MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION A periodic electronic Newsletter to help you market your school, community college, college, or university. Vol. XI, no. 12, December, 1997 -------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS Positioning Your Institution by Robert "Bob" S. Topor Building a Web Site for Your School by Professor Liz Pollard One Plus One Equals Five! a Joint Article by Robert "Bob" S. Topor & Professor Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard -------------------------------------------------- Positioning Your Institution by Robert "Bob" S. Topor Any commercial, profit-motivated company is concerned about its product in relation to a competitor's products. This marketing concept is called positioning. In a classic promotional campaign Avis positioned itself against Hertz with the theme, "Avis is only number two in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder." Hertz responded with a campaign based on the slogan, "We're number one." In higher education you should be very concerned about positioning. This determines how your educational system is positioned in the nonprofit, educational marketplace. In higher education, positioning indicates how you want your institution to be perceived (as compared to competitors) by the audiences to whom you are directing your appeals. In the corporate sector, products are identified by their differences, not their similarities. Likewise, positioning describes the differences between an institution and competing organizations. Positioning relates closely to a client's perception of an institution. You can position your institution by focusing on strengths you want target audiences to perceive. Once you build a clear image, your institution will begin to occupy a place in the educational marketplace. It will be positioned in relation to competing educational institutions. By creatively using this process, you can position your institution without directly citing the competition. You must play back to your audience, through a variety of communications efforts (including your web site), your institution's educational qualities and differences that are most important. There is a close relationship of position, image, and perception, Every person involved in an institution contributes to the image and, eventually, to the institution's position in the marketplace. The ultimate value of positioning is expressed by the resumes of your graduates. How graduates feel about their institution is very, very important. What motivates people to "advertise" their association on a license plate frame? This question, simple as it is, may be much more significant than we can possibly imagine. The degree of value placed on this POSITIONING idea is DIRECTLY RELATED to how your institution is perceived and ultimately by your tuition levels.... how much people are willing to PAY for your education. That is the "bottom line." This, in my mind, is the single most important idea... to build quality and continually focus attention on improving the higher educational "product." I firmly believe in this statement: The best way to kill a bad product is to market it! Focus lots of attention (and budget) on quality of your educational products. Remember, higher educational institutions are known by their DIFFERENCES; not similarities! Bob Topor * Topor Consulting Group International Higher Education Marketing Evangelist Web site: http://www.marketinged.com E-mail: topor@marketinged.com ********** NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1997, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** -------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL OFFER For Marketing Higher Education newsletter subscribers ONLY. Download the updated second edition of Bob's "classic" book, Marketing Higher Education - A Practical Guide, directly from his Web site at http://www.marketinged.com Special Deal: As a subscriber to this newsletter you have permission to make copies and distribute on your campus... a great aid for marketing committees! Make as many copies as you like (limited to your campus). You can get this book from the Home page on Bob's web site. It costs $40 (U.S.) It is easy to download to your computer, then you can reproduce it in your print shop or make photocopies. The first edition of this book has been one of CASE's best selling publications and has been used around the world. If you have questions call Bob at (650) 962-1105. -------------------------------------------------- Building a Web Site for Your School by Professor Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard Schools at every level and of every type are creating Web sites lately to present themselves to the thousands of people surfing the Net. Their purposes are many, and, to some extent, they depend on the type and location of the school. Here are a few possibilities, but they all boil down to one main thing: marketing the school and its programs to various constituencies. So principle number 1 is "Know your audiences before you start." Determine who your constituencies are, and keep that always in mind as you prepare your presentation. PURPOSES Web sites present information about the school, its faculty, facilities, course offerings, activities, sports, and special features in an attractive format which is easy for viewers to assimilate. Done well, they inspire curiosity among potential students and parents. They draw alumni back to the school for reunions, information about classmates, and communication with the school in general. Most important, perhaps, a Web site encourages communication among all elements of the school and the community it serves. Public schools present information on how taxpayers' funds are being used and how children are being prepared for the future. Private schools provide data on their special programs, how they differ from public schools, and what their advantages are for children in the area. How does one design and develop a Web site that can do all this for different audiences and make it enjoyable viewing? How can a Web site be an effective marketing tool for your school? These are the