#110 - What College Parents Actually Need From Your Website, and What Higher Ed Is Getting Wrong
With Laura Rudolph
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SHOW NOTES
Most college parent pages were built by someone who ran out of time and dumped every link they didn't know what to do with into a pile. Laura Rudolph has spent a decade trying to fix that.
Laura is the founder of Square One Consulting, where she helps colleges communicate more clearly and — as she puts it — speak more human. She started her career as a journalist with a crime beat, fell into enrollment marketing, and eventually realized that the audience nobody was talking to — parents — was the one she was most drawn to write for. Turns out, skeptical Gen X parents who want honesty and hate marketing fluff are basically the ideal audience for a former investigative journalist.
In this episode, Laura breaks down why most parent pages fail, what good actually looks like, and the three pieces of content she'd build first if she were starting from scratch. We also walk through real examples from University of Washington, UT Austin, Hamilton, and Wake Forest — and Laura shares a free AI-powered tool she just launched that lets you drop in a URL or paste a parent email and get an honest assessment of whether it's actually working.
In this episode:
Why most parent pages are "informationally present but emotionally absent" — and what that costs you
The filing cabinet problem: why organizing your site around your org chart is failing families who don't know what a bursar does
The three content pieces Laura would build first: a "Start Here" guide, a "What Families Worry About" hub, and a "How to Support Without Taking Over" section
Why telling parents why you want their contact info resulted in a dramatic increase in opt-ins at Laura's former institution
What University of Washington, UT Austin, Hamilton, and Wake Forest are doing right — and what makes each of them a model worth studying
The parent-to-parent trust play most schools are completely ignoring
Why there's a middle ground between helicopter parenting and institutional silence — and how your content can actually help create it
The free tool: Laura's AI-powered Parent & Family Communication Analyst is live at squareoneky.com. Drop in a URL or paste an email and get a scored, tiered review of how well your communication is actually working for a parent audience. It's free.
Good parent page examples mentioned:
University of Washington: https://www.washington.edu/parents/
University of Texas at Austin: https://parents.utexas.edu/
Hamilton College: https://www.hamilton.edu/parents
Wake Forest University: https://parents.wfu.edu/
Providence College (honorable mention for parent blog): https://parents.providence.edu/
Connect with Laura:
Website: squareoneky.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurakrudolph
Connect with John:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnazoni
Website: unveild.tv
Newsletter: unveild.tv/newsletter
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(Done with AI so only about 95% accurate)
00;00;00;10 - 00;00;19;28
John Azoni
Hey, if you're college has a parent page, that's basically just a pile of links with a we care about families header slapped on the top and we're going to need to work on that SIS or hang on, let me segment this intro. We're going to need to work on that. Brewski Because as my guest, Laura Rudolph will tell you, segmentation is one of the things that you should be paying attention to because not all parents are the same.
00;00;20;08 - 00;00;41;01
John Azoni
And Laura is the founder of Square One Consulting, where she helps colleges communicate more clearly and as she puts it, speak more human. Laura has spent the last decade obsessing over one of the most overlooked audiences in higher ed marketing parents and families. And as we'll get into the bar is pretty low across institutions. When it comes to addressing this demographic.
00;00;41;08 - 00;01;02;16
John Azoni
In this episode, Laura breaks down why most parent pages are information present, but emotionally absent what it actually looks like to build a page that earns trust instead of just listing links and the three pieces of content she'd prioritize if she were overhauling a parent page from scratch. We also walk through some real examples of what good looks like, including some screen flows.
00;01;02;16 - 00;01;24;04
John Azoni
Or if you're just listening, maybe go watch the YouTube video for that section so you can see what the difference looks like in practice. And we've got a little launch happening today. Laura just released a free AI powered parent communication assessment tool where you can drop in a URL or paste an email and get an honest read on whether your content is actually working for a parent audience.
00;01;24;12 - 00;01;33;15
John Azoni
We'll talk about how that works and where you can find it. So this is a practical one. Let's go. Okay, Laura, welcome to the show.
00;01;33;18 - 00;01;34;24
Laura Rudolph
Thanks so much for having me.
00;01;35;24 - 00;01;56;17
John Azoni
So super great to have you on. I've been wanting to do an episode about parents for a while now, and it's a demographic that I think a lot of people know is important and feel and their soul is important but really don't have a workflow to address. And so we're glad to get you on and talk about that before we start.
00;01;56;17 - 00;02;00;21
John Azoni
What something higher ed related or not that you've been kind of nerding out about lately?
00;02;00;28 - 00;02;23;00
Laura Rudolph
Okay. Minus kind of non-related to higher. Ed Perfect. So I've been feeling really nostalgic lately. I think it's partially because just a couple of months ago I turned a really big number 20. I would appreciate if someone thought that I was turning 20. I turned 42 months ago and I have a toddler, not a toddler anymore. She's a preschool graduate.
00;02;23;17 - 00;02;47;22
Laura Rudolph
And so she's five. She's, you know, out for the summer. She's getting ready to go to kindergarten. And she's at this age where she's really starting to get into music and singing and learning lyrics to things and having preferences. And there was just something in me that I was like, I need to introduce her to the music of my childhood, you know, like from the mid-nineties to the, I'd say like early 2000.
00;02;48;06 - 00;03;11;08
Laura Rudolph
And so I've been working on creating these playlists for her for when we're together in the car in different places. And I've been nerding out about it so much because I'm also, you know, seeing and hearing this music for the first time in like, I don't know, ten, 15 years. I haven't listened to a lot of this. I you know, during the academic year, I'm so focused on higher ed and I'm listening to higher ed podcasts and I listen to that.
00;03;11;08 - 00;03;44;25
Laura Rudolph
I don't I don't take a lot of time to listen to music for my own enjoyment. And I have had so much enjoyment out of introducing her to songs from clean songs, you know, for considering it's a five year old. But I think it's been such a joy to just introduce her to, you know, some music that is such a good memory, you know, spawned such good memories for me when I was, you know, 14, 15, 16, you know, driving around in the car with the windows down in the middle of the summer before the school starts.
00;03;44;25 - 00;03;48;00
Laura Rudolph
And so that's been what I've kind of been learning out about lately.
00;03;48;09 - 00;03;51;08
John Azoni
What was your go to genre in your teens?
00;03;51;12 - 00;04;16;23
Laura Rudolph
So I'm from Kentucky. People think country. I am not a country music fan, which is, I don't know, maybe it's the antithesis of being a Kentuckian. I was really into pop music. So, you know, the first song I introduced her to was like, I need something clean and something very, you know, poppy that. So like I introduced her to Hanson, which was I was like, she loved so like score one for Mom with that.
