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| Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter |
19 December 2006 December greetings to everyone, and best wishes for a fine holiday time as you celebrate these welcome days ahead. As this first year for Bob Johnson Consulting comes to a close, I’m especially grateful to all of you who have attended my presentations and web seminars, brought me to your campuses, and sent along information about your marketing events and websites. Together you help keep my marketing mind alive and well and for that I thank you. Keep up your contributions in 2007.
In the past few months, your references have helped build popular website and blog destinations that will continue
to grow in the New Year: What’s ahead in 2007? Look for expanded search engine marketing services and a new research program to identify what your audience believes is your most important website content. I’ll have more on each of these in January. If you’d like a personal preview early in the month, let me know at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com. This December newsletter begins with two presidential perspectives on “branding” in higher education. One shows that “branding” as a term still isn’t accepted by everyone in academe. The other reflects the continuing fact that brand initiatives are often the result of declining enrollment and unfavorable environmental conditions that require redefining the role of an institution. No “Branding” at Lewis and Clark University Branding as a descriptive term is out at Lewis and Clark, replaced by “strategic communications.” That message was one part of President Thomas Hochstettler’s State of the College address in October. Strategic communications is defined as “articulating for ourselves and for others those very special qualities that define us as a community.” The president notes that informal work over the past year became known as a “branding initiative” before adding that the “brand” word isn’t going to be used anymore. “Lewis & Clark College is not a brand, and education is not a product or a service in a crass commercial sense” and therefore “we are not seeking to market the College as a brand.” Is the counter revolution starting in Oregon? Read the complete address at www.lclark.edu/dept/public/stateofcoll_2006.html and scroll down to just above the notation for “Slide 5” to find the comments on branding. “Re-branding” Gets Started at Frostburg State While Lewis and Clark pulls back from the “B” word, new President Jonathan Gibralter at Frostburg State plans a “re-branding” campaign to halt declining enrollment that is now the lowest in 15 years and to inspire future enrollment growth. According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, Gibralter’s success in revitalizing a SUNY college in Farmingdale, NY, was a key element in his hiring in Maryland. The Sun article can be found here. Gibralter has created a “Marketing and Branding Task Force.” The president’s remarks on the value of the brand activity are about two-thirds of the way through his talk at www.frostburg.edu/events/convocation/currentconv.htm 13 Marketing Budget Mistakes to Miss in 2007 Are you planning a New Year’s marketing resolution to spend your resources more effectively? Be sure to read Eran Livneh’s article on “Top 13 Marketing Budget Wastes — and How to Avoid Them” at www.marketingprofs.com/6/livneh5.asp. Two of these stand out in the world of student recruitment. “Marketing Waste No. 3: Failure to follow up on leads” reminded me of the still poor response that’s coming from most colleges to sophomore inquiries. "Marketing Waste No 11: Losing people on your Web site” resonates whenever I do a competitive web review. Getting lost or simply never finding the most desired content still occurs too often and has serious marketing consequences. And might that not be especially dangerous in a time of “stealth” explorers if your competition is doing a better job than you are at getting people to where they want to go? Talk with Peter Tittenberger at Manitoba Peter is at the Learning Technologies Center at University of Manitoba and played a key role in development of the Virtual Learning Commons, complete with Web 2.0 features not often seen at higher education websites. Peter will respond to email with questions and comments about the project. If you missed the November 17 Link of the Week feature, visit at www.umanitoba.ca/virtuallearningcommons. 10 Ideas for Email Marketing Success DM News brings us “Email advertising that doesn’t suck” at www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/e-mail-marketing/39352.html based on the assumption that most of what’s being done now isn’t very good. From the list of 10 steps to consider, my favorites were “Tell me a story” and “Play the emotion card.” Both steps will help engage readers and motivate them to receive continuing information if your goal is cultivation rather than an immediate sale. My least favorite was “Leverage multimedia” with video and audio elements if your audience has high speed Internet access. One of these days, I’ll have to advance my thoughts on this one, but for now only try this after the basics are well covered and you know that audio and video will play quickly and clearly and not block your call to action. New Advice for Improved Search Marketing If you want better results from your search marketing efforts, be sure to read the tips in Kevin Lee’s article at www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624200. Note in particular that search engines are now paying attention to special landing pages. Landing pages are essential to repeat and reinforce your primary message and take visitors directly to relevant content. Creating special landing pages is something I’d expect more and more colleges and universities to start doing in 2007 for all forms of advertising, from print to radio to Internet. If you’re not doing that, you’re very likely losing website conversions from your ad efforts. Update on the Digital Divide Jakob Nielsen’s November 20 column breaks the digital divide into three components: the economic divide, the usability divide, and the empowerment divide. For Nielsen, the economic divide has nearly vanished. The usability divide, particularly for “low literacy” visitors, remains strong but can be resolved. The empowerment divide is the one he sees as the greatest challenge, particularly because most people do not know how to use search engines and the results they produce to best benefit. Read the “Digital Divide: The Three Stages” column at www.useit.com/alertbox/digital-divide.html. 110 “Real-Life” Marketing Tips from MarketingSherpa Download the 48-page PDF at wisdom.marketingsherpa.com/wisdom.html for nuggets of interesting and often useful insights from people at a wide range of marketing agencies. Everything is collected within seven categories that start with “General Marketing and Advertising” and include “Search Marketing,” “Email Marketing,” and “Websites.” I especially liked #14 from Jason Aldous at the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing. He recommends “taking the brand for a walk” and getting informal but “real” feedback from lots of people who use your services rather than filtering all your marketing information through focus groups and brand studies. The 2007 version is underway now. Perils of “Real” Advertising that Isn’t Advertising Age for December 18 highlights the penalties marketers face when they attempt to create “reality” marketing programs that are detected by a tech-savvy public as unreal promotional activities. A Sony blog that is now inactive is the star of the article but the marketing message is broader than this example. In the New Year, colleges and universities will struggle with the growing marketing practice of allowing users of products and services to participate in discussions of their brand experiences. Increasingly, people thinking about enrolling at your institution will expect to find “real” experience information on your website. Plan now to have a January discussion on how to create a more open marketing view of your school in 2007. Whether you call it “strategic communications” or “brand communications,” the old style way of crafting a carefully controlled and nearly idyllic message about your school will continue to engage fewer and fewer people. The “Fake Blog Fiasco” is at adage.com/smallagency/article?article_id=113945. USA Today and College Recruitment USA today presents readers with an overview of opinion about how much recruitment contact is too much recruitment contact in the December 17 article “Mailboxes, inboxes burst with college brochures, prompting worries of overkill” at www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-12-17-college-recruiting_x.htm. The normal issues are here: are colleges recruiting too early, are they badgering people with too many contacts, should marketing money better be used for scholarships, does any of it really change student choice? And of course, the writer couldn’t resist the “slick” word. Reading between the lines, the suspicion is reinforced that many colleges cast too wide a net in their initial “search” efforts. In one example, a college is buying 100,000 search names for a class of just over 300 new freshmen students. Perhaps that’s necessary given limited brand awareness and a small inquiry pool. But in many cases, initial search efforts should focus on smaller numbers of more carefully selected prospects. What’s the goal? To create a small number of new inquiries with high yield potential to supplement the self-generated web inquiries and “stealth” applications that will provide most of the students who actually enroll. Email Marketing in 2007 For an industry perspective from outside higher education on what to plan for next year, consider registering for the January 9 web seminar sponsored by MarketingSherpa. In just 60 minutes, the seminar promises to update benchmark stats, explore new information on eye tracking heat maps, and review the benefits of personalization and segmentation. That’s a lot to cover, for sure, but you just might discover some important new questions to quiz your email agency about. You can register at www.silverpop.com/teleseminar/marketingsherpa/splist.html. Usability Testing vs. Focus Groups and Web Analytics If you need help in making the case for usability testing to help measure reaction to changes you plan on your website, don’t miss Shari Thurow’s article at www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624207. Thurow is a web developer who wrote this article after speaking at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference to web developers and designers who assumed that “everybody” wants the latest and greatest technology features at the websites they visit. You make that assumption at great risk to your marketing success. Thurow is reminding us that everything on a website has to help our visitors do what they came to the website to do. If features get in the way of a successful visit, they shouldn’t be used. Testing with a sample of real users is imperative to make the right decision. She makes a strong case that decisions based on focus groups and web analytics are as likely to get us in trouble as to help us. Marketing Opportunity at Rowan University Rowan is searching for an assistant director of marketing (salary in the “low $50s") with a minimum of three years experience in “advertising, publications, direct marketing campaigns and web marketing” for adult and non-traditional students. Applications are accepted until January 15. More details about the position are available at www.rowan.edu/jobs. My Upcoming Presentations in 2007 Share questions and answers with people like yourself who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Hope to meet you in the New Year! February 15, San Francisco, CA: University Continuing Education Association, “Online Marketing Boot Camp” with details at www.ucea.edu/pages/2007mktgseminar.html. February 26, Austin, TX: Texas A & M System, “Emerging Technologies: Communicating Tomorrow in the Internet World” February 28-March 2, Boston, MA: Academic Impressions Conference on Integrating Brand Messaging Across Media, “Writing for the Web” and “Conducting a Communications Audit” with program and registration details at www.academicimpressions.com/conferences/0207-brand-messaging.php. March 5, Web Seminar: Academic Impressions, “Writing for the Web.” Registration details soon. April 3, Dallas, TX: CASE District IV: “Writing for the Web” and “Communicating in Today’s World: the Challenge of Integrating Print, Web, and Email. Registration details are at www.caseiv.org/conference/?CONTAINERID=95&CRUMB=3. July 22, Baltimore, MD: eduWeb, Keynote presentation. Follow development of the conference program and read the conference blog at www.eduwebconference.com. Marketing presentations on your campus Expand professional growth opportunities right on your campus. Ask about creating a seminar to increase the Internet Marketing skills of people on your campus. No limit on the number of people who can attend. Schedule your presentation in 2007 soon. Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com. That’s All for Now Be a marketing champion on your campus.
Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com) Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC I offer consulting services personally to colleges and universities and together with the marketing experts at these partner firms: Aslanian Group offers market research and enrollment management services to colleges and universities to increase their market share of adult students. Learn more at www.aslaniangroup.com. Creative Communication Associates is a 22-year leader in the design and implementation of marketing communication strategies for colleges and universities. Learn more about CCA at www.ccanewyork.com. mStoner helps colleges and universities with Internet strategies and website development to meet changing audience expectations, technologies, market pressures, and institutional positioning. For the details, visit www.mstoner.com. TargetX brings the power of the Internet to recruit students and communicate with alumni through higher education’s only integrated suite of online tools. Explore what’s possible at www.targetx.com. Newsletter Archive
28 May 2008 |