topics of this article. IDENTITY, PURPOSE, & POSITIONING The first step is to establish who you are. Use the school's motto, logo, mascot, and other identifying features to do this throughout your site! Include a statement of purpose and general information about the school, its history, and its place in the community. Most important, include the school's name, address, and contact information in a uniform location on every page! If people don't know where you are, they won't be contacting you for more information! If possible, include an email link on each page for a contact person. Email is simple, takes advantage of the immediacy of technology, and lets people communicate with you before they go elsewhere! The look of your pages should hold together and help maintain the identity you establish. Use features such as colors, backgrounds, identity devices as outlined above, and type faces that go with each other. Set a policy early that each department that builds a page must follow these simple patterns to keep from going off on a tangent! You may find it helpful to establish a template for the pages that places these symbols in predictable locations. This template can then be used for each department to get it off to a good start! One of the most crucial principles of marketing is to distinguish what you have to offer from similar products. What does your school offer that's different from everyone else's? Do you have special programs, an outstanding reputation in certain fields, artistic groups who have won awards, championship athletic teams, a mentorship program, especially effective counseling, well-equipped scientific labs, computers in every classroom, a unique philosophy of education? Play up these features at every opportunity, and make sure people know they're yours by including the devices which maintain your identity! Remember, people learn by repetition, among other ways! CONTENTS Next, be sure you represent every important aspect of school life at your site. Include information about school demographics, student success, faculty qualifications and identities (photos of faculty are popular and helpful), and the administration who run the school. Include all aspects of your academic programs, school activities and social events, cultural offerings, and other special features. One good way to start is to collect all the printed materials you have and currently use for marketing, brochures, catalogs, flyers, ads, and any other printed sources. Clip the pages apart and file them in orderly categories that you wish to represent at your Web site. Then start organizing the Web site itself to cover the same categories, but in a different medium! ORGANIZATION Use the categories you created in the previous step to build your Web site menus. Make them logical and easy to follow. Use titles for items that make it clear what they cover. Use a hierarchy for each item that eliminates unnecessary steps but provides complete coverage of it. Once you have the menus structured, you have the start of your Web site skeleton to build on! Remember as you go that people don't have to follow your menus in a linear fashion on the Web. One of the beauties of hypertext is its ability to link to features that catch peoples' attention. They can take a side trip to a special feature, then use the browser's "Back" button to get back to where they started. Include navigation helps, such as links within your text and button bars, that make it easy to use this feature! Make it clear at every step how to get back "Home," of course, but also provide options to go on to something else! MATERIALS TO INCLUDE Under each category, be sure you have a concise, interesting text that describes what the item is about for both students and parents. Language should be clear, but not dry and stuffy, and short words are always better than long ones! Sections of the text and graphics should follow a logical path for the user to follow what you are trying to convey to him/her. In short, keep it simple but complete. Include lots of color, but make it easy on the eye. Garish, clashing pages drive a user away! Try using your school's colors as a guideline here, with occasional splashes of others. Be sure the colors you choose for text and background are legible, and the font as well! Remember, some students have vision problems, as well as parents and alumni! Pictures of school facilities can give the user a feel for what the campus is like. However, to make it accurate and lively, include people in those photos! Empty buildings and stretches of lawn are not realistic for most schools, and they are dull and drab to look at! Remember, a school is adult faculty interacting with children and youth, and show what it's like at your school! While you're at it, parents will be interested in your school's security, so don't neglect to cover that! Show the classroom, but show the fun things, too, such as theater or musical groups, sports, and cultural presentations, not to mention proms and other social occasions! GRAPHICS Photos have already been mentioned in other contexts, but a few simple principles are worth keeping in mind here. Photos scan well, load faster, and display most effectively when they're small. This doesn't mean you must sacrifice color or detail in your .gif and .jpg files, but keep in mind how many must load on a given page. There is software on the Web for reducing file sizes of .gif pictures and making them load faster. One of the best is Gif Wizard (http://www.gifwizard.com), and it's simple to use! A common mistake is to use a huge picture or image map that takes forever to load as an introduction on the Home page. Often, one must wait several minutes before the picture completes and any instructions appear. Avoid this trap by sprinkling graphics at appropriate points in judiciously chosen sizes, so that users don't become discouraged and move on. Always provide a text alternative to any graphic, so that blind users can follow your presentation, too! AUDIO & VIDEO Multimedia features are popular for their entertainment value, and they are becoming common at many Web sites for that reason. After all, people turn to the