Higher education is in a strange place: applications are up in many regions, but operating margins are tight; CIOs push hard on cyber, analytics, and hybrid delivery while business officers quietly raise discount rates again; faculty adoption cycles look nothing like central IT purchasing; and dual-enrollment blurs the line between K-12 and college. In that swirl, College Data (paired with K12 Data) gives vendors something institutions value more than clever ads: precision—the right buyer, in the right role, at the right time, with verifiably clean contact data.
This piece maps today’s purchasing reality on campus, where the money is moving, and how vendors can win with a K-20 go-to-market that spans both systems.
Most campus purchases now involve a buying group, not a single champion. For the same SaaS or services deal you’ll typically need to reach:
Functional owner (e.g., Enrollment VP, Registrar, Career Services, Research, Student Success)
Technical gatekeepers (CIO/IT directors, security, data governance)
Business officer (budget, compliance, contract language)
Faculty champions (for anything that touches pedagogy or program delivery)
Accessibility, IRB, and data-privacy reviewers (for anything student-facing)
What that means for vendors: broad “spray and pray” blasts miss the mark. College Data lists let you segment by role and sub-role (CIO vs. Information Security Officer vs. Identity & Access lead; Provost vs. AVP Student Success; Dean vs. Department Chair), align to the buying group’s calendar, and speak to their specific risks (security, accessibility, outcomes, budget).
EDUCAUSE’s 2024 “Top 10 IT Issues” underscores the point: cybersecurity, data-driven decisions, enrollment pressure, and modernization dominate the agenda; these priorities pull IT, finance, and academic units into the same buying conversation. EDUCAUSE+1
Private nonprofit institutions set another record for tuition discounting—56.3% for first-time, full-time undergrads and 51.4% across all undergrads for 2024–25. Translation: net tuition is under pressure, so every new contract must show measurable value. NACUBO+2Inside Higher Ed+2
Vendor move: lead with cost avoidance (security incidents avoided, manual hours saved), revenue lift (yield or retention), or compliance risk reduction—then back it with a short-horizon pilot and defensible baseline metrics.
By mid-decade, the majority of institutions are operating in hybrid mode across teaching, work, and student services—exactly the model that drives demand for identity, analytics, workflow, content, and student-success tooling. Illinois Valley Community College
Vendor move: show how your product performs in hybrid contexts (on-campus + online), integrates with SIS/LMS/CRM stacks, and supports device-agnostic, accessible experiences.
EDUCAUSE’s priorities—cybersecurity, data, trust—now appear as mandatory sections in RFPs. Expect security questionnaires, SOC 2 or ISO evidence, and data-processing addenda as table stakes. EDUCAUSE+1
Vendor move: lead with a security one-pager: architecture, encryption, SSO/SAML, incident response, data retention, student-data boundaries (FERPA), and role-based access.
NCES projects a modest undergraduate recovery this decade, but institutional capacity and strategy vary by region; some flagships are even capping growth to protect student experience. Meanwhile, the number of institutions continues to tick down and dual-enrollment swells. National Center for Education Statistics+2Chron+2
Vendor move: segment by segment stability. Growth campuses buy to scale and streamline; enrollment-challenged campuses buy for yield, retention, and cost control.
OER awareness and use remain material, and micro-credentials keep gaining ground as employers hire for skills. That shifts spend toward content platforms, assessment, skills tagging, career alignment, and outcomes dashboards. bayviewanalytics.com+2AACSB+2
Vendor move: map your product to skills outcomes, work-based learning, and program ROI—and build faculty-level messaging (discipline-specific use cases) alongside CIO talking points.
Clean, role-accurate data is the only way to run the buying-group play effectively. With College Data, you can:
Target the real deciders: CIO, CISO, AVP Enrollment, Director of Financial Aid, Dean, Provost Office, Procurement.
Sequence touches by stage—awareness (Provost/Deans), feasibility (IT/Sec), economics (Finance), adoption (faculty/staff).
Localize by system (state systems, flagships, R1s, community colleges, regional publics, privates), since procurement rules and calendars vary.
Pair that with K12 Data when your offer also serves dual-enrollment, early-college, bridge programs, or pipeline marketing from high school to college.
You can point readers to K12 Data’s blog hub here for related topics on education marketing and workforce trends (useful for cross-linking from your College Data site): K12 Data Blog. K12 Data
1) Build two joined ICPs
Higher-ed ICP: segment by mission and pressure—e.g., Student Success teams at regional publics with retention mandates; CIO shops modernizing identity and analytics; Career Services building employer pipelines.
K-12 ICP: district CTE directors; early-college partnerships; guidance/counseling leaders for pipeline programs.
2) Wire the buying-group cadence
Week 1–2 (Awareness): Provost/Dean and Enrollment VP—program outcomes, student experience; case mini-studies.
Week 3–4 (Feasibility): CIO/Sec/Data—security, data flows, integration map, sandbox access.
Week 5–6 (Economics): CFO/Procurement—ROI and pilot SOW; renewal guardrails.
Week 7–8 (Adoption): Faculty/Student Services—implementation plan, training assets, accessibility notes.
3) Use list discipline
College Data for higher-ed roles; K12 Data for districts, high schools, CTE and dual-enrollment coordinators.
Cap each send by campus and role to avoid internal overlap; sequence outreach by department (IT → business office → academic unit) to feel coordinated rather than duplicative.
4) Measure what campuses actually care about
Time-to-value (pilot to first use), student impact (retention, satisfaction), risk reduction (security, compliance), and staff time saved.
Package those as one-page executive metrics ready for cabinet meetings.
