Every higher education institute relies on its reputation in order to ensure its continued success. Ultimately in academia, it’s reputation that facilitates student applications, academic acknowledgements, grants, donations and a plethora of other funding streams that keep the day-to-day running of an institution possible.
Typically, for a university, a combination of brand, published research, the REF (Research Excellence Framework), world league table and student survey results collectively contribute towards the reputation of the institute. However, it is not simply enough to rely on brand history, published papers and table positions to communicate a university’s expertise across subjects and departments. As an institution, the expertise of individuals and departments needs to be effectively communicated in order to enhance the profile and brand value both nationally and internationally.
In this blog post, we take a closer look at what factors higher education institutes should consider when attempting to market and communicate expertise in a way that will both promote the institution and ultimately motivate others to positively engage with the university.
How do we typically perceive expertise?
In order to effectively communicate expertise, it’s important to first understand how expertise is perceived. What exactly is it about a person, business or academic institution that leads us to believe they are experts in the field?
Typically, a person will consider a blend of both objective and subjective factors that collectively contribute to their perception of expertise:
Objective
Academic institutes tend to focus on objective (fact-based) factors when communicating their expertise. This is typically done in the following ways:
- Publishing papers
- PR efforts following the publication of new research
- Attending and presenting at domestic and international conferences
- Third-party partnerships and collaborations
- Promoting league table rankings
- Leveraging the reputations of esteemed employees and collaborators
- Promoting investment in facilities such as libraries, laboratories, equipment, buildings and more.
Subjective
However, in a sea of competition between universities with similar objective merits (comparable league table and REF rankings, research investment, equivalent partnerships etc.), effectively communicating more subjective factors is all too often overlooked.
Particularly in the context of a landscape where improving objective factors can be a slow burn (moving up just a few places in league tables can often take years), focussing on influencing the audience using subjective factors is arguably more important now than ever before. This is why a key opportunity for universities lies in focussing on nailing the marketing of subjective factors that influence our perception of who is ‘the expert’. After all, it can be fine margins that make an institution stand out over a rival institute.
The Ohanian model of source credibility illustrates the ‘subjective opportunity’ perfectly, demonstrating that objective expertise makes up just part of the factors that influence perceived credibility, with more subjective factors such as ‘attractiveness’ and ‘trustworthiness’ key determinants of credibility:
So how can a university enhance its international profile through marketing campaigns?
Of course, a university still needs to leverage its objective factors and communicate them within its marketing messages. However, within any campaign strategy, it is crucial that simultaneously communicating subjective influences is a core focus. In order to do this effectively, marketing campaign design and delivery of the highest quality is key.
Within well thought-out design, tone of voice and delivery of a campaign it is possible to convey the more subjective values identified in the Ohanian model above – such as likeability, familiarity, dependability and honesty.
There are almost an endless number of factors in the design and delivery of a campaign that can influence its success in influencing the subjective, including:
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Colour and font choices
Ensure that colours and fonts used are ‘on-brand’, appropriate to the theme of the campaign and capture the intended audience’s attention. Of course, it’s important to push design boundaries, but that hard work will be wasted if your institution’s brand fades into the background.
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Language and tone of voice
Carefully considering language and tone of voice is key when delivering any campaign, but it is especially important in academia when targeting fellow academics. This aspect of your campaign can be used to influence both the objective and subjective opinion of the audience, so choose your words wisely.
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Personalisation and relevance
It is crucial to ensure that each piece of marketing is tailored and relevant to the audience. There is such a wide range of audiences in academia, from students and alumni to academics, businesses and governments – and making things more complex still, each of these audiences is often interested in a specific research area, so it’s no good trying to use the same message over and over again. For example, if you’re trying to attract the attention of academics on Cosmology & Astronomy to boost your international profile, then ensure that your marketing materials grab their attention, are relevant to them and appear in the right places. Utilizing triggerbased marketing strategies can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your outreach efforts. By analyzing the behaviors and interests of specific audience segments, you can create targeted campaigns that resonate on a deeper level. This personalized approach not only increases engagement but also fosters meaningful connections with each group, ultimately strengthening your institution’s impact and visibility in the academic community.
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Use of channels
Consider who your target audience is and which mix of channels would be best leveraged to reach them as a captive audience. For example, using TV, small and large format print, events, partnerships, esteemed news outlets, online and offline industry-specific publications, blogs, email, social and other digital marketing channels.
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Placement influence
It’s also important to keep in mind the potential knock-on effect of where that advert is placed, and the impact that can have on perceived credibility e.g. an advert placed in The Telegraph vs. The Sun, or in an airport vs. the corner shop – there is a right and wrong place for your campaign depending on the intended audience.
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Frequency of an advert / marketing communication across those channels
How often has that individual seen the advert? – Showing an ad too few times can limit its impact, but equally too many times can lessen a person’s opinion of that brand / institution (viewed as spam).
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Quality of the marketing materials
Quality marketing collateral that is rich in colour and made from quality materials is a key subjective influencer. This quality underpins the ‘attractiveness’ of your campaign and so skimping here should not be an option.
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Keep it simple
Particularly when communicating academic expertise, institutions can try to convey too many messages within a marketing campaign. This can dilute its impact. It’s important to keep this in mind throughout the design process for each aspect of the campaign, as sometimes it’s more effective to communicate one or two key messages, than several messages that become forgettable.
Ultimately, it’s clear that there are a whole host of factors to consider when seeking to effectively communicate your expertise in academia. But importantly, the environment is far too competitive to simply rely solely on a campaign that communicates those objective, factual statements about your institution, its research and other credentials. On average, we are exposed to more than 150 adverts and messages per day, and we only remember 0.5 of those – so make sure that you are leveraging both objective and subjective messaging through your campaign design if you want to see a real uplift in results.
Our expert team of print, design and marketing specialists work with some of the UK’s leading academic institutions to deliver both national and international marketing campaigns. If you need help engaging with and motivating key audiences around the world, from students to academics, then get in touch with our AlphaGraphics Education team today.
