Here's something we noticed over the past 13 years of making websites for higher education: the master brochure companies that catered to colleges in the last century are now all "marketing and branding" firms. Marketing a college experience like it was a tortilla chip is something relatively new in the pantheon of higher education. But applying a known marketing fad from one "industry" to another has always worked in the past.

Beyond those master brochures of yesterday, with their glossy, 4-color layouts and fancy-fonted text, little was done to lure prospects onto campus. Sure, there were postcards and college fairs, but that about covered all those arrows in the marketing quiver of yore for a college.

Today, each college name is a "brand" with everything that goes with that. Websites are now considered the main marketing arm of any college institution and the master brochure printing run is a fraction of what it used to be.

But what do these newly re-invented graphic houses [now marketing and branding firms] have to offer colleges in terms of luring prospects?

The short answer is new ways to run up a consulting bill without any guarantee of results.

What we find astonishing is that after a marketing & branding firm has submitted their "executive summary" of what should be done with everything to lure more prospects, there are few significant changes made to the institution's website, especially the content. Before you get lured into a five-figure branding bath, make sure you have covered the basics on your own website. If you haven't, then all the targeted advice of the marketing & branding people will likely not last as long as last year's IPOD.

• Make it a requirement to post all stories and profiles in the Alumni Magazine on the college website, especially the big color photos!

• Start tapping into the hundreds of digital photographers who reside on campus. This is one huge, free resource that is largely neglected by almost all colleges.

• Start posting photo galleries of the student experience on campus and away from campus. Make the galleries simple to operate, using the simplest of "carousels" [those "previous" and "next" buttons]. Make the photos at least 1000 pixels wide. The days of dialup are pretty much over and we can now post some decent resolution photos online without frustrating visitors.

• Take those galleries and make them easily accessible...don't bury them five levels down in your website. A button labeled "photo galleries" on the homepage would suffice.

• Include campus lore as a part of your content mix. When those "branders" ask what makes your campus unique [oh, they didn't ask that?], you should have a list a mile long ready to erupt describing famous alums, famous panty raids, when your students water-ballooned the visiting team's spectators in the stands from a neighboring dorm roof during that showdown game...a special award given yearly on campus, fond memories of any alum, etc.

• Post a faculty profile of the month, then start an archive of those.

• Do the same thing with alums.

• Hire a web content manager who only does content and not code.

And this is just a start. What does all of the above cost? A great deal less than the branding swindlers.

-Tim Corwin
December, 2008