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Data-driven content writer, editor and strategist.

[workbyleah]

Welcome!

I write B2B content for companies that want to build relationships with prospective partners This site features excerpts from recent articles and links to where they’ve been published. Below are Google Analytics on my work, and a list of the types of content I can provide upon request. Enjoy!

Google Analtyics for Collegis Education:

• Blog traffic increased 200% within 28 months. • Organic traffic increased 40% within one year. • Average time on page for my articles is 5-9 minutes. • Click-to-open rates on emails consistently higher than industry-average rates.

More content available upon request:

Content strategy Content curation Concept development Creative direction Planning Writing Email campaigns Gated content Infographics Newsletters PPC Social media White papers

[workbyleah]

The Top 10 Dashboards You Need to Grow Enrollment

The more data available, it seems, the more challenging it can be to find meaning in it. In spreadsheet form, data can be dulling and tedious. Patterns get hidden in the rows and columns. And after all your searching for key numbers, you may still find that relevance is lost without cross-referencing the results against other data sources such as Google, a customer relationship management system (CRM) or a learning management system (LMS). Read more.

B2B Blog Posts (Ghost Writing)

For Collegis Education

September 2017

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and ghost write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Breaking Down the Complexities of Higher Ed Data Systems

...Antonson finds that drawing the slides by hand allows his audiences to follow along as he charts how a college’s data systems are connected. He shared that when he presents this way to colleges, the people in the room are able to chime in and become a part of the presentation as he draws. Another benefit is that the complexities of the system are revealed one piece at a time and that helps keep the audience from becoming overwhelmed.“It can be a great way to identify gaps in the team’s understanding of their systems,” said Antonson. Once we draw it out together, the team is more likely to be aligned regarding how they think the system works today, and how to optimize it for tomorrow.” Antonson addressed challenges typically faced by colleges in that their data management teams are usually small, siloed and manage “tons and tons” of users. Considering that colleges manage lifelong relationships with students, and that the way data is used differs during each phase of the student lifecycle: admissions, enrollment and alumni – data management needs quickly spiral... Read more.

Dan Antonson, senior marketing manager, Collegis Education

B2B Blog Post – Recap of a presentation given at the 2018 Big Data Tech conference in Bloomington, MN

For Collegis Education

July 2018

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Three Critical Trends in Higher Ed Martech [Infographic]

Full iinfographic available here.

The capabilities of marketing technology (martech) have taken leaps forward in recent years. To fill the funnel, the industry has left behind mass marketing, replacing it with  personalized messaging aimed at individuals or highly defined groups. We see the funnel becoming narrower at the top and wider at the bottom than what it has traditionally been.

Some marketing tools, such as search engine optimization software, now act as extensions of users’ brains as they recognize not only matching terms, but each individual’s intention behind the search terms they’ve entered.

Because of this, successful marketers are finding that they achieve a higher return on investment when they focus on content that best meets consumers’ intent and leverage this focus in lead nurturing. Read more.

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

December 2018

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

CEO Ghost Writing: Seeking Data Solutions? Aim Higher

How breaking away from fragmented fixes can help colleges meet revenue goals

Recently, a college president shared with Collegis that it’s not unusual for his various teams to need a couple of weeks to respond to requests for data. But, he wants to move faster. He’s always thinking about how his college might be as competitive as possible. In today's world, that means keeping up with the fast pace of digital information. It means being responsive, nimble, and informed – by current information – not data that’s weeks old.

Analytics dashboards, he says, that allow him to track data in real time would really help. But finding such dashboards can be a challenge. The main barrier is that the data needed to create them is buried or siloed. Or, perhaps, not even captured. Read more.

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

January 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research, interview CEO, ghost write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Interview: Exploring Overseas Higher Ed Enrollment Opportunities

As higher ed institutions seek new markets to offset shrinking populations of traditional students, some have opted to partner with overseas colleges and universities. We talked with William Carroll, president of Hunter Global Education, LLC, to learn more about what’s needed to forge this type of partnership.

