Wetzel Attends AMA Higher Education Marketing Symposium

SALISBURY MD---Shelley Wetzel, Salisbury University’s director of Web development, recently attended the 15th Annual Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, hosted by the American Marketing Association in San Diego, CA. Over 460 marketing communication professionals attended from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Wetzel attended the previous two symposiums in Miami and Chicago, and learned information regarding the Internet as a marketing communications medium that higher education institutions are demanding more frequently in recent years.

At this year’s event, Robert Gates, former director of the CIA and president of Texas A & M University gave the keynote address “Marketing Higher Education.” The speech included anecdotes from his tenure in the CIA and illuminated changes in marketing strategies that higher education has needed to invoke since 9/11 in regard to focusing on all types of students.

The symposium consisted of three days of seminars focusing on four marketing concepts including strategy, research, promotions and advancement and enrollment management and strategy. Some of the sessions Wetzel attended included information on targeting CEO-level results through integrated brand tactics, what college-bound students look for on school Web sites, using marketing research to support college marketing strategy, and planning and turning faculty and staff into brand ambassadors.

Wetzel also attended a tutorial by Simpson Communications entitled “How to Build and Implement a Campus Wide Branding Effort – Step by Step,” which included the statistic that 85-94 percent of prospective students use the web as a primary source of information in deciding which school to attend.

The conference gave Wetzel an opportunity to  network with speakers and exhibitors who also participated in SU’s annual Web Communications and Strategies Conference. The next Web conference is July 18-20, 2005. For more information visit www.salisbury.edu/webconf/.