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Budget Season is around the corner for higher education (doesn’t it ALWAYS feel that way?), which means it’s also time to consider that age-old question: Is it time to hire (or fire) my marketing agency?

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Marketing agencies are valuable, there’s no question, but that doesn’t mean all experiences are positive. Every situation requires the right fit, the right experience, and the right resources. Here are the conversations you need to have early and often with a possible agency–and even with your current one–to make sure the relationship is everything it’s supposed to be.

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Conversation #1: Have you worked with a school like us? Like, really worked with them?

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Agencies can be successful with schools who don’t fit their traditional client profile, but you don’t necessarily want to be their guinea pig. Ask for a list of schools they’ve worked with who are like your school. Who they come up with will tell you not only if they’ve worked with comparable schools, but also if they truly understand who you are.

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Also, flashy logos across a website, don’t necessarily mean positive relationships. If they can’t explain in detail how they have helped out comparable schools, with timelines of the impact they made, then they’re probably out of their depth.

Finally, ask to see what materials they’ve created for other schools. Pieces should work within brand guidelines to tell a compelling, differentiated story. This will show you that they can color within the lines while still flexing real rhetorical and design muscles.

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Conversation #2: What am I REALLY getting? 

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The best and biggest agencies (not always the same thing) can do A LOT. But how much they do for your school is, as always, up for negotiation. Whether you lost a couple employees and just need a stop-gap or want sweeping assistance from an agency, start the conversation with a clear picture of your needs and make sure that you’re explicit about those needs throughout the negotiation process. This ensures you get what you want, while providing the transparency your agency needs to perform well.

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Communication expectations are also part of this conversation. An agency will usually do the work they’ve promised–many of them will even do an awesome job–but you need to establish expectations for how often they will communicate those results to you. Otherwise you can be left feeling out of the loop and unable to provide consistent feedback.

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Conversation #3: Is the agency optimized for organic traffic? (Because that’s where the value is)

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Organic traffic–driving it, converting, and enrolling it–is the new name of the game in education marketing. Organic traffic represents by far the most traffic for the average university. Based on research conducted with our 100+ higher ed partners, only 3% of prospective student traffic to the average school’s website comes from paid ads. What’s more, Gen Z is 33% more likely than their Gen X and Millenial counterparts to start their school research with a search engine query. 

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More organic search traffic means more value from SEO. This traffic can be harder to capture–certainly it’s a more sophisticated marketing motion than most digital ad strategies. But the good news is that, if you can get this traffic on your website, the students are more curious and likely to convert into leads and enrolled students.

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Conversation #4: What does success for the agency actually look like?

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This is the KPI conversation. Make sure you know precisely who is responsible for the Key Performance Indicators that account for a successful enrollment cycle. The focus here, of course, is the word “enrollment”. Truly, it’s the only KPI that matters at the end of the day. Many agencies, however, take ownership of the top-of-funnel, softer metrics that hopefully lead to those down-funnel enrollments. 

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They’ll get impressions, drive traffic, hopefully convert leads, and boost applications. Make sure to establish what success looks like for those metrics, and how you’re going to make a smooth pass-off from agency-controlled marketing to staff-controlled relationships and follow-up. 

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The next thing, of course, are enrollments. Make sure you have a data system in place that can connect your enrollments to top-of-funnel actions and impressions from students. Some companies, like Halda, offer seamless integration between marketing campaigns, lead capture, and your CRM. This allows you to connect and  If you can’t hold your marketing agency accountable, and they don’t have a mechanism to tie their traffic to real results, then you might want to reconsider making an agreement.

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Conversation #5: When things fail, why do they normally fail?

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Even the very best marketing agencies have had some relationships go south. It’s just part of doing business, but it’s also something you have to assess. They should be able to give clear reasons for why things didn’t work out and take ownership of their role in that breakdown. If they deflect, defer, and obfuscate, that’s likely a preview of the accountability they’ll take when it comes to your school.

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You might also find–even with good agencies–that your school isn’t a great fit. If that’s the case it’s actually best for both sides to know the red flags, so be transparent about your needs and ask them to be transparent about their weaknesses. Ultimately, agencies put a lot of work in on the front end to get value on the back end. Saving them that effort and resources is probably best for everyone.

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Conversation #6: What’s the Exit Strategy?

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You and your school deserve the assurance that things aren’t going to fall apart if the agency has to pull out. This starts with who owns the accounts. Make sure they run their marketing out of school-owned accounts, or they’ll take your infrastructure with them when they leave.

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Learn what tools they’re using for SEO, data reporting, and other key functions so you can create a seamless transition to your own tools. Also, find out the extent to which their team is willing to collaborate with your own about the campaigns they’re running and the materials they’re using. The more transparent they are, the better chance you have of switching drivers without your marketing running off the road.

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At Halda, we work with plenty of great agencies, but also with schools doing everything in-house. We'd be happy to have a frank conversation about your marketing needs.

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