Carroll has spent nearly two decades building and nurturing partnerships between American and Asian higher ed institutions. He first ventured into this realm while president of Benedictine University, a role he held for 20 years. During his tenure, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Benedictine was the “fastest-growing private nonprofit university in the country” from 2002 through 2012.

Carroll left the university with “class sites in China, Vietnam, Arizona and throughout Illinois...and nearly 10,000 students worldwide,” according to the Benedictine University Newsroom.

In his current role at Hunter Global Education, Carroll continues to serve as a “bridge” between American and Asian institutions and is a champion of distance learning. He took some time to answer a few questions about working with higher ed opportunities from overseas, and we’ve got his answers here. (Read more.)

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

January 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: interviewed subject matter expert, wrote article.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Marketing and Admissions: Better Together

In many colleges, the offices of admissions, advising and the registrar are grouped together, with marketing operating at a distance — often both literally and figuratively. However, at colleges where marketing and admissions are strongly aligned, the strength of their partnerships is reflected in enrollment. Read more.

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

February 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and writer.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

People Who Keep Collegis Running: Andrew Madetzke

Let us introduce you!

Marketers, designers, software engineers … these are just a few of the people who dive into each of our partners’ missions, goals and values in order to create technology-enabled revenue and enrollment growth solutions. Every single person at Collegis is integral to our ability to deliver for our partners. Recently, we sat down with Associate Creative Director Andrew Madetzke to find out who he is and what he does. Read more.

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

May 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing, Collegis employees, job candidates.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients, build employee morale and attract job candidates.

Outcomes: This series began as an experiment. It wasn’t long before we were encouraged to do more. It help with recruiting, and employees loved it. Those who were featured expressed deep humility and gratitude for being noticed. 

Background: In order to be objective about how employees were selected for a profile, I engaged the assistance of HR. They pointed out departments that were especilly challenging to recruit for. Then, I worked with the department head to identify an individual to participate. 

My role: research and write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

White Paper – Higher Ed Market Analysis 2019

“Collegis Report: Higher Ed Programmatic Market Analysis 2019″

For Collegis Education

April 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Increase contact list for emarketing

My role: Collaborate with internal subject matter experts to secure data and insights, collaborate with design team to create the look, feel and layout of the piece, produce, write and edit.

Click here to download the full white paper. (30 pages)

[workbyleah]

20 Buzzwords to Boost Your Martech IQ

Every industry has its buzzwords and higher ed marketing is no different. Marketing technology has made leaps forward in recent years, often generating new words and language to accompany its evolution. Below are 20 terms we use a lot, and get asked about – often. If any of these seem unfamiliar, you’re not alone! But, you’ll likely hear them more throughout the coming year, so get ahead of the curve and use this to prep for chats with your favorite marketing folks. (Read more.)

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

February 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and write

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Personalization and Individualization: Why This Martech Tool Is Ideal for Enrollment Campaigns

“Know your audience” is one of the most time-tested fundamentals of marketing, but with the rise of digital tools and analytics, the concept has evolved. Especially in terms of email marketing and automation, it is now possible to tailor messaging to meet not only the person, but to arrive at a specific, critical point in their journey. You might say it’s detail-driven marketing, aimed at providing the information a prospective student wants and needs at the right time. This marketing approach is often called “personalization and individualization.” (Read more.)

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

February 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: interviewed subject matter experts, wrote article.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Why 2019 Must Be the Year of Tech in Higher Ed

What are your college’s main concerns for 2019? Chances are they involve enrollment, marketing, programming, student experience and revenue. At first glance, these may seem like the domains of separate departments. Drill down, however, and you will see what they have in common: they all use and rely on technology.

We believe that a strong technology infrastructure will be essential to ensuring institutional viability in the coming year. Here’s why. (Read more.)