Web for two common reasons, information and entertainment. When you combine those with simplicity and care, you have an edge. Use these devices carefully, however, since your audience is largely young, and many will not have speedy modems or sophisticated software. Include clips of speeches, songs, band selections, and other audio, but as an alternative, not the featured item on a page. Video clips, likewise, are attractive to the user who is equipped for them, but make sure you use formats most browsers are equipped to use. Software for making use of these features is readily available for free, but it takes time to download and install and uses disk space quickly. Consider offering a download button for the appropriate software for your multimedia choices, but realize that only a few people will take the time to download it and come back to use it at your site! MAINTENANCE & CURRENCY What is duller than an out of date Web site? What is more discouraging than a dead end link that goes nowhere? What is worse for you than a programming error that leaves users in an endless loop? Keep an eye on your presentation and update it at regular intervals. Make certain that every link is tested, both wihin the site itself, and links leading to other sites. Be sure the whole presentation works smoothly! When personnel changes occur, be sure they are mirrored in department listings and photos. When schedules change, or new features are added, be sure these features change at the site! Be sure that schedules of events, for example, cover a reasonable current time period! Whenever you update materials for other purposes at the school, check for the need to update pages at the site! Try the links to other sites on occasion to be sure the addresses haven't changed recently! Assign one person to collect publicity materials and schedules and update the information that appears at your Web site on a regular basis. You want users to go away with the feeling they're getting the very latest and most complete information about your school! PROMOTION Getting your site launched is half the battle. Getting audiences to it is a different matter in this medium than in traditional ones. Your audience is not captivated by ads judiciously placed in a magazine, for example, but must be enticed to visit you! In a future article, I'll talk about drawing audiences to your site, monitoring the rate at which they visit, and devices to get them to visit again and again for updates! - Liz Pollard Smoke Signals Enterprises lpollard@smokesig.com On the Web: http://www.smokesig.com ********** NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1997, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. -------------------------------------------------- One Plus One Equals Five! a Joint Article by Robert "Bob" S. Topor & Professor Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard If you create a Web site you want to promote it and market it. A sure-fire way to do this is to examine all the other forms of communications you are producing in order to "piggy-back" the Web site message. For example, a printed admissions view book is a natural for promoting your college Web site. Additionally, simple ideas such as the cancellation stamp on your school's outgoing mail machine can be used to announce your Web site on every piece of metered outgoing mail! Think about that.... how many pieces of outgoing mail does your mail room process each day? I use a very simple rubber stamp to communicate my Web site. I simply rubber stamp letters and books I send out. This is a very economical idea and a practical one. My rubber stamp says: "Visit our Web site.... Lots of information and resources... much FREE! http://www.marketinged.com" Your school could include a positioning statement or slogan along with your Web site address on your notice. INTEGRATION is the IDEA! We are now in an age of media integration. I was reminded of this as I visited my local film theatre. It is one of these theaters that shows many films (dozens) at one time for customer selection. Their business is FILMS! However in the front lounge area where they sell refreshments they have large television monitors which run "teasers" from upcoming and current films (since the theatre runs many films simultaneously). This is an example of using one media form (television) to promote another (films). Here in Silicon Valley I see many corporate t-shirts promoting web sites. Often the t-shirt has a corporate logo and a Web site address....no more! Web sites have become a major form of external communication. I know many people in higher education think Web sites are exclusively useful for internal communications (library information, internal events, etc.) I personally think this thinking of a Web site ONLY for internal communications an enormous mistake. I feel higher education Web sites are the key to future communications. I feel so strongly about this that my consulting business is focused almost entirely around my Web site. My e-mail messages are simply signed (in most cases) with just my name and Web address. I feel my Web site is a critically important aspect of my business that will not go overlooked! An important idea to consider! This migration of information from one medium to another is one of the most important ideas I can present to you. By understanding this idea and finding opportunities to use it creatively you will be many jumps ahead of your competitors who may still be living on the old mind-set and age of single isolated mediums. Think about all the forms of communications you produce... letters, calling cards, publications, posters, catalogs, search pieces, mailers, announcements, press releases... the possibilities are enormous! By simply piggy backing your Web site on the "vehicles" you expand the use of your Web site. By using these vehicles to support each other you expand your marketing impact. My friend and associate Professor Pollard is a good example of media integration and "piggy backing" in the work she does with the Native American activities she maintains. I have invited Liz to take this opportunity to describe for you how she does this: Professor