Marketing is often confused with promotion, but really it's about much more than that. Marketing is about knowing and understanding your customers so well that your product or service fits them and ultimately sells itself. In short marketing is about insight above all else. In the spirit of those insights, we present our Meet the Marketer series where we discuss the careers and tactics of marketers behind industry leading brands.
In this episode, we chat with Sharon Ayala, vice President of Marketing at Abilene Christian University. ACU is a diverse, innovative private university whose alumni network includes bestselling authors, Pulitzer Prize winners, Hollywood producers, government leaders, missionaries renowned researchers, and more we'll hear how Sharon's marketing journey has helped her develop impactful marketing campaigns and effectively navigate the dynamic landscape of higher education marketing.
Reid Carr: Sharon, welcome to the podcast.
Sharon Ayala: Thanks. So happy to be here.
Tell us about Abilene Christian University and your role there as VP of Marketing.
Reid Carr: First, tell us a little bit about Abilene Christian University and your role there as VP of Marketing.
Sharon Ayala: So ACU is a mid-sized private faith-based university in Abilene, Texas, which is in west Texas. It's about a two-and-a-half-hour drive west of Dallas. It was established in 1906. So pretty established university. They're very interesting in terms of, they're a very innovative private university, which is rare. They have a ton of big, hairy audacious goals. They just went D1 about seven years ago. They're pursuing research two status, which is a Carnegie designation that basically says that you're a high research activity school, so you're investing a lot of resource into research, and then they are doing things to support those goals. For example, they are going to be the first university-based molten salt reactor in the country. So they're pumping a lot of resource into making sure that the research that they're doing is not only making it an excellent student experience, but they're thinking about what's the broader implication for how ACUcan impact the world. Like that molten salt reactor that gives them the ability to research isotopes for cancer research, clean water solutions, clean energy solutions. So that's one example of something that they're doing and why I was attracted to ACU because it's doing really, really big things.
How do you engage people who don’t know details about what they want to study?
Reid Carr: That's fascinating. I mean, those are interesting stories to tell future students and grad students and alumni. How do you integrate that into folks maybe who don't know at that detailed level, A level that that's what they want to do or that's what they want to study? How do you engage people with something? Yeah, they don't know what they're doing yet.
Sharon Ayala: So I'm actually in the middle of that exercise right now. I'm about a year into my role and one of my priorities is brand. ASU has never had a brand. So I think that's part of it is really right now we have a collection of those things, those talking points where here I'm sitting with you saying this is a thing that rises to the top that makes you nod your head and say, oh, that's interesting, but how do we put all those things together and say this is the identity of the university that's attracting that smallest viable audience that would be attracted to a place like that.
So we're in the middle of that right now, doing a ton of stakeholder interviews, quantitative qualitative research with potential and current consumers customers to try to really figure out how do we take all of that stuff and package it in a way that is appealing and then clear in terms of how do we differentiate ourselves, A lot of private universities, and it's a big investment. So you have to really differentiate yourself in the marketplace.
Given your background in higher education, how do you tailor strategies to meet the unique challenges of university marketing?
Reid Carr: Yeah, I mean, I think with all the competing universities out there, I mean you've worked at other universities, point Loma Nazarene most recently. I mean, you've gone through similar exercises now.
How do you look at that, having had the experience in one and now at a new one? You have a sense of how those two are different. How do you see your differences to the community, academic community at large?
Sharon Ayala: I think it's really getting to, again, that heart of that smallest viable audience. Higher ed is kind of in a PR crisis right now. There's too much supply and not enough demand. And so I think really the exercise, if you really want to take it to Ideal is a university that's not just thinking about, okay, how do we brand ourselves in terms of messaging and identity, but really looking at it from a product standpoint, so to speak. A lot of the conversations I have right now, yes, we're going through a branding exercise to establish an identity, to establish messaging maps and brand signals and all that kind of stuff, but also looking at those customer insights from a higher level and say, looking for example, at generational research like Gen Z, we are intimately aware of them right now, but Gen Alpha, they don't buy into information gatekeeping, and that's what universities have done for so long.
They've said, if you come here, you get the information. They don't need that brokering anymore. So I think it's funny at this time in the evolution of higher ed being a higher ed marketer, it's really more about having conversations with academic leadership, with senior leadership to say, okay, here's what our future students are saying. A lot of them are saying, I don't need a college degree to get a good job. I don't need a college degree to be successful in life, to make friends, to build community. What do you have for me? And so I think I'm not answering your question in terms of how do you message it, but I think that's sort of like when you really get down to the core of if we're really going to solve this, if we're really going to be differentiated in the marketplace, it has to be about doing that deep dive on customer insights.
