Good evening!
I hope you had a very pleasant weekend. In planning for this fall and spring, I thought that it would good to take a look a good marketing plan and some objectives around that.
First off, you want to take a look at your unique brand message, and what are the key benefits you are trying to convey. For example, let say your message is "Achieve your dreams", what benefits are you trying to convey to prospective students? Some benefits would include affordability, accessibility, small class sizes, student-teacher interaction, making connections and enrichment for life. The overriding goal of the brand message would be to strengthen the college brand and build short and long term support for the college.
After achieving the first measure, you want to take a look at your geographic audience you are trying to reach. Are you expanding out beyond 50 mile range? Are you nationwide? It is important here to maximize your strengths and bolster any geographic weaknesses you may have. In your weak geographic areas, consider advertising in some of the strongest venues in the area (largest FM stations, billboards, and some internet presence).
Next, lets take a look at brand awareness on your own campus. The most important thing here is to get everyone on board (not just marketing or pr folks) to consistently portray and bolster the key benefits of attending school there. You never know when a prospective student and their parents will be walking around, asking questions. It is a must for them to get a positive, tremendous first impression. It is no different here than when you walk into a corporate office and you are greeted by a positive secretary, versus one who would rather not be there. Make sure that everyone is a "positive secretary".
At this point, lets examine your typical audience. First though, are you trying to draw just domestic students, or grad and international as well? That will be in working with other departments on campus to determine that. Your typical audiences would include high school students, their parents, counselors and teachers. If it goes beyond that, it could also include international agents, high school parents in other countries, and even the unemployed, underemployed, and currently employed folks seeking to bolster their skills.
Now, do you have a good idea of your competition? Do you know their messages? How many applications do you cross with them? What are your advantages? Are you more economically friendly? All of these things need to be examined. These are typically your peer institutions. I say build relationships with them, ask them what they are doing and what vendors they have had success with. It is a give and take relationship, offer some snippets of what you are doing, while asking them what they are.
The absolute most crucial thing to the higher education marketing plan is your website or what I call the "front door" to your university. High school and non-traditional students are as media savvy as ever and the website is key. It is important to make sure your website is easy to use, offers updated content (no past events) and a distinct call to action. This call to action is request information, download application, or talk with admissions rep online. At this point, it would also be important to track as much demographic information as you can and of course views, visits, clicks, time on site, etc..
In your outreach efforts, it needs to be a multi-faceted approach. First, you need to have a strong online presence, consider using a couple of the most reputable vendors out there, make sure they have strong traffic and are optimized with Google well. Next, build relationships with businesses and high schools in the community, have regular contact with both. Make sure you also have relationships with pillars in the community, and that they are constantly aware of what is going on with your school. It is also more important than ever to have a mobile web application for smart phone users. Recent statistics show that over 50% of cell phone users next year will be smart phone users. The key is to offer unique content or promotions via the mobile application only. If you are trying to draw international students consider a print publication advertising campaign. The international market might not have the access to the internet that the American student has.
If you plan accordingly, craft a consistent message, spend your marketing budget wisely, and know your competition, the students will beat a path to your door.
enjoy the rest of your weekend,
matt (marketmpb)
Posts