Pollard - You might call "piggy backing" by another name that's more familiar, "networking!" Each piece of printed material you produce spreads the word to another contact, with the potential for other contacts which that person makes. Take, for example, the calling cards Bob has already mentioned. Printed Materials & Personal Contacts: As soon as I launched the Web site for the American Indian Exposition (http://www.indianexpo.org), my favorite Native American project, I had the address printed on a new batch of cards which I now hand out to business associates and acquaintances. When I meet someone, whether I am introduced or introduce myself, I hand them a card with both my Web site address (http://www.smokesig.com) and the Exposition site's address on it. I often call their attention to both and ask if they use the World Wide Web themselves. This usually produces an exchange of information which includes the address of their site if they have one, and virtually ensures that they will visit my Web site and the Exposition one. It also starts a conversation of interest to both of us. They will most likely remember me and my firm in the future! Similar exchanges often take place when I send out a letter or an email and include the Web site address for my firm. Sometimes, if it's relevant to this particular contact, I include the address of the Exposition site as well. Often, I'll receive an inquiry or a comment later from that contact indicating they took note. If they were favorably impressed, they may well pass along that information to someone else they know or work with. The chain grows longer with each contact! Electronic Contacts: Printed materials are not the only place to display your Web site address effectively. With the growth of electronic communication, there are many other possibilities in that medium, like the email mentioned above. In addition, you may have noticed how many firms now include their Web site address in a visible location during their TV commercials, or mention it as a prominent part of radio spots. Information in one form leads to contact in another! You'll notice something similar when you visit my Web site or the one for the American Indian Exposition. At the bottom of the pages at the Exposition site, there is a short credit for me and my firm for my contribution. A link to my site is included for easy access. In addition, since Bob and I work as a team, that information is added, and a link to his Web site is given! This provides another place where the Web site URL's are seen, and often they will be tested and remembered! The launch of a new Web site also presents an opportunity for a little networking or "piggybacking" in a different way. An announcement can be sent out to other sites where there is a similar interest. In the case of the Exposition site, one was sent to the Webmaster of each of the Native American sites I could identify, and an invitation was included to link to us. Often when one of them does, an email conversation ensues, providing yet another opportunity to publicize my efforts and sometimes to find out more about theirs. In a similar vein, if you belong to electronic mailing lists in the area of interest, you might make a contribution in the form of a message informing members about the new site for those who may wish to visit. In the case of a college or university Web site, one might send out announcements to state and regional educational associations, or professional societies in the fields for which you train students. Not only does the latter spread the word about your school, but it offers a chance for possible employers to learn more about your graduates! State and regional offices which handle educational matters are another possible place where links to your site may be displayed for people to locate them. Chambers of commerce in your area may want to add a list of college links at their sites and merit an announcement as well. The possibilities are almost endless! All it takes is a little imagination. Each link from a friendly Webmaster also provides further opportunities for spreading the word. People with similar interests to yours will often be visiting their sites, too, and will spot the mention of your school or firm. Chances are good that they will investigate further. In fact, one of the most popular ways people on the Web find information on a topic is by following leads provided by the links at each site they visit! The circle of contacts grows ever outward as others add a link at their sites to yours, and the word spreads with minimum cost or effort! Give some thought to including this kind of PR along with others for your institution's Web site, and let us know if you come up with others! URL's mentioned in this article: American Indian Exposition http://www.indianexpo.org Smoke Signals Enterprises http://www.smokesig.com Agora http://www.marketinged.com That's networking! Good luck from Liz and Bob, We hope this atrticle helps you to consider "piggy backing" (networking) ********** Bob Topor topor@marketinged.com and Liz Pollard lpollard@smokesig.com ********** NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1997, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** -------------------------------------------------- NEW! "The Complete Guide to Focus Group Marketing Research in Higher Education" book is now available for downloading to your computer... Bob Topor's 55-page practical guidebook for running focus groups is now available for downloading. As subscriber to this electronic newsletter you have permission to purchase this book and make unlimited copies for use on your campus (copyright free). You can purchase it for only $25. It is a great guide for how to do focus groups and has been Bob's best selling book ever! Don't miss this special offer! It's easy to order (secured credit card) and download... just log on to Bob's web site at http://www.marketinged.com and find it on his home page. Questions? Call Bob at (650) 962-1105 or e-mail him at topor@marketinged.com -------------------------------------------------- Original posting: 12/31/97 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