Partner Spotlight: Cole Ranzau
Partner Spotlight: Cole Ranzau, Supervising Digital Marketing Manager at Strategic Education, Inc. (SEI)
Stories Beyond the Tech Stack
Beyond the tech stack, in a galaxy not-so-far away, is the ever-evolving world of Digital Experience. Cole Ranzau’s mission — as a digital strategy and experience leader — is to help keep this world habitable, driving SEO growth for Strategic Education, Inc. (SEI), parent company to other properties including Strayer University, Capella University and Sophia. Cole leads a team of content strategists, UX designers and testing/insights specialists who work together to attack and overcome the enemy of all good digital experiences: not giving your customer what they need, when and where they need it.
From his first job out of college in 2012 — as a Marketing Assistant with the Minnesota Timberwolves — to his current strategic leadership position at SEI, Cole has pursued a healthy obsession for understanding the what, where and why of consumer behavior and intent; with an end goal of building compelling digital experiences for users that can also delight.
Cole is a professional unicorn of sorts: the kind of curious, enthusiastic strategist and tactical doer who also recognizes the power of using data, research and testing to tell stories. Because it’s compelling stories — not just piling up numbers on a PowerPoint slide — that activate and endear customers (not to mention internal employees) to a brand.
The way Cole describes his strategic approach cuts through the numbers-noise and plants us firmly in the customer’s world. “What does your customer need from you? And how do they want to interact with your brand? Focus on the basics of those things, and make the easy things easy,” says Cole.
Don't Boil the Ocean
Cole’s team helps identify and build out key digital experiences for the Strayer University and Capella University properties (under parent company SEI). Their focus is on prospect facing experiences —building the digital journey a prospective student undertakes on their way to enrollment; from early contact with the brand all the way up to applying for admission.
Their work includes a very specific audience — people at various life stages interested in going back to school for affordable, flexible higher-education degrees. To make the prospect’s journey pain-free and meaningful, roadblocks must be identified, research conducted, and tests tested. This passionate team of strategists and tactical experts must put themselves in the mind of prospective students, which is one of the things Cole does best.
Problem solving in digital spaces is another of Cole’s fortes as a leader and digital expert. He could probably teach a graduate-level course on it (our idea, not his!). One way to approach complex issues that require simple solutions for users is to think smaller. It boils down to what you try to boil down. In other words: “Don’t try to boil the ocean,” says Cole, “Don’t start with the most complicated problem first, or try to get a lot of little movement in many different areas [of your digital properties]...Start with one core user problem to solve.”
This tactic is a way of zeroing in on meaningful data and not getting distracted by numbers that might look good in the short-term to stakeholders, but ultimately won’t help solve the problem or build for the future. Curious about Cole’s advice and battle plan for further solving user problems and identifying pain points? Lend us your ear...
In the Key of D Episode
Cole is a valued Creatis partner who leverages our skilled employees to help SEI get more work digital done. Because of our professional kinship, Creatis CEO/President Kathy Hollenhorst invited Cole to join an episode of our podcast on digital transformation, In the Key of D, knowing that he’d bring a wealth of insights and practical knowledge to the series, filling in a gap in our content on digital experiences.
The episode, “Making Easy Things Even Easier with Cole Ranzau” is available on all your favorite podcasting platforms, including Apple and Spotify. We get into an even deeper conversation about leveraging data to tell stories, problem solving attack plans and the exciting travel blog Cole co-founded with his wife, Lindsey Ranzau, called Look About Lindsey.
Subscribe to the podcast here.
Connect with Cole Ranzau on LinkedIn here.
If you are in need of digital and marketing support, especially during the challenging era of COVID-19, Creatis offers flexible resourcing solutions so that you can get your work done on time. Please contact our Director of Business Development, Sandi Henrikson This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