Security & identity (MFA, IAM, zero trust, incident tooling) — a top EDUCAUSE theme and a non-negotiable in RFPs. EDUCAUSE
Data & analytics to stabilize enrollment, retention, academic planning, and finance modeling—again mirrored in EDUCAUSE priorities. EDUCAUSE
Student experience & advising platforms that integrate with LMS/SIS, because even growing campuses are hitting capacity limits and must do more with the same staff. Growth caps at large publics highlight the need to optimize experience, not just volume. Chron
Program innovation (OER, micro-credentials, prior learning), which redirects spend toward content hubs, skills frameworks, and verifiable outcomes. AACSB
Budget backdrop: Tuition discounting levels are historically high, pushing finance officers to scrutinize every purchase; vendors who prove savings or revenue lift clear the bar faster. NACUBO+1
Market mapping
Use College Data to build a real account map: system offices, campuses, colleges, departments, decision roles. Where relevant programs (e.g., Nursing, Business, Engineering) live; who owns advising and student success; which contacts steward accreditation and accessibility.
List hygiene
Every bounce or role mis-match kills credibility with higher-ed buyers. College Data’s verified contacts reduce hard bounces and keep sequences tight and respectful.
Department-level personalization
To CIO: “Here’s the security architecture and SSO you asked for.”
To Enrollment VP: “Here’s the yield/retention model and staffing impact.”
To Faculty leads: “Here’s a syllabus-level use case and accessibility notes.”
To Procurement/CFO: “Here’s pricing transparency, data-processing addendum, and a 90-day pilot SOW.”
Campaign choreography across K-20
When your solution connects high school to college (placement, advising, early-college, CTE), run paired campaigns: K12 Data to district and school roles; College Data to the receiving colleges. The message: seamless handoffs, shared dashboards, cleaner transcript data, better persistence. For internal content to link, route to the K12 Data blog to boost topical authority. K12 Data
1) AI will sit behind budget decisions
Cabinets will ask for predictive models on net revenue, retention lift, staffing impact, and risk before approving new platforms. Deloitte flags AI-enabled budgeting and analytics as a 2025 trend line. Vendors that ship embedded analytics (or offer a fast data hookup to institutional BI) win more RFPs. Deloitte
2) The enrollment “new normal” is uneven
Some flagships grow, some cap, some consolidate. NCES expects modest undergrad growth overall, but not uniformly; Clearinghouse data show freshman softness in places. Plan segmented plays, not one national message. National Center for Education Statistics+1
3) More governance; shorter pilots
Tighter data-governance plus short-horizon pilots will become the norm: 60–90 days to a confidence read. Vendors should have deployment kits, SSO templates, and sandbox environments ready to go.
4) K-20 alignment accelerates
Dual-enrollment and early-college growth make it normal for districts and nearby colleges to procure together—advising, readiness, data-sharing, work-based learning. Bring K12 Data and College Data together for one joint buying group and one outcomes story.
Pick two lighthouse use cases per segment
Higher ed: retention analytics or student-services automation
K-12: CTE/dual-enrollment data exchange or early warning supports
Build a two-tier target list
College Data: CIO, CISO, AVP Enrollment/Student Success, Registrar, Career Services, Procurement
K12 Data: Assistant Superintendent (Curriculum/Instruction), CTE Director, Counseling/Guidance Lead, District Data Supervisor
Run a six-week sequence
Week 1: provost/dean + AVP Student Success (outcomes, student journey)
Week 2: CIO/Sec (security one-pager, SSO plan)
Week 3: faculty champions (discipline-specific minis)
Week 4: procurement/finance (pricing transparency, pilot SOW)
Week 5–6: reference calls + sandbox usage → executive readout
Publish proof
Short impact note (time saved, risks reduced, outcomes moved) and make it linkable—then point from College Data assets to K12 Data posts to build domain authority. See K12 Data Blog for anchor links. K12 Data
Security: SOC 2/ISO evidence, data-flow diagram, DPA/FERPA language (EDUCAUSE’s “trust” theme makes this non-negotiable). EDUCAUSE
Accessibility: VPAT/508 notes; faculty will ask.
Integrations: SIS/LMS/IdP connectors documented; sandbox credentials ready.
ROI math: cost avoidance, revenue lift, time saved; 90-day pilot plan.
Role-based messaging: separate tracks for CIO/Sec, Enrollment/Student Success, Procurement, Faculty.
Clean lists: College Data for campus roles, K12 Data for districts and high schools; dedupe carefully, sequence by department.
EDUCAUSE – 2024 Top 10 IT Issues (cybersecurity, data-driven decisions, enrollment pressure). EDUCAUSE
EdTech Magazine – Overview of EDUCAUSE Top 10 themes affecting IT, teaching, and workforce. EdTech Magazine
NACUBO – Tuition Discounting hits record highs; Lumina recap of 2024 study. NACUBO+1
Inside Higher Ed – Coverage of the 2025 NACUBO findings. Inside Higher Ed
NCES/IPEDS – Enrollment trends and projections; institutional counts and dual-enrollment context. National Center for Education Statistics+2National Center for Education Statistics+2
Wipfli/Gartner brief – Hybrid operating model adoption and IT budget direction. Illinois Valley Community College
Bay View Analytics – OER awareness trends; AACSB – OER + micro-credentials discussion. bayviewanalytics.com+1
K12 Data Blog – Education marketing, funding, and workforce posts you can cross-link from College Data for K-20 authority. K12 Data
Selling into higher ed right now is less about clever taglines and more about precision lists, role-based timing, and proof. With College Data, you can surround the buying group with messages that speak to their risks and KPIs, not yours. Pair it with K12 Data when the use case touches dual-enrollment, CTE, or pipeline programs—and you’re operating a K-20 strategy, not two disconnected ones.
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