MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION A periodic electronic Newsletter to help you market your school, community college, college, or university. Vol. XI, no. 7, July, 1997 -------------------------------------------------- New Marketing Ideas for Higher Education by Robert (Bob) S. Topor When I first started in this business we focused attention on "advertising." The definition of "advertising" was getting messages out. It did not matter to whom ... anyone! It didn't matter. We just focused attention on ourselves, concentrating all our attention on the message itself. We asked ourselves questions like this: Is the message accurate? Does the message include all the information we need to communicate? What is the style of the message? Is it appropriate for higher education? What will our colleagues think about it? (We were almost more concerned about "sister" institutions as we were about our audiences.) In general we were focusing attention on OURSELVES and those we felt important (colleagues). We were, in many cases talking to OURSELVES about ourselves. Answer: "general public" If we were challenged with questions about WHO were we directing our messages to, we responded with "the general public!" Who was this "general public?" It didn't matter who they were... they were just the general public! Today we realize how dumb those approaches were! We now know there is no "general public!" Audiences are people, as different as you might suspect people to be. Targeting communications. Today we realize that we need to understand our target audiences. We need to understand their motives and what they want and need and how that relates to what we do and offer. Further, we can no longer AFFORD to do mass mailings that are indiscriminate, messages so diluted they mean little to anyone...messages reduced by internal committees to the lowest COMMON (acceptable) DENOMINATOR, written for "the general public." So what is the solution? What should we do? How do we do it? Well, let me make some suggestions.... SEGMENT your audiences! First we need to recognize that there is no such thing as "the general public." We have audiences comprising GROUPS of people. These smaller groups often have common characteristics... they are, for example, potential students, adult learners, legislators, alumni, (and subgroups of alumni). They are external as well as INTERNAL. We often forget internal audiences who may be as important (or MORE important) than external ones. Often internal folks are the ones who really need to understand the offerings we present. They are the "faces" behind our efforts. Divide and conquer... So I suggest you think about audience segmentation. Think about ways you can reduce your audiences to cohesive, related sub-units. By doing this you will be able to "speak" more directly and in the audiences' language and terminology. Through reduction you can achieve POWER... marketing power. And, of course, you can reduce your costs by not having to prepare so many "general" pieces to "general audiences." You can actually do MORE with LESS! COLLECTIVE SEGMENTATION So, how do your segment your "general publics?" Think about an individual...ONE person in your audience. Then ask yourself, how many others of similar characteristics can you identify? Segment GROUPS of similar people. The smaller the group the more potentially powerful it can be. How? By eliminating waste and focusing on marketing issues and ideas that appeal to that person (and all others like her). RESEARCH Many schools are using sophisticated research techniques to achieve segmentation and thereby increasing marketing effectiveness. I think this is the wave of the future for marketing higher education. SIMPLICITY through reduction This is a simple idea but one of the most powerful I can suggest. It is the power of reduction. Using this idea, you can make your efforts much more effective. PERSISTENT ideas die slowly... Unfortunately, these old ideas persist. People still think they are talking and marketing to "general publics." Other, more sophisticated professionals, realize that the old days are long gone and new techniques need to replace old ones. I find many people thinking in old ways, unable to make the transition to NEW MARKETING IDEAS. Are YOU one of them? *************** You have permission to use this article on your campus, copyright free, if you're a subscriber to the electronic Marketing Higher Education newsletter. All others, observe © 1997. -------------------------------------------------- Effective Ways to Promote Your Institution's Web Site by Elizabeth (Liz) Pollard You and your institution have spent countless hours of effort and energy, not to mention dollars, building a Web site for your college or university. It's mounted on the World Wide Web, and you're happy with it. It presents your best face to the world, where millions of people can find it! Why shouldn't you be happy with that? If you have a counter on your Web site, what are the numbers telling you? How many people are finding their way to visit your virtual campus? Is it what you expected? Is it disappointing, but you don't know how to make it better? What can you do to publicize, to those millions of surfers, what your institution has to offer and show them where to find your site? Search Engines - You've entered your Web site in all the major search engines, if you're smart. You've used keywords that indicate your institution's name, its specialties, location, and other key factors about it. What happens when a prospective student or his parents look there for it? THOUSANDS of similar entries turn up! Yours is among them somewhere, but