We have created our own student lifecycle—representing the categories of students, where they fall in the “learning phase” of their life, and how to craft a message that resonates at that critical point.
Lesson #1—Know where your target audience is in the student lifecycle.
As you know, the key messages for the career changer and the working adult learner are far different than the high school senior, or even the transfer student. We can examine barriers to enrollment and highlight the relevant key motivators, which may include career advancement, self-fulfillment, increased pay and better overall quality of life as a result of higher learning.
Lesson #2—Message is critical.
We rely on many years of education marketing and campaign development experience to craft and communicate the relevant key messages to your specific target audience. Messaging and copywriting is one of our greatest strengths, based on a strong strategy and supported with compelling design. Equally important, we can help identify the differential advantage of your college or university and/or specific degree program.
Lesson #3 — Placement is paramount.
A great message is wasted if it doesn’t reach your prospective students where they live, work and play. Again, depending on where they are in the student lifecycle, we can help you select the most effective marketing channels.
As we celebrate another Earth Day this April, I have noticed that more and more colleges are starting to offer degrees with a focus on sustainability. Considering this fast-growing industry, it makes sense from a marketing perspective. It also provides an opportunity to sustain a “greener” messaging strategy.
Arizona State University launched the first School of Sustainability, which was featured on NBC Nightly News last year. According to its Website, “The School of Sustainability, together with the Global Institute of Sustainability, provides innovative, interdisciplinary education and research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, to better prepare them to identify and solve sustainability challenges.”
Green Mountain College offers an MBA in sustainability that can be taken 100% online. Hummm . . . no need to drive to class? That certainly helps reduce that carbon footprint!
Degrees in sustainability really aren’t “new”; however, they are more marketable to a wider audience now thanks to a bright spotlight on “green” living and business practices moving into the mainstream.
Here are some of the unique ways you can get the word out about degrees in sustainability:
- Sponsoring green events in your community/on your campus
- Consider placing signage on local recycling bins in parks and community areas
- Co-sponsor dealer cars that are hybrids (this hybrid vehicle is sponsored by – your degree)
- Plant trees in public parks and ask park officials if you can provide signage and educational info next to each area
- Consider running inexpensive cable TV spots on Discovery Channel’s Planet Green
More Ideas from a prior post:
- Add a section to your Website that keeps tabs on the progress your organization makes. Consider a green blog to follow the progress.
- A great reason to Twitter!
- Find those green ambassadors—people who are excited about the cause and will enthusiastically tell your story to everyone they know.
- Do something unique and get the local press to cover it.
If you work in marketing and communications for a college or university, you know the value of social media. However, sometimes it can be challenging to convince others at your organization the importance of integrating social media into the overall strategic marketing plan. Perhaps you have been looking for some quantifiable research to back up your ongoing argument to increase the social networking and blogging for your institution. Well, look no further! Our friends at The Nielson Company have released a comprehensive report that “reveals the new global footprint of social networking.”
Click here to read the Nielsen article and download a PDF report.
The report states that over two-thirds of the global online population visits member communities, which includes both social networks and blogs. In fact, “member communities” has now surpassed personal email, and claimed its spot as the fourth most popular online category. And, according to the report, it is growing twice as fast as the other four sectors (search, portals, PC software and email).
Other key findings pulled directly from the report include:
- One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.
- The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).
- Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19 percent in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – up 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the US.
So, now you are armed with the marketing research you need to justify your social media mission. See you on Facebook!
This won’t come as a surprise to the “for-profit” schools out there that have based their enrollment management procedures around rapid, personalized response from highly trained enrollment counselors. The model works well for several reasons, many of which have been validated in a recent survey of nearly 2,000 prospective students.
From an enrollment perspective, the research shows that a speedy response to student inquiries is important, but it doesn’t replace an engaging discussion with an enrollment counselor who can explain how their particular offering addresses the student’s specific needs and concerns. Sound familiar? This is a basic marketing principle in which we demonstrate to potential customers how they can benefit from a specific product or service. It’s further proof that selling education is becoming more “productized” than ever before.
The lesson is simple: be sure to have your core brand messages clearly defined and that everyone in your institution understands why and how to utilize them. From answering the phone to greeting students (in person, on campus), to writing personalized emails to prospective students, don’t forget the attributes that make your college or school unique. Speed and personalized attention is expected, however, telling your differentiated brand story in a compelling way is what can make you distinctive in the mind of a future student
So, answer inquires quickly with a high level of personalization, and focus on what makes your offering unique and relevant to each student.
While the traditional transfer student moves from a two-year university to a four-year institution, “reverse transfer” students are leaving four-year universities to attend community colleges. According to a recent article in Inside Higher Education, “reverse transfers” may be an overlooked growing student population. As cited in the article, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, about a third of all two-year students attended a four-year institution prior.
As tuition continues to increase and the recession goes on, many students are returning to the less expensive two-year option closer to home. Many community colleges see this as an excellent opportunity to market to this often overlooked segment. Remember, when a student decides to leave a four-year program, they have a number of choices as to where they will continue their education including online programs, community colleges and vocational/technical schools. This is the time to create that differentiating message about your institution.
The key marketing message to this audience should not only be about affordability (because everyone in your category can claim that), but also about the personal and more engaging learning environment (with smaller classes, etc.). What sets you apart? Why are you the best choice for a “reverse transfer” student? What services do you have in place that will cater to their learning needs? How flexible are your course schedules? Can you make the complicated process of transferring credits easier? Asking a few simple questions can help you determine where you may need to “fill in the gaps” to capture the attention of this fast-growing population of students.
Have you been tasked with a branding project at your school, college or university, but have been given a shoestring budget (no money to bring in a branding agency-wink-wink like www.educationbranding.com)? No worries.
