Jeff Harmon, CMO at Southern Illinois University Prefers Agencies that Embrace their Failures

Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) recently named seasoned industry veteran Jeff Harmon CMO. His marketing and communications history includes key roles leading digital transformation at institutions like the University of Illinois, Arizona State, and the University of Missouri online.

Banach sat down with Harmon to discuss the latter’s plan to elevate the SIU brand and highlight its award-winning faculty, championship athletics programs, and unique campus culture.

Where to find Jeff Harmon: LinkedIn

Where to find Christian Banach: LinkedIn

Harmon’s Early Career

Banach: 

Can you walk us through the early years and explain what led you to where you are today?

Harmon:

Sure, I grew up in southern Illinois, ended up going to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, not in business, but in something called “economic geography.” I quickly realized after graduation that there weren’t a lot of jobs in that area, so I ended up moving to Arizona and the Phoenix area and getting into sales roles. 

I think my mother was really the driving force behind my success. I also watched my dad become an entrepreneur. In short, he invented a football dummy while he was the athletic director for our high school. Watching him market it—going to trade shows, meeting coaches and other athletic directors—was an early education for me.  

Banach:

Earlier, you mentioned that you were in marketing and sales. You were at a fitness company at one point and then moved into more software sales. What were some influences that you took away from those sales days that apply to what you’re doing today?

Harmon:

It was in the software industry that I began to see myself, as I really wanted to get into marketing alone. I’m a data person; I love analytics, KPIs, and stuff like that, even before the web existed, right? So that’s when I decided to go back and get my MBA. I thought that would give me the right skill set to really move into those types of marketing roles.  

Selling Higher Ed and SIU 

Banach:

How do you go from there to making the jump into higher education?

Harmon:

I went back to get my MBA at ASU when I was, I think, 35 and finished in 2002. During that time, I was living in Phoenix and thought maybe I could work in higher education marketing. I got the idea to investigate my old alma mater, and they were hiring.

I got an interview at the University of Illinois and ended up being the director of marketing for U of I online. This was when online universities were in their infancy, so it was fantastic to get in just as those institutions were dipping their toes in the water.

I made my way to ASU, and though launching ASU online was a slow process, it was extremely useful for teaching me about the complexities of marketing for a university. 

Banach:

You’ve been in the higher education space for over 20 years, and you entered the field just as universities were making the shift to marketing online. What have you noticed changing over that time?

Harmon: 

The competition has ramped up considerably in the online space. And even with traditional students and transfers, not online, it’s become more competitive because the market size is decreasing right now because of population shifts. 

Another thing that’s changed dramatically is people’s perceptions of higher education and its value. We’re at this point where some folks think they should just skip it all together and become entrepreneurs or go into the trades. We’re trying to not only market our own brands and our programs, but also market higher education’s overall value.

Reflections for Agencies and Aspiring University Marketers

Banach: 

Do you have any career advice for someone who might be working on the agency side and want to make a transition into working for a client like SIU, or maybe even move into the C-suite?

Harmon: 

One thing I might note about higher education is that as you inherit teams, whether you’ve moved to a new institution or just inherited a new team at your current one, you’re meeting a lot of new people who may respond to different management styles in certain ways. 

I don’t consider myself a type A personality, but I feel like you almost have to have a little bit of that inside you to be able to manage all the noise around you and what other people would like to see and what you want to see . 

Banach: 

I’m hearing a lot about management in that response, but not so much on the side of marketing. Do you see this role as much more about management and leadership than sometimes people give it credit for?

Harmon:

I’ll be honest: as you move into leadership, you’re less involved in some of the things you may have a passion for. And you’re basically the conduit between yourself and the CEO, or yourself and the chancellor, the president, and other stakeholders. 

There is a PR element as well. Media relations is in my area; if there is big news that will impact higher education, we have to be ready with a response about that, too. 

Banach: 

Shifting gears a bit, tell us a little bit about Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and your remit there as the chief marketing communications officer.

Harmon:

The institution is great! We’ve got a supportive, large alumni base, we’re among the top 5% of doctoral research institutions in the country, a long-standing and well-known aviation program; and even some successful NCAA runs recently.  

We’re planning to do a bunch of focus groups, and we’re going to synthesize that data down into some great language, elevator speeches, and personality words and think about how to apply it in every situation.

Banach:

Really exciting. You mentioned earlier that you love KPIs and data. What are some of the KPIs that you’re being held to in your current role? And how does that influence your decision-making?

Harmon:

Primarily, we’re trying to get people to just see us and perhaps click and engage with us, whether it’s on social media, organic posts, an ad, or digital ads all over the board.

Views are important, though engagement is what I’m looking for mostly, as is the cost per click. We’re also looking into our SEO, just trying to get as much organic visibility as possible and hopefully reduce our cost per click that way. 

Banach:

It sounds like for your own team, you’ve got a lot of pieces in place. What about any external agencies? Are you currently working with any right now? If so, in what capacity?

Harmon:

We do have a couple, and they’re not doing the ad placement, but they are producing some higher-level video projects, like broadcast-quality commercials. They have people inside the team who are experienced in doing those kinds of things well, though we might bring that in eventually. 

The other agency we use in town does some other design work for certain types of projects, not university-wide stuff like we do. So, the department might have some projects that we may not have time to tackle. 

Banach:

What tips might you have for agencies to build a better relationship with their clients in higher ed?

Harmon:

Show us the data. I’ve had some agencies that are a little bit hesitant. I’ve seen somewhere that it’s completely opaque. We’ve got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

We want our agency to try new things. And it’s okay to fail. Let’s not fail with all of our budget, but let’s embrace possibly failing with some tests, some small-scale tests, and things like that. Let’s try different messages.

Be outside the box as much as possible, but constantly refine your message, your targeting, and your channels, and then share the data with your client. 

Banach and Harmon discussed more about marketing higher ed, the unique “Saluki” mascot at SIU, and how ad targeting is getting more sophisticated (and creepy) in their longer conversation. You can see more of the interview here.

Edited for brevity.