Everyone Has an Opinion on Higher Education Marketing. That’s Not Going to Change.

If you work in higher education marketing, you’ve experienced it.

A faculty member emails with a headline they think would work better. A vice president has opinions about the homepage. A board member suggests a new logo. Someone who hasn’t spoken to a prospective student in ten years is convinced they know exactly what Gen Alpha wants.

After a while, it starts to feel unfair. You would never walk into a faculty meeting and tell professors how to teach. You wouldn’t tell librarians how to organize collections. You wouldn’t explain to HR how to recruit employees or to the finance office how the endowment should be invested.

Yet nearly everyone feels comfortable telling the marketing team how they should market the institution.

It can be frustrating. But it also comes with the territory.

You can spend your career being annoyed by that reality. Or you can decide to work with it.

Marketing is Different

Everyone sees the website. Everyone reads the emails. Everyone drives past the billboards. Everyone follows the social media accounts. Every employee experiences the brand in some way.

Because everyone interacts with marketing, everyone feels qualified to have an opinion about it.

That’s not unique to higher education. It happens in every organization.

Trust Is More Valuable Than Winning Arguments

The marketers who have the greatest influence on their campuses are people others trust.

When people understand how you think, how you make decisions, and that your recommendations are grounded in research rather than personal preference, they’re far more likely to listen.

Get Out of the Marketing Office

Serve on committees that have nothing to do with marketing. Participate in shared governance. Volunteer for strategic planning initiatives. Help with accreditation. Join conversations about enrollment, student success, retention, technology, or institutional priorities.

Because that’s where relationships are built.

The more you understand how your colleagues think, what pressures they face, and what they’re trying to accomplish, the better marketer you’ll become. And the more they’ll begin to see you as a strategic partner rather than someone who just makes brochures and websites.

Teach the Market, Not Just the Brand

Become the person who helps the campus understand the market. Present at department meetings about demographic trends. Explain how prospective students actually search for colleges today. Share what families are telling you. Discuss competitor activity.

Talk about AI, changing consumer behavior, pricing, enrollment trends, and labor market shifts. Show colleagues how your institution fits into a much larger landscape.

When people understand the environment you’re navigating, your marketing decisions suddenly make much more sense.

Expertise Matters. Influence Matters More.

Of course marketing expertise matters.

Research matters. Data matters. Strategy matters.

But in higher education marketing, you also need influence. Earn it by showing up, listening, contributing, and helping your colleagues understand not just your work, but the environment your institution is operating in.

People won’t stop having opinions about marketing.

But instead of telling you how they think you should market the university, people will begin asking, “What are you seeing in the market?” or “How would you approach this?”