Episode Details

Being a part of a University is such an interesting world. You’re essentially part of building and running a small city. Sometimes it can be hard to know what direction to take things. Do you treat it like a typical direct to consumer business? Do you treat it like B2B? And how do you really know who the target customer is? 

These are all things we are going to explore with today’s guest, Emily Reagan the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the University of Texas.

Emily joined UT right at the beginning of the pandemic and during one of the worst winter storms Texas has ever seen. But despite those challenges, she knew that the best way to start her tenure at UT was by focusing on the foundation to all great marketing - relationships. 

“Relationships are really, really important. And, um, and marketing, the role of marketing in organizations is, is, is typically not the one calling the shots on the strategies or what we're doing or what we're not doing. Um, but they are critical in, in, you know, in smart companies, they're obviously at the table at part of those conversations, but they're, they're not necessarily the lead. They're often a partner, they're an influencer. And particularly in a B2B organization, they're very much a, an influencer and a partner to the sales team. And, um, and I really enjoyed that. And I enjoyed, um, the, the relationship building with the sales team and kind of understanding their world a little bit better. I had been doing a lot of work consumer marketing prior to that.

So I hadn't really worked with a, you know, a software sales team. Mm. And so that was kind of a new experience. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, but I think, and the thing there is, is, is, you know, do what you said you were gonna do and, and build relationships. And because those are, you know, that's who you're really to help kind of make their job easier. And so I think that's just a really important thing regardless of what function that you're in sure is to understand who your, your internal customer is. Mm-hmm , and, and really being clear about what, how you can work together and how you can build trust and build relationship.”

She shares so much insight on this episode. Not just about the university, but also her experience working with other industries prior to joining UT.

You guys are going to get so much from this episode. Let’s get to it!

Main Takeaways

• Relationships are key. You should be building a relationship with the community around you. Your sales team, your stakeholders, and your consumers. The goal of marketing is to make everyone’s life easier through trust, understanding, and solid communication.
• Watch UT for innovations. They are on the forefront of Web 3, AI, and the Metaverse. Tune in to find out their plans for thse new tech, and what you might be able to apply to your own organization.
• Look internal for team members. Although it is helpful to find people from outside your organization - there’s likely untapped talent within your group already. Promoting within will also help inspire and motivate the team, knowing that their potential is being looked at.

Key Quotes

“I think it's important at the intersection to take a moment daily just recapping, where did I win today? What do I want to do better? And really just being happy with the wins because they're usually hard fought.”

“Relationships are really, really important. The role of marketing in organizations is typically not the one calling the shots on the strategies in smart companies, they're obviously at the table at part of those conversations, but they're, they're not necessarily the lead. They're often a partner, they're an influencer to the sales team. And I enjoyed the relationship building with the sales team and kind of understand