How can we do it all with less?
Our budget is tighter than ever before, our team is stretched incredibly thin, and it feels like we're constantly putting out fires. Despite that, we're still expected to create compelling content that inspires prospective students. How can we do it all?
First, I’m sorry. It’s hard to do good work without the right resources. Here are three ways to make the work a little lighter.
Plan for next quarter. 🗓️
This is something I learned from my #1 gal, Ashley Budd. She plans content in seasons. In the winter, her team brainstorms for spring. In the spring, for summer. And so on.
This gives you a three-month runway to bring partners together and build your assets. And it naturally leads to content that feels timely — the kind people actually love.
It won’t stop the fires from popping up, but it’ll make them easier to put out.
Bonus: We teach the framework for this quarterly brainstorm in our Mailed It! email course.
Curate more than you create. 🌾
If you work at a university, you’re sitting on a content goldmine.
One idea I love from Mackenzie Huber (from my former Talking Tactics podcast):
Create a story database. Spend a day or two interviewing as many students and faculty as you can. Ask great questions. Record it all. Catalogue responses in a spreadsheet, tagging themes like “first-gen” or “hands-on learning.”
Then, when you need content, you don’t need to start from scratch — you just open the spreadsheet.
If you want to start smaller, sign up for every department listserv. Walk around and look at the posters hanging on campus. Reach out to people to help them share what they’re already creating.
The stories already exist — your job is to surface them.
Reuse and repurpose. ♻️
If you celebrate Mariah Carey season, then you know “It’s tiiiiiimeeeeee!”
The tree’s up. The lights are twinkling. Every year you put up the same decorations and you listen to the same ring-ting-tingaling, too.
Even though it’s the same stuff, year after year, it still feels special.
The lesson: Reuse your content. Especially if your work is cyclical. Repurpose your best stuff. Package it differently. Take big stories and share them in small bites. Take small moments and turn them into themed collections.
Your audience isn’t tired of it, even if you are.
Taking my own advice.
These aren’t higher ed hacks. They work for any marketer — agency, nonprofit, small business, doesn’t matter.
And what’s funny is that as I wrote this email to you, I realized I am not following my own advice.
You see, I manage the marketing (and play the trombone!) for my local concert band. I’ve been struggling to keep up with content creation while juggling work, projects, health, and my family.
So, in this email to you, I am committing to:
Plan: I’ll do a mini brainstorm for the next quarter of content (outside of concert promos).
Curate: I’ll send a form to band members for quotes, anecdotes, videos, and pics. And I’m going to reshare more memes once I figure out how 😅
Make it last: I’m recycling last year’s concert videos.
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