Marketing strategies
I welcome suggestions on how to better market and promote our Graduate and Professional School to our target audience.
Jacqueline,
Effective marketing has just a few brief moments to capture the attention of the consumer. Just as important is the necessity of recall to reinforce the message.
Patty Aronoff
I happen to agree with this. Although many of us are reluctant to admit, we watch quite a bit of tv and listen to the radio quite often. Many people just don't have the time, patience or resources to do the research required to find say a school that truly meets their needs and requirements. As such, catchy tunes, logos, phrases, jingles, etc. seem to stick in our brain and are the first resource we use as a reference guide. Although our academy has been the #1 in our state, which is quite an acomplishment, many students don't know this because of a lack of advertisement. We are often chosen by a student because of "other" references to the school that has actually worked to our advantage so far. More marketing with say a catch phrase would do wonders for our enrollment and institutional growth. Billboards, flyers, ads, etc. can also help promote school awareness.
Adolfo,
Emails are often the communication of choice but they are easily routed into a spam folder and never reach your intended recipient. It is an unfortunate part of group emails.
Patty Aronoff
My suggestion would be to target the specific audience of your school, for example, massage therapist and promote the program being offered. I also believe that the best marketing is direct mail. It is more effective and has a more accurate response than emails because many email addresses change or are incorrect and some people may not check their emails on a regular basis.
Bruce,
Excellent point! Thank you for posting to the forum.
Keep in mind though that human interaction is key. Think about a company you have heard of. It is just a company -- a place, a building, a logo. But, when you know somebody who works there, it becomes "that place where Pat works." It makes the business more personal. You need to become known to prospective students as a person in order to personalize the school.
Yasmin,
Referrals are great advertisement and leads. Try to bring them in when having an event at school to see the excitement.
I think that one of the best marketing strategies is referrals as well T.V. commercials. If I were to think about a school right now that I would like to study massage therapy for example, only one comes to mind because they repeat the commercials over and over again.
Kelly,
Using your analogy, it is also about making the shoe fit.
I agree with you Kelly. I feel the most important component for success in marketing to this kind of target audience is the message rather than the means of how to transmit the message. It must be of a personal and anectdotal nature ,and be genuine and not flashy in terms of the branding. It is far too important a decision by the consumer and should be presented accordingly.
We have been doing a lot of research on this topic lately. We have found that most of our students want an authentoc experience instead of the generic branding efforts that you so often see. They want to know what makes you different but also how well they will mesh with the whole experience. Put them into the shoes of a current student.
Brandon,
Social media is here and every generation is participating. Marketing through those avenues to catch your target market is vital.
While i tend to agree that social media is a very simple, quick and efficient way to grow your lead/prospect/student base, it is also a very quick and easy way to get in trouble...
unless you have your legal department over your shoulder checking every instrument of social media that you use and what you post on it.
I prefer to 'market' for referrals from current students or graduates. Everybody knows somebody, and if they care about that somebody, they want that person to improve themselves and their socioeconomic standing. Meaning: who doesn't know at least one person that wants to change their life? If you've done your job well with your current student base, you almost don't even need to ask.
In supplement to the previous posts, I think the social media campaigns are growing increasingly important for every industry, and is particularly important for educational institutions. Many of the potential students will be linked into Facebook, Twitter, and the like and use these resources to learn information about potential schools. It would be in the school's best interest to setup a facebook group and event pages so potential and current students can interact with one another, learn about the programs, and get real insight about daily life as student and the wonderful opportunities after graduation.
Richard,
Agreed! Asking questions and discussions train everyone.
Sharing experiences is a fine way to develop new strategies.
Julio,
Marketing strategies today are often Internet based as well as alumni personally developed leads.
