Direct Development

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Direct Development Leaders in higher education marketing for schools looking to outperform rather than outspend. DD Agency is part of the DD family of brands.

DD is centered around one mission — to help the Davids of this world beat their Goliaths. This is our approach, and it infuses every product, service, and resource we create.

If your website is underperforming this October, the call might be coming from inside the house. Here are four horrifyin...
10/15/2026

If your website is underperforming this October, the call might be coming from inside the house. Here are four horrifying scenarios your website might find itself in 👻

Is there a certain school that comes to mind when you think of Latter-day Saints? . It's a powerhouse of a brand to com...
10/13/2026

Is there a certain school that comes to mind when you think of Latter-day Saints? . It's a powerhouse of a brand to compete with for undergrad recruiting — which is exactly the position Southern Virginia University was in.

SVU wasn't certain they were effectively reaching the audiences that would make the most impact. So we got to work on a different strategy, improved targeting, and crafted a whole new message.

Parents, peers, and the Church significantly influence where a Latter-day Saint student chooses to go — so instead of one campaign, we built several, each speaking to one of these influential communities.

Through mission-rich messaging, eye-catching designs, and smart budget allocation, the results came fast. In 6 months, we captured:

2,400 inquiries
$51 average cost-per-lead
649 new leads from our Church-location campaign
419 new leads from our parent campaign

Want to know how we did it? Check out the full case study: https://hubs.li/Q04zjC6K0

Shane and Pat recently debriefed our team on the time they spent in Boston at Unbound, HubSpot's annual conference. Here...
10/06/2026

Shane and Pat recently debriefed our team on the time they spent in Boston at Unbound, HubSpot's annual conference. Here's what stood out for higher ed teams on HubSpot ( #4 is where we’re testing the most)!

‼️ The big change: HubSpot now calls itself an "agentic customer platform." AI agents only work well when they understand you, so HubSpot is integrating easy ways to streamline your portal without overcomplicating the input.

Here are our top announcements that matter most for enrollment teams:

1. Context Home. A new page showing what HubSpot knows about your institution, audiences, and processes. Every AI agent goes here first to define your program catalog, term structure, and funnel stages instead of re-explaining in every prompt.

2. Smart CRM that updates itself. Call transcripts, emails, and meeting notes feed contact records automatically, meaning less manual entry for counselors after every prospect call.

3. Agent Hub and Agent Builder. One place to manage every agent in your portal, plus the ability to convert existing workflows into agentic ones, freeing up valuable time across your marketing and/or admissions teams.

4. Nurture Agent. Sits on top of an existing email flow and rewrites content for each specific contact at send time. You can get program-specific, engagement-specific personalization without building 40 workflow branches.

5. Marketing Studio 2.0. Campaign and Content Agents plan campaigns from a goal and draft content, now with answer engine optimization (AEO) built in. AEO gets your content in front of prospective students asking AI chatbots where they should pursue their education.

➡️ Our main takeaway: HubSpot is leaning hard into agentic AI. The partners and institutions getting ahead of this way aren't waiting until it's figured out — and as a HubSpot Platinum Partner serving academic institutions, we want to be on that journey with you.

Let's talk HubSpot: https://hubs.li/Q04zhRbJ0

There's a small irony in posting social media strategy advice...on social media. We're aware.You're starting a new semes...
09/23/2026

There's a small irony in posting social media strategy advice...on social media. We're aware.

You're starting a new semester, but it's the same old pressure: your leads took a dive, the budget's smaller than ever, and now you're staring at a blank content calendar wondering if recreating that Reels trend with your Dean counts as a strategy.

(It does not.)

Turns out, vibes alone don't have to determine your school's social media strategy. Here's what we've found that actually works:

🎯 Target who you want, not who already follows you. Your engaged alumni parents are lovely. They are not your admissions funnel.

🔍 Study your competitors' top-performing posts — then make them even better.

📊 Pick 3-5 KPIs per campaign and keep an eye on them. A slow month isn't a crisis. Eight slow months in a row is a strategy problem.

🔁 Build in wiggle room. Post in 2-3 week sprints, see what lands, and adjust. Nothing has to be perfect on the first try.