Here are some guidelines to get you started. These steps were pulled from the wonderful book by Duane E. Knapp, The Brandmindset™. I highly recommend you read this book before starting any branding project!
Step 1: Brand Assessment
How is the brand perceived today?
Gain an understanding of where we are and where we want to go.
- Review current communications
- Look at competitive brand positions
- Discuss industry trends and impact on brand
- Review current marketing activities
- Analyze current business environment
- Answer “brand principles” questions
Step 2: Brand Promise
What does our brand stand for?
Create and communicate a long-term value proposition.
- What is our unique selling proposition (our differentiator)?
- What business are we really in?
- What is superior about the value we offer our customers?
Step 3: The Brand Blueprint
How will we communicate the brand?
Create the architectural building blocks for the brand’s communications.
- Graphic representation & visuals
- Tagline (positioning statement)
- Brand story and messaging
Step 4: Brand Culturalization
Everyone will follow the same written roadmap to ensure a consistent brand experience.
- Brand principles formerly defined (top 5 ideals to live by)
- Brand integration in everyday practices
- Communications/marketing outline
Recently, I attended a CASE conference in Atlanta for Senior Marketing and Communications Professionals (in higher education). One of the hot topics was the idea that institutions of higher learning should consider reforming their marketing operations to run more like a corporation. To some degree (pardon the pun), I believe there are some distinct areas that could benefit from following corporate tactics.
Here’s how:
- Improve the use of marketing metrics to strategically track results. In my experience on the client/corporate side, the use of metrics was an extremely valuable tool for justifying our marketing budgets and asking for additional funds.
- Think in terms of lead generation. I learned this when I first worked with “for-profit” schools. We set lead generation goals for each advertising campaign (and drilled down to each media outlet). Additionally, we factored in the average CPL (or cost-per-lead) for each acquisition method (online, newspaper, magazine, email, direct mail, etc.). We established what each lead cost, if it converted, if the prospective student enrolled, and finally, if he/she matriculated.
- Manage internal communications more effectively to keep external messages on target. Start with a communications audit and then develop a comprehensive plan with goals, a tactical implementation plan and timeline.
- Stay ahead of the curve (and ahead of the competition). With the higher education market becoming more and more competitive, our role as marketers is to stay on the forefront of “what’s next.” Just look at the social media marketing (SMM) phenomenon. It’s moving faster than most institutions can implement. And while you may grow frustrated when ideas become bogged down, remember, you have to start somewhere.
- You do have customers! Ask yourself “how can we improve ‘customer service’ throughout our institution?” Give them a positive customer experience to blog about.
When I noticed the first new TV commercial for Kaplan University, I was intrigued. Then, when I caught the second TV commercial in the new campaign, I was impressed. Yes, I will admit that I was compelled to watch because I work in higher education marketing and branding and this was something new. However, I was equally impressed by the strong, powerful, bold message that is often absent in higher education. Well done.
Leaving nothing to chance, Kaplan’s savvy marketing team and agency (Ogilvy & Mather) carried the message over to the Website. The social networking aspect of the campaign greatly enhances the message and continues the conversation well beyond the commercials or print ads. Well done, indeed.
I’m constantly preaching the importance of a strong brand message that truly differentiates your institution. This is not an easy task. Kaplan took the essence of what makes their university unique, crafted a differentiated brand story, and translated it into a compelling ad campaign. And, equally important, Kaplan had the courage to stand up and make this bold statement.
As you may know, many colleges and universities in the US have been offering what Kaplan is proclaiming for years—offering flexible online learning options beyond the traditional classroom environment. The difference is that Kaplan has communicated it in a compelling, memorable, and motivating campaign. They own this message, at least for a little while, until the next big idea.
As the use of online social networking tools such as Facebook continue to grow on campus (and beyond), the debate continues with student affairs administrators as to how to use and/or monitor these tools. A new book offers some guidance in these areas: Online Social Networking on Campus: Understanding What Matters in Student Culture.
Inside Higher Ed interviewed the authors and revealed interesting insight regarding social networking as the “digital exchange of cultural norms” for students, how the line between real worlds and digital worlds can sometimes be blurred by students, and issues regarding faculty participation on Facebook. The authors also mention that SNS will eventually become an instructional tool (noting that Facebook has already partnered with a course management system).
From a communication and branding perspective, I believe the last paragraph regarding the continued use of Facebook after graduation is important. When we talk about lifelong learning and the student lifecycle, colleges and universities already know they need to maintain those relationships with alumni. Facebook is a permanent player in the social fabric for young adults and now an important part of managing the student lifecycle . . . as graduates enter the professional world, participate in alumni programs, consider graduate studies, and make recommendations to future students.
With the growing popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites, it’s no surprise that more high schools students are “pointing and clicking their way through the college search.” According to an article in the Boston Globe, future freshmen are seeking out a mix of new social networking pages, as well as traditional college guides.
In fact, the article reports that 40 percent of students are finding college Websites (for the first time) on Google and other search engines. Also, the article names a few of the college matchmaking sites such as http://www.cappex.com/ as a cost-effective way to reach students.
What’s the takeaway here? Assess your 2009 Web budget, and consider embellishing your Website with helpful blogs and video to reach these Web-savvy students (mostly Millennials) who “live on” the Internet. Take some time to research the “matchmaking” sites and consider incorporating them into your online marketing efforts in 2009.
Another interesting point from the article is that even though the way students obtain information is changing, what students are looking for in a college hasn’t changed. Experts say students are still seeking the “feeling that this is where they belong.” From an education branding perspective, some version of this key message should be integrated into both your offline and online presence.