Standing Out From the Crowd: Why Differentiation is Still a Big Challenge for Business Schools

brand value, branding, Marcom External Relations Conference

Early this year, I was pleased to attend the EFMD Marketing and Communications Conference at Cambridge Judge Business School. We covered many different topics, including building brand value, SDGs, and the strategic value of alumni relations. Afterwards, I found myself reflecting on one session in particular. Michael Johnson, Johnson Banks Design, cleverly started his session…

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Demystifying transformation – 5 ways to transform your business school PR

In June, I had the pleasure of attending the EFMD Marcom, External Relations and Alumni Relations conference at Nyenrode Business Universiteit in the Netherlands. After months of restrictions, it was great to catch up with friends and colleagues from the business school world. The overall theme was: “Demystifying transformation”. Various sessions dived into what that…

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Are you making it hard for journalists to say “yes”?

Securing positive press coverage for your business school is a smart way to build your reputation. It can help you increase awareness, support SEO, reach new audiences, and build trust through third-party endorsement. But when you are under pressure to get coverage, it can be tempting to rush into ‘volume’ tactics. These include pushing out…

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Five signs that you might need a different media relations strategy

media relations strategy Toby Roe EFMD

How do you measure whether your business school’s media relations activities are working? In our experience, business schools use similar metrics to measure the success (or otherwise) of their media relations. Often, these include volume or quality of coverage, whether they are hitting their target media, or share of voice versus peers. All of these…

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Achieving successful external engagement in the face of budget, staff and strategic challenges

Lack of budget, absence of strategy, shortage of staff and short-term thinking are the top challenges faced by professional services staff in business schools from a new report published by Roe Communications, CarringtonCrisp and EFMD Global. The report provides insights into the biggest challenges (pre- and post-COVID), the skills needed, budget expenditure and the channels…

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“We want to be in the FT…”

In over 20 years as a media relations professional, I think I must have heard this phrase hundreds of times from business schools wanting media coverage for a particular story. But all too often, the FT is not actually the best outlet for what they want to achieve. Don’t get me wrong. The Financial Times…

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Knowing me, knowing you – new research to help business school communicators better understand the challenges and strategies of reaching external stakeholders

EFMD is calling upon external relations, marketing and communications teams to take part in new research into how different business schools are communicating and how they compare to their peers. Working with higher education consultancy CarringtonCrisp and business education communications specialists Roe Communications, the research will address: The biggest barriers and challenges to their work,…

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Four ways to adapt your business school content strategy now

Toby Roe communications

It’s been a turbulent time for business schools. Campuses have closed, teaching moved online, and entire teams shifted to home working. Many business school communications teams are engaged in contingency communications and the priorities of keeping students and staff engaged and reassured. At the same time, many are wondering how they can also support the…

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Communications, content and collaboration in these difficult times

Communications, content and collaboration in these difficult times

Toby Roe, Co-founder, Roe Communications, shares his thoughts on how schools can approach the communications challenge in these difficult times, collaborate and come out of the situation stronger. The business education community is adapting to the COVID-19 situation, with many schools switching rapidly to different ways of teaching and operating. Most business schools have already…

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