A summer game plan for higher ed communicators
By Helena Macario | July 8, 2026
A strong marketing and communications strategy is built through reflection and refinement. The relative calm on campus during summer offers a chance for teams to pause and prepare for the school year ahead. Following these steps to ensure your team is aligned and ready to hit the ground running once students are back on campus.
Start with a team retrospective
Before creating your marcomm plan for the fall, take time to reflect on the progress of your team over the last academic year and the projects you just completed. A team retrospective gives you all a chance to celebrate your successes, discuss any challenges that arose and identify opportunities for improvement.
Recognize the individuals who made a significant contribution to your marcomm activities and celebrate achievements. Have honest conversations about what worked well, where processes could be improved, and which lessons should be carried forward. Use these insights to identify priorities for the months ahead, align on shared goals and assign ownership for key initiatives.
When teams take the time to reflect together, they begin the academic year with greater clarity and stronger collaboration.
Refresh your communication templates
Once priorities have been established, turn your attention to the communication templates your team relies on every day. Over time, their content and design can become outdated and in need of a refresh.
Review the email templates you use for staff, students, prospective families and community partners to ensure they reflect your current voice and messaging. Update newsletter layouts to improve readability and engagement, and audit webpages to remove outdated photos and information. Review event communications, from invitations to follow-up emails.
Investing time in these updates now will save you time and reduce stress throughout the year while strengthening every interaction you have with your diverse audiences.
Organize your communication assets
Never underestimate the power of organization to being effective in your communications. The summer months provide an opportunity to organize your communication assets so that everything is accessible and current.
Review your institutional brand assets, including logos, fonts, templates and style guide, to ensure everyone is working from the most up-to-date files.
Archive marketing materials, newsletters, email campaigns and social media content so they can be repurposed throughout the year.
Finally, establish a single source of truth for templates and standard documents so staff always know where to find approved materials.
A well-organized asset library improves your efficiency, allows your team members to execute tactics quickly with the right materials.