HIGHER EDucation marketing consultancy

Senior-level strategy for higher education marketing, branding and enrollment

Solve Higher Ed helps colleges and universities build stronger brands, improve enrollment marketing, organize more effective teams, navigate communications challenges and put AI to work. We’ve spent our careers doing this work inside higher education. Now we help other institutions do it better.

Explore services

Hi! I’m Jaime Hunt. I founded Solve Higher Ed.

I’ve been in your seat.

I’ve spent more than two decades working in higher education marketing and communications, including nearly a decade as a Cabinet-level chief marketing officer. I’ve built teams, managed multimillion-dollar budgets, advised presidents and navigated the organizational complications that rarely show up in a strategic plan.

I founded Solve because I wanted to build the kind of consulting firm I would have wanted on my side of the table. One that understands the politics, the budget realities and the people behind the problems. One that asks hard questions, gives honest advice and helps you actually get things done.

Today, Dave and I bring that same perspective to every institution we work with.

SERVICES

What are you trying to solve?

Sometimes the problem is your brand. Sometimes it’s your enrollment strategy. Sometimes it’s an organizational chart that made sense three reorganizations ago.

And sometimes it’s all of the above.

Whatever you’re wrestling with, chances are we’ve been there. Here’s how we can help.

We struggle to articulate what makes us distinct.

Get beyond the same claims every college makes. Uncover what makes your institution different and turn it into brand positioning and messaging your audiences will remember.

Brand Positioning

→

We need to rethink how our marketing team works.

Untangle overlapping responsibilities, frustrating workflows and organizational structures that aren’t working. Build a marketing team that’s set up to succeed.

Organizational assessment

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We need a clearer view of what’s working.

Find out what’s working, what isn’t and where your marketing and enrollment efforts could work harder. Get an objective assessment and clear priorities for what to do next.

marketing and enrollment audits

→

We’re not getting the enrollment results we need.

Strengthen your enrollment marketing strategy, identify opportunities to improve recruitment and yield, and reach the right students for your institution.

ENROLLMENT MARKETING

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We need to be ready if a crisis hits.

When a crisis hits, you don’t want to be figuring out who does what. Prepare your team with realistic scenarios, clear responsibilities and crisis communications plans you can actually use.

Crisis planning

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We could use an experienced perspective.

Get trusted, senior-level counsel for difficult decisions, shifting priorities, organizational change and leadership transitions.

Strategic advisory

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Why SOLVE

We know the difference between a good idea and a workable one.

It’s one thing to recommend a new organizational structure, a different enrollment strategy or a major brand overhaul. It’s another to be responsible for the budget, the people, the campus politics and the results. We’ve done both.

That experience changes how we approach consulting. We know when to challenge assumptions, when to bring people into the conversation and when it’s time to stop talking and make a decision.

30+

Colleges and universities served

40+

Years in higher education across the team

Years as a university CMO

40+

Industry awards

Brand Positioning and Visual IDentity

A clearer institutional story without an 18-month agency process.

You don’t need to spend a year and a half figuring out what makes your institution different.

We help colleges, universities, schools and academic units develop distinctive brand positioning, compelling messaging and visual identities without the drawn-out agency process. Our approach is focused, collaborative and designed to get you from big questions to a brand you can actually use.

You don’t need to spend a year and a half figuring out what makes your institution different.

Explore Brand Positioning

PHASE 1

Discovery

We listen, ask questions and dig into your audiences, competitors and institutional strengths to uncover what makes you distinctive.

PHASE 1

Discovery

We listen, ask questions and dig into your audiences, competitors and institutional strengths to uncover what makes you distinctive.

PHASE 2

Brand Strategy

We turn what we learn into a clear brand position, messaging framework and voice that help people understand what sets you apart.

PHASE 2

Brand Strategy

We turn what we learn into a clear brand position, messaging framework and voice that help people understand what sets you apart.

PHASE 3

Visual Identity

When needed, we translate your brand strategy into a visual identity, creative concepts and design elements that make it recognizable.

PHASE 3

Visual Identity

When needed, we translate your brand strategy into a visual identity, creative concepts and design elements that make it recognizable.

PHASE 4

Launch Plan

We translate the strategy into practical guidance, priorities and tools that help marketing, enrollment and communications teams put the new story into action.

PHASE 4

Launch Plan

We translate the strategy into practical guidance, priorities and tools that help marketing, enrollment and communications teams put the new story into action.

PHASE 1

Discovery

We listen, ask questions and dig into your audiences, competitors and institutional strengths to uncover what makes you distinctive.

PHASE 2

Brand Strategy

We turn what we learn into a clear brand position, messaging framework and voice that help people understand what sets you apart.

PHASE 3

Visual Identity

When needed, we translate your brand strategy into a visual identity, creative concepts and design elements that make it recognizable.

PHASE 4

Launch Plan

We translate the strategy into practical guidance, priorities and tools that help marketing, enrollment and communications teams put the new story into action.

CLIENT EXPERIENCE

Big universities. Small colleges. Complicated problems.

We’ve worked with more than 30 colleges, universities, schools and academic units. Different missions, budgets, cultures and challenges. And while there’s no one-size-fits-all answer in higher education, experience teaches you which questions to ask first.

Agnes Scott College

Arcadia University

Babson College

Berklee College of Music

Boise State University

Chatham University

Drexel University LeBow College of Business

Duke University Fuqua School of Business

East Carolina University

Florida International University

Forsyth Technical and Community College

Indiana State University

Manhattan School of Music

Michigan State University Broad School of Business

Mount Holyoke College

Northeastern University School of Business

Northern Arizona University

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Oakland University

Oakton College

Oberlin College and Conservatory

Roosevelt University

St. John Fisher University

St. Joseph’s University

The University of Colorado Boulder

University of Illinois Springfield

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of North Carolina at Pembroke

University of South Carolina Upstate

University of Southern Mississippi

University of Vermont

University of Wisconsin Green Bay

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Virginia Commonwealth University

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Start a conversation

Let’s start solving.

We would love to meet with you to explore how we might help. Let’s start a conversation!

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