Should marketing for colleges and universities take a page from the corporate handbook? No comments yet

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.