00;04;17;02 - 00;04;37;29
Laura Rudolph
But then I also made like a nostalgic playlist for me because I was enjoying it so much. I was actually cooking dinner the other night at my parents house, and I was there alone and my mom walked in and I'm like, playing Usher while I'm cooking in the middle of the kitchen. And she was like, What is what is happening?
00;04;38;29 - 00;04;57;25
Laura Rudolph
But, you know, it's very kind of like a mix of things from just that era, you know? And it's a lot of boy bands, you know, some early Britney, but then there's like some emo music from that time that was also really good. And it's just been such a joy to reminisce in that way with her.
00;04;59;00 - 00;05;10;10
John Azoni
That's great. My kids love In-Sync. They love Britney Spears. Yes. So my daughter's 11. My my other daughter is eight, almost nine. So all of the nineties stuff, they're super into so good.
00;05;10;23 - 00;05;14;07
Laura Rudolph
And like now it's considered, you know, like classic music.
00;05;14;22 - 00;05;15;06
Laura Rudolph
Right?
00;05;15;06 - 00;05;16;12
John Azoni
Like oldies.
00;05;16;12 - 00;05;27;25
Laura Rudolph
It's like the oldies, which is really weird because I think my mind is still set in 2000. So I think like the eighties was 20 years ago, like that. That's my mindset. Yeah, not so much. I wish that was the case.
00;05;28;24 - 00;05;42;23
John Azoni
Well, cool. When my dad left, I can't remember where I saw this, but someone was like or me. It was like an Instagram reel where they're like, It's 7:00 on the dot. Where is Usher?
00;05;42;23 - 00;05;44;16
Laura Rudolph
Oh, gosh, that takes me back.
00;05;44;29 - 00;05;48;02
John Azoni
We'll leave that open ended for people to fill in. The answer.
00;05;48;11 - 00;05;50;20
Laura Rudolph
I mean, everybody should know where Usher is.
00;05;50;23 - 00;05;57;05
John Azoni
But now that you've had a minute, you've had a second to think about it. He's in his drop top, top and also cruising the streets.
00;05;57;13 - 00;06;01;07
Laura Rudolph
Absolutely.
00;06;01;07 - 00;06;11;02
John Azoni
All right. Well, speaking of parenting, bring us up to speed on your relationship to the parenting demographic within higher ed and why that's a demographic that you're passionate about reaching.
00;06;11;17 - 00;06;35;06
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, my first love was really journalism and storytelling. That's what I majored in when I was in college. But not just you know, the soft, frilly storytelling here, the feature stories. I was actually interested in investigative journalism. I covered a lot of news. I was always given the crime beats. I was really kind of drawn to the idea that writing can really reveal something true.
00;06;35;23 - 00;06;56;10
Laura Rudolph
And I fell into higher ed and marketing by happenstance, as a lot of us do. But I did have that little bit of me as a journalist that was like, okay, can I really go to the dark side and and do this? Because journalism is about uncovering the truth, marketing, you know, it's kind of dressing some stuff up, making some things sound better than maybe they are.
00;06;56;22 - 00;07;25;07
Laura Rudolph
But what I have, you know, learned throughout my career is some of the best marketing is the marketing that tells the truth. It's not making something sound better. It's figuring out what is real, what matters, and what do people need to understand and how can I say it clearly? And that's, I think, why parent communication became so interesting to me, particularly when we saw a generational change in the parents to Gen X.
00;07;25;07 - 00;07;46;06
Laura Rudolph
I think that's when I started to see a change in the way I needed to write, to resonate with them in a better way. When I was first in enrollment many moons ago, I remember coming out and being onboarded as a new person and into enrollment and saying, Hey, do we communicate with parents? And they're like very intentionally.
00;07;46;06 - 00;08;10;05
Laura Rudolph
No, we do not do that. And I want to be fair to the time period because I think that at that time the idea is, you know, the student should lead the college search. And I think that's still true today. We ideally want the student to lead the college search. But the concern is that if we communicate too directly with parents, then we might undermine that student autonomy and that independence.
00;08;10;21 - 00;08;33;14
Laura Rudolph
And, you know, that kind of stayed with me over time. And so later, when I had the opportunity to write myself and make those decisions in a director role, I realized how much I loved writing for that audience. And it became honestly kind of a breath of fresh air, especially as a former journalist, because they were, you know, skeptical in the best of ways.
00;08;33;14 - 00;08;55;28
Laura Rudolph
They really wanted transparency. They wanted honesty. They always looked for the fine print and things. You know, they didn't want this package of fancy marketing. They didn't want to hear about your temper beds and your walk. Rockwell's right. Like they want to know what is real and what are you providing to my student? And that just really connected with me to how I had been trained as a journalist.
00;08;55;28 - 00;09;17;02
Laura Rudolph
And so writing for parents, especially that Gen X, you know, really brought that instinct back into me and it gave me kind of a permission to write more honestly. And I think that's where my my passion really came from. And, you know, I'm a millennial parent now myself, so I feel it more, you know, I'm not the parent of a college bound student yet by any means.
00;09;17;02 - 00;09;35;10
Laura Rudolph
But, you know, I still understand that emotional posture of of really wanting clear answers and wanting to know that someone respects that you're not just being nosey, like you're just trying to be a good parent and make a good decision for somebody that you love. And I think that that's why I really enjoy the parent communication Now, today.
00;09;35;10 - 00;09;54;22
John Azoni
Yeah, I love that. I mean, I resonate that with that with like the safety of or just being concerned about the well-being of your child, not just like the cool stuff that they have. And I'm very you know, as a parent, I'm very like pro let them fail. Right? You know, And I think that works to an extent.
00;09;54;22 - 00;10;10;24
John Azoni
I think that you also have to be pro like coaching them to not fail to heart. Like, I feel like college is such a big thing. This is an opportunity to know what's going on as a parent and coach them to be like, Hey, this is happening. Did you get this?
00;10;11;00 - 00;10;35;16
Laura Rudolph
I mean, haven't we succeeded as parents? If we create human beings that are capable of living life? Right. And I think that we don't give parents enough credit in that regard. And don't get me wrong, are there those parents out there that want to do everything for their student and write the essays and when they're on tour, they're like, we are going to college, Right?
00;10;36;04 - 00;11;02;15
Laura Rudolph
We you know, have I had a parent ask if they could come live in the student's dorm room for the first six weeks of the school year? Yes, I have. But I think. Right. I mean, and those things do happen and there are those people. But I think that if you talk about it from, you know, 10,000 feet approach, there's a lot of, you know, emotional connection and there's worry and anxiety.
