Strategic Plan

What is the University Marketing and Communications Plan?

The University Marketing and Communications three-year plan highlights opportunities to align marketing and communications efforts across the University in support of strategic aspirations and to improve practices in support of a thriving ecosystem of collaboration. It is not indicative of UMC’s full scope of work nor the perennial priorities of school and unit marketing functions.

Wake Forest University will be recognized for its increasing relevance and value to society. Our work will affirm the University’s distinctive position in the landscape of higher education and help advance its strategic goals.

Why Now?

We seek to advance a unified, strategic approach to marketing and communications at Wake Forest and build understanding among stakeholders of how these functions further Wake Forest’s mission and contribute to the goals articulated in Framing Our Future. This plan increases clarity and accountability for UMC and its many communication partners.

How We’re Doing It

With a shared vision and clear objectives, UMC will have primary responsibility for implementing this plan. In leading this effort, it will convene, advise, coordinate, and collaborate with partners in units and schools across the institution and serve as a central source of expertise, content strategy, and brand identity. The University’s marketing and communications functions and practices are evolving to meet institutional needs and aspirations; as we cultivate an ecosystem of collaboration, we will clarify not only UMC’s priorities, but also the respective roles of a centralized operation, schools, and administrative units in advancing those priorities.

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Broad Strategic Aims

• Strengthen and protect Wake Forest’s brand identity, raising the University’s reputation for academic excellence and making clear its distinctive relevance and value for individuals and for humanity
• Cultivate engagement and belonging among stakeholders, inspiring their support of Wake Forest, nurturing their affinity, and building their trust and pride in the institution
• Create an ecosystem of collaboration for marketing and communications across the University built on centralized strategy, brand management, and best practices and enabled by role clarity and the coordination of shared tools, technology, and training

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Overview

What: This three-year plan highlights opportunities to align marketing and communications efforts across the University. It is not indicative of the full scope of work undertaken by the University Marketing and Communications (UMC) team nor the perennial priorities of school and unit marketing functions.

Why: A unified, strategic approach to marketing and communications increases the likelihood that every audience interaction reflects Wake Forest’s unique value proposition.

How: UMC will have primary responsibility for implementing this plan. It will convene, advise, coordinate, and collaborate with partners in units and schools across the institution and serve as a central source of expertise, content strategy, and brand identity. As Wake Forest continues to cultivate an ecosystem of collaboration, UMC will clarify University-wide marketing and communication priorities and the respective roles of a centralized operation, schools, and administrative units in advancing those priorities.

Our Aspiration

Marketing and communications efforts will contribute to the continual elevation of Wake Forest’s distinctive position in the landscape of higher education and advance its strategic goals.

Audiences

Wake Forest benefits from and engages consistently with a diverse set of audiences, many with deeply held affiliations and affinities. Included among these are internal audiences, comprising students, faculty, and staff; Trustees and board and council volunteers; alumni and families; prospective members of our academic community; our communities of Winston-Salem, Charlotte, and the state of North Carolina broadly; peers, partners, and policymakers in our communities and in higher education; and the broader public and media.

Each of these audiences is important to Wake Forest’s future. UMC will set and pursue audience-specific goals while holding the perspectives of all audiences in balance.

A note on audience prioritization: Wake Forest’s mission and operating model both prioritize the student experience. As a tuition-dependent institution and a point of creative discipline, UMC will always consider prospective students and families in its messaging and approach. Sound marketing to and communication with this audience is the foundation of all other marketing and communication efforts.

Principles of Practice

In June 2024, Wake Forest University’s Executive Marketing Council (XMC) adopted the principles of practice for communications and marketing professionals at educational institutions published by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and listed below.

The XMC, which comprises senior marketing and communications professionals across the university, advises on the coordination of University-wide marketing and communication strategy and collaborates in the execution of that strategy. The XMC adopted these principles to assist communications and marketing professionals in fulfilling their roles in a manner that will benefit Wake Forest University, their schools and units, and the entirety of the Wake Forest community.

Ethical Principles

As communications and marketing professionals, we have a fundamental obligation to:

• Advance the mission of the institution in an ethical and socially responsible manner.
• Ensure our work is aligned with, and reflects, the basic values of educational institutions: discovery, creativity, an abiding respect for candor and diverse viewpoints and a firm commitment to the open exchange of ideas.
• Reinforce through words and actions the principles of honesty, integrity, accountability, respect for others, quality and trust, which form the basis for long-term, supportive relationships with our publics.
• Place the welfare of the institution above personal gain, avoid conflicts of interest, maintain professional standards in all communication channels, take responsibility for our decisions and treat colleagues and the public with courtesy and respect.

