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00:00:00
00:00:01
Weak Signal
2 Plays3 seconds ago
In this episode, Rustam Irani breaks down the concept of a university’s “brand signal zone” — the geographic radius where a school’s reputation, awareness, and trust actually influence enrollment behavior. Using years of campaign data and real-world examples, he explains why most institutions dramatically overestimate how far their brand reaches, and how enrollment marketers can use geographic insights to build smarter campaigns, lower acquisition costs, and uncover hidden opportunities for growth. He also explores how local trust, specialized programs, and strategic partnerships shape enrollment performance across different distance bands.
Timestamps
- 00:00 – Why universities overestimate brand awareness
Rustam introduces the idea that many institutions believe their reputation extends far beyond where the data actually shows influence. - 01:13 – The “driving distance” enrollment reality
Discussion around the statistic that 67% of undergraduates enroll within driving distance of home and why proximity still matters. - 02:20 – The Power Zone (0–25 miles)
Exploration of the strongest geographic enrollment radius and how local events, alumni presence, and community partnerships reinforce trust. - 04:16 – The Middle Ring (25–100 miles)
How brand recognition begins to fade and why program-specific marketing becomes critical in this zone. - 06:17 – University of Alaska case study
A breakdown of how unique regional strengths can successfully expand a school’s reach beyond its immediate market. - 08:56 – The Outer Ring (100+ miles)
Why enrollment conversion rates sharply decline at greater distances and what schools must offer to compete nationally. - 09:54 – The “Harvard of our area” mindset
Rustam shares a story about a university leader who struggled to accept that their institution lacked national brand recognition. - 12:07 – Using enrollment and analytics data to map brand resonance
Practical ways marketers can identify geographic performance zones using CRM, application, CPC, and enrollment data.
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Transcript
Perception vs. Reality of University Brand Resonance
00:00:01
Rustam Irani
Most universities think that they have a brand that resonates much further than it actually does. I've had many conversations over the years and actually some pretty heated ones even with leadership at certain schools that believe their radius of where their brand resonated went a lot further than it did.
00:00:25
Rustam Irani
But the beauty is I love data and we always found a way to kind of showcase what the data was actually showing as far as brand resonance, how far the brand perception and actual awareness reached and why certain times our campaigns cost more outside of certain radiuses.
The Role of Brand Heat Maps in Geographic Reach
00:00:51
Rustam Irani
Hi, Rustom Irani, back with another episode of ROI University, where today I want to talk about what I call a weak signal. Basically, a brand heat map of looking at how far out your brand resonates with your audience or with your potential student base and population.
00:01:13
Rustam Irani
We've done this study a couple times, and there are definitely some things that stand out for sure. Some of the key takeaways that we've learned over the years, 67% of undergraduates enroll within driving distance of their home. So when you think about that, that's, you know, over two thirds of students are looking within a driving distance radius of where they currently live.
Identifying and Maximizing Enrollment Power Zones
00:01:41
Rustam Irani
We also have looked at how to identify your strongest geographic enrollment zones over the years. We've looked at why local trust matters.
00:01:51
Rustam Irani
And then we've also looked at why some universities have taken the time to market and investments to market outside of their what I call their kind of zone. And so, you know, we look at dozens and dozens of schools data within those schools, and we basically found some interesting things.
00:02:18
Rustam Irani
I've kind of labeled it out as a couple different concentric circles. you know The inner circle is basically what I see as like basically zero to 25 miles or so. There are students that will drive 25 miles. That's not too bad. Now, if you're in Miami, that might be a stretch, right? If you're in LA, not happening. But there's definitely areas where that zero to 25 miles kind of makes sense. I believe from what we've seen in our data and in working with dozens of universities again, we've seen that zero to 25 miles be what we call the power zone. That's really where your brand, regardless of how much you're investing, typically the community has awareness. Again, it all depends on what schools we're talking about.
00:03:11
Rustam Irani
Harvard is going to be quite different than smaller school like Florida International University. So there are definitely going to be big differences there. So that's just something to keep in mind. Again, the data
Strategies for Local Brand Engagement
00:03:26
Rustam Irani
tells all. And one of the things that we talk about when we do work with school clients is how to maximize that, what I call that power zone.
00:03:36
Rustam Irani
Local events, local community gatherings, local alumni, career fairs, sports tournaments, those are all things that can be done in the local community that can really make impacts. High school partnerships, those are always awesome. And really, what other community stories do you have for local impacts? Are your alumni on the local news? Are they talking about great things that they're doing in the community?
00:04:05
Rustam Irani
That's the power zone, and those are areas where you can definitely take advantage of
Challenges Beyond the Power Zone
00:04:09
Rustam Irani
that. The next ring or concentric circle outside of that is what we call the middle ring, and that's really where your brand recognition starts to deteriorate a little bit. That's usually between 25 to 100 miles.
00:04:25
Rustam Irani
Now, there's a few things for that, but you need to consider is how many other schools are in that zone? How many other options do they have? How big of a brand and how much history do you have as a school? Like those are all factors that play in.
00:04:43
Rustam Irani
Some of it is, you know, where you can really track it based on, you know, what you're seeing in market demand. You can see that in even Google search demand. There's so many different ways to kind of really determine that. But And that's typically an area in that zone where you will start to see some fading of your brand. Again, it depends on the school, but for yours, it might be a little different. There are schools, some of the smaller schools where it might be zero to five, five to 15, 15 to 40. Those might be the zones where it starts to fade out. I think in this next zone, though, one thing that we have seen has been a really big factor and area of focus is program specific marketing. Now.
