The Exchange

In my experience, roles like marketing automation and paid digital marketing were particularly challenging for us to find – we were getting outspent by industry and other institutions. This pain point helped form my vision for eCity to assist our clients by providing these services at relatively affordable rates.

What do you wish your colleagues in higher ed knew about the vendor/corporate side of GEM?

Be direct and transparent about your budget, as it allows for a more efficiently scoped and successful proposal to meet your objectives. I find clients can be gun-shy when the conversation turns to the budget.

What do you wish your current colleagues in the vendor/corporate side knew about higher ed?

Assess the organizational culture and internal capabilities of your client before providing a solution. You might believe you have the right tool or strategies, but if the team isn’t able, or doesn’t have the desire to utilize it, the project will ultimately fail. We see this often with CRM and marketing automation implementations.

What are the pros & cons of your change and what do you like or miss about changing from an institutional role to a vendor role?

On the client-side, I had the luxury of understanding every aspect of the student journey. But now, since I have multiple clients each with a complex portfolio of programs, it’s nearly impossible to be that immersed. This is both the benefit and tradeoff of working within an agency. n