In this economic landscape and certainly with the decline of the high school population, lets talk about some strategies for marketing a faith based institution to prospective students. There are some themes that are important and some you will have seen before in my blog posts.
First off, lets take a look at some of the massive challenges that faith-based institutions face. The extent to which religion is present at a faith-based institution varies greatly from campus to campus, and this can be tough to understand. Certainly bible colleges tend to be more focused on faith, but again it varies from institution to institution. The most common challenge for a faith-based institution is the amount of misconceptions out there regarding them. The misconception is that these schools are overly strict. Are alcohol or cigarettes permitted? Is chapel mandatory? Are there rules regarding opposite sex visitations in the dorms? The other big misconception I have seen is that a faith-based institution has less courses to offer and half of those courses must be faith-related. In both cases, these are typically not true. The key to combating the misconceptions is to create a very clear, concise message with a strong value proposition that is going to accentuate the positives of your institution.
As budgets as these universities shrink, they are forced to do more with less. Contrary to what you might think, faith-based institutions compete heavily with secular based institutions. In this instance it is critical to effectively communicate the advantages of attending your institution versus a secular one.
At this point, you need to create a multi channel path to deliver this message. Certainly, the traditional web directories, although try for a Christian or other faith based page, and some social media are very effective. However, lets take a look at Christian print publications, church bulletin advertising, and Christian college fairs. In using a multi-channel method, you have a greater chance of reaching the “right” student. Paper-based outreaches mixed with electronic means (internet) can be very effective as well, make sure there is a call to action!
Faith-based students need to be engaged with. I would encourage you to have your staff join faith-based or Christian forums to regularly have conversations with these individuals. The best advice would be to have a bi-weekly or weekly chat session set up. A great example of one would be http://christiancollegeadvisor.com/forum.aspx.
After the students are enrolled, create a multi-faceted approach to retaining them, you want to see them graduate! In this context, you need to continue to engage the students via social media as well. You need to encourage upper level students to be involved with freshman and sophomores, especially those who are in danger of dropping out or transferring. This would be best done under one office, lets say a “Office of Student Life”.
all the best to you this afternoon!
matt (marketmpb)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment