#109 - "May 1st Is Halftime, Not the Finish Line": A Yield and Melt Survival Guide w/ Rita Winthrop

If your school just came off a yield season that didn't go the way you hoped — or if you're staring down summer melt and wondering what to actually do about it — this episode is for you. Rita Winthrop is a marketing consultant with 15 years in higher ed and edtech who helps institutions and brands build content that actually moves people. She runs Rita Winthrop Consulting out of Newport, Rhode Island, specializing in enrollment email campaigns, LinkedIn ghostwriting for higher ed executives, and content strategy that doesn't just fill a calendar. She also has a lot of feelings about yield season — which is exactly why I wanted to get her on the show. Rita has a rare background: she was both an admissions counselor and the person writing the MarCom for her team at the same time. That dual perspective shapes everything she talks about in this episode — why the disconnect between admissions and MarCom is so damaging, what actually moves students from accepted to enrolled, and why May 1st is halftime, not the finish line. In this episode: 🔑Why the personalized experience students get with their admissions counselor so often evaporates the moment they deposit — and what a good handoff actually looks like 🔑What bad yield communication strategy looks like in practice: too much volume, too many CTAs, and content that forgets it's talking to a 17-year-old making the biggest financial decision of their life 🔑Why parent communications deserve their own dedicated strategy with its own tone, cadence, and content — and why most schools treat parents as an afterthought 🔑What you can still do right now if you didn't make your class — including how to re-engage fence sitters without looking desperate 🔑Why silence is the biggest driver of summer melt, and what a smart anti-melt campaign looks like from May through August 🔑Transfer students as an underutilized population — why they should be a year-round conversation, not a backup plan 🔑What EdTech vendors consistently get wrong about the people they're selling to (and why cold emailing admissions counselors in April will get you yelled at) Resources mentioned: 📄Mailed It! by Day Kibilds and Ashley Budd:https://emailbook.co/ Connect with Rita: 🔗LinkedIn:   / rita-winthrop   🔗Website: https://ritawinthrop.com — For more content like this, subscribe to the Higher Ed Storyteller’s Digest—a weekly newsletter bringing you insights and inspiration every Wednesday morning at 10am about content creation and strategy in higher education. 📧Subscribe for free: https://unveild.tv/newsletter — John Azoni is a higher ed videographer and founder of Unveild, a video production company delivering colleges a steady flow of student and alumni success stories, faculty features, brand videos, and short-form content to power their marketing and admissions goals. 🎥See our work at https://unveild.tv/ 👉Follow John on Linkedin:   / johnazoni   Also follow @HigherEdStorytelling on Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok and join our subreddit. 👉Youtube:    / @higheredstorytelling   👉Instagram:   / higheredstorytelling   👉TikTok:   / higheredstorytelling   👉Reddit:   / higheredstorytelling   — WEBINARS: 📌The Art of the Testimonial Interview:    • WEBINAR: The Art of the Testimonial Interview   📌Higher Ed Content Creation, But Make It Not Suck:    • WEBINAR: Higher Ed Content Creation, But M...   📌What’s Working in Higher Ed Video:    • Whats Working in Higher Ed Video in 2024