But it's not. So higher ed is kind of so behind as an industry really getting to the core of what is higher ed at its heart. If it's not about information gatekeeping, it has to be about things like equity and access and community. So how do we offer that in a way? How do we offer that experience and those outcomes in a way that other schools just can't? And a lot of them don't do that. And so there is a huge opportunity for universities. They're willing to go to that level to think about their brand that way.
Universities have a diverse set of stakeholders. How do you effectively engage each of these groups and ensure alignment with the institution's broader goals?
Reid Carr: Well, it's interesting. The other one that you kind of mentioned on the story that you said earlier was related to hands-on experience too. I mean, that's why those are big investments that the university is making to give hands-on opportunities for those students, which is interesting. I would assume then with you mentioned the diverse stakeholders, you've got the academics and the professors and those who have the things that you want to study or research or teach. You have the students, you have the alumni and so on. How do you coordinate all of that to create alignment between, I mean, if you think about it from a supply and demand, you mentioned, right? You have the stuff that you've created and the thing you got to sell to the different sets of stakeholders. How do you create that alignment such that you're meeting the demands of the marketplace and satisfying those who are making the products there, the widgets, so to speak, inside the university's walls?
Sharon Ayala: Yeah, I know I'm going to kind of be a broken record, but customer insights, which I know in maybe other fields is table stakes. Of course, we're doing customer insights, but higher ed is such an interesting industry because traditionally higher ed has been very faculty governed. Faculty make the decisions, faculty governance models decide by committee what we're doing, what we're not doing, what programs we can offer, what student experiences look like. So I think it's really about, and another thing about higher ed that's interesting is you have to be, it's not for the faint of heart. You have to be very patient as a marketer, which is not for everyone but really building bridges, I've found by way of insights early in my career, that's the walls I kept hitting up against was just faculty barriers, one after another. But I realized the more I could bring data insights, generational research to the table to say, let's hit your heart on this one. You care about students, you care about those relationships you have with them in the classroom, let's really think about what about happens here, impacts what their life looks like in the future. And that all goes back to consumer insights in terms of what they want now, but also how the marketplace is going to change over the next few decades, how jobs are going to change over the next few decades. And higher ed has a role to play in helping prepare people, not just young people.
We really want to think about how we interact with them along the entire customer life cycle, not just when they're 18 to 22 or whatever, but really starting with those insights so that everybody has a shared vision for what we can do. And I think in higher ed right now, there's a lot of research out there around higher ed's about to hit a cliff in 2026. Less kids were born 18 years ago. So there's just less demand in general. The appetite for education has declined. And so I think there's an urgency opportunity to create alignment right now. I've seen that in my role. People see within the organization, oh, we have to start doing things differently. And so there's an opportunity there to really coalesce around those opportunities, those gaps, to start to pave a path forward.
How do you approach changing the minds of faculty and administrators to align with your marketing goals?
Reid Carr: So take us inside the four walls of a meeting where you're presenting the customer insights to an academic that, I mean, you're trying to present this finding, maybe probably trying to change their mind about something. What does that mean? How do you go about doing that? What does that look like?
Sharon Ayala: A lot of preparation, a lot of research and being willing to pull the curtain back. I think a lot of times in business settings, people are comfortable with the fact that you're leaping to insights because they trust that you've done your work behind the scenes. But faculty, a lot of them are scientists, maybe not literally, but they're researchers at heart. And so they will question everything. Who did you talk to? How did you phrase the question? So I spend a lot of time being pretty radically transparent just because I know I'm going to get the questions anyways. But really that radical transparency mixed with the confidence to say we've done the legwork and then also allowing them to challenge it. And I have gone back and forth on research based on some of the challenges that they've brought, which again, it's the challenge of this industry when you have people in the room who do have research expertise, maybe not market research expertise, but they understand research modeling and things of that nature, you kind of have to be willing to pull the curtain back for them.
How did the pandemic reshape your marketing approach? What lasting changes do you see in how universities will communicate with their audiences?
Reid Carr: Going back to the customer insight side of things, I mean obviously I would assume one of the most transformative things in recent history was the pandemic. How were things different prior to, and now that we're a little bit past it, how has academic marketing or the overall student experience changed since post pandemic? What did we learn from that and how has that certainly shaped the students that are in college now?
