Blog

We are super excited to announce that this December, we welcomed Mikki Collins into the Pickle team as our new Content and Experience Designer!

We asked Mikki to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

Reviewing and editing your copy is crucial to ensure that the final words published on the page do what they need to do.

But when reviewing your copy, what are you actually looking for?

Ethnography. You may never have heard of it, but if you’re tempted to go beyond surveys and focus groups, it might be just what you need.

Here are three very quick and easy ways that you can use chatGPT alone right now to enhance and add efficiency to your higher education content marketing approaches.

We are super excited to announce that this June, we welcomed Florence Largillière into the Pickle team as our new Senior Researcher!

We asked Florence to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

Experience design is a method for understanding how we create better experiences for our customers by thinking not just about the isolated touchpoints or functional elements within a journey, but about how our customers feel, and what their experience is actually like.

So you’re about to embark on a digital transformation project? What does that actually mean? In our experience, digital transformation is rarely about technology. It’s more often about culture, content, user experience and a myriad of other things.

Addressing big issues in a university environment is fraught with tension. There are practical challenges to overcome - systems, processes, technology - but there’s also the human element. 

Over the last few blogs, i’ve spoken about some of the ways you can improve the accessibility of your content. I’ve discussed screen readers, alt text, keeping things camel case and other practical and structural ways to make your content accessible to people.

But, as we know, accessibility isn’t just about the physical challenges people face when accessing your content. It’s also important to talk about the mental and neurological implications and how we can make content accessible.

One evening recently a thought popped into my head: What would happen if I gave creative control over a university brand and content project to AI-tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E 2?

Within an hour or two I had somehow become the unlikely founder of a new university:

The University of Anywhere.

When I talk about a brand strategy, what do you expect that to include?

For years now I’ve grappled with understanding where brand strategy ends and content strategy begins. As a content strategist I’ve had to retrofit more brand strategies and brand visions than I care to count. Brand strategies are rarely fit for purpose to meaningfully bridge the intention of the brand vision with the actual reality of the lived experience of that brand and everything in between.

As we reach the end of a creative and busy year, I’ve asked the team to think ahead to what their dream projects would look like for 2023.

Accessible documents are an important part of creating an inclusive approach to content. This post covers the basics of creating accessible documents, including some quick tips and resources for easy implementation.

Being accessible on social media just makes sense.

Accessible content is good for everyone. When you consider ways to ensure that people can adequately access and understand your content, everyone is more likely to access and understand it. It’s simple really. This post touches on some of the core elements of accessible practice on social media.

Heard a colleague complain that ‘students don’t read their emails?’ Email communications can easily be done badly, resulting in overwhelm and disengagement from students.

Yet research suggests that most students prefer to get information from their institution via email. Email is one of the most effective tools we have to communicate with students and drive action.

But to be effective, it has to be done strategically

Defining what makes a university distinct from others can be quite tricky. There’s not a lot of reputational space in which to play - so if we’re starting to think we’re the same as everyone else, how do we really make our university feel different?

Aren’t we just full of announcements recently!

We’re expanding our team once again with a fantastic new Head of Content and Experience Design; Andrew Twist. Andrew is a strong presence in HE, spending 8 years at the University of Sheffield and recently taking on an interim role as Head of Digital Communications at the University of Leeds.

As is our tradition, we asked Andrew a few questions. :)

We are super stoked to announce that our new Content and experience designer, Cat Prill is starting with PJC today! Cat (She/They) comes to us from Lancaster University as a Campaigns Officer, as someone who has personally worked with Cat before… I for one, cannot wait to work together again!

We asked Cat to answer a few questions for you to get to know them a bit better. :)

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve heard, “But our budget is too small for that!”

Resource can be a constant struggle in education. We’re so committed to delivering the best experience for our students that sometimes our efforts and finances are focused elsewhere. Yet for those students, from recruitment to graduation and beyond, content design and strategy are fundamental assets that need to work. And when you’re working with a limited budget, it’s easy to become frustrated.