00;11;02;15 - 00;11;28;22
Laura Rudolph
And frankly, if you look at the world that we grew up in as parents, we have gone through a lot of unique world experiences that former parents in generations never went through. And I think taking a step back to thinking about these are just human beings. They've had some really interesting experiences in their lives that have caused them to have more anxiety and be more concerned about safety.
00;11;29;00 - 00;11;54;29
Laura Rudolph
You know, I remember in middle school was when we had the Columbine shooting for me. Right. And then, you know, later on, we have 911 in high school and it's just like it gets compound day by all of these. We're parenting during a global pandemic. I mean, think of I can't think of another generation that's probably had as many, you know, really impactful experiences on a world scale than what we have.
00;11;55;06 - 00;12;15;01
Laura Rudolph
And I think by nature, that just makes us more concerned as parents to make sure that our students and our children are going to be okay. And really, you know, I came from a generation where my parent was my parent. They weren't really my friend, but that's not really the case now with the millennial parents and the Gen X parents.
00;12;15;12 - 00;12;31;27
Laura Rudolph
And I think some of it does have to do with the pandemic. You know, they started they were home with them. You were sitting across from them when you're both working and they're in school and they began to rely on you and became, you know, they're part of the decision making of a family. You know, the children are that used to never be the case.
00;12;32;10 - 00;12;51;08
Laura Rudolph
So I think also we have to think about it from a perspective that the student really values the parents perspective, too. And if we are ignoring their parent, what does that say to the student as well? Mm hmm. So I think a two sided coin that we need to recognize parents in their position. But I think it really matters to students that we are recognizing their parents, too.
00;12;52;02 - 00;13;00;29
John Azoni
So let's talk about how we communicate to parents with parent pages on websites. So what are the major problems with a lot of parent pages that you're seeing?
00;13;00;29 - 00;13;27;07
Laura Rudolph
You know, I think there's number one, I'm just happier when a website has a parent page and I'm going to say parent page and parent communication throughout this. But that's one of the actually key things that I think are important here to say is that it's not just parents, right? It's parents, family members, supporters. So one of the thing that's really great to do is to diversify how you are talking about these people who are supporting the student because it's not always a parent.
00;13;27;15 - 00;13;50;15
Laura Rudolph
We have more multi generational families today than we've ever had, so we need to think about it might be a grandparent that's raising that student, it might be someone else. But for brevity today, I'm going to I'll say parent communication, but I think it's not just navigation, it's not just design. The number one overall, I think problem with parent family pages is that they're just really emotionally flat.
00;13;50;15 - 00;14;20;08
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, they provide information, but they provide no human connection. That's by far and away. I think the greatest challenge. I think that institutions have because it means you really have to invest in parent communication to develop that. But it's also what makes your pages the best. And I think, you know, good storytelling understands the human stakes, right? A good story, knows what someone wants, you know, what their challenges or their fears are, and then they try to resolve it.
00;14;20;13 - 00;14;33;29
Laura Rudolph
And parent pages usually do not do that. Yeah, a lot of them answer, Where's the link to this office? But they don't answer, you know, Can I trust you with my student? Yeah. So their information will be present, but emotionally absent in a lot of situations.
00;14;34;16 - 00;14;54;01
John Azoni
Yeah. And that's a really important distinction too, because it seems like what you're saying is you really have to have a whole separate language for the parents and a whole separate design flow that sort of translates your content into, you know, it's just that that one parent Piller that's reading this, I had a vendor, you know, I get these and I'm sure you do too.
00;14;54;01 - 00;15;14;13
John Azoni
I get these sales emails all the time from different vendors. And there is one recently that I was like, okay, I'm listening. You know, it was one that I was like, okay, that might actually be kind of relevant for me. So I took the bait and I said, Can you send me more info? Real like real guarded, just like, please send me more info.
00;15;14;24 - 00;15;33;10
John Azoni
And they just sent me a link to their website and I'm like, Come on. Like, you know, because I go to their website, it's all flashy. There's like, all these, like, you know, like the automatic videos and stuff that scroll and it's like doing all this so you scrolling and things are animated and moving around. I'm like, I just trying to figure out what you do.
00;15;33;19 - 00;15;37;22
John Azoni
Like, I kind of know what you do, obviously, because I was like, somewhat interested.
00;15;37;22 - 00;15;46;18
Laura Rudolph
So then right, you get to one of those pages and you're like, What do you even do? Or the language is so vague that you have to go to an about page, you know?
00;15;46;18 - 00;16;14;09
John Azoni
Yeah, it was really vague language about how they help like video production studios or something like that. And I'm like, okay, but do you get like, are you for the Hollywood studios or are you for the small crew? Right. You know, marketing studios. And I had to figure that out on my own. And eventually, I assume it's for these Hollywood studios and they just, you know, they emailed the wrong person, but that might not even be true.
00;16;14;18 - 00;16;16;24
John Azoni
And they lost me anyway. I was like, Sia, Yeah.
00;16;17;08 - 00;16;35;01
Laura Rudolph
That's that's the thing I see across the board, too, with these pages. You know, I have a kind of a list of problems, right? I think that there's always some problems that show up. A lot of them are like a filing cabinet of links, right? It's like, here's the financial aid link, the housing link, the for the family weekend.
00;16;35;06 - 00;16;58;06
Laura Rudolph
But they don't acknowledge, you know, why that parent actually might be there. Maybe they're fearful of something. There's a financial anxiety. They have grief. You know, there's grief that comes along with letting your student, you know, go to college and the parents aren't landing on those pages is just like neutral information consumers. They are typically arriving with a purpose and a feeling.
00;16;58;13 - 00;17;29;05
Laura Rudolph
And so you have to be able to be willing to say, okay, we need to think about that and get them to the place that they maybe need to go, But we don't need a link form, you know, and and that's the thing I see a lot is to the institution that might feel comprehensive, like here, look at all this information I'm giving to you, but to a family, especially someone who's anxious or an a first generation family who's unfamiliar with higher ed, it can feel like, you know, being handed a map and know like dot on it where you are.
00;17;29;08 - 00;17;37;15
Laura Rudolph
Right. And so some pages, I think, feel like the university took every link. It didn't know what to do with. And it's just like swept into power and it's like here family, this is for you.
00;17;37;26 - 00;17;46;20
John Azoni
Yeah, it's like, yeah, we're trying to be helpful. So we've just gathered all the links and we put them into one, you know, 16 by nine block here for you.