Sharon Ayala: Yeah, I mean certainly the student experience has changed. I mean, the pandemic didn't drive online that was already happening, but it certainly expedited it for a lot of universities that were behind the curve in terms of academic marketing. Again, those insights. I remember when the pandemic hit, we were one of the universities I think that moved really fast to do focus groups a few weeks. I think we were in even April maybe when we started doing focus groups to get insights into, first it was very tactical, when would you want to return? What protocols would need to be in place for you to feel comfortable returning? It was very tactical in that sense, but it then quickly became a conversation around, okay, what's the core value of education if it's online versus in person? And so there was a lot of anxiety from students and parents around, well, if I'm going online, what does that mean? What does that term mean in terms of the value of my degree? So then I mean I love the five why's exercise in design thinking. And so keep asking that why question really got down to the core of what I talked about earlier, what is the core offering of a university degree? It's again, equity, access, job access, community. It's a big deal.
And I think that was something that coming from a private university, it's a different experience and people are paying for a different experience than perhaps if you go to a commuter school or something like that. I think we made a lot of assumptions about our audience before the pandemic, and we might've made some decisions based on historical things like accreditation requirements, and again, faculty governance. But I think after the pandemic, because we had to go ask the consumer because we'd never been faced with a challenge like this before. It opened the doors to say, well, maybe we should ask them questions about other things, deeper things. So in my experience working within that faculty governance model or the confines of a higher ed institution, I do feel like it opened up that conversation a lot more.
Reid Carr: Were you surprised at how receptive people were at that point?
Sharon Ayala: Yeah, I think desperation opens people up. They're just willing to ask different questions. If that means that we're going to lose a year of revenue and that affects people's jobs, sure, let's ask questions and see what people's say. I think too, students perspective, students just consumers in general have put pressure on higher ed, rightfully so to say, I know what I want. I want a community experience. I want to be able to, I want to be able to interact with other human beings, but maybe not in this way. So can you still deliver me something that's going to help me meet my goals, but not necessarily sort of in this rote fashion that it has been? So I remember in those early focus groups, a lot of students said, well, can I be in the dorm? I want to be in the dorm. I want to be with my friends, but I don't want to go to class. And that was a very common insight from students. So you can again start to get at the heart of they wanted that community, but we're kind of packaging it in a very specific way that they're poking at and challenging and saying, can you deliver that to me in a slightly different way, but keep the core of why I'm here to begin with.
In order to prepare students for their learning experience, did you have to do anything unusual to draw the line on what is a “right” or “wrong” way to learn?
Reid Carr: Well, it's interesting. I imagine then there's a push or pull or give or take in terms of then you have expectation of outcomes as well. These students need to be prepared. And so there's probably some things like, that'd be great if I didn't have to go to class, but well, there is a way you are going to have to learn this stuff. We need some outcomes from you, or they should expect them. So I guess was there anything unusual that you had to put some, I don't know, guardrails on to say, look, that's where we're going to have to draw the line because ultimately there is a right and maybe a wrong way to do some of this stuff?
Sharon Ayala: Yeah, I personally, I think there is a lot of content that can be done asynchronously or online, but I think there's a lot of, with that information gatekeeping thing, because students have access to everything on the internet, they can go learn a lot of things just by googling something, but you can't become a doctor by googling something. So an example is like, okay, we've got to keep our labs and person. So I think that it brought that to the top, that hands-on experience is a really important thing that university education offers. So that would be an example of a non-negotiable, obviously. And then I think too, we've seen this just generally speaking, after the pandemic, this kind of epidemic of loneliness that it was like, yeah, that's also some guardrails we want to put in place that in the heat of the pandemic, obviously we were being safe and following guidelines and all of that, but really it pushed us to think creatively about how do we create opportunities for people to have those shared synchronous experiences that may look a little bit different than what has historically been true. But it was actually really fun to think about what that could look like and how that energized people to interact with others in different ways and be more creative. So I did actually love that about the pandemic, that it brought a lot to the surface.
What advice do you have for assembling a higher education marketing team?
Reid Carr: Yeah. Well, it's interesting, and what's also interesting is to hear then the role of marketing in putting this all together. I mean, I think there's a lot of folks, it's a complex ecosystem in a university, so you have to, as you said, identify the customer and create this alignment. I think also you have to assemble the team and there's the broader team, obviously the university at large, but then the marketing team and everybody who has to execute all of that. What advice do you have?
Well, let's actually start with that. Maybe talk a little bit about your team. What does that look like and how do you assemble them to achieve the objectives that you set up?
Sharon Ayala: Well, where I'm at now is different than where I'd like to be. Like I said, I'm new to this role at a ACU and I got brought in to do basically a turnaround. So my goal at a ACU is to turn the team from an on-demand production shop to a demand driving engine to drive enrollment. And that's a pretty big shift. And so what roles look like responsibilities look like how people work together, how we prioritize work is completely different today than it will be in the future. But I would say in previous experiences, and I did a similar turnaround at my last institution, it's really about figuring out what is the connection between those big hairy audacious goals that the organization has because marketing is so unique in that they're the people that are moving the needles to help us get there. And it's very incremental, but it's very connected.
