Blah blah blah "caught in a monsoon"
blah blah "no electricity", blah blah "dirty pants"

What does this mean for the University of Bedfordshire and similar institutions? Because of the UK’s excellent higher education reputation, it means more students. In recent years, there have been political pressures which have deterred the flow of overseas students, despite the well-known, well reported benefits to the UK of doing so. But those students who do come - whether it’s from India, or China, or Nigeria, or Europe - bring experiences and knowledge which can only enrich university life. Universities are and will hopefully continue to be cultural melting pots, where differences in cultural views and experiences are aired and welcomed. And it’s quite humbling to think of the lengths and sacrifices some make to follow their dreams of studying in the UK.

The likelihood of international students (i.e. those from outside the European Union) coming to study in the UK may have been slightly – and hopefully temporarily – dampened. A healthy curiosity to explore other cultures is still evident, however. Only this week, the European Commission reported on increasing numbers studying or training abroad, with the UK one of the main recipients of more than 250,000 Erasmus students in 2013-14. Which is fantastic news; the fact that, in brutal economic terms, higher education is a major UK money spinner is one thing – the chance to see the world in microcosm and immerse yourself with people from across the world in a cosmopolitan environment at Bedfordshire is a fantastic additional benefit.