00;17;46;20 - 00;17;47;04
Laura Rudolph
Exactly.
00;17;47;13 - 00;17;50;02
John Azoni
Which is like, okay, that's a step in the right direction.
00;17;50;08 - 00;18;12;05
Laura Rudolph
But but, you know, the other thing too, I think is the links certainly are a common, I think, problem that I see across the board. But I think the other is to just the location of the page. They can be hard to find. I recently did an audit of about 40 different parent and family pages and some of them I had to dig for.
00;18;12;15 - 00;18;35;05
Laura Rudolph
And I think it's because, you know, in web design there is a tendency and I've been through some web redesigns before, I think there's a tendency internally that you organize information by offices, right. By how higher ed is organized, your hierarchy. So internally you think, okay, there's financial aid and registrar and housing and student accounts and all these things, but a parent isn't really thinking that way.
00;18;35;14 - 00;18;57;19
Laura Rudolph
And so there's some family and parent pages I found under, you know, student life. But student life is kind of geared towards a current parent. It's not geared toward a prospective student. There's times where I found a parent and family page in the president's office because the person who manages it lives there, right? Like, that's where that person is.
00;18;57;19 - 00;19;22;17
Laura Rudolph
Well, to them, that makes sense internally. But if I'm a parent looking for information about my incoming student, I'm not going to go to the president's office section of your website to find it. Right. So we need to think a little bit more about to what is the instinct of a parent if you're new to higher ed or you're just getting on the website for the first time for this to be because if it takes, you know, six clicks and, you know, a spiritual journey to get there, they're not going to do it.
00;19;22;17 - 00;19;30;25
Laura Rudolph
So we need to think about placement as well, because I think that that has been an issue, as I was going through an auditing these pages myself.
00;19;31;03 - 00;19;40;10
John Azoni
Yeah. So then let's talk about what is good look like, what are some actual points that schools should be zooming in on and trying to optimize?
00;19;40;10 - 00;20;03;16
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. You know, good parent pages, it's findable, it's emotionally intelligent, it's action oriented. And I would say it's really built around the families questions, you know, the questions that they're most likely to have. It shouldn't just be a landing place to then move them to the right department, or it should be a place where they feel seen and they feel respected.
00;20;03;26 - 00;20;25;11
Laura Rudolph
You know, good doesn't mean sentimental. And I think that that's kind of an interesting juxtaposition. This, you know, is not often thought about is that, you know, nobody needs a sonnet about like the bursar's office. But good needs to recognize like the human stakes, though they do need to recognize where families are right now and whether this is a place that they can trust with someone that they love.
00;20;25;25 - 00;20;46;09
Laura Rudolph
So findable is definitely one that I've already mentioned, and they're really good pages. Kind of translate the institution into family language. I think we use a lot of jargon in higher ed and we have some weird office names that often make no sense in higher education. And so translating those are incredibly important.
00;20;46;19 - 00;20;54;01
John Azoni
I mean, I've been like in the higher ed industry now for five years, and I honestly hate to admit it, I still couldn't tell you what a registrar is or a burst.
00;20;54;09 - 00;21;14;11
Laura Rudolph
I know those are two of the ones that I think confuse a ton of families. I remember there an institution I was at, and they had a center for academic and professional enrichment, and we called it Cape Internally, which was fun. And like once you were internal, you knew what it was. It was really career development. Like that's but study abroad was also there.
00;21;14;15 - 00;21;32;17
Laura Rudolph
Like you wouldn't even ever think that's where I'm going to go to find out about having study abroad experiences. And so sometimes there are, you know, it's just this lingo that we have, right? And families are not usually trying to understand your administrative structure. You know, they're just trying to understand, you know, get an answer to a question that they might have.
00;21;33;01 - 00;21;54;18
Laura Rudolph
You know, I I've mentioned that the biggest problem is emotional intelligence, acknowledging that they may be proud and terrified at the exact same time and they may want their student to grow, but also be scared of letting them go and so being able to kind of coach them through the process I think is really important. It really respects that this is where you are as a parent.
00;21;54;27 - 00;22;21;26
Laura Rudolph
But I think what's also great about pages like this is for those institutions out there that are afraid that if providing more information to the parent is going to make them too engaged, I would say it can do the opposite if you do it in the right way. I think if you create a page that shows the parents how they can support their student and encourage independence, then you're actually doing yourself a favor.
00;22;22;02 - 00;22;43;22
Laura Rudolph
And I think that those are some things that you could write about. You know, I've seen, you know, there's a couple of good ones out there, and one of them, I remember has a blog about parents and they write about these emotional concerns. How do you support your student when you're far away or if you're in an international family from abroad, You know, how can you support your student without taking over?
00;22;43;22 - 00;23;06;16
Laura Rudolph
You know, and if you're providing that content to them, it's really going to help you in the long run. It helps you clarify what that family role should be without just assuming they're going to be kind of taking over as a parent. And really they just create really good connection, I think, you know, providing not just a directory, but, you know, newsletters.
00;23;06;16 - 00;23;31;28
Laura Rudolph
If you have portals, it's a great place to have that webinar. I think parents really enjoy webinars. I just don't think that they're done as often as they probably should be giving them volunteer opportunities, put that care into places that can really benefit you as an institution. Yeah, like parent family councils, you know, volunteer opportunities allow them to share their story of their student because that can help you in enrollment.
00;23;31;28 - 00;23;40;00
Laura Rudolph
And storytelling is if their student has had a really great experience, then you can use this page as a way to siphon those great stories out.
00;23;40;16 - 00;23;50;19
John Azoni
That's a really interesting. Yeah, I never thought about that. Yeah. Like give the parents an opportunity to talk about their kid in a way that the kid isn't going to talk about themselves in that way.
00;23;50;19 - 00;24;12;21
Laura Rudolph
Right. And a lot of parents want to hear from other parents. I think one interesting thing about generationally, particularly with millennials, because, you know, for me, I remember the time of not having the Internet right? And then having the Internet. And yeah, now I have an iPhone and I use chatbots every day, right? So we're kind of the last generation of that.
00;24;12;23 - 00;24;33;07
Laura Rudolph
No tech, you know, group of parents. But we're Googlers, right? Like it's a verb for us. We're like, if my child is sick, you know, like I am going to all kinds of things to see, like what could it possibly be and why? And I think that it's really important to think about, oh, our parents are out there and they're searching for us.
00;24;33;16 - 00;24;52;28
Laura Rudolph
So that means like they're out there looking on Reddit for threads to like, I search on Reddit for things. They're out there Googling your name. They're going to look for reviews, They're going to talk to other parents, you know, at school, pick up about you. And I think it's important then to think that, oh, these parents care what other people say.
