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The September Influencer: Will Scott’s 13 Winning Higher Education Marketing Strategies
Stay ahead in digital marketing with The Influencer, Search Influence’s monthly newsletter covering SEO, digital advertising, and content strategy. Get top tips to fuel your online growth, expert insights from the Search Influence team, and our latest company news. Don’t miss out! 13 Winning Higher Education Marketing Strategies for 2026 …
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[New Research] How Prospects Search in 2026 and What It Means for 2027
Key Insights AI search use is up 15% year over year. 39% of prospects now use AI-powered tools daily, up from 24% in 2025. Search engines still lead, but the gap is closing. 80% use traditional search engines to research programs; 54% now also use AI. Citations build real trust. …
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13 Winning Higher Education Marketing Strategies for 2026
Note: This post was updated by Will Scott on September 02, 2026 to reflect current best practices. It was originally published on August 14th, 2023. TL;DR: Winning higher education marketing strategies work in sequence, not isolation: get found, get believed, get engaged, prove results, then measure and improve. Skipping a …
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[UPDATED] SEO & AI Search Workbook for Higher Education: A Free Interactive Resource
Search Influence offers a free SEO & AI Search Workbook for Higher Education Websites, now rebuilt to cover AI visibility alongside traditional SEO. Ask ChatGPT to recommend a program in your field, and there’s a real chance your institution never comes up, even if it ranks first on Google for …
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Website Readiness for AI Search: Seven Foundations Every University Needs
TL;DR: AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews answer prospective students directly, and they pull those answers from websites that are crawlable, structured, and accurate. Universities don’t need new technology to compete. They need seven specific foundations in place, and most can be checked in an afternoon. Key …
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Paula French on “The Signal”: What AI Search Means for Higher Education Marketing
Enrollment marketers are losing prospective students at a stage they never even see. Before a student fills out a form, visits a program page, or clicks a single ad, they are already building a short list. They are asking AI tools detailed questions, comparing programs, and forming preferences, and the …
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Track and Report the Right Higher Ed Marketing Analytics to Improve Your Strategy
This post was updated by Allison Zeringue on 6/16/2026 to reflect current best practices. It was originally published on 10/09/2024. Key Insights Less than half of higher ed marketers track cost per inquiry or cost per enrolled student, the two metrics that connect marketing spend to enrollment outcomes. Institutions that …
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[DATA] Higher Education Marketing Trends 2026: How Industry Pros Stay Informed
Higher education is under pressure from every direction. Enrollment shifts, budget constraints, AI disruption, and changing student expectations are hitting at once, and the professionals navigating them are expected to stay ahead of it all. Search Influence partnered with UPCEA, the leading association for online and professional education, to better …
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2026 Higher Education Marketing Benchmarks: Know Your Numbers, Grow Your Enrollment
Note: This post was updated by Paula French on 5/21/26 to reflect current best practices. It was originally published on June 25th, 2024. Key Insights Fewer than half of PCO units track cost per inquiry (46%) or cost per enrolled student (43%), despite spending nearly $900k annually on digital advertising. …
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[WEBINAR] Make Your Existing Marketing Work Harder for AI Search Visibility
AI search is changing how prospective students discover programs. But building an entirely new marketing strategy from scratch isn’t realistic for most higher education teams. Budgets are tight, staff capacity is limited, and priorities compete for attention. That’s why we partnered with UPCEA for this spring’s live webinar: Make Your …
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