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Leading with transparency

Siena Heights University

How we're helping Siena Heights

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When a new president started at Siena Heights University (Siena Heights) in May 2024, he and the Board of Directors wanted to understand the current state of the campus brand and align the public perception of the university with what it aspires to be. 

As a private Catholic university in Adrian, Michigan, it was important for Siena Heights to fully understand how their inclusive and Catholic roots best serve today and tomorrow’s learners. 

Social intelligence insights identified opportunities for the Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations and their team to elevate the brand, support improvements in enrollment and donor outcomes, and pursue a stable financial future for the institution. 

Siena Heights announced it will close at the end of the 2025–26 academic year, but the faculty and staff remain steadfast in their commitment to making this the best year yet for students and alumni.

 

Partnership goals
  • Define a brand messaging roadmap informed by both what the public perceives Siena Heights to be and what it aspires to be.
  • Develop and implement a comprehensive brand health assessment, aligning Siena Heights’ content and messaging with the voices of key audiences.
  • Support executive decision-making using data and real-time conversation.
  • Add capacity of a support team with campus expertise and core capabilities in social intelligence and audience-centric strategy and engagement.
  • Maximize online engagement in support of Siena Heights’ brand, enrollment, and advancement goals.
  • Support the executive leadership team after closure announcement with clear understanding of public sentiment, audience feedback, and communications best practices. 
Douglas Palmer

“When I became president of Siena Heights University, I was very interested in brand development—both understanding existing perceptions of Siena Heights and where we had room to grow awareness and affinity. Campus Sonar started working with Siena Heights right after I took office to quickly move the institution toward an authentic and effective messaging strategy. Campus Sonar is the conduit throughout the cabinet to support effective collaboration and strategic decision making with regular audience, market, and competitive insights.”

— Dr. Doug Palmer, former President, Siena Heights University

“Campus Sonar has been invaluable in building capacity for our team and fostering collaboration across campus. Our collaborative work has helped us focus efforts to align our work with institutional priorities, integrate data-informed processes in our daily work, and shape our brand strategy.”

— Sarah Stanley, Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Siena Heights University

Sarah Stanley, Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Siena Heights University

Siena Heights' progress

The team met multiple goals and successfully implemented change on campus.

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Drive enrollment

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Increasing enrollment was critical for Siena Heights to grow revenue and strengthen their future. The team expanded their nursing and online programs through SHU Global to bring in additional revenue. They took multiple approaches to support this goal, supported by Campus Sonar.

  • Engaging with the enrollment team to identify how to recruit students effectively to SHU Global and understand this audience better.
  • Evaluating regional and aspirational competitors to differentiate their brand, highlight market opportunities, and inform messaging.
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Operationalize and grow marketing capability

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Monthly insights combined with regular team strategy and learning sessions enable the marketing team to identify online engagement opportunities and work toward a proactive approach. They’re also strengthening their ability to identify opportunities to apply data, insights and expertise in practice. The added capacity and expertise enables the team to maximize their online engagement in support of their goals, align data and analysis with strategic priorities, and boost efficiency and collaboration across campus.

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Elevate the Siena Heights brand

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The Siena Heights marketing team has a clear understanding of their current brand and they have a detailed, data-informed roadmap enabling them to make progress on elevating the brand.

Data-informed monthly insights demonstrate that messaging around key priority areas resonates with their current audience. Developing content about their close-knit network and community and highlighting individuals is increasing engagement, growing their brand-aligned content, and sustaining their positive messaging.

The brand pillar development and implementation provides insight into how Siena Heights’ brand resonates with their audience. The assessment gave them the opportunity to see how the desired messages performed within their existing brand and audience. They leveraged social intelligence insights, messaging, and brand persona research to implement a cohesive strategic communications plan across the marketing, enrollment, and advancement departments, and continue to follow an action plan to grow specific messages over time in their content strategy.

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Effectively position the brand in a competitive market 

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With their goal to expand SHU Global, Siena Heights needed to understand their competitors and know their student experience differentiators to inform their strategy. Social intelligence insights and a digital asset review informed findings that SHU Global has the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and increase enrollment. The competitor analysis action plan provides tactical recommendations to support the team’s implementation across campus.

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Anticipate needs to support the end of an era

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Navigating the closure of an institution is a critical moment to uphold transparent leadership. Leveraging real-time social intelligence insights and data to proactively anticipate audience needs and provide centralized, reliable information has proven essential in closing this chapter. Using social intelligence to forecast questions or points of interest allows Siena Heights to position itself as a reliable and trusted resource and provide a one-of-a-kind experience for students, faculty, and staff that honors Siena Heights’ legacy.

What worked

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The number one

Presidential buy-in. 

The team has buy-in from the President, who supports increasing cross-campus communication, collaboration, and effectiveness. The support encourages the team to drive change and take action on institutional priorities.

The number twoBrand perception benchmark.

The brand assessments offer a clear reflection to the team as to the current landscape of their brand.  

The number threeBrand messaging pillars.

Developing key brand pillars that resonate with current audiences and support elevated messaging brings the team closer to aligning the brand’s audience perceptions and aspirational goals.  

Number four on a blue circleData and mission driven.

By incorporating data at every stage, the Siena Heights team is unified around a shared vision, enabling them to deliver a positive brand experience and ensure messaging is cohesive and consistent across campus.

Number 5Anticipating needs with information.

Anticipating audience needs and providing consistent and reliable information in ways that are accessible to current audiences has played a pivotal role in positioning Siena Heights as a reliable and trusted resource.

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