00;24;53;06 - 00;25;19;01
Laura Rudolph
Right? We put a lot of stock in the experiences other people have had, and we value that. And because of that, it would behoove any institution to think about parents as a way to talk to incoming parents, you know, get a parent council together and have one of their things be that they go out there and they call parents of families who are concerned about the finances or the return on investment of your institution.
00;25;19;10 - 00;25;30;04
Laura Rudolph
Right? Yeah, put them to work. You know, use that energy for good, because I think parents are always going to want to hear the honest truth from another parent or someone who's been through that experience before.
00;25;30;16 - 00;25;49;18
John Azoni
Yeah, you mentioned Reddit and that just has me thinking now. Like, I wonder what the value would be of a parent subreddit for the school where parents can chat with each other and ask questions and other parents can answer the questions that would, you know, relieve some burden off the school, you know, the staff.
00;25;49;19 - 00;26;08;24
Laura Rudolph
And parent AMA, right? Ask me anything. Oh yeah. I mean, and honestly, Facebook groups are parents now. I understand what I'm saying here. I have been one of those people who have had to be in a Facebook group and monitor and do those kinds of things before. So before anybody listening is like panic's over saying you need to have a parent Facebook group.
00;26;08;24 - 00;26;27;04
Laura Rudolph
That's not necessarily what I'm saying, But if you are a small school and you have the ability and you have the staff that are invested in parent communication and the parent experience, they love to have conversations and get to know each other because it makes them feel included. And I think that's really ultimately what all of us want to be, right.
00;26;27;04 - 00;26;35;09
Laura Rudolph
We just want to be included. We just want to feel seen and heard. And sometimes the spaces are a great place to do that, you know, giving them a place to be able to connect with one another.
00;26;35;23 - 00;26;53;26
John Azoni
Yeah. When I go to find a community or it's like ask a question about a product or something, I default to Facebook. I honestly like now they think, I don't know. I go to Reddit for if I'm like, I want to know the real scoop on something like what people think, but if I'm going to, like we have a pool and you know, you have to do a pool chemistry.
00;26;53;26 - 00;27;09;07
John Azoni
And so, I mean, the pool chemistry, whatever it's called Facebook group. And you can like post a picture of your water and people are like, oh, I had this ad that like, you know, yeah, I just that's that's where I go for that kind of stuff. Or for like, we were having trouble with Riverside earlier in this conversation.
00;27;09;07 - 00;27;25;27
John Azoni
So I, you know, in the third time that it cut out while we were waiting for you to come back on, I went direct to the Riverside Facebook Group and was like, What is going on? I posted a screenshot of the error message. Listen.
00;27;26;12 - 00;27;44;06
Laura Rudolph
I'm a former Slate captain and so, you know, a lot of institutions use light and I know if they are a Slate user, there's a Facebook page for us as Slate users, and I can't tell you how many times something happens and I get in there and I'm like, Is anybody else having this issue or Slack? You know, Slack is a great option too.
00;27;44;13 - 00;28;08;18
Laura Rudolph
And getting in there and asking people I mean, if I go back right now, I am a user of Facebook in that I just scroll, I'm a watcher, I'm like, I don't post. But if you go back to my page, I bet if you went through the last, I don't know, five or six post actual posts that I made, they were all asking for recommendations or what people think about something because that's where we go as parents.
00;28;08;24 - 00;28;15;29
Laura Rudolph
I mean, I remember this obviously dates me a little bit if I haven't already dated myself on this podcast today, but the.
00;28;16;08 - 00;28;17;13
John Azoni
It's okay, you're younger than me.
00;28;17;13 - 00;28;18;26
Laura Rudolph
So you're good.
00;28;19;20 - 00;28;36;05
Laura Rudolph
I remember when Facebook, you know, was only for college kids. You had to have like a college account to go get on Facebook. And that's how it was originated, right? Was for you to connect with other college students like it was that was the intent and was to talk to and communicate. So I've kept it ever since then.
00;28;36;05 - 00;28;49;26
Laura Rudolph
But now we just use it in a different way. And so I think this generation is used to it because we were kind of the first ones in Facebook. And I think, you know, obviously teens and stuff do still use it, I think, in different ways. But I think right now it's it's a parent place for sure.
00;28;50;10 - 00;29;14;02
John Azoni
Yeah, I would say we probably have another five, maybe ten, I don't know, five, maybe ten years where I'm just thinking like, you know, if the current generation of parents that have kids our kids age are continuing to ride that, like defaulting to Facebook for information or for responses from their community or from other communities, strangers, whatever, that might still be irrelevant.
00;29;14;07 - 00;29;25;25
John Azoni
You know, we might be the millennial college, you know, generation of college parents. Facebook might still be relevant, but I feel like it's a ticking clock. It is where it's going to be. I don't know, Snapchat or something.
00;29;27;13 - 00;29;30;22
Laura Rudolph
I don't know how much longer it's going to last, but we might as well utilize them all. We can.
00;29;31;14 - 00;29;52;16
John Azoni
So thinking about a director of enrollment marketing say that listening to this, who's inspired to overhaul their parent page, what would be the first three pieces of content that you would advise they create specifically for parents to populate that page? Because what we've said already is that you don't want to just have it be a link farm. So what would you curate for them?
00;29;52;17 - 00;29;54;08
John Azoni
Yeah, as your top three priority.
00;29;54;17 - 00;30;18;10
Laura Rudolph
I think start with the highest value content that families needs most. And so for me, if I'm taking that stance, the first thing I would do is a start here, like a guide for prospective students in admitted families. One of the problems I think that I didn't mention earlier that I do think is a problem is that sometimes family and parent pages are only made for one segment of parents and families.
00;30;18;23 - 00;30;56;09
Laura Rudolph
There's not enough kind of equity across the board, not only in what stage they're in, but the type of family that might be coming through the door. So having a start here guide for prospective and admitted families is really important. You know, it's the front door. It should be written for the family who's trying to kind of orient themselves, find out what matters first, you know, cost, financial aid, visit information, deadlines, student support, mental and emotional health, safety and well-being, things about housing's outcomes, and you know how to contact admissions, but also what to expect next.
00;30;56;21 - 00;31;11;13
Laura Rudolph
You know, I think for me, a lot of my anxiety comes from the fear of the unknown. Like, what do I need to do next? What's coming my way that I don't know about? And I don't want a scavenger hunt on your website. I just need a front door. So like, we may not know where you're starting, but start here.
