Orlando has a way of delivering magic, even when you walk in with high expectations. But this trip was about stepping onto a stage for the first time as a conference speaker at the eduWeb Summit, sharing how higher ed marketing and communications teams can do more with less.
The Session: Actually Doing More With Less
Scaling Retention Marketing with Shrinking Budgets
While institutions are laser-focused on growing brand and enrollment marketing teams to combat the enrollment cliff and industry-wide reputational concerns, retention-driving communications are too often left to under-resourced, siloed, or non-existent teams. In a climate of shrinking budgets and growing workloads, how can marcomm leaders realistically support the initiatives that prevent transfers and dropouts?
Fordham University’s Career Center found the answer. Three years ago, the department was a punchline for student-made memes regarding excessive, poor-quality emails. Today, it boasts exponential growth in service usage and skyrocketing digital KPIs. The kicker? These new strategies and tactics have halved the marketing budget, saved countless hours, and supported cross-functional efficiency.
In this session, the Fordham Career Center’s team of one will share how she overcame technological hurdles, navigated shrinking budgets, and adapted inspiration from some of the biggest names in entertainment and e-commerce to boost engagement, increase accessibility, and, most importantly, fulfill a mission to deliver holistic care across the entire student journey. Attendees will learn low-barrier-of-entry tactics and strategies to apply to email, web, and content marketing, regardless of team size or existing functional area.
Doing more with less is more realistic than you think.
The Conference
A massive highlight was (finally!) meeting peers and mentors in person after so much digital support, including Erin Fields, Laura Rudolph, Kristin Nichols, Chris Rapozo, and Louis Miller. I also loved being introduced to incredible talent like Lynnsee Bing, MBA, Anthony J. Machcinski, Dustin Ramsdell, Meagan Chalmers, M.A., and so many more!
Despite already spending much time with my notes, I’m still thinking about some standout sessions, including:
- Nathan Monk’s game show approach to personalization history and new research
- Joey Raditch, EdD and Autumn Barker’s perfect blend of institutional nostalgia and pop culture for an impactful giving campaign
- Stephanie Geyer’s delightfully wholesome networking session
- Getting a peek into fellow Gator Jeff Holeman and Cecily MacConchie, MBA’s creative strategy
- Immediately actionable keynotes by Staci Grimes, PCM®, CDMP®, Raffi DerSimonian, and Michael Stratta
- Allison Turcio, Ed.D.’s magical opening ceremony (a beautiful full-circle moment, given her outreach is why I submitted a presentation proposal in the first place!)
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