Terry Flannery Answers Key Questions About Inbound Marketing Culture

This October at Converge 2015, our focus is to bring the best and brightest together to revolutionize higher education. In this series of blog posts, Content Marketing Intern, Mikayla Wilson asks our speakers key questions. Read on to find out more about our passionate speakers and the importance of their topics. 

Name: Terry Flannery

Institution: American University

Session: Inbound Pass: Getting Your Campus to Support the New Game Plan

Date & Time: Thursday, October 22 | 8:30-9:30AM

Summary: Just when leaders, faculty and colleagues started to get comfortable with the term “marketing,” innovations in other industries changed all the rules of the game. The new normal requires streamlined and optimized content, carefully targeted to audience interests. Content strategy must be paired with finely tuned messages, orchestrated communications flow, and personalized follow up. Terry Flannery will discuss the importance of an inbound marketing culture and strategies to build that culture on your campus.

MW: Tell us more about yourself.

TF: I’ve worked in higher ed my entire career, spanning thirty years. Started in student affairs, pivoted to admissions, and realized the opportunities that were ahead in marketing. Also earned my master’s and PhD in College Student Personnel and served as an affiliate faculty member at my alma mater. So I know my way around most aspects of an institution. It’s helped give me a very broad view of the enterprise and get to know students as their teacher, mentor, advisor, counselor and supervisor. It has been, and continues to be, quite a privilege.

Creativity and innovation are what drive me. Since 1990, I haven’t held a job that existed before I held it, and I’ve only worked at three institutions in my entire career. I like seeing opportunity and convincing institutional leaders how to take advantage of it with fresh thinking and original ideas.

I’m a wife and mother. We have two college-bound high school seniors. It is lots of fun to see things through their eyes and from the other side of the fence!

Fun fact: I landed on the cover of The Chronicle of Higher Education (in a good way!) by sheer coincidence in 2004. Cover story, “Romancing the Brand,” was about the greater acceptance of marketing and branding in higher ed.

MW: What is new and next in inbound marketing culture?

TF: Inbound and digital marketing are the catalysts that will help our institutions realize a long-held dream. Our data about students over the entire student lifecycle – from point of first contact to their latest gift as an alumnus – is going to be better integrated, easier to mine, and serve as the foundation for better measurement, stronger decisions and more agile management. The tools that must be used to succeed in our work – tracking, data collection, analytics, targeted and customized communication, and case management – are laying the foundation and will accelerate the process of data integration that supports student success and alumni engagement. We’re going to get there, and marketing is going to lead the way.

MW: What challenges have you seen in higher ed in inbound marketing culture?

TF: Constant change and disruption, coupled with talent management. How do we retain staff in whom we have invested training and skills development?  I just learned that Millennials in the workforce are expected to hold an average of 29 jobs over the course of their careers. What’s that, an average of less than two years per position? How can we develop the capacity we need to respond to rapid change if our team members are out the door in less than two recruitment cycles?

MW: What are you most excited about for Converge 2015?

TF: Meeting lots of smart, fellow marketing professionals. And the food!

MW: Attend Converge 2015 to hear Terry and many other great speakers. We hope to see you there!