Marketing is Mission Work

What if some of your college's biggest marketing problems aren't actually marketing problems? A prospective student sees an inspiring ad, clicks through to a confusing website, fills out a form, waits days for a response, receives an email full of institutional jargon, and gets passed from one office to another. The campaign worked. The experience didn't. In "Marketing Is Mission Work: How Colleges Can Build Trust, Remove Barriers, and Better Serve Students," nationally recognized higher education marketing leader Cheryl Broom challenges colleges to think beyond campaigns, logos, advertising, and enrollment numbers—and look at the entire experience they create for students. Because students don't experience your organizational chart. They experience one institution. Every webpage, email, search result, phone call, form, meeting, handoff, and unanswered question teaches students something about whether your college is organized, welcoming, trustworthy, and ready to help them move forward. Drawing on nearly two decades of work in and with colleges and universities, Broom combines candid stories, practical lessons, real-world examples, and conversations with higher education leaders to explore what happens when the promise institutions make through marketing collides with the reality students encounter. Throughout the audiobook, Cheryl explores how colleges can: * Position marketing and communications as strategic partners rather than order takers. * Build a brand that is reflected in the experience students actually receive. * Bring communicators into important conversations before decisions are already made. * Create websites, search experiences, and content that work for students—and an AI-driven future. * Identify processes and handoffs that quietly cause students to lose momentum. * Communicate in clear, accessible language that helps people understand what to do next. * Reach specific audiences with messages that reflect what they actually need and value. * Tell more authentic student stories that help prospective students see what is possible. * Move beyond clicks and impressions to understand what marketing results really mean. * Protect strong strategy from committees, personal preferences, and "just one more change." * Connect marketing, communication, enrollment, service, and student experience back to the institution's mission. Each lesson includes a field note designed to turn an idea into action. Use them individually, with a marketing team, in an enrollment meeting, at a cabinet retreat, or with colleagues across campus to identify one place where the student experience can become clearer, easier, and more human. This book asks colleges to look beyond departments and see the student experience as one connected journey. It is for presidents, senior leaders, marketers, communicators, enrollment teams, faculty, advisors, student services staff, web teams, and campus partners who all play a role in how students experience the institution. You don't have to fix everything at once. Start with one message. One webpage. One process. One handoff. One meeting. One moment of unnecessary confusion. Then make it better. Marketing may start the relationship, but the student experience belongs to the whole institution.