00:05:34
Rustam Irani
A lot of times, when you have a brand that may not be as strong, you wanna look at what your other key differentiators are or what your other key product offerings are that are maybe unique to the market, unique to that area where those students are.
Case Study: University of Alaska's Marine Program Success
00:05:52
Rustam Irani
Showcasing your facilities, emphasizing kind of career outcomes in those areas.
00:05:58
Rustam Irani
So if you have a unique program, promote it. One example of this is you know we were working on a project with the University of Alaska and they have a unique marine program that's really specific to the region and they did an amazing job of promoting it within that region.
00:06:17
Rustam Irani
Now the other caveat of that and the interesting thing is they wanted to take it national and this goes back to this whole conversation we've had these types of conversations where This program is killing it. We're doing great.
00:06:31
Rustam Irani
We're in Alaska. We have a marine program, but we want to take it national. It should work. People should recognize that University of Alaska is an incredible brand and so on.
00:06:44
Rustam Irani
And fortunately for University of Alaska, there is a bit of a tie to marine, to wildlife, to outdoors. So that kind of resonated when we did some of that additional study and research there. But that's just an example of like one of the different schools that can potentially compete at a little bit further away radius or distance from the actual main core brand campus. You know, some of the competitive advantages that might offer and you might be able to offer at some of those kind of outer bands as you know, just promoting your
00:07:22
Rustam Irani
Maybe you have lower cost compared to urban universities that may be in the cities. You might have special research opportunities for students that may be outside, you know, based on local pharmacies, local companies, other types of things and partnerships.
00:07:41
Rustam Irani
there's really great opportunity to start to partner with other types of companies. So, for example, there's some schools in Florida, and there's a ton of schools in Florida at the...
00:07:53
Rustam Irani
traditional kind of level, which, you know, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Florida State, all of these different schools, Florida Tech. And so, you know, what can you do from a partnership perspective based on where you're at to really build the community and the opportunity? So NASA is on the East Coast. It's near Emory Riddle. It's near Florida Tech. It's somewhat near University of Central Florida, although that's still 30, 40 miles out. So what can you be doing there on a partnership perspective? Right.
Misconceptions of National Brand Reach
00:08:30
Rustam Irani
Then the last band, what I call is the outer ring. And so, you know, that's where you start to really get away from any level of brand awareness. And we did do a little bit of a study. And if you're interested, you know, let me know and I can get you this study that we did that looks at ROI of enrollment conversion by distance for campus. And really start to get to like,
00:08:57
Rustam Irani
under 20, 10% once you get to outside of 100 miles from campus. Again, every school is unique, every school is different, but you really start to fall off after that like 25 miles, 50 miles drops another probably half you know of the level of interest and then you really start to fall off between 100 and 200 miles.
00:09:26
Rustam Irani
I specifically remember one conversation with a university dean and he was absolutely convinced that they were the, A lot of people believe they are the Harvard of their area, right? And he just couldn't understand when we were telling him that when we were going out a bit further from where the core university was, we were competing against some pretty big brands and they weren't aware of this university.
00:09:55
Rustam Irani
And he just could not grasp that because his whole... He believed that they were the Harvard of their area and they had the reach nationally. There was nobody in the nation that did not know about them.
00:10:09
Rustam Irani
They are a top probably 70 institution, according to a lot of lists. But still... I had never heard of them, which was kind of crazy. So anyways, you just really got to understand and not be biased in these conversations. You've got to be able to be open-minded and realize that like,
00:10:32
Rustam Irani
the data can tell you a little bit more than you think you know about your brand and your brand residents across the nation. So in this area, like nationally ranked programs do well. That's a big determining factor. Unique specializations, you know maybe there are scholarships. There's other things that are available to students
Analyzing Brand Signal Strength for Strategic Insights
00:10:52
Rustam Irani
outside of that brand or maybe even outside of that state.
00:10:57
Rustam Irani
And so, Those are areas where you really want to focus in on the clear picture of what you would offer somebody who would have to travel, who would have to come live in the dorms, or who would have to move potentially for this type of opportunity. So you know when you look at it as a whole, it's important to kind of keep in mind that it really depends where you sit in this whole, really what we call like the brand kind of signal zone. And
00:11:32
Rustam Irani
Usually, typically, depending on the size, 0 to 10 miles, 10 to 50, 100 to 200 plus, those are kind of where your signals are the strongest in those early ones, and then it starts to fade. And so I'm not sure if you've ever done this type of data analysis or study, but I would highly recommend it. Take a look. You can get this from even some Google Analytics data. You can get it from your own internal CRM data and see potentially app rates percentages, enrollment rate percentages based on these radiuses. You can also see cost per clicks based on these radiuses. There's so many different ways to kind of determine this. And there probably is a couple of those that make sense on your end.
00:12:21
Rustam Irani
So if you're interested in learning a little bit more or you want to do this type of study, that's something that we could help with. But either way, i think this is something that's very important. It's going to continue to be important, especially as a lot more questions are answered through the LLMs and people are going to be finding out from you and a lot of what makes you unique in the marketplace.
00:12:48
Rustam Irani
in your area in your community and even nationally so that's all for this class of roi university hopefully you got a little bit of there if you want some additional i wrote also a a newsletter post on this if you want to get a little more insights into kind of how we built some of this stuff out so Thanks so much for joining us this week.
00:13:14
Rustam Irani
And at ROI University, the biggest ROI is personal.