Get to know Square One

I've been where you are.

Most of the people who work with me are new in their seat with a clear idea of where they want to take enrollment or marketing, but a pile of things standing between them and that vision.

Sometimes the CRM is broken. Sometimes the comm flow doesn't exist yet. Sometimes you know exactly what you want to build and just need someone who can build it with you.

I've spent nearly two decades inside admissions offices, enrollment funnels and marketing teams at institutions of every size. I know the pressure. I know the pace.

Consider me your right hand, your cheerleader and your get-it-done person.

Let's get to work.

Laura Rudolph, M.S.

Higher Education Enrollment Marketing Consultant.

Slate Strategist. Founder of Square One Consulting.

Laura Rudolph is a higher education enrollment marketing consultant and the founder of Square One Consulting. She helps colleges and universities build enrollment communications strategies, implement Slate CRM, and develop yield campaigns that move prospective students from interest to enrolled — with the kind of infrastructure that actually holds up after the engagement ends.

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HOW I WORK

About me

I started my career as a storyteller. Then I found my way into higher education, first in admissions and eventually across enrollment marketing, communications and Slate. Somewhere along the way, I realized the work I loved most was figuring out what students and families needed from us, then building the strategy, content and systems to make that experience better.

Over nearly two decades, I’ve worked across undergraduate and graduate admissions, marketing, student services and collegiate athletics at institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to regional universities and R1 institutions. I’ve been on the campus side of this work, with the deadlines, competing priorities, limited staff and very real enrollment goals that come with it.

And it didn't end there. I became a Slate Captain, implementing the CRM nearly 10 years ago, so I understand both what the platform can do and what it takes to make the strategy, content and technology work together.

In 2019, I started Square One Consulting because I kept seeing smart, ambitious teams trying to do important work without enough time, capacity or specialized support.

Sometimes they need a strategy. Sometimes they need someone to build it. Sometimes they just need another experienced person at the table who can listen, ask the right questions and help figure out what comes next.

At the center of all of it is something I care about deeply: making higher education marketing more human. That means listening before we start writing, understanding what students and families are worried about, and building communication that helps people make sense of a complicated process instead of adding more noise to it.

I want the work to feel useful, thoughtful and human, because that’s what students and families deserve from us.

MY PARTNERS

Who I work with

Square One Consulting partners with colleges and universities across the country from a home base in Kentucky. My partners are most often:

Vice presidents of enrollment, chief marketing officers and vice presidents of marketing stepping into a new role and inheriting a team, a tech stack or a strategy that needs work.
Leaders at small and mid-size institutions, including private liberal arts colleges, regional universities and faith-based institutions, where the expectations are big and the internal resources are lean.
Teams launching new graduate, professional or online programs that need a full enrollment communication strategy built from scratch.
Institutions using Slate CRM who need an experienced strategist to audit, rebuild or optimize their deliver.

If you're a new VP or CMO in your first year and trying to figure out what to fix first, that's a conversation I have a lot. Start there.

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WHAT SETS SQUARE ONE APART

What makes the difference

The rare combination

Enrollment strategy, marketing execution and Slate fluency in one engagement. No handoffs. No translation layer. You're not paying three people or vendors to coordinate.

Built for the people who have to run it

I build for practitioners. Things that are easy to edit, easy to hand off and designed to keep working after I'm gone. You shouldn't need a consultant on retainer to run your own communication plan.

Systems thinking in chaotic environments

I find the logic underneath the mess, untangle it and build something that makes sense. Order out of chaos is one of my favorite problems to solve.

Let's trial it

I work the way your team does. I'm in your meetings. I'm in your Slate instance. I'm constantly iterating. I'm in the weeds with you, not reporting back from a distance. This is a team effort, and I'm your extra team player.

THE BENCH

Trusted specialists

Square One is a solo consultancy, but no one does this work alone. When a project calls for specialized skill, I bring in people I've worked with, know and trust and you pay the same affordable price.

Meghan Grace, Ed.D., PMP

Founder, Grace Strategies and Insights

Meghan is a researcher, strategist and speaker who helps organizations make sense of complexity and move forward with clearer direction. She leads research, assessment and insight projects that surface what matters and what to do about it. When a Square One engagement calls for listening sessions or educational research, Meghan is who I call. We've partnered on major brand overhauls for non-profits in the education space, ranging from establishing new visual design systems to messaging frameworks, membership recruitment and marketing plans.

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Founder, Rita Winthrop Consulting Co.

Rita is a marketing consultant with more than 15 years in marketing, communications, higher education and edtech. Her approach is simple: keep things human, keep things clear and make the complicated feel doable. She brings sharp messaging and reliable execution to engagements that need both strategy and follow-through. We've partnered on strategy and copywriting for full parent communication journeys.

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Rita Winthrop

COMPANY NETWORK

Strategic partners

Square One is intentionally small, but that doesn’t mean every project has to fit inside one person’s skill set. I work with a small circle of companies I know and trust, whether I’m joining their team, bringing their expertise into an engagement or connecting our work to give an institution something stronger than either of us could build alone.

5 Degrees Branding

Brand + Print + Web

5 Degrees Branding is a creative agency focused exclusively on higher education, helping colleges and universities understand what makes their brand distinctive and bring it to life through research, branding, enrollment marketing and web. Their work connects big-picture brand strategy with the creative and marketing pieces institutions need to communicate it well. I work alongside the 5 Degrees team on select projects, bringing enrollment strategy, content development and Slate expertise to the work.

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Social + Financial Aid + Research and Analytics

Meet Your Class helps colleges build community among prospective and incoming students while giving enrollment teams a much richer picture of student interests, connections and enrollment intent. I’m an affiliate partner with their team, and our work together extends into data analysis, research and thought leadership. For institutions using Meet Your Class, I can also help translate what we’re learning about students into smarter communication strategy and more relevant student journeys.

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Meet Your Class

Student Reach + Interactive Experiences

Sometimes the best addition to a communication flow isn’t another email. Loper creates interactive enrollment experiences, including personality quizzes, games and activities that give students something to do while they’re learning about a college. I can work with institutions and the Loper team to intentionally build those experiences into enrollment communication journeys, using them as engagement points rather than stand-alone bells and whistles.

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Loper