Higher Ed Conversations

Cheryl Broom
  • 4.9 (22)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY

Join host and CEO of GradComm, Cheryl Broom as she sits down with higher education experts to discuss trends in marketing, communications, advancement and student success. 

  1. Ep 77: Quick Take: Why College Marketing Teams Should Operate Like Agencies

    5D AGO

    Ep 77: Quick Take: Why College Marketing Teams Should Operate Like Agencies

    College marketing teams are being asked to do more than ever before, often with limited time, staff, and resources. So how do you move beyond production work and become a strategic partner across campus? In this QuickTake episode of the Higher Education Conversations Podcast, Cheryl Broom shares the mindset shifts community college marketing teams need to make to operate more strategically, efficiently, and effectively. Drawing on her experience as a former community college marketing director and now an agency CEO, Cheryl shares practical lessons on how even small teams can function like high-performing in-house agencies. If your team feels overwhelmed by requests, struggles to move from “vendor” to “strategic partner,” or is looking for ways to operate more efficiently, this conversation is for you. What You’ll Learn: Why colleges need to position marketing teams as strategic partners, not production vendors How saying no to the wrong projects can improve your team’s effectiveness Why building flex time into your schedule is critical for handling campus “emergencies” How understanding billable vs. non-billable time can transform team productivity Why the best in-house marketing teams know when to bring in outside supportThanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    13 min

  2. MAY 1

    Ep 76: Inside a Public Records Crisis and How to Prepare for One

    What happens when a routine day on campus turns into a viral public records crisis? In this episode of Higher Ed Conversations, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom sits down with Katherine Hansen, Executive Director of College Relations and Marketing at Renton Technical College, to unpack a situation that many higher ed professionals aren’t prepared for but should be. Hansen shares a firsthand account of dealing with a “First Amendment auditor” who visited campus, recorded interactions, and published highly edited videos that sparked a wave of harassment, public records requests, and reputational challenges. From the initial encounter to multiple follow-up visits, Katherine walks us through how her team responded, what they learned, and the critical policy and procedural changes they implemented to better protect their staff and institution moving forward. Do you have questions? Contact Katherine Hansen at: khansen@rtc.edu What You’ll Learn: What “First Amendment auditors” are and why they target collegesHow a single interaction can escalate into a full-blown reputational crisisThe legal realities of recording in public spaces The hidden risks of internal communication tools like Teams Smart policy updates that can protect your institution and your peopleThanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    36 min
  3. Ep 75: Quick Take: AI Search Is Changing Everything. Are You Ready?

    APR 15

    Ep 75: Quick Take: AI Search Is Changing Everything. Are You Ready?

    For years, higher ed marketing has revolved around one metric: the Click. But what happens when students stop clicking? In this Quick Take episode, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom explores how AI-powered search is fundamentally changing the way prospective students find and engage with institutions. From ChatGPT to Google’s AI overviews, students are getting answers without ever visiting a college’s website, and it’s impacting traffic in a big way. This episode breaks down why you may be experiencing a dip in your analytics, why traditional metrics are losing relevance, and how higher ed marketers need to rethink their strategies in a world where visibility no longer guarantees a visit. What You’ll Learn ·       Why website clicks are rapidly declining across industries ·       How AI tools are changing student search behavior ·       What Google’s AI summaries mean for your traffic ·       Why a drop in website visits doesn’t equal poor performance ·       How to start adapting your marketing strategy for an AI-first landscape Thanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    13 min

  4. APR 1

    Ep 74: Your Brand Isn’t for Everyone, And That’s the Point

    Today’s marketers aren’t just communicators, they’re storytellers competing for attention, emotion, and connection. In this episode of Higher Ed Conversations, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom sits down with Kelly Hiller from Purdue University to unpack how higher ed marketing has shifted from simply delivering information to crafting meaningful, human-centered stories that actually resonate. Together, they dive into Purdue’s brand transformation and what it took to build something that is both distinctive and scalable across a decentralized institution. If you’ve ever felt the pressure to make your college “everything to everyone,” consider this your reality check. Because knowing who your brand is not for is just as powerful as knowing who it is for, and that clarity is what leads to stronger, more ownable storytelling. What You’ll Learn:  Why higher ed marketing must evolve from information delivery to emotional storytellingHow to uncover and leverage the human truth in your institution’s storiesWhy your brand shouldn’t try to appeal to everyone (and what happens when it does)How Purdue built alignment across a decentralized campusHow to create messaging frameworks that resonate with different audiences Thanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    37 min
  5. Ep 73: Quick Take: Why Your College Website Search Isn’t Working and How AI Can Fix It

    MAR 16

    Ep 73: Quick Take: Why Your College Website Search Isn’t Working and How AI Can Fix It