Sharon Ayala: And so being really, really clear on, okay, what are those goals and how are we going to, over what period of time are we going to inch our way there, building a team around that. So walking into this ACU job, their goal is enrollment growth. They want to be a national university.
So really for me, it was around, I established some pretty tactical goals on the front end, like, okay, we need to create really good organic engines because teenagers, we need to create ways to interact with them on the front end that are appealing, where we can find ways to interact where they are. So that looks like, okay, we've got to have a really amazing optimized website. We have to have a really creative user generated, content driven content strategy. So building a team around those priorities and making sure it's very cross-functional because I think so much of what students are looking at when they're looking at universities is content. They want to know what is this? Pull the curtain back. What is this going to look like? Am I going to fit in here? And so really building a team that's rooted in making sure that we're building an experience that is appealing for prospective students. That was a really vague answer.
What's your vision for the future of your marketing team? How will you guide things down to measurable objectives?
Reid Carr: No, no. I mean, I think the other thing I would love to hear then too is what's your future vision for the specific types of roles that you're going to need? What does a marketing department need? And again, I think of it at large, there is a role for the academics and there's a role for the external ecosystem of counselors and what those relationships look like. And then you said that these students are so capable, they do a lot of research themselves, and there's a lot of influencing factors that for better or worse, maybe are not within your control, not to mention at least of which being parents. So how do you play in that sandbox to guide things down to what you said are very measurable objectives? I mean, there's enrollment, it's a number. You have programs, you want a certain amount of people in those programs in such a fluid environment.
Sharon Ayala: Yeah, I think right now I'm trying to establish a lot of baseline, but I think beyond that, I think a lot about going back to product that would be an ideal state for me is that marketing plays a role in bringing those customer insights to bear in informing the strategic plan of the university. So what programs are we offering?
Not just the list of programs, but what modalities, how does it interact with the student experience? Are there hybrid models we need to consider? I think all of those insights can inform what that strategy is, and then we in turn are promoting that.
I think also there's a lot of road to go, especially in higher ed marketing in terms of data and analytics. A lot of times in universities, data is in a lot of different silos and you have FERPA issues, so there's a lot of data privacy that is involved in higher ed marketing, but really getting a sense of can we follow the data trail all the way from when you're considering such a huge life decision all the way to when you're an alum who's hopefully highly engaged with the university, maybe you're even sending your kids here and having the whole kind of data ecosystem set up so that we can really understand customer lifetime value, customer life cycle, our opportunities to even develop new offerings that aren't just either that we think about it in chunks in terms of that four year experience after high school and then online when you're in your thirties and you want a promotion, but how do we really think about the whole customer life cycle and build a strategy around that?
I think marketing, my dream would be marketing in higher ed plays a much bigger role in that and that it's this kind of feedback loop with academics involved because obviously they're the ones on the front lines delivering this experience to students. They are the brand. And so how do we make sure that we're always having that feedback loop in play?
What brands do you use to draw inspiration outside of the educational industry?
Additionally, how do you support customers who need access to funds in order to obtain their degree?
Reid Carr: Yeah. Now I always look at inspiration outside of the category that we're in. I mean, is there anyone out there outside of academia that you like does this particularly well in other industries perhaps, or even other brands? It just makes me think about that while you are into this, and it is a uniquely complex, but not entirely unusual either. And it's interesting to hear is the leadership role that marketing in this case is probably not the same everywhere in every other university.
The role of marketing could very well be different, but what you're talking about, you talked about product, you talked about place, you talked about the only thing we didn't talk about was price. That's part of too, which certainly a factor as well when kids are looking at this is there's the logical path they can take, which is I'm going to pay this to get that.
And then there's the other part of it, which is, I mean, there's the realities. What can I actually afford? Even if they're completely bought in, it might not be affordable or they don't know how to access. I mean, there's the customer journey of just access to funds to pay for it, and how do you support them, those who need that?
