How to Turn Brand Awareness Into Applications You Can Track
Episode overview:
In this episode of Filling Seats, host sits down with Diego H. Meeroff, MBA, Chief Marketing Officer and Associate Vice President at Georgia Southern University. Drawing on his 15-year higher education career and previous leadership roles across the travel and hospitality sectors, including Disney World and Royal Caribbean. Diego shares how higher ed institutions can bridge the gap between top-of-funnel brand awareness and trackable, sustainable enrollment growth.
Georgia Southern University recently achieved a record-breaking enrollment of 33,000 students and its largest-ever first-year class, capping off a 22% growth trajectory over the past four years. Diego breaks down the strategic shifts that powered this milestone: embedding marketing directly within enrollment and student success, maintaining brand continuity across four distinct campuses, utilizing personalized video content, and viewing brand identity as an internal culture built from the inside out.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How aligning marketing within Enrollment Management and Student Success breaks down departmental silos.
Methods for reaching "stealth" prospective students through SEO audits and behavioral analytics.
Why building brand culture internally through "band practice" sessions helps eliminate generic higher ed marketing cliches.
Strategies for maintaining brand equity across multi-campus consolidations without creating a "main campus" hierarchy.
How video-first strategies and personalized content drive conversion across the recruitment funnel.
