It’s May, Be Creative!
May is a transitional month in higher education. As teams focus on closing out the current recruitment cycle, there is a narrow, often-overlooked opportunity: capturing the authentic stories of graduating students before they leave campus. Instead of focusing solely on summer lead generation, marketing teams must shift their attention to gathering real stories, photos, quotes, and video clips that will provide stronger material for next year's campaigns.
Capture Authentic Stories
Before the campus clears out, you have a brief window to sit down with your graduates. To make sure the story you tell is still true a year from now, you must go back to basics and think about what the audience actually wants to see.
Looping in the students who have just lived the experience provides the most compelling proof of your institution's value. When you speak directly to your current students and alumni, you project a future that aligns perfectly with what your next class of students will expect.
Coordinate Across Teams
Marketing cannot capture all of these stories in a vacuum. This initiative requires real coordination across admissions, student affairs, and marketing. You have to already know which students have strong stories and partner with those departments to capture those voices.
It is critical to align how recruitment tells the story with how the institution describes the experience, and then incorporate those points into your creative work. Whether it is recording a capstone moment, getting a final student quote, or documenting the alumni handoff, working together ensures that the stories you collect in May will directly support the talking points your recruiters will need in September.
Keep the Story Honest
Managing these stories well is not just about organizing video files and photos into folders. It is about protecting your brand's truth. When my team reviews creative, I want to know that the message is accurate and connected to the real student experience.
I ask one simple question: if our ads were inside the building, would they tell the truth and say something interesting? Capturing real stories directly from your graduates ensures that the answer is always yes.
You “Ken” Quote Me
I’ve been collecting observations and reflections on marketing and communications for more than 20 years. That archive inspired me to share these bits of wisdom through a blog. The quotes below, which helped shape this article, are my words and thoughts from that collection:
"Make sure the story you tell is still true a year from now by talking with those who have just lived the experience."
"Align how recruitment tells the story with how students really describe their experience, and incorporate those points in your creative."
"If our ads were inside the building, would they tell the truth, and would they say something interesting?"
Let's Discuss It!
How is your team coordinating with other departments to capture authentic student stories before the academic year officially closes? Drop me a message on LinkedIn and let me know how you're capturing these critical narratives. I’m always looking to connect with other marketing leaders to share real-world strategies.