Survey: Higher Ed Marketeers Fail To Use Popular Media

Despite the wave of social media such as FaceBook, blogs, and instant messaging invading higher ed campuses, fewer than 8 percent of higher-ed marketers use such alternative channels to reach prospective students, according to a recent survey by advertising and marketing firm Media Logic Inc.

Instead, e-mail is their application of choice--a medium that is being ignored by students. Among the findings from the survey of 120 higher education marketers, Media Logic reported that 95 percent have e-mail marketing in place, and 62 percent are using e-marketing to target alumni. But less than half are using e-marketing to reach current students, faculty, community, corporate, and other constituents.

More than 50 percent of respondents use some form of a Web analytics tool for measurement, but only 35 percent are able to determine what content leads visitors to convert on the Web site, the firm said. Twenty percent are not tracking anything. More than 70 percent of respondents identify such obstacles as being an inhibitor to the launch and growth of their recruitment and fundraising campaigns. More info:

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

Featured

  • glowing brain above stacked coins

    The Higher Ed Playbook for AI Affordability

    Fulfilling the promise of AI in higher education does not require massive budgets or radical reinvention. By leveraging existing infrastructure, embracing edge and localized AI, collaborating across institutions, and embedding AI thoughtfully across the enterprise, universities can move from experimentation to impact.

  • programming code and digital gears

    NVIDIA Intros Open Source Tools for Building and Deploying AI Agents

    At its recent GTC 2026 conference, NVIDIA rolled out a new open source software package designed to help organizations build, deploy, and manage AI agents.

  • abstract colored blocks

    OpenAI Drops Sora Short-Form AI Video Platform

    OpenAI is reportedly dropping Sora, its generative AI model that creates short video clips from text prompts, images, or existing video inputs. The move upends the company's December partnership with The Walt Disney Company.

  • Blue metallic mesh fabric folds

    Microsoft Acquires Osmos for Agentic AI Data Engineering

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.