But a small budget doesn’t have to mean mediocre work.

I spoke with Pickle Jar Communications CEO & Leader Tracy Playle about her experiences - and asked for her advice on delivering quality while considering a small budget.

It’s official: Results Day is over!

Universities across the UK have put in hours of hard work to help students through what can be an incredibly difficult and important time of their lives.

We wanted to celebrate some of the best content from across the sector - and why it works so well.

Last week, thousands of students found out which universities they were heading to - and the majority of the UK education sector has been focused on helping some of them find places through Clearing. Now, they’re moving on to the next big milestone: arriving at university.

At its heart though, your content needs to see this as an extension of the application process. Your students’ experience doesn’t start now. It began months ago.

Every education marketer that I have ever worked with truly wants to be able to create impactful campaigns. And yet few of those campaigns really ever rock the world. So, what is the disconnect that has it be this way? And how can we bridge it so that we can really pioneer cutting-edge marketing approaches in the education sector?

‘What influenced your decision to study at your chosen university?’

Ask a bunch of students and you’ll hear them recount personal stories about why they chose to study at their university: it was the interesting course content, the reputation of the university, or the good feeling they got at the Open Day.

University marketing teams often conduct focus groups and surveys as we seek to understand what drives students’ decision making. We use these insights to inform the content and campaigns we create. So far, so normal.

But research suggests these decision-making stories may be just that, stories. Our judgments can be influenced by a messy set of factors beyond our conscious awareness.

In my experience of working in higher education, communication between departments and central teams is always an issue. It’s certainly not the case for all institutions, and if your relationship with departments is fantastic, keep it up! You might start to think, “Oh but they aren’t speaking to me, they’re making it hard”. I’m going to break your bubble here and say it’s very, very rare to be fully one-sided. Are you really making an effort? Probably not. 

“We want to be seen as bold and pioneering, but we want to follow other people already doing it and be extra cautious about what we do.”

It’s a common occurrence that we see with clients over the years, the desire to be bold but not actually behaving in line with their brand strategy and organisational vision. This blog talks about our new BCE model which will help your team overcome these problems, and helps to create the best experience for your audience.

It’s 2022 and the summer graduation ceremony is back without government COVID restrictions. For higher education teams, this might be the biggest year you’ve had yet if you’re holding postponed pandemic ceremonies. Or you might be thinking about how to make this year bigger and better than anything you’ve done before.

So here’s the A to Z of creating content at graduations to show your newest alumni how amazing you know they are.

Experience design is a method for understanding how we create better experiences for our customers by thinking not just about the isolated touchpoints or functional elements within a journey, but about how our customers feel, and what their experience is actually like.

So you’re about to embark on a digital transformation project? What does that actually mean? In our experience, digital transformation is rarely about technology. It’s more often about culture, content, user experience and a myriad of other things.

One evening recently a thought popped into my head: What would happen if I gave creative control over a university brand and content project to AI-tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E 2?

Within an hour or two I had somehow become the unlikely founder of a new university:

The University of Anywhere.

When I talk about a brand strategy, what do you expect that to include?

For years now I’ve grappled with understanding where brand strategy ends and content strategy begins. As a content strategist I’ve had to retrofit more brand strategies and brand visions than I care to count. Brand strategies are rarely fit for purpose to meaningfully bridge the intention of the brand vision with the actual reality of the lived experience of that brand and everything in between.

Defining what makes a university distinct from others can be quite tricky. There’s not a lot of reputational space in which to play - so if we’re starting to think we’re the same as everyone else, how do we really make our university feel different?

Last week, thousands of students found out which universities they were heading to - and the majority of the UK education sector has been focused on helping some of them find places through Clearing. Now, they’re moving on to the next big milestone: arriving at university.

At its heart though, your content needs to see this as an extension of the application process. Your students’ experience doesn’t start now. It began months ago.

“We want to be seen as bold and pioneering, but we want to follow other people already doing it and be extra cautious about what we do.”