Sharon Ayala: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to answer your question, I think about there's a lot of similarities between education and healthcare, and I think healthcare is a little bit out in front. They're breaking things and innovating. Even mental health things like better help, which is it's an equity and access play or one medical that's really kind of rethinking. What does a visit to the doctor experience look like that's really different. I mean, I walk by one medical and I'm in the mall, So I admire companies like that and industries like that that are difficult to innovate within a lot of red tape, a lot of regulation, but somehow they've figured out how to do that. And I think those two examples are kind of interesting, different ends of the spectrum because I think that's one thing I think about a lot in higher ed because from a purpose driven standpoint, you mentioned price earlier, higher ed is becoming more and more inaccessible from a financial standpoint, and that's a personal mission of mine. I really believe in equity and access with education. And I think the more we sort of put a price tag on it, that's more that concierge side of the spectrum, obviously that creates actual societal issues because education is such an entry point into the middle class or however you want to phrase that. And so I think that's sort of the balance too, is how do we innovate and who are we innovating and really getting to the heart of are we innovating for the people who are willing to pay the price tag for something that's really different? Are we innovating for people who maybe are first generation college students or maybe don't have financial access to a six figure college education?
How do you foster a culture of innovation within your marketing team?
Reid Carr: Well, and that gets into the heart of the where, I guess the last question here just related to how you foster a culture of innovation. I mean, it's within the marketing team, particularly within a traditional environment like a university, because it's not just the, again, I keep coming back to it's not just the marketing team or you individually, but the university as a whole in taking such a leadership role and you need everyone to innovate.
Sharon Ayala: Yeah. Yeah. My kind of pathway at my last job and what I'm doing a version of at this one is first mastering your craft seems obvious, but if marketing is going to be a voice in these rooms that it maybe hasn't been in the past, you just got to have a handle on everything. And you have to be able to be in most every conversation at some level in university leadership. So mastering that crafts, you can kind of have a respected seat at the table.
And then really when I look at my team hiring people who have a heart for this, because I think at its heart you innovate because you care, because you want to see the world be a better place. And so I will often hire for people that kind of have that hunger and that heart, but maybe need a little bit of development on the skill side just because if they can see a better path forward, they can see that vision for marketing can play a different role than us just chugging out the print pieces or running the digital ads or whatever. So they have that passion for let me play a role, I want to play a role in helping us get there.
I think it's managing and leading with that inspiration really. I love things like design thinking. I implement four DX on my teams leading and LA indicators that radical transparency, I don't really keep anything close to the vest with my team. I tell them everything I can so that they really feel bought in at a high level and they can see no matter if you're writing copy, if you're running ads, if you're designing something, if you're doing market research, you understand how the role that you're playing is making not only an impact on our ability to meet our business goals, but for me, within higher education, we could actually transform how marketing shows up at the table within higher ed and maybe even higher ed itself. And I have found in my last role, casting that vision to the team, I was so proud of how I left that team because we were in conversations I never imagined we would be in the uniqueness of university life before we got there.
What specifically about this role drew you to ACU?
Reid Carr: So I know I said that was my last question, but it's not because we've moved on. There's a couple of things there that I wanted latch onto, which is one, getting into the role, you didn't just kind of pick a random university or would've taken a role at any university mean what was it about this role that gave you that you now see.
Sharon Ayala: An innovative spirit. And that came from top down. Their president recruited me, and when he would talk about what he saw for them for a CU, it was so inspiring to me because it's fairly common in higher education that you kind of roll with the punches, roll with faculty, governments, all of that. It was like, wow, this is different. I also saw a private university that was willing to ask questions that some private universities are not willing to ask or they may be a little bit afraid to ask. So even, I mean that nuclear reactor, I know it's a really big example, but who decides, you know what, yeah, let's try to build a nuclear reactor on campus and see how that goes. And there's risk involved in that. I'm not talking about nuclear risk. A molten SART reactor is the safest coolant, just so you know. But that example really was a proof point.
For me that we're willing to do big things and they're willing to put investment behind it. That was another thing for me. It was like as a marketer, I've very often in my career had to do marketing from a scarcity perspective. And sometimes that's fine. We get creative that way sometimes that's a good constraint. But this university was, it was very clear from the beginning, and it's been shown up as I've moved on in this role that if there's a clearly articulated plan for meeting a big goal, there's resource for you. And that goes all the way from leadership, their board, their board is really innovative. And that's a new thing for me is working with a board that functions really well, that's innovated, that asks hard questions, but is very supportive. So I think that was another really appealing thing for me too. So really it was executive sponsorship, really strong executive vision and really bold leadership.
Reid Carr: Which gives you stories to tell. And that's what we all look for is what's the fuel for creativity, what's the fuel for reaching our audiences? And it sounds like you've found that in spades. So looking forward to seeing what we do well into the future and how we shape a CU. And I am so grateful for having you here on the show.
And for anyone, be sure to check out show notes from this episode and more at reddoor.biz/learn. And as always, subscribe to the marketing remix and leave us a review on Apple Podcast.