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How We Work

It's like you’ve expanded Your in-house team

You need senior-led strategy, hands-on execution, and radical responsiveness to feedback and the changing higher ed landscape, informed by biweekly performance reporting. Viv stays on top of the whole enrollment funnel, tells you what’s really going on, moves quickly, and keeps pushing for more every week.

Get the strategic clarity of higher education marketing consultants who have held internal positions at colleges and universities across the country, plus the executional muscle of an embedded agency team. We help institutions understand what is blocking growth, build strategy around the right opportunities, and keep improving the work after launch. That is what full-service marketing for higher education should feel like: senior thinking, practical momentum, transparent reporting, and no mystery about what we are doing or why.

You Get Clarity & Forward Movement

Complex higher ed challenges do not get solved when agencies disappear after the planning phase. Viv’s onboarding process gives you the expertise of higher education marketing consultants and the support of an execution team ready to help build, launch, measure, and improve the work. Together, we pinpoint the real problem, focus on the actions most likely to move outcomes, and build momentum without waiting for perfect conditions.

Senior-Led Strategy

Experienced higher ed leaders drive discovery, set priorities, pressure-test recommendations, and stay close to the work and outcomes data.

Embedded Execution

We work within your ecosystem instead of fighting it. This means we adapt to your people, approvals, data, CRM, timelines, constraints, and shifting priorities.

Faster Timelines

We move in tight feedback loops, make progress with the information available, and adjust as new information comes in.

Transparent Reporting

Biweekly reporting shows you what’s working, what isn’t, what we’re learning, and what we recommend changing to improve outcomes. We don’t just dump the report in your lap. We talk you through it and answer your questions live.

Practical Optimism

We take institutional limitations seriously without treating them as a reason to stand still or offload accountability for outcomes.

1% Better Every Week

Growth is usually incremental, but with our “1% better every week” philosophy, growth adds up. Testing, learning, and iteration drive stronger performance over time.

Results

You Get a True Partner

Collaborative relationships, candid conversations, and shared accountability are how complex work gets unstuck. We work like higher education marketing consultants who can diagnose the challenge, facilitate decisions, and help your team prepare for stakeholder conversations, while also staying close enough to the work to execute for you.

We view learning as continuous and collaborative: Your team brings the institutional expertise, and Viv brings specialized strategy, creative, media, search, content, analytics, and enrollment experience. The benefit is a partner who takes ownership of outcomes, not just deliverables.

You Get Strategic Growth with Viv's Success Formula

Strategy without execution is theater. Execution without strategy is waste. Viv connects strategic thinking to the work, which is why our model blends integrated marketing for higher ed with the sharp diagnostic lens of higher education marketing consultants. Each project in the plan feeds the next, and measurement loops back into decisions so the work keeps getting smarter.

Opportunity Mapping

Understand the landscape, audience, internal realities, and strongest paths to growth.
Focused Prioritization

Decide what matters now, what can wait, and what is most likely to move the needle.
Embedded Activation

Build and launch the strategy across content, creative, media, search, nurture, web, and enrollment operations.
Impact Measurement

Connect activity to lead quality, conversion, applications, enrollments, engagement, or other agreed outcomes.
Continuous Improvement

Use the evidence to sharpen the next decision and get 1% better every week.

Take a Sneak Peek at a Viv Report

We’ve anonymized one of our client reports so you can see how we communicate results. That’s transparency.

Download PDF

What You See Is What You Get

Don’t you hate it when senior agency leadership shows up to the pitch meetings, then disappears once the contract is signed? Viv keeps senior leadership close to the work, the outcomes, and the decisions that shape your higher ed marketing strategies. We do not use generic playbooks dressed up as customization. Every action is tied to your institution’s goals, audience, market, capacity, and data.

You can see this play out in the reports we deliver. Biweekly updates, monthly deep dives, and special-scenario reporting are streamlined to get your team to the real insight and the next useful action.

Suzan Brinkerin Concord, MA
Audra DeLaney-Hallin Providence, RI
Flannery Burdickin Colorado Springs, CO
Lauren Wamelinkin Chapel Hill, NC
David Brinkerin Concord, MA
Amanda Cascioin Hattiesburg, MS
Kayla Farrisin Hattiesburg, MS
Rylee Plourdein Washington, D.C.
Chris Pellingin Brighton, UK
Jackson Millerin Hardwick, VT
Dylan Kaufmanin Salem, MA
Coleen Sabatinoin Lancaster, PA
Brandon Rosasin Parnell, IA
Kjirstin Camposin Minneapolis, MN

Team & Culture

We don’t optimize campaigns in isolation. We look across messaging, media, web, CRM, enrollment operations, and institutional realities to identify the changes most likely to improve outcomes.

Simmons University  Master’s Degree Programs
Building a Scalable Enrollment Engine to Drive Measurable Growth

+25%

increase in graduate applications year-over-year for Fall 2026

+31%

increase in conversions month-over-month

+7.25%

CTR, reflecting strong audience engagement

See Project

See Project

For Duke Engineering, partnering with Viv Higher Ed has been instrumental in helping us showcase the human-centered stories that set our master’s programs apart. They’ve delivered high-quality creative and a sophisticated, data-driven paid media strategy across our diverse portfolio. Just as importantly, they’re proactive and highly responsive to shifting campus priorities. The Viv team is a great partner in problem-solving and helping me effectively communicate our marketing strategy to leadership and faculty.”

Ben Miller

Marketing Manager at Duke University Pratt School of Engineering

FAQs

Questions about working with Viv?

Who We Help

What is a full-service higher education marketing agency?

A full-service higher education marketing agency brings strategy, creative, media, content, web, search, analytics, and optimization together under one connected plan. At Viv, that means senior-led thinking and hands-on execution across the areas institutions need to grow without forcing internal teams to manage disconnected vendors.

What does a full-service higher education marketing agency provide?

A full-service partner provides the strategy, execution, and measurement needed to move from insight to action. Viv’s services include growth strategy, digital marketing, branding and storytelling, SEO and AI search, web copy, campaign development, lead nurture, analytics, and continuous optimization.

What is the difference between a marketing agency and a higher education marketing consultant?

A marketing agency often focuses on execution: campaigns, creative, media, websites, content, or reporting. Higher education marketing consultants are usually brought in to diagnose the challenge, sharpen the strategy, align stakeholders, and guide decisions. Viv is built to do both: senior consulting and hands-on execution stay connected, so strategy does not sit in a deck while the work moves in another direction.

Should a university outsource its marketing or augment its internal team?

It depends on the goal, timeline, internal capacity, and level of specialized expertise needed. Some institutions need full-service marketing for higher education across strategy, creative, media, search, analytics, and enrollment operations. Others need a senior partner to augment an internal team, pressure-test strategy, or add capacity during a critical growth push.

How can colleges evaluate a higher education marketing agency?

Colleges should look for an agency led by higher education marketing consultants who understand the market, ask better questions, show how recommendations connect to outcomes, and stay accountable after launch. Strong signs include senior involvement, transparent reporting, audience-specific strategy, clear project management, and the ability to explain what is working, what is not, and what should change next.

Who will actually work on our account?

At Viv, senior leaders drive strategy, touch all deliverables, and stay involved throughout the engagement. You also work with specialists in the disciplines your project requires, from research and positioning to paid media, content, SEO, analytics, CRM, design, and enrollment operations.

Can Viv work within our existing processes and technology?

Yes. Viv builds within the institution’s real ecosystem, including approval structures, CRM limitations, internal teams, data availability, and established brand systems. We do not need perfect conditions to make smart progress.

Ready to get started?

Work With Viv