After a sabbatical of about two years, its time for me to get back in the saddle and start to blog again.
It is not important why I stopped, only to say that I had some personal circumstances that I needed to focus on and really needed a break from the Sisyphusian grind of a regular blog deadline. I had been blogging for my friend Phil Taza, at Higher Education Marketing in Montreal. We posted on a weekly basis for about 3 years, all about digital recruitment marketing in higher ed. I had the chance to polish my skills in blogging and we produced some pretty good content. Most of those posts are still up on their blog and remain relevant, though a bit dated. Working with Phil was a great experience for me. He is a true ninja master of google analytics and I learned a lot from him. I recommend him highly to anyone looking for an agency to market their school.
Blogging is hard work. If you stop regularly writing and publishing it can be very challenging to get back into the saddle. But I’ve had my break and it is time to get back to work. My plan is to post twice a month and work myself up a more frequent schedule. We’ll start slow and see where things lead.
What is the goal of this blog?
The goal of this blog is to help marketers make sense of the relentlessly changing world of digital marketing in the higher education marketplace. We’ll cover lots of topics for recruitment marketing, where I focus much of my current consulting work. We’ll also examine new ed tech products and services and discuss the evolving digital marketing technologies we use to market and sell them. In short, we’ll cover the intersection of digital marketing, higher education, and technology.
My guiding principle for marketing in this complex and rapidly evolving environment is that the fundamental rules of the effective marketing do not change. It’s finding the right formula for the application of these rules, in the context of today’s complex digital marketing ecosystem, that’s the real challenge.
In these times, we have all had to become students in a fickle vocation, always chasing currency and competency, let alone mastery. But I am happy with that; I love learning the new technology and exploring its untested potential. And then there are the moments when I hate it, but those feelings only lasts a little while. Mostly, I am motivated by the challenge of it.
First understanding, then determining its potential through the lens of the higher ed environment and then applying it to produce the best possible business outcomes. I don’t claim to know or understand all its nuances but then who can? These days it takes a channel specialist to keep up with the all the specific changes in things like Adwords and Facebook. I do know I am reasonably skilled at figuring out what I need to know and then explaining it in a way that can be useful to other marketers.
What specific topics will we blog about?
Primarily, this blog will cover a range of digital marketing and higher ed topics like,
- Digital marketing strategy, tools and tactics
- Branding and web development
- SEO, PPC and content marketing
- Recruitment marketing
- Social media marketing
But I also plan to get back to my roots a bit and explore more emerging tech that I’m interested in. Over the years I have worked with a lot of people and companies on the leading edge of higher ed tech. I really love that space. So, I plan to explore more of these, including,
- Online and distance learning products and services
- Augmented and virtual reality for teaching and training
- Artificial intelligence (AI), voice, and blockchain in higher ed
- Higher ed start-ups
So that’s the plan. I hope it sounds interesting and that you will return and join me to explore these topics with me. I look forward to hearing your feedback.
Scott Duncan