We broke down the full 6-step process for you, SMART goals included. There's no magic formula here, but we've recommended a plan that's flexible enough to survive a hectic semester. Read it here → https://hubs.li/Q04y7WNm0

August 21 is Adult Education Day — which is a great reminder that the "traditional" college student is only the tip of t...
08/21/2026

August 21 is Adult Education Day — which is a great reminder that the "traditional" college student is only the tip of the higher ed iceberg.

Back-to-school season is in full swing, but some of the most valuable students starting a degree this fall don't have anyone buying them a backpack.

24% of undergraduates enrolled last fall were over the age of 25, according to https://hubs.li/Q04sYMZL0. These students might be working full-time, raising families, changing careers, or picking up where they left off years ago.

Adult learners bring something unique to the classroom: they already know why they're doing this. As higher education professionals, our job (and maybe yours) is to make sure the path back to the classroom isn't more complicated than it needs to be.

To every adult learner balancing books, bills, and bedtime routines: we see you, and we're celebrating you today!

Meet Rebecca Taylor, the newest Account Strategist to join our team!Rebecca believes great marketing starts with telling...
08/06/2026

Meet Rebecca Taylor, the newest Account Strategist to join our team!

Rebecca believes great marketing starts with telling the truth. As an Account Strategist, she'll work with clients to turn complex enrollment and marketing challenges into clear, integrated strategies that drive results.

Drawing on 20 years of experience leading marketing initiatives for colleges and nonprofits, Rebecca brings deep expertise in aligning cross-functional teams, building campaigns, optimizing communications, and strengthening the customer journey to inspire action. When she’s not working with clients, you’ll likely find her teaching, creating videos, or dreaming up the next project on her family farm.

We're so glad you're here, Rebecca!

We've got a new giant-slayer on the content team — say hello to Tatum Swanson!Tatum is passionate about all things highe...
08/04/2026

We've got a new giant-slayer on the content team — say hello to Tatum Swanson!

Tatum is passionate about all things higher ed, especially digging into audience insights and turning them into clear, engaging content pieces that create better prospective student experiences. Whether she's developing editorial calendars, optimizing program pages, or writing blog posts, she's always looking for ways to make content more meaningful and effective for the institutions she supports.

Welcome aboard, Tatum! 🎉

It's been a minute, so we thought we'd (re)introduce ourselves.We're Direct Development, and we have a soft spot for the...
07/27/2026

It's been a minute, so we thought we'd (re)introduce ourselves.

We're Direct Development, and we have a soft spot for the underdog.

The schools and nonprofits we work with are often being asked to do the impossible: enroll more students, reach more people, and drive better results with smaller teams and tighter budgets.

But we're no stranger to a challenge.

Our roots began with helping mission-driven organizations tell their stories and grow their impact. Today, we work alongside colleges, universities, and K-12s facing many of the same realities: valuable work, limited resources, and competitors with much bigger budgets.

We've always believed the answer isn't spending more.

It's thinking differently. Asking better questions. Challenging conventional wisdom when it stops working.

Around here, we say we help Davids beat Goliaths.

That means helping smaller teams compete, helping organizations do more with less, and helping good missions get the attention they deserve.

We're strategists, writers, marketers, technologists, former higher ed professionals, and problem-solvers. But more than anything, we're people who believe important work deserves great marketing.

If you're new here, welcome. And if you've been with us for a while, thanks for being part of our story.

Read more about the DD difference: https://hubs.li/Q04mW-Ts0

Over the last year, we've given a lot of presentations about AI search.This isn't one of them.We've intentionally limite...
07/15/2026

Over the last year, we've given a lot of presentations about AI search.

This isn't one of them.

We've intentionally limited attendance to make this feel less like a webinar and more like a working session. We'll have multiple members of the DD team joining us, smaller breakout groups, and dedicated time to dig into real questions and real websites together.

The first half of the workshop will focus on what's changing in AI search, what we're seeing across higher education, and where institutions are getting stuck.

Then we'll roll up our sleeves.

You'll look at your own website through the lens of AI visibility, work through practical exercises in small groups, and leave with specific opportunities to improve your content, structure, and discoverability. Our team will be there throughout the session to answer questions, troubleshoot challenges, and help you apply the ideas directly to your institution.

We'd love to have you join us on July 22! Sign up here: https://hubs.li/Q04mN9XL0

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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