Speed, Authenticity, and the Future of Higher Ed Marketing

In this episode of The Enrollment Clinic, Gjergj Dollani sits down with Rob Clark and Chris Rapozo, co-authors of The Attention Gap, to unpack why so many colleges struggle to break through online despite spending heavily on marketing. The conversation dives into the growing disconnect between how universities market themselves and how students actually discover schools today. Rob shares how he helped generate over 5 billion social media views, while Chris explains how years in higher ed marketing and podcasting led him to co-write a book challenging the industry’s traditional approach to content, branding, and speed. They discuss why polished institutional marketing often underperforms, why authenticity now beats perfection, and how slow approval processes are quietly killing relevance. The episode also explores student behavior, parent influence, AI tools, content repurposing, and why many schools are still treating social media as an afterthought instead of a primary discovery engine. If you work in enrollment, admissions, or higher ed marketing, this episode is a direct challenge to rethink how your institution earns attention in a world moving faster than higher education is built for.