    Website search is one of the most-used tools on a college website, but for many institutions, it’s also one of the most frustrating. Prospective students often type a question into the search bar only to get outdated meeting minutes, random PDFs, or irrelevant pages. In this Quick Take episode, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom is joined by Joel Goodman, VP of Growth Strategy at Squiz, to unpack why this happens and what colleges can do about it. They discuss the limitations of common search tools, especially free solutions like Google Programmable Search, and why they often fail to deliver helpful results on college websites. Also, Goodman shares how institutions can improve the experience by focusing on two key areas: better content strategy and smarter search technology. When colleges organize their content clearly and pair it with modern search tools, they can make it dramatically easier for students to find what they need. What You’ll Learn: Why Google-based search tools often fail on college websitesThe impact that poor search experiences have on prospective studentsHow AI is changing the way users search for information onlineWhy content strategy plays a critical role in search performancePractical ways colleges can improve website search and user experience Thanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    15 min

  6. MAR 3

    Ep 72: Stop Using Clicks to Measure Campaign Success

    Is your marketing really working, or are you just measuring the wrong thing? In this episode of Higher Education Conversations, GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom sits down with Jeff Greenfield, CEO of Provalytics, to tackle one of the biggest challenges in higher ed marketing: proving ROI in a world obsessed with clicks. For years, marketers have relied on clicks as the gold standard. But Greenfield argues that overemphasizing last-click attribution has led institutions to misallocate billions in ad spend, often cutting the very channels that are filling their enrollment funnel. If you’re tired of defending your budget with incomplete data and want a smarter way to connect marketing to inquiry and enrollment growth, this conversation will change how you measure success. What You’ll Learn: Why clicks may be the most overrated metric in marketingHow attention and impressions drive awareness (and eventually applications)The hidden “carryover effect” of advertisingThe danger of shiny object syndrome in higher edHow predictive modeling and incrementality testing can help you move from guesswork to proofThanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    37 min
  7. Ep 71: Quick Take: What Would ChatGPT Say About Your College?

    FEB 16

    Ep 71: Quick Take: What Would ChatGPT Say About Your College?

    Student search behavior has changed dramatically, and if your college isn’t showing up in AI answers, your prospective students may never find you. Why? Today’s students are using generative AI as the starting point of their college search, often long before they ever visit a college website. In this quick-take episode, Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, explores what happens when prospective students ask AI tools like ChatGPT questions such as “What college has the best nursing program near me?” or “What is student life like at this college?” This episode unpacks how AI search tools work, what sources they pull from, and why visibility today is about more than traditional SEO. Cheryl introduces the concept of being “understandable” to AI and highlights the growing importance of a college’s full digital footprint, from websites and FAQs to reviews, social media, and third-party platforms like Reddit and Wikipedia. Because in this new search landscape, visibility is no longer just about ranking. It’s about being understood. What You’ll Learn: How AI search tools actually work and where they pull information fromWhat colleges should be doing right now to ensure their websites increase discoverability on AI platformsWhy it’s important for colleges to run their own AI searchesHow colleges can write content that answers real student questions Thanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    12 min

  8. FEB 2

    Ep 70: Straight From the Source: How High School Students Choose and Ignore Colleges

    Today’s students are telling colleges exactly what they want. Are we listening? In this episode of Higher Ed Conversations, host and GradComm CEO Cheryl Broom sits down with high school students Dylan and Piper for a candid conversation about how colleges are and aren’t connecting with prospective students. From inbox overload to the outsized role of social media, these students share their unfiltered perspectives on what actually grabs their attention during the college search process. This episode spotlights why traditional recruitment tactics aren’t cutting it. Gen Z expects authenticity, visual storytelling, and a strong social media presence, and they can spot generic marketing from a mile away. If you’re responsible for enrollment marketing, student recruitment, or brand awareness, tune in. It’s a powerful reminder that the best strategy often starts with simply asking students what they think and being willing to change based on their answers. What You’ll Learn: Why traditional college recruitment emails often miss the markHow social media shapes Gen Z’s perception of colleges What students actually want colleges to show them on Instagram and TikTok Why authenticity matters more than polished marketing languageHow colleges can rethink outreach to better connect with high school studentsThanks for listening! Connect with GradComm: Instagram: @gradcommunications Facebook: @GradCommunications LinkedIn: @gradcomm Send us a message: GradComm.com Higher Ed Conversations is hosted by Cheryl Broom, CEO of GradComm, a marketing and branding agency specializing in community colleges and public education.

    36 min
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About

Join host and CEO of GradComm, Cheryl Broom as she sits down with higher education experts to discuss trends in marketing, communications, advancement and student success. 

Information

  • Creator
    Cheryl Broom
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Higher Ed Conversations
  • Show Website
    Higher Ed Conversations