Higher ed institutions are full of world-class expertise, but how do you turn that knowledge into a thriving thought-leadership platform — especially when you don’t have a big team, a big budget, or the ability to track direct conversions?
This was the challenge for the Rotman Insights Hub, a thought-leadership platform launched in the middle of the pandemic, with one staff member, a modest operating budget and a lot of competition. But maybe the lack of budget was an unexpected advantage — forcing us to focus on organic strategies that led to stronger, more engaged audiences. Since 2022, we’ve grown our monthly audience 11-fold, doubled our newsletter subscriber base, and are on track for our best year yet in digital traffic — all with little to minimal paid promotion.
This session will break down the key strategies, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges of building a sustainable content ecosystem that encourages return visits and long-term audience engagement. We’ll explore what worked (and why), what didn’t, and what’s still a work in progress.
Some key takeaways include:
- And what to prioritize and what to ignore when resources are tight.
- Why paid promotion isn’t always the best strategy, and why organic growth can result in greater engagement;
- How to build a repeatable, consistent editorial content calendar with limited resources;
- Why you should bake thought-leadership into your content strategy to keep audiences coming back for more;
- How to make your content work harder by tapping into your existing internal networks;
Megan Haynes
Senior Editorial Strategist Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Megan Haynes is the Senior Editorial Strategist at the Rotman School of Management, where she leads the Rotman Insights Hub, the School’s thought-leadership and research platform and
newsletter. Under her direction, the Insights Hub has more than quadrupled its readership and expanded into new formats, such as podcast and video series.
An experienced journalist and editor, Megan has written for Chatelaine, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. She has also held editorial roles at several award-winning business-to-
business magazines, where she launched multiple successful newsletters and developed content-first growth strategies that consistently expanded audience reach. Megan is also the
award-winning podcast producer and host of Rotman Executive Summary.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and their dramatically needy cat, Bailey.