It’s a common occurrence that we see with clients over the years, the desire to be bold but not actually behaving in line with their brand strategy and organisational vision. This blog talks about our new BCE model which will help your team overcome these problems, and helps to create the best experience for your audience.

There are very few things that I think are “wrong” in how we might approach any project. But today, I’m going to share ones that I have some pretty strong opinions about when it comes to website redesign, and why your planning for any redesign probably needs to start sooner than you think.

How can you make peer-to-peer a pillar of your conversion strategy? Try these three ways: outbound via SMS/texting, inbound through messaging, video or chat, and anonymously through reddit.

We all know prospective students need a lot of information to help them make a decision about where and what to study. And it makes sense to provide that information in a manner that’s as useful as possible. But that means we need to make some informed decisions of our own about what information should be presented in what kind of format.

Throughout our company history we’ve always looked for and leaned into new frontiers in education communications. We see a truly holistic approach to experience design as the next of those, and so that’s where we’re headed. Join us?

Do you really understand the landscape in which your content exists? The systems, the people, the processes? Creating a content ecosystem map can help you to make sense of it all.

We’ve reached that time of year when we start to receive a flurry of project requests aligned to end of financial year spend. In this post we explore your options and offer advice on making the most of this time and those remaining pockets of budget.

Is your website really supporting future students make the choices that get them to achieve their dreams, or are we making it hard work for them? Robert Perry takes a look at the case and the need for creating powerful subject level pages.

Do you go food shopping without a menu plan? Okay. But would you do the same when it comes to a costly website redevelopment or new CMS purchase? If you’re not developing your content strategy up front, then you’re shopping without a menu.

Ethnography. You may never have heard of it, but if you’re tempted to go beyond surveys and focus groups, it might be just what you need.

Defining what makes a university distinct from others can be quite tricky. There’s not a lot of reputational space in which to play - so if we’re starting to think we’re the same as everyone else, how do we really make our university feel different?

‘What influenced your decision to study at your chosen university?’

Ask a bunch of students and you’ll hear them recount personal stories about why they chose to study at their university: it was the interesting course content, the reputation of the university, or the good feeling they got at the Open Day.

University marketing teams often conduct focus groups and surveys as we seek to understand what drives students’ decision making. We use these insights to inform the content and campaigns we create. So far, so normal.

But research suggests these decision-making stories may be just that, stories. Our judgments can be influenced by a messy set of factors beyond our conscious awareness.

Thursday May 11th was REF Day, the day on which UK universities found out how their research had been rated by independent assessment panels.

The Research Excellence Framework gets a decidedly mixed response from the higher education community, but there’s no denying that a lot of hard work has gone in to the submissions from every university, and it’s worth celebrating those efforts.

Find out why you should be focussing your efforts on a smaller audience.

We’ve reached that time of year when we start to receive a flurry of project requests aligned to end of financial year spend. In this post we explore your options and offer advice on making the most of this time and those remaining pockets of budget.

It’s very easy to assume that when we’re exploring our analytics and asking our audience whether they find our content useful that we’re doing audience research. But we’re barely scratching the surface.

Is your website really supporting future students make the choices that get them to achieve their dreams, or are we making it hard work for them? Robert Perry takes a look at the case and the need for creating powerful subject level pages.

Cloze tests help you check the suitability of language and messaging for certain audiences. We share how to set up and assess the results of cloze tests.

Diary studies are a great research method to gather real-time, self-reported experiences across time. Here’s how to plan and design your diary study to uncover what you need to know.

Addressing big issues in a university environment is fraught with tension. There are practical challenges to overcome - systems, processes, technology - but there’s also the human element. 

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve heard, “But our budget is too small for that!”

Resource can be a constant struggle in education. We’re so committed to delivering the best experience for our students that sometimes our efforts and finances are focused elsewhere. Yet for those students, from recruitment to graduation and beyond, content design and strategy are fundamental assets that need to work. And when you’re working with a limited budget, it’s easy to become frustrated.