00;31;11;24 - 00;31;35;12
Laura Rudolph
The second thing I would say would be like a what families worry about most hub or section where I'm going to address the concerns that colleges are maybe sometimes even afraid to talk about or are intentionally avoiding because they might feel a little too emotional. So how can we afford this? Well, my student, be safe. What if my student struggles academically or emotionally?
00;31;35;21 - 00;31;58;02
Laura Rudolph
Will there be someone there to notice if my student is struggling, what outcomes can I expect? What happens after deposit? You know, I would build directly around the questions and the worries that families actually carry. And I think sometimes you might think we don't want to feed into their anxiety. No, but you don't want to dress up anxiety or assume it's something that doesn't exist because it does.
00;31;58;15 - 00;32;20;18
Laura Rudolph
Like I said, that's what's going to send those students in or those parents to Google and Reddit and parent Facebook pages, Right? You want to keep them there. So that's kind of a second section. I would have. And then the third is, like I said, give the parents use that energy of their interest in their student and teach them how to support like support your student without taking over write essentially.
00;32;20;27 - 00;32;45;02
Laura Rudolph
And I think that will honor student autonomy, but also honor the family involvement at the same time. You know, and so it's how to support your student during the college search questions, I used to do kind of a BuzzFeed style with my parent communication. And so like seven questions to ask after your campus visit. Here's a side by side of what students need to handle and how you can support them during that process.
00;32;45;02 - 00;33;12;20
Laura Rudolph
Oh, that's good, right? How do I talk about money with my students? That is such a hard thing that we rarely address, which is like, how do you talk to your kids about how much money you actually have to spend for them to go to college? You know, when do you encourage, you know, self advocacy? So maybe some ways you can give them a say, hey, when they're ready to set up a campus visit, have them call, have them pick up the phone and actually call and set it up or get online and fill out the form themselves.
00;33;12;27 - 00;33;34;04
Laura Rudolph
Yeah. You know, so I think this is where colleges can kind of stop acting like the only option is helicopter parenting or silence. You know, there is a middle ground there and it's just showing them how they can what is appropriate support look like. And also from the parent from the college side, it can say, you know, we want your student to grow and we want you to be involved in that.
00;33;34;04 - 00;33;37;04
Laura Rudolph
And I think that parents would really appreciate that.
00;33;37;17 - 00;33;51;24
John Azoni
Perfect. That's great. So I want to talk through some examples. You sent me some examples of good parent pages. I'm pulling these up right now in my Internet. So we've got University of Washington, University of Texas, Hamilton and Wake Forest.
00;33;52;17 - 00;33;55;26
Laura Rudolph
So shout out to all the good schools there for.
00;33;55;26 - 00;34;01;29
John Azoni
Yeah. So what is making these stand out? Let's talk about University of Washington. I've got their page open right now. Go ahead.
00;34;01;29 - 00;34;24;19
Laura Rudolph
Yeah. What I really liked about Washington is they recognize that families are just not one big audience blob, right? They have a stronger sense of segmentation than I think a lot of other institutions have. So they have first year families transfer families, first gen families out of state, families, international families. Right. And they recognize that all of these might need different kinds of clarity.
00;34;24;21 - 00;34;47;15
Laura Rudolph
Right. A family sending a student across the country or internationally might need a different reassurance than someone who's, you know, commuting from nearby or a first gen family might need a little bit more explanation about processes and a change of language. You know, I really like that institutions help families have better conversations with their students, too. And I think that's what I also recognize about that.
00;34;47;24 - 00;35;05;24
Laura Rudolph
You know, I love resources that help parents talk with their student because otherwise, you know, we know what happens with kids. We're like, hey, how's school today? And they're like, Fine. And then that's just it, right? They are giving them some opportunities to have conversations with their students and here's what you can do. And that's what I really liked about Washington.
00;35;06;09 - 00;35;11;24
John Azoni
All right. Awesome. All right. University of Texas, Tell us about that one.
00;35;12;04 - 00;35;38;08
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, UT-Austin is a good example. Like, big institutions really need a very strong parent front door. I think the bigger the institution, sometimes, the more important that orientation becomes, because families might feel like they're really overwhelmed. You know, sometimes big institutions, it can feel like a city and not a campus. You know, there's a of layers. There's a lot of offices, there's a lot of processes and acronyms.
00;35;38;08 - 00;36;02;25
Laura Rudolph
And so the parent page really needs to reduce overwhelm. And I feel like that's what UT Austin's does pretty well. They need confidence that there's a path through right at a big university. Just contact the right office is not a good strategy. The larger the institution, the more important it is to translate this very complex environment into very simple, easy to understand things that gives them confidence.
00;36;02;25 - 00;36;26;02
Laura Rudolph
And I think that's what UT-Austin does really well. The other thing too, is that they invest in a parent and family office, and I think that there's something to say for institution fans like them that are big, that recognize that, hey, we've got a lot of parents of these students out there and we're going to put the necessary resources behind it to make sure that they're spoken to.
00;36;26;02 - 00;36;28;23
Laura Rudolph
And part of our community, just like anybody else is.
00;36;29;10 - 00;36;52;06
John Azoni
Yeah, I love that they do a great job of these, like sub segments appearance. So just for people who are just listening, there's a whole section with like a bunch of different blocks basically. Like what kind of parent are you for prospective families, for incoming freshmen families, for transfer families, undergraduate families. So that's great. And then in the Contact US area, you can see there's a picture of on the big screen at the football game.
00;36;52;06 - 00;37;07;28
John Azoni
It says Texas Parents Association. Yeah. So yeah, they have resources behind it, which is which is cool. Yeah, this is a great example. And if I were a parent, I would be like, okay, cool. This is helping me start someplace and giving me a kind of a guided choose your own adventure kind of situation.
00;37;07;28 - 00;37;25;13
Laura Rudolph
Exactly. Yeah. And it's sometimes hard to feel a part of something that's so big sometimes. And I think that when you are in a big institution, I think it's really important to make sure that you're you're recognizing that and still making them, you know, feel part of the overall community of your institution.
00;37;25;25 - 00;37;27;21
John Azoni
Yeah. Let's talk about Hamilton.
00;37;28;00 - 00;37;48;20
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, I pulled Hamilton because, you know, I think it's important to see what is small schools do and what does it look like for them. And I think the opportunity for smaller schools is just a little different because they can make family communication feel very personal and specific and very warm because they have that advantage. You know, they shouldn't try to sound like the large publics.