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

January 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: interviewed subject matter expert, ghost wrote.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

2019 Higher Ed Trends Roundup

“Among higher ed martech teams, we’ll see the funnel narrow at the top and widen at the bottom,” says Brad Frank, chief marketing officer with Collegis Education, when asked what he sees happening in 2019. This reflects the impact of the fast, data-rich digital tools that have overtaken traditional marketing approaches. Revenue was an emerging concern last year and in 2019 that concern will grow. No longer will increased enrollment alone solve financial issues. Institutions will find that in order to position themselves for success, they will need to look at four main systems: information technology, marketing, enrollment and academic programs. Looking at data school-wide vs. by functional area will be critical to support revenue growth. Read more.

B2B Blog Posts

For Collegis Education

December 2018

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and write.

Outcome: Readership spiked on this article, coming in at 10 times higher than usual.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Nonprofit

Content Marketing, Writing

For the Minnesota Food Association’s member newsletter

October 2016

Audience: Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area consumers interested in locally harvested produce, community oriented supporters, people interested in farming, donors to the MN Food Association, training program participants

Meet the Farmer – Crazy Boy Farm

[workbyleah]

Infographic – Gen Z

For Jostens

Renaissance Monthly Subscription Classroom Toolkit

Brochure (4-page) on how current high school students differ from previous generations.

Note: At the time, the company preferred the term “centennial” over “Gen Z.”

August 2015

Monthly Renaissance Kits –Inspiring, fun supplies and lesson plans for educators.

Audience: K-12 School Principals and Educators.

Goal: Encourage educators and arm them with fun, inspiring items to share with students to keep them motivated, or provide special insight in support of educators’ needs.

Outcomes:

–This piece was so popular among sales reps and schools that requests for more surged. Usually, we’d get requests for 50-250 more of any given item. In this case, we had a request for 2000 more from one rep;and requests from many others, too.

–Steadily increasing subscription numbers overall. Unsolicited feedback was enthusiastic and educators often requested supplemental items.

My role each month:

Content development

Research concepts and trends

Write copy

Collaborate with design team, which handles design, colors, fonts, etc.

Background on Centennial Savvy: Jostens enlisted the help of a research company to provide insights into “Centennials,” the generation currently in K-12 grades. The research was shared with our department and we were so moved by what we heard, we felt we had to give the information a prominent spot in the next Renaissance Kit.

I was tasked with selecting the most relevant data points out of hundreds received, removing the business/marketing tone, and making the info school-friendly. I partnered with an in-house art director to come up with the images for the piece.

[workbyleah]

The Most Used and Trusted Sources for Researching Colleges as Named by Prospective Students

Two reports by Eduventures, the research division of The National Research Center for College and University Admissions, reveal wide gaps between how prospective students use social media to research colleges vs. how they use social media in general.

Although students do use social media to research colleges, they report that they use other sources more often, and also report that for college search, social media has not earned their trust. Read more.

B2B Blog Post

For Collegis Education

April 2019

Audience: College and university presidents, VPs of enrollment, and VPs of marketing.

Goal: Collegis Education uses this blog to raise awareness of its services and to earn trust among prospective clients.

My role: research and write.

Click here to read the article.

[workbyleah]

Subscription Toolkit – Concept Development, Writing

Monthly Classroom Toolkit for K-12 Educators

Jostens Hello Box - Activity Flyer

June 2015

Monthly Hello Boxes –Inspiring, fun supplies and lesson plans for educators. Avaiable via monthly subscriptions.

Audience: K-12 School Principals and Educators.

Goal: Encourage educators and arm them with fun, inspiring items to share with students to keep them motivated.

Outcomes: Steadily increasing subscription numbers. Unsolicited feedback is enthusiastic and educators often write in to request supplemental items.

My role each month:

Research concepts and trends.

Write copy.

Collaborate with design team, which handles design, colors, fonts, etc