Insights

Nice to knows and need to knows.

The hottest trends and latest insights from around the world of higher education.

Start at Home: Higher Ed Brands Require Inside-Out Thinking

Perhaps the most feared words a higher ed marketer can hear are “we’re the best kept secret,” or the even more dreaded “if we only told our story better.” They are phrases every seasoned professional...

Announcements, Resources, Thought leadership
CMO Study Underway: How Has Higher Ed Marketing Changed?

SimpsonScarborough has partnered with The Chronicle of Higher Education and CASE for a comprehensive study of higher ed marketing that will build on the inaugural 2014 study to track our industry’s...

Announcements, Resources
How an Internal Blog Can Help Reposition Your Marcom Team as Strategic Leaders

Once considered primarily a news bureau focused on media relations, the role of the marketing and communications department has and continues to shift dramatically. And while higher ed marketers...

Resources, Thought leadership
A Tweet or a Snap: How to Speak to Students on Social Media

As an incoming freshman at a university with over 50,000 graduate and undergraduate students, I was worried that I would find it difficult to feel connected with my school just given its sheer size....

Resources, Thought leadership
How Colleges Can Advocate on Behalf of Students in the Face of Mounting Debt

The current generation of prospective undergraduate students is faced with the harsh reality of mounting student debt and unforgiving loan rates. The already complicated exercise of assessing the...

Resources, Thought leadership
Benchmarking Your Brand Strength

Everyone knows they need to be doing it but many don’t know how. Typically, brand strength is measured through periodic research with your target audiences, which could include prospective students,...

Resources, Thought leadership
Getting the Most Out of Prospective Student Qualitative Research

“The University costs too much.” “I don’t like the location. I don’t know why, but I don’t.” Or “the dorms have a funny smell.” As a market researcher, there is nothing more frustrating than getting...

Resources, Thought leadership
The Brand Launch: Don’t Let It Sneak Up on You

When you were reading our newsletter last month, you may have been surprised to read that in our 2014 study with The Chronicle of Higher Education, almost a third of higher ed marketers said their...

Resources, Thought leadership
Higher Ed Marketing: Where Are We Now?

In 2014, half of higher education's chief marketing officers reported to the president or chancellor, 30% said their institutions had not yet defined their institutional brand strategies, and 84%...

Announcements, Resources, Thought leadership
2016 AMA Call for Papers
Events, Resources
Congratulations to the 2016 SimpsonScarborough Scholars

SimpsonScarborough is pleased to announce the selection of four CASE SimpsonScarborough Scholars for 2016. Launched in honor of our late founding partner Christopher Simpson, the program supports the...

Announcements, Resources
We Work Hard for Your Response Rates

At SimpsonScarborough, we have two or three online surveys in the field at any given time with a variety of constituents—prospective students, the general public, guidance counselors, alumni, and...

Resources, Thought leadership
Two Steps to Better Higher Ed Advertising

Higher ed advertising is hard. Start with the sheer volume of messages—apply, visit, attend, sign up, learn more (just to name a few). Add to that a wide range of audiences—prospects, parents, higher...

Resources, Thought leadership