00;37;48;20 - 00;38;12;20
Laura Rudolph
You know, their advantage is intimacy. Right? Right. So their parent pages should feel like someone knows the is there. I think the risk sometimes for small colleges is that sometimes they can assume like the warmth of the campus is just automatically going to come through like because we all talk about community. I was at a liberal arts college for a long time, like, oh, it's you know, the best thing about here is community in which they assume that they feel that.
00;38;13;00 - 00;38;31;16
Laura Rudolph
But the website has to kind of carry that kind of warmth that, you know, a parent may not necessarily be there in person to feel, you know, So it's kind of like, you know, the first handshake, it's not a directory. And I felt a warmth from Hamilton that I thought, you know, really resembled what a small college should look like from a parent.
00;38;31;16 - 00;38;38;24
John Azoni
And they've got like an angel cam. Yeah. On there. And it's like a view of like the quad or something like.
00;38;39;00 - 00;38;54;25
Laura Rudolph
That that tells you, Yeah they have some really I think they have done some things really well that are very unique to what a small college can do, right. And I think that's the most important aspect of them, in particular in small colleges, is that they have an advantage in that way that others don't.
00;38;55;06 - 00;39;00;06
John Azoni
Yeah, that's great. And I like that they have important dates right at the top.
00;39;00;06 - 00;39;01;22
Laura Rudolph
They're very bold, right?
00;39;01;25 - 00;39;05;10
John Azoni
Yeah. I mean, if that's not the one thing you got to have on your lesson.
00;39;05;24 - 00;39;14;23
Laura Rudolph
That's not on my Google calendar. It doesn't exist. Right. So I think that that's great for parents as soon as they get on there to know some of the really big important things that are coming up.
00;39;15;11 - 00;39;17;10
John Azoni
And then last, we have Wake Forest.
00;39;17;11 - 00;39;39;21
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, Wake Forest I think is really strong because I'm going to say this and it might sound weird, but the family experience just feels like really alive. It's just not a static landing page. I think that they connect families to ongoing communication and deadlines and events and support. It has multiple options. I think. I also like when family pages help families know who to contact.
00;39;39;21 - 00;39;57;17
Laura Rudolph
And I know that sounds really basic, but I think what's really important is not just saying, Oh, here's financial aid. What's important to parents often is here's the financial aid office. Here are the things you can call them about. Here's this office. Here are the things you can call them about. Because to your point earlier, what is it?
00;39;57;17 - 00;40;18;09
Laura Rudolph
Burchard What does it registrar do? We need to know, have moments of where we understand what those are. And so they really kind of have some great ways to reach out to different areas of their institution and show parents where to go. And I think that, you know, it kind of shows that it can be a hub, like it feels like a hub Wake Forest does.
00;40;18;22 - 00;40;24;15
Laura Rudolph
It's not like a hallway or, you know, like you said, a link for to other places on campus.
00;40;25;00 - 00;40;38;03
John Azoni
Yeah, they've got like the parent and family events right front and center. That's like this is the thing is this May 15 through 17 commencement October 2nd through fourth family weekend and it's got a little countdown thing like family weekend begins in 120 days.
00;40;38;06 - 00;40;38;17
Laura Rudolph
Right.
00;40;38;17 - 00;40;40;13
John Azoni
Which is cute. I don't know.
00;40;40;13 - 00;40;49;14
Laura Rudolph
Yeah. Just like, feels alive. Like there's stuff moving around and there's countdowns. And I think that's what was interesting to me that I hadn't seen in some other places.
00;40;50;01 - 00;41;07;21
John Azoni
And yeah, you can sign up for family communications. I love that too, which is another question that I have, and I made a note to ask you about it, so I'll ask you about it right now, which is how do you suggest schools get the parent information, proactively contact information in order to communicate proactively with them?
00;41;07;21 - 00;41;24;26
Laura Rudolph
It's one of the biggest questions I get, honestly, and it's sometimes one of the reasons or the excuses I think I get of why they're not doing parent and family communication is they're like, Oh, well, I mean, we don't get it until they admit stage. So, you know, we're just not we're not going to do it. There's plenty of proactive ways.
00;41;24;26 - 00;41;43;16
Laura Rudolph
I think you can go about it. I think if there's any form that a student can fill out, there needs to be an option to add a parent, whether that's your campus visit, whether that's a card that you're having them right, or a virtual tablet they're having them do at a college fair or, you know, a campus visit when they're signing up for a campus visit.
00;41;43;27 - 00;42;01;29
Laura Rudolph
You know, there's something that I think a lot of institutions don't think about, which is ask the student, like, just ask the student. Yeah. And I have written, you know, lots of communication flows that start as early as the freshman year of high school. Right. And having freshman and sophomore and junior communication leading up to the senior year.
00;42;02;06 - 00;42;27;05
Laura Rudolph
And I think there's this misunderstanding that well, you know, a student's not going to share that information or we've asked and they don't tell us if you just tell the student why you're wanting that parent information. It's really amazing the increase that you're going to have in inquiries of parents, because, you know, I think the initial question is why do I want my parent information like that's a bit scarce, right?
00;42;27;05 - 00;42;27;29
Laura Rudolph
That's sketchy.
00;42;28;09 - 00;42;29;01
Laura Rudolph
Source.
00;42;29;04 - 00;42;44;14
Laura Rudolph
That's us. And so if you just say, like, hey, we are super excited to get to know you, we would love to talk to your parent about things like billing and financial aid so we don't have to bother you with it. Like, perfect, right?
00;42;44;19 - 00;42;46;03
John Azoni
I wouldn't want to deal with that anyway.
00;42;46;18 - 00;42;47;14
Laura Rudolph
So like.
00;42;47;23 - 00;43;07;16
Laura Rudolph
I mean, I'm a parent. I really don't want to deal with it, but I also know that I have to deal with it. So I think if you provide a reason why we I actually literally made that change myself at one of my institutions and we saw a ton of students fill it out. I mean, it was incredible how many additional, you know, contacts that we got for parents.
00;43;07;28 - 00;43;27;04
Laura Rudolph
And we did that through the sophomore and through the junior years asking for their parent information. And, you know, there are, you know, edtech companies out there who are like, hey, we can match parent information with mailing addresses. So that's a real benefit because you could go out there and say, okay, we may not have this parent information, but here's how we can get it.
00;43;27;18 - 00;43;47;01
Laura Rudolph
Another great thing, use your website, right? Like if you have someone who lands on your page and you serve them like a pop over RFI form, let them choose if they're a parent or a student, and then that will get them into your system. So, I mean, I think it's really you're unlimited. Any touchpoint that they have with you, you should be asking for a parent information.
