The Viewbook is Dead. Long Live the Viewbook.

Higher ed is facing an existential crisis.

But the real problem isn't just the looming enrollment cliff or declining yield rates. It's that too many colleges are still trying to market themselves like it's 2005. They’re spending big money to sound like each other, clinging to the safety of sameness, and outsourcing their identity to agencies that churn out copy-paste content dressed up as strategy.

If your college’s brand still boils down to scenic drone footage, vague claims of community, and a slogan that could belong to any school in your region, you don’t have a brand. You have a brochure.

And today, a brochure won’t cut it.

What Students (and Their Parents) Actually Want

Gen Z is not a monolith. Neither are their families. You can’t design a campaign around stereotypes and expect meaningful results. As Brigid Lawler put it on our recent episode of Escape Velocity, the real challenge is that students are in flux. A junior might care about dorms, campus food, and vibes. A senior might be laser-focused on cost, program strength, and outcomes. And often, they don’t even know what they want until deep into the process.

One thing is consistent: they can smell generic a mile away.

According to SimpsonScarborough’s 2023 State of Higher Ed Marketing Report, 65% of prospective students said they struggle to tell the difference between schools based on their marketing materials. That should terrify any small college leader.

It’s Time to Tell the Truth

Brigid said something that stuck with me: “The funnel should be straighter.” That means less focus on spraying and praying, and more on real connection, clarity, and yield. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Start showing people what’s true about your institution, and give them a reason to believe.

That doesn’t mean going bigger. It means going deeper.

If you’re a small liberal arts college in Vermont with a fire and rescue program and a four-year residential model that helps students find their calling? Say that. Say it loudly. Say it repeatedly. Say it in language that feels unmistakably like you. Then back it up with stories, proof, and lived experience.

The Viewbook Isn’t Dead. Boring Is.

We had a good laugh on the podcast about the so-called death of the viewbook. Spoiler: it’s not dead. It’s just been abused. Crappy, bloated, visually indistinct viewbooks deserve to die. But a great one? A tactile, beautifully designed, editorial-style piece of storytelling? That can absolutely spark a sense of belonging.

Students who live online all day aren’t necessarily craving more screens. They’re craving something that feels real. Something that feels made with care. Something that says, this place might actually see me.

Outsourcing Authenticity Is a Risk You Can’t Afford

Too many schools are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with big-name firms that never truly understand them. You can see it in the output. Work that could belong to any school. Campaigns that sound great in the pitch deck but fall flat in the inbox.

Brigid put it bluntly: "If I have to do all the oversight, why am I writing the check?"

The future belongs to schools that bring strategy and creative thinking closer to the inside. The schools that treat brand as a living, breathing alignment of culture, vision, and student experience. Not just as a campaign.

The Opportunity for Small Schools

If you’re small, you’re not stuck. You’re agile, and you need to take advantage of that.

You can be bold without bureaucracy. You can tell a focused story. You can make enrollment everyone’s job. You can put a number on the t-shirt, like Brigid said, and align your whole team around a mission.

What you can’t do is keep waiting for a miracle. Because the miracle is not coming. The market has changed. The demographics have shifted. The questions students and families are asking are different now.

And you have a choice. Keep making safe choices that lead to irrelevance. Or lean into what makes your institution rare, and worth it.