Dear Susan, That is great to hear. I did not know that an Alumni presence had such a strong impact on enrollment.
Laurie,
Great to hear. You will be among the first to benefit from alumni relationships. Sounds like you are doing everything right. By taking the alumni course you can head off problems and have solutions for challenges that come up. Please keep us updated on your progress. Keep in mind that a student is more likely to go to a school with an alumni community when compared to a similar school that offers the same programs. Great job, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
Dear Susan, thank you for your feedback. For years I wanted to develop our relationship with our Alumni and met with resistance. We finally launched an active campaign last year to develop that relationship and it is paying off in so many beautiful ways. Our Alumni now feel that they have a 'home' with us even after they graduate. We have a special free program for them every class week. We also hosted our first annual Alumni Gathering last year and it was a huge success. I do plan to take the FAPSC Alumni course as my second course this year. Laurie
Laurie,
TV and radio is very expensive. We would rather focus on targeted marketing and tv and radio is more like a blast. It's great that you use banners, flyers, and give aways. They are memorable and attention getting and usually kept. Using the internet is about customizing all the options to meet your programs and customers. And you are right about short attention spans. We think the message has to meet a 20 second minimum. And sometimes that is too long. Glad to hear you have an alumni advisory board. Alumni are a GREAT resource for increasing enrollment, retention, and placement. (Check out MaxKnowledge course on alumni.) Sounds like you are running a great school and marketing smart and innovativly. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We currently do not use radio or TV. We have used them in the past and they can be quite expensive. We do a lot of visuals:
1)We have banners for expos
2)Flyers that are mailed both electronically and through snail-mail.
3)Specialty items that given to workshop participants and to those who participate in on-site special programs.
Internet: We have been working hard to get with the times. We have a highly functioning website, Facebook page and we Twitter. However, I want to develop video clips that be played on our website and Youtube. People want to see a program in action these days. I also think most people have shorter attention spans so they need to given visual and auditory info. quickly. We are working to do this and I must say that social media requires constant attention. Sometimes it is tiring.
Advisory Board- I am preparing to meet with my Adivsory Board. We have set up various Boards over the past year and they have been incredibly effective. One Board was an Alumni Marketing Board. They helped us to develop and create a Brochure for our Practitioners as well as different state associations. the response from our Alumni Community has been enthusiastic. There is a huge resurgence of contact with our Alumni and I am grateful for it.
Nam, Great that you are reaching out to your community. We think it is important to create a brand. We also feel that marketing dollars need to be spent to reach qualified students. Not everyone is right for your training. It takes measuring results in terms of type of market you are attracting and of course of how many respond. Remember you are measuring on student success, satisfaction, and placement. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
Our school has strategically aired commercials during largely watched programs for our intended market. They've also placed visuals, such as flags with our name and logo, on the main street located near the school.
Internet marketing can reach a larger demographics, therefore, spreading our name.
Our advisory boards bring impertinent information about the community needs and trends.
Eunide,
All the methods you use are good. The key is to measure results. How many leads are you getting from each media? More important, what is the quality. Many school owners discover that it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to market effectively. You just need to do it right. Also it is important to take advantage of relatively free strategies. The best enrollments are from referrals. Are your grads so happy they attended your school that they will tell all their friends, family, and employers to enroll? That doesn't cost anything except great training and customer service. Thanks, Susa
Dr. Susan Schulz
We use radio advertising, newspapers, and free online posting., some directmail. After reading this course material i will create an advisory board wich will help me increase enrollment.
Joseph,
Great to have a professional website. It's essential in this highly technical age and will probably save marketing dollars. Your talk show performance provides lots of publicity opportunities before, during, and after. Maybe it can also be posted on your website. Setting up an advisory board is often a challenge as you are discovering. Sometimes it pays to send out two or three times the invites. Also call with a follow up to explain the roles of the advisors. To get results it often takes many stategies and many repeats to promote. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
My school turned to a professional website development company to construct our website. I have been a guest on a local talk radio show to discuss our school and it's programs. I am currently sending out invitation letters to potential advisory board members in the community. I have only received 3 responses from my initial mail-out of 12 letters and am about to start another mailing. I have also recently begun a "branding campaign" where I have ordered several different types of promotional materials both hand-outs and for sale keeping the color theme and logo constant.
Jim ,
It's interesting. It's very valuable to have advisory boards and also often required by regulatory agencies. The issue is always how to engage them and get and keep their attention. We suggest forming a board that represents a broad constituency. This includes students, grads, staff, faculty, employers and those who don't employ your grads yet, plus community leaders. Make it a prestigious organization. Plan only one meeting and one party. The meeting is set at the start of your year - whenever that is for you. All other "meetings" are held via conference call and email. Be sure to send agendas that are short and to the point. Send summaries that are also short. Hold a thank you party once a year. If you have some drop outs that's fine. Because you start out with more members than you need. Good luck, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
My company does a very good job of creating stimulating images that grab the eye of customers. Whether it's TV, billboards, signage, etc...it is high dollar, good graphics, and pertinent. The problem I am having is with advisory board members; we struggle with getting more than 2 or 3 representatives in for meetings. We've tried meetings at the campus, hotels, restaurants, and client offices. We use incentives to get them there, ask for input, etc...we usually get a good response of RSVP's but actual shows are always low. Any advice as to how to coax representatives to attend?
Sergio,
It sounds like what you are doing is trying different marketing strategies and then evaluating results. That's important in order tp figure out what is working and what is not. The best marketing people we have met are those who are not afraid to make changes for results. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We have tried advertising in a local news paper with some mediocre results but we have started advertising on the internet via social networks
Nikeline,
We hear that many schools advertise at the movies. And some invite movie go-ers to tweet to make contact, set appointments, and more. Many ways to be creative to get the word out. The first task is to determine who your market is, where they go, and what they look at. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We actually advertise at the movie theatre. We can reach alot more people that way. I wouldn't change anything right now , and Intenet marketing is essential today with any business.
Josefina,
Sounds like you are doing everything right and also have a checklist for things to be done. You have a lot of marketing strategies in place. The key is to measure measure measure. What are the results in terms of quantity and quality of prospective students? How can your website be optimized to attract the right students - those interested and qualified for your programs? Checking out curricula with employers is essential, in our opinion. Important to train to the needs of the workplace. Testimonials are great. Alumni testimonials are THE best. A strong reason to set up an Alumni Community at Saber! Best wishes, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We use a lot of visuals to reach students. We have a sign in front of our school and use buses and billboards. We could have more of these and we could also start using TV ads.We have used radio in the past, using public service announcements; it was very effective. We should try doing it again. We also have a website and many of our students have enrolled because of this website. We should expand it to include classes to be opened and student testimonials. Our advisory board has been very helpful in checking curricula and referring students as well as offering advise. We also have a Student Ambassador who promotes the school in the community.
Based on our financial resources at present we'll take a pass on TV ads at this time to employ video flash on our website and DVD disk distribution along with other multi media methods which are indefinitely more affordable than TV and radio.