it's necessary to comb through page after page of other schools before anyone reaches yours! By that time, they may have found another institution which fits their needs! Links Lists - There are many lists of links available to prospective students, parents, alumni and donors. These are the places people will browse in hopes of finding something that interests them. Be sure to email the folks who keep such lists up to date to tell them about your site! Most such lists have an email link at the site that makes it simple to do so. Still, your school is one of hundreds or thousands of others on lists such as the comprehensive one by Christina DeMello. (http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html) That's not enough, unless your institution is Ivy League, a major state or private university, and in that case, many people are visiting you already! URL's in Published Materials - Be sure your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is published on your business cards and stationery. Have it added to your next catalog printing. When you place ads in newspapers and magazines, place it prominently there. Focus on it in ALL your ads, in fact! This is the address where people can find you on the Web, and very conveniently! Tell them about it! Still, how many people ever see those cards, letters, catalogs and other publications with your URL on them? Chances are, most have already found you in some way if they're looking at catalogs and brochures. What else can you do to make your Web site more visible to the millions of Web users? Banner Ads! - There are many places on the Web that you can advertise free or very inexpensively. First, have a banner made that represents your site. Several Web based services can do this for a small fee. One of the fastest and most effective is Aarow Communications, (http://www.aarow.com). Their charge is $40, money well spent, as you can get lots of mileage from just one 40 x 400 pixel banner! The service surfs your site, keeps the look and feel, uses your logo if you wish, and creates an attractive banner for you. When placed on someone else's site, a banner calls attention to your institution and provides exposure to thousands or even millions of people who will never be reached through printed ads! As you probably know, many of these will be teenagers who would rather surf the Web any day than read! You can purchase space at individual sites which specialize in this at monthly rates that won't break the budget, too! One of these is BannerMall USA (http://www.aarow.com/mall.html). Do a little surfing yourself for malls which include education or learning centers. Consider a store front banner at any or all of them. This is a GREAT place to reach all those shoppers who are already in the mood to browse! Link Exchanges - Link exchanges can be one of the most effective ways to maximize your banner's mileage. These services display your banner in a rotating schedule at members' Web sites, with a link that lets users click on your banner and come right to your site. In exchange, you display the exchange's banner on your site, with a rotating display of banners for other sites appearing there. Most such services will not accept "adult" or pornographic sites, so there's no worrying that inappropriate ads will find their way to your Web site. Read the instructions carefully before you join to be sure, however. One very popular service of this type is the Internet Link Exchange, located at (http://www.linkexchange.com). Their service is FREE, NO ad space to purchase, AND they will provide you with statistics on how many sites have displayed your banner, and how many people have clicked through to see your site! How can they do this? They hope to sell you wider distribution, of course, by giving you an opportunity to try their service free of charge, but the free service is good for displays on up to 100,000 sites! Other services, like the World's Top 1000 (Web Side Story) give you the opportunity to enter individual pages at your site, as long as you display their button on that page, which will lead users back to their site. No banner is required for this one, just the URL of the page you want to list in each category. There is no pushy display to this service, no ads for other sites, and it gives you the chance to highlight individual schools and colleges within your institution if you wish. Just enter the school's home page in an appropriate category when you join. Again, you can visit their site and pick up statistics on the effectiveness of the service any time, including your site's ranking among similar ones! In addition, it's a FREE service! How many magazines and newspapers do that for you? You can reach the Top 1000 at http://www.hitbox.com/wc/world.html. These are just a few starter ideas. The heart of the matter is that there are millions of possible visitors you can reach this way very inexpensively and maximize your institution's investment in the Web site! Who knows how many more applications and individual donations may result? *************** You have permission to use this article on your campus, copyright free, if you're a subscriber to the electronic Marketing Higher Education newsletter. All others, observe © 1997. ********** - Liz Pollard Smoke Signals Enterprises Email: lpollard@smokesig.com -------------------------------------------------- Original posting: 7/30/97 Marketing Higher Education Newsletter is published by Topor Consulting Group International (http://www.marketinged.com). Newsletter posted by WEBB Internet Marketing & Consulting (http://www.firstchapter.com). copyright 1997 Topor Consulting Group International