00;43;47;01 - 00;44;04;01
Laura Rudolph
Absolutely. The other thing, too, is go to your alumni base because you're going to have a ton of alumni whose kids are going to be coming up in the next couple of years and ask them to opt in. That's going to fulfill a ton of people. So, I mean, there's all kinds of, you know, unique creative ways. I think that you can do that.
00;44;04;13 - 00;44;13;06
John Azoni
I love it. That's very practical and helpful. So you built an assessment tool to help people audit their own parent pages. So tell us about that.
00;44;13;17 - 00;44;39;27
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, and enrollment, you know, we have a tendency to obsess over the student and as we should, every email, every campaign, every visit, everything is built around them. But I think the student isn't the only one reading those emails alone. We know those are being forwarded. We know that parents are on our websites. We are attempting to build, you know, web pages and hopefully there are institutions out there who are creating communication places for parents.
00;44;40;12 - 00;45;06;25
Laura Rudolph
But I found that just like today, a lot of questions that I get are how do I talk to them differently? What is it about parents that I need to be saying that I'm not? And so I built a parent and family communication analyst. It's free. It lives on my website, it's AI powered, and it just kind of gives like a piece of information to help you better judge if the communication that you're writing is appropriate for your audience.
00;45;07;07 - 00;45;29;06
Laura Rudolph
And to be clear, this is the audience. Most institutions, you know, treat is an afterthought. And so sometimes it's these institutions are copying the student version and sending it to the parent. Well, that might not be the best way to go about it. So what I've done is can actually take a URL so you can pop in a URL and it will analyze that web page.
00;45;29;17 - 00;45;50;17
Laura Rudolph
Or if you have content like an email or text messages, you can actually copy and paste your email directly into the analyst. And then it reads the communication the way a parent would and it analyzes it in that way. You get kind of a tiered review. So there's like four tiers. It's not just like a label slapped on.
00;45;50;17 - 00;46;10;12
Laura Rudolph
It will actually, you know, write each of them on a 1 to 5 scale and it will give you a real description of your content about, you know, here is what we think works. Here are some gaps. And, you know, I think it's going to be something that if you're new to parent communication, it can be a real guide.
00;46;10;23 - 00;46;23;20
Laura Rudolph
A lot of people say, I tend to give away the form, but I'm like, this is what makes all of us better In higher ed is things like this and I love to share. And so since I can't just have me everywhere, I thought this is the next best thing.
00;46;24;29 - 00;46;27;02
John Azoni
I appreciate that. So what's the URL?
00;46;27;09 - 00;46;52;29
Laura Rudolph
Yeah, so you can go straight to square one K icon askew uare0nek wired.com. It'll be on the home page. It's free. Like I said, write your emails right before your next, you know, campaign goes out throwing you some URLs of your parent pages. You know, worst case, you confirm you're doing great best case you catch something that you know maybe was costing you need it now and you can fix it.
00;46;53;07 - 00;47;03;18
John Azoni
So that's awesome. So when I go take a sample into the pool store, they have people's pool chemical tests that got 100% and they have it on the wall.
00;47;04;05 - 00;47;06;04
Laura Rudolph
I need to do that. That's a great.
00;47;06;05 - 00;47;07;20
John Azoni
Maybe something to aspire.
00;47;07;20 - 00;47;27;21
Laura Rudolph
To. I would love I would love for the people who use this to honestly contact me, Let me know if it really has been. You know, sometimes we put these things out in the ether, you know, these white papers and I have a first gen comes kind of like workbook essentially on my website as well. And I love hearing feedback.
00;47;27;21 - 00;47;46;24
Laura Rudolph
So if you use this and it's beneficial, I would love to hear about it. And if you get 100%, definitely let me know too, because you're killing it. But you know, my hope is, is and I intentionally wrote it to not necessarily say, here are all the things you're doing wrong, but to say, here are the ways in which you can improve.
00;47;46;24 - 00;48;06;01
Laura Rudolph
And I think, yeah, it may sound like a similar, but it will definitely tell you where you're doing things really, really great as well. And I think this is going to make us all make parents feel a little bit better and not so invasive in their students lives. You know, we want to make them feel like they're really part of this experience, too.
00;48;06;01 - 00;48;09;04
Laura Rudolph
And so I hope this will help people write better for them.
00;48;09;04 - 00;48;14;06
John Azoni
Well, speaking of that, tell us about Square one consulting in general and who do you work with? How do you help them? Yeah.
00;48;14;15 - 00;48;38;20
Laura Rudolph
So, you know, I always say I help colleges communicate more clearly, speak more human. I kind of help with any audience. I really said it primarily at the intersection of enrollment marketing and you know mark com office. But I do parent and family engagements. I also say I do strategy to Slate. So I mentioned I was a Slate captain in my previous life in higher Ed.
00;48;39;04 - 00;48;59;05
Laura Rudolph
So I work with a lot of institutions to create a strategy and student journey mapping and then develop their content for them and put it in their slate instance and deploy it. And so I work with tend to work with a lot of small and mid-sized colleges that really need that assistance. They may not have the resources in-house to do it themselves.
00;48;59;15 - 00;49;19;05
Laura Rudolph
You know, my job is to become kind of part of a team. And I think that's the beauty of being able to be a consultant is that we have the ability to not only choose our partners, but really embed ourselves in a way that we can't in other ways. So I audit peer and family pages. I build enrollment, communication players, build out site journeys and portals to yield and mount campaigns.
00;49;19;15 - 00;49;41;17
Laura Rudolph
Pretty much anything that falls into the enrollment marketing area is something that happy to work on with any institution. And, you know, my goal is that we keep the audience front and center and I do a lot of data review too. So one of my most important things is that you got to know your audience and sometimes your audience is not necessarily those that you're reading about in white papers.
00;49;41;27 - 00;50;12;24
Laura Rudolph
So I deploy a lot of audience surveys for my partners, and that way you can learn about who your actual parents and students are. That might be very regional to you and how they differ from maybe, you know, grand data that comes from across the United States. So we build that out and then kind of look at your audience and make sure that we're communicating with them in the way that they need it to make them act and hopefully enroll at your institution.
00;50;13;06 - 00;50;27;00
John Azoni
I love it. That sounds great. I can already think of one school. I want to send this episode to this and everything you just said so well, thanks so much for coming on the show and bearing with the tech issues. So you know, happens. It does, you know.
00;50;27;00 - 00;50;28;16
Laura Rudolph
So thanks for keeping me around.
00;50;28;28 - 00;50;29;09
Laura Rudolph
Yeah.