But a small budget doesn’t have to mean mediocre work.

I spoke with Pickle Jar Communications CEO & Leader Tracy Playle about her experiences - and asked for her advice on delivering quality while considering a small budget.

There are very few things that I think are “wrong” in how we might approach any project. But today, I’m going to share ones that I have some pretty strong opinions about when it comes to website redesign, and why your planning for any redesign probably needs to start sooner than you think.

Do you really understand the landscape in which your content exists? The systems, the people, the processes? Creating a content ecosystem map can help you to make sense of it all.

We’ve reached that time of year when we start to receive a flurry of project requests aligned to end of financial year spend. In this post we explore your options and offer advice on making the most of this time and those remaining pockets of budget.

A brilliant project manager is worth their weight in gold. But how much do you also pay attention to how you’re getting in your own way in bringing a project to a successful resolution? Not just what you’re doing, but how you’re being about it?

Do you go food shopping without a menu plan? Okay. But would you do the same when it comes to a costly website redevelopment or new CMS purchase? If you’re not developing your content strategy up front, then you’re shopping without a menu.

Every education marketer that I have ever worked with truly wants to be able to create impactful campaigns. And yet few of those campaigns really ever rock the world. So, what is the disconnect that has it be this way? And how can we bridge it so that we can really pioneer cutting-edge marketing approaches in the education sector?

Find out what ContentEd Conference is all about, and how to get tickets!

While many people see the power of a creative partnership with a consultancy, so people worry that using consultancy support must mean something bad about them. Here we explore the myths that get in the way of working with a consultancy.

We’ve reached that time of year when we start to receive a flurry of project requests aligned to end of financial year spend. In this post we explore your options and offer advice on making the most of this time and those remaining pockets of budget.

A brilliant project manager is worth their weight in gold. But how much do you also pay attention to how you’re getting in your own way in bringing a project to a successful resolution? Not just what you’re doing, but how you’re being about it?

Often one of the biggest things that gets in the way of getting projects done is our inability to say no to other things that get in the way. In this post, Tracy Playle explores how we can empower ourselves to say no.

We are super excited to announce that this December, we welcomed Mikki Collins into the Pickle team as our new Content and Experience Designer!

We asked Mikki to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

We are super excited to announce that this June, we welcomed Florence Largillière into the Pickle team as our new Senior Researcher!

We asked Florence to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

As we reach the end of a creative and busy year, I’ve asked the team to think ahead to what their dream projects would look like for 2023.

Aren’t we just full of announcements recently!

We’re expanding our team once again with a fantastic new Head of Content and Experience Design; Andrew Twist. Andrew is a strong presence in HE, spending 8 years at the University of Sheffield and recently taking on an interim role as Head of Digital Communications at the University of Leeds.

As is our tradition, we asked Andrew a few questions. :)

We are super stoked to announce that our new Content and experience designer, Cat Prill is starting with PJC today! Cat (She/They) comes to us from Lancaster University as a Campaigns Officer, as someone who has personally worked with Cat before… I for one, cannot wait to work together again!

We asked Cat to answer a few questions for you to get to know them a bit better. :)

Find out what ContentEd Conference is all about, and how to get tickets!

We are super excited to announce that this May, we’ll be welcoming Lucy Guest into the Pickle team as our new Content and experience designer!

We asked Lucy to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

Introducing our new Director of Experience!

While many people see the power of a creative partnership with a consultancy, so people worry that using consultancy support must mean something bad about them. Here we explore the myths that get in the way of working with a consultancy.

Throughout our company history we’ve always looked for and leaned into new frontiers in education communications. We see a truly holistic approach to experience design as the next of those, and so that’s where we’re headed. Join us?

We’ve reached that time of year when we start to receive a flurry of project requests aligned to end of financial year spend. In this post we explore your options and offer advice on making the most of this time and those remaining pockets of budget.

The events industry has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. How have we adapted to a more digital landscape? And will it recover?