Operational Principles

We are most successful at advancing the institution when:

• We employ proven creative and strategic methods, as well as promising new approaches in the field, and ensure that plans, activities and outcomes can be reliably measured as part of a commitment to continuous improvement.
• As highly valued professionals, we are present in the inner management circle, providing strategic and crisis counsel to the institution’s leadership, conveying the viewpoints of primary publics and participating in the formulation of policies affecting those publics.
• We base our work on research and data analysis that informs our understanding of the institution’s primary publics and that measures progress toward established goals, expressed in terms of desired attitudes and behaviors among those publics.
• We undertake ongoing, targeted programs of communications and marketing, employing multiple channels appropriate to the audience and the message.
• We engage in two-way communication with primary publics and actively seek feedback to help the institution align its services with existing and emerging needs of its intended beneficiaries.
• We involve internal constituencies across the organization in delivering not only the messages but also the academic and service excellence on which the institution’s reputation depends.

Guiding Priorities

• Strengthen and protect Wake Forest’s brand identity, raising the University’s reputation for academic excellence and making clear its distinctive relevance and value for individuals and for humanity
• Cultivate engagement and belonging among audiences, inspiring their support of Wake Forest, nurturing their affinity, and building their trust and pride in the institution
• Create an ecosystem of collaboration for marketing and communications across the University built on centralized strategy, brand management, and best practices and enabled by role clarity and the coordination of shared tools, technology, and training

Objectives for FY 25-28

UMC, with advice and support from the XMC, will review these objectives, provide a progress update to University leadership, and make adjustments on an annual basis.

1. Refine Wake Forest’s brand narrative and develop a set of cross-cutting strategic messages that align with the university’s Strategic Framework and emphasize purpose and value
2. Develop an audience-focused, university-wide content strategy that:
   1. Supports the three thematic goals of the Strategic Framework (Community of Learning; Community of Inquiry; Community of Partnerships)
   2. Promotes excellence (especially academic excellence) among key audiences
   3. Showcases Wake Forest’s impact in Winston-Salem and beyond
   4. Balances tradition with innovation, intimate with comprehensive, local with global, individual ROI with societal good
3. Develop a communications strategy for enhancing the University’s visibility, reputation, and impact in Charlotte, leveraging the opening of the School of Medicine campus and Advocate Health headquarters
4. Develop a communications strategy for and contribute significantly to the successful launch of a comprehensive campaign, including the setting of expectations for the roles of units and schools in campaign communications
5. Clarify, communicate, implement, and continually refine a values-based issues management strategy
6.  Create and deploy shared resources, methods, messaging, and tools for collaboration
7.  Through strategic investment and reimagining, make progress toward the necessary structure, resources, and positioning that would allow UMC to serve as institution-wide strategic communications experts with the opportunity and authority to convene, coordinate, and lead campus partners in brand strategy and management

Measuring Success

We will measure and evaluate UMC’s efforts through a variety of approaches, including the University’s progress toward its strategic aims. That is, the goals we set for marketing and communications serve the University’s goals directly; in turn, the success of the University and its constituent parts—UMC’s partners—in achieving their goals is our success as well.

This plan’s effectiveness, therefore, can be assessed by examining progress in three areas:

1.  Successful completion of the plan’s task-oriented objectives, including:

• The development of a brand narrative and associated cross-cutting thematic messages
• The development of a formal content strategy
• The development of a campaign communications strategy and plan
• Communication/publication of a values-based issues management strategy
• Key hiring and/or restructuring in UMC
• The creation of a collection of shared resources, tools, and toolkits for collaboration
• The adoption of brand narrative and visual identity standards by schools and units across the university

2. Improved University Key Performance Indicators, including:

• Enrollment indicators (inquiries, applications, acceptance rate, yield rate, etc.)
• Student retention and completion indicators
• Research indicators (including total research funding, support in priority areas)
• Employee recruitment and retention indicators
• Philanthropic support (including dollars raised, alumni and family giving participation rates, number of donors, etc.)
• Stakeholder engagement indicators (including event attendance and participation data, number and type of university partnerships, internship/employer data, visibility/recognition/awards among peers)

3. Marketing and Communications Key Performance Indicators (associated with specific project and program/campaign goals):

• Earned media placements and mentions
• Page views, sessions, and other metrics related to consumption of/engagement with key content on the University website, including conversion rates on inquiry forms, and applications
• Positive feedback and sentiment as measured through social listening and social media audience growth and engagement
• Digital marketing and SEO metrics, including paid ad impressions, lead generation, cost per lead, conversion rates, search engine rank, and open and clickthrough rates

Next Steps and Looking to the Future

This plan seeks to move toward a unified strategic approach to marketing and communications at Wake Forest, and it does so at a moment of both opportunity and challenge—for the University and for higher education. The evolution of UMC to a centralized, strategic operation will take time, and its pace will be set in part by the University’s ability to invest in critical restructuring and support as we endeavor to create an ecosystem of collaboration for marketing and communications university-wide.

In the near term, a leader within UMC will be assigned as a point person for each of the specific objectives listed above; they will, in turn, organize and lead efforts to achieve the objectives, in many cases in close collaboration with one another and with the vice president. UMC will apprise the XMC of progress toward these aims and look to the XMC for support in advancing them.

Over time, as the University’s marketing and communications efforts evolve, we anticipate greater strategic investment and reimagining to equip and position UMC optimally to serve the University. We hope that one such investment will be in ongoing institutional market research to assess the University’s brand perception and brand health among key audiences and the broader public.