The conversation often begins with a pause. A college president or senior leader leans back and says what the numbers have been pointing to for months: “We’re doing everything we can, but it’s still not working. We just can’t connect with students.”
Across higher education, that tension is becoming more common. Colleges are sending more emails, adding new tools and launching new initiatives, yet response rates remain uneven. Students are balancing school with work, family responsibilities and financial pressure. Many are the first in their families to attend college. What should feel like a clear path often feels crowded and confusing.
On paper, institutions are active. In practice, students are slipping through.
That is when Swim Digital Group gets the call.
“Many firms deliver recommendations and move on. Swim stays to make them work, partnering with campus leaders to drive execution and ensure change is actually carried forward,” Trimeka Benjamin, President & CEO explained.
“Our work doesn’t stop at recommendations. We stay with institutions through the hard part, building alignment, developing leaders, and making sure the work actually takes hold. Clients don’t experience us as consultants. They experience us as part of the team, willing to ask the hard questions and stay long enough to see real change through.”
Swim Digital Group is a firm that works with colleges and universities on enrollment, retention and the student experience. They do not approach institutional challenges one issue at a time, but rather, they look at how the system actually works, from how students are recruited and communicated with to how decisions are made and carried out across campus. That work can include enrollment strategy, CRM systems, and organizational alignment, but the focus is not on isolated fixes. Swim works alongside institutional teams to understand where things break down and stay in the work long enough to make sure they actually function differently.
The goal is not just to improve processes. It is to close the gap between what an institution intends and what students actually experience.
“We’re not coming in to put on a show or demonstrate performative expertise,” John Brady, Director of Client Services, said. “We’re coming in to understand what’s actually happening and teach our schools how to solve their challenges.”
That approach shapes how the work begins. Swim starts by listening, not only to leadership, but to faculty and staff, and examining processes and communication across the institution. The team pays attention to where students get stuck, where messages are missed, and where systems create confusion instead of clarity.
From there, the focus shifts to the student’s point of view.
Swim traces each step, from a student’s first interaction with a college website to the moment they try to register for classes and are unsure where to turn. The work is often found in small details, messages that arrive too late, processes that assume too much and friction points that build over time.
“Swim is not just looking at what we built,” Michael Gutierrez, President and Superintendent of Hartnell College District, said. “They’re looking at how it feels to go through it.”
That perspective guides Swim’s approach. If something feels confusing or overwhelming, the assumption is not that the student needs to try harder. It is that the system needs to work better.
At its core, Swim is built around a simple idea: more effort is not always the answer. Better alignment, clearer communication, and systems designed with the student in mind are what make the difference.
"So many students are capable of succeeding in higher education, but the systems around them make it harder than it needs to be,” Brady shared.
For colleges facing that reality, Swim positions itself as the partner that steps in early, listens closely and stays long enough to turn insight into something students can actually move through and that colleges can sustain, even when their engagement with Swim ends.
When Trimeka Benjamin founded Swim Digital Group in 2009, the goal was straightforward.
She set out to build a firm focused on leisure marketing, campaigns and media, helping brands reach audiences in ways that felt clear and effective. Early on, the work gained traction. The company secured contracts with major names, including SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Studios and Busch Gardens, establishing itself in the corporate space with a growing client base and a clear lane.
From the outside, it looked like a company finding its rhythm.
Then, in 2012, everything changed.
Benjamin was invited to St. Petersburg College to help address a set of challenges that were becoming more familiar across higher education, enrollment pressure, retention concerns and a student experience that wasn’t translating the way it was intended. It was not a typical engagement. There was no campaign to launch or brand to reposition. The issues ran deeper than that.
What she encountered was not a lack of effort. It was a lack of alignment.
People across the institution were working hard. Departments were doing their part. But students were still struggling to move through the system. The experience felt disjointed, with too many points of confusion and not enough clarity. Instead of approaching the work as a marketing problem, Benjamin took a human approach.
She listened and asked questions; even more, she placed herself in the shoes of the students.
Out of that work came what the team now refers to as “St. Pete Susie,” a student persona that helped the college see itself through a different lens. It was a simple shift, but it changed the conversation. The college began making decisions based on what students needed, not what systems assumed.
“It was not branding. It was an institutional transformation,” Benjamin said of that moment.
That experience did more than solve a problem. It sparked a new direction for Swim Digital Group. The firm moved fully into higher education, bringing with it a different kind of approach, one that paired strategy with execution and centered on how institutions actually function day to day. The work expanded beyond communications into enrollment strategy, operations, governance, and the coordination required to make change last.
For more than a decade, the company has worked with some of the top colleges and universities in the nation.
At Hartnell College, the institution credited Swim with producing record engagement rates across communications and enrollment initiatives. More than that, leaders pointed to the firm’s ability to facilitate conversations across campus that created the buy-in needed for broader change.
President Michael Gutierrez described Swim’s work in governance and change management as a driver of “phenomenal and immediate enrollment success,” noting that the progress came through collaboration with college employees, not around them.
At the end of the day, Swim never loses sight of the student.
There is a story about Swim Digital Group that does not appear in any case study or client presentation, but reveals something deeper about who they are as a company. Last winter, employees came together to send holiday gifts to clients, putting real heart into the project.
Generic gifts were out. Instead, each team member contributed something personal, whether a locally made jam, a handmade craft, or a family recipe passed down through generations. The result was a curated box called “Swim’s Favorite Things,” assembled with the same level of care and intention the firm brings to a campus listening session or a governance redesign.
The box was later nominated for three ADDY Awards, among the advertising industry’s most recognized honors for creative excellence.
For a company to earn that kind of recognition for a client gift is unexpected. It is also revealing. It points to a firm built by people who believe the way you show up in small moments is inseparable from how you show up when it matters most.
That mindset is not reserved for a single initiative. It shows up in how Swim approaches its work, where every interaction carries weight and every touchpoint signals intent.
“Just as important,” Devon Ware, a marketing representative from Swim, explained, “our own brand voice is intentionally conversational, genuine, strategic, and willing to challenge client thinking when needed. So the experience is not passive or overly-polished. It is a partnership where Swim listens hard, tells the truth, and works shoulder to shoulder with institutions to make progress that people can actually feel.”
It would be easy to describe Swim Digital Group as a firm that helps colleges run better. That is true. It is also incomplete.
At its core, the company is working toward something far more ambitious, reimagining how institutions serve students and how systems are built to support them.
“Swim’s long-term mission is to disrupt education nationwide by educating leaders, transforming access to learning and revolutionizing the learning experience,” Benjamin shared with a smile.
“Our vision goes even further. We see a future where generational poverty is eradicated because higher education is available to all. That is a much bigger ambition than helping institutions hit a short-term enrollment target. The broader impact Swim wants to have is systemic. The company wants higher education to become more accessible, more compassionate, more innovative and more honest about the barriers students face. We aim to help institutions not only perform better, but serve students better, especially those who have historically been underserved, intimidated or left to navigate college systems without guidance.”
