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Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter
28 June 2006
Greetings to everyone as our July 4 holiday approaches here in the United States. I can tell from the number of “On vacation” replies to my Link of the Week email on Monday that many of you have been able to start a few days early. For the rest of us, Friday is not far away. Best wishes for a fine holiday break.
The Link of the Week at www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/linkoftheweek.html now features 13 top college websites that can help make your website a better place. I’ll skip a new link this Friday and start again after the holiday.
One of the best and least expensive things you can do to improve the marketing strength of your website is elevate the quality of the writing to make it web-friendly for visitors. Join me on August 10 for a 90-minute web conference on “Writing Right for the Web,” including a new section on writing for Search Engine Optimization. Details are at www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences/0806-web-writing.php.
Help a friend become a better marketer. Send them to www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com with a recommendation that they subscribe for themselves (just name and email required).
And now for this month’s marketing news and notes.
Is Your College on Youtube.com?
Be prepared to laugh, cry, and scream if you find videos about your college at www.youtube.com when you visit.
Not every name I tested in the search box brought results, but the range is broad. My hits included Alma and Emerson colleges, and Harvard and Hofstra universities. Check for yours. Be sure to use the “Share Video” feature to send your favorites to your campus friends.
The marketing message is obvious. This is one more proof point that you can’t control communication in the Internet age. And one more point why what you have on your official website does need to seem real and not PR words or images.
Marketing for Continuing Education
To stay up to date with the perils and potential in this area, visit www.live.psu.edu/story/17306 for a detailed summary of the “2006 State of Continuing Education Marketing” conducted by Penn State University.
The most pressing issues reported start with lack of resources, followed by marketing strategy questions, and the challenges of electronic marketing.
Tasty tidbit: four years ago only about 25 percent of survey respondents were marketing to an international audience, while about 66 percent are doing that now.
Top 10 Marketing Blogs and Podcasts
Results of voting by MarketingSherpa readers are in at www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=28525.
“Best” categories for blogs include Email Marketing, Search Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, and General Marketing.
For the first time, selections include a best marketing podcast. That honor went to Joseph Jaffe’s “Across the Sound” at www.acrossthesound.net.
Make Search Engine Optimization Work for You
You’ll find the “Grand Slam SEO — Can My Site Rank Well on all Four Major Engines?” at www.searchengineguide.com/hedger/007824.html an easy to understand guide to setting realistic expectations for how search engines will rank your website.
As best we can know it, the article lists the top criteria used by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. Google, for instance, is reported to use links from other websites to your website as most important.
The most important point is this. All search engines will react positively to websites that focus clearly on content of interest and highlight that content in “titles, tags, text, and site structure.”
SEO Basics at Webopedia
If your president or anyone else on your campus is asking questions about getting more visibility in web searches, add expertise to your answers with a visit to www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2003/HowWebSearchEnginesWork.asp.
Your credibility is bound to increase after you read definitions of things like a “spider trap” and a “deep link.” Be sure to click through to the section that explains “Keyword Stuffing” and why you don’t want to do it.
Direct Marketing to Elevate Donors
For a review of how direct marketing principles can help move mid-level donors to higher levels, visit new.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/enews/fullStory.bsp?sid=31248&var=story#31248 for “Five Key Strategies to Developing a Mid-Level Donor Program” by George Whelan.
This issue of Fund Raising Success Advisor includes other articles recounting successes by non-for-profit fund raisers with donors who are above the basic giving level and prospects for larger future gifts. The primary emphasis is on borrowing elements from programs aimed at major-gift prospects and donors. And as always, the recommendations include reminders to focus on donor needs for giving more than the needs of the organization making the solicitation.
Get Better at Email Marketing
Your email marketing efforts are almost certain to improve if you follow along with the discussion topics you’ll find at the Email Experience Council website at www.emailexperience.org.
Be sure the check the “Collective Insight” topics at the bottom of the front page. You’ll find things nicely grouped under topics that include “The Quiet Revolution in Email Marketing” and “The Email Wars” so that you can scan and find the things that interest you.
Customer First, Technology Second
Gerry McGovern is back with the message that nothing will help build better websites more than knowledge of our audiences derived from contact with real people. Read more about why we spend too much time on technology and not enough time on people in “The greatest skill of the 21st century” at www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2006/nt-2006-06-19-customer-skill.htm.
Do Some Brand Archeology before You Change
If you are about the business of reinventing your brand in an effort to reposition your college, spend a few minutes with Martin Lindstrom’s thoughts at www.clickz.com/experts/brand/brand/article.php/3615556. on why you should include Brand Archeology as part of your process.
Lindstrom notes that most brands have elements worth preserving as you march forward to a brave new future and that including time to search for those elements is a worthy investment.
Colleges and universities value tradition. Does your branding include the best from the past?
The 52 Word Fan Helps Keep Google Simple
Will Google always have the simple website design it has today?
If you’re an advocate of clean over cluttered, read the Good Experience interview with Google’s Marissa Mayer at www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/000066.php.
My favorite part? The note about the Google fan that counts the number of words on the front page and sends an email to Google each time the count reaches 52 words. That, says Marissa, helps keep them focused on what the outside world expects of them.
And read down in the interview to the section on graphic advertising. So far, says Google, there is no pressure from either advertisers or visitors to introduce graphics to advertising options. In the mind of Google, so far, text ads still work best.
New University Starts Up in Texas
With substantial initial funding, Whitney International University plans to offer online education to an international audience as a for-profit institution. Read the details at www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/06/whitney.
Gerald Heeger, president of the University of Maryland University College, is leaving Maryland to provide leadership for the new venture.
The plan is to offer courses in affiliation with other existing institutions. So far, the only school listed at www.whitneyintl.com behind “Degrees and Programs” is the New England College of Finance but more are “Coming Soon” according to the website.
Don’t Let Creativity Kill a Great Offer
Divert yourself from higher education for a moment and read Denny Hatch’s entertainingly devastating critique of how excessive creativity killed a direct marketing offer for the “Vermillion Digital Test Drive.”
You’ll also find six “Features and Benefits of Digital Printing for Promotion Pieces” that can drive your response rate if you take an easy to understand approach to the offer you make and the benefits it provides.
Entertain yourself at napco.com/enewsletters/stories/commonsense/commonsense/286228659955084.html.
Website Conversion Strategies for Marketing Success
If you’re contemplating a major overhaul of your website, be sure to read “The Art of Online Conversion: Four Steps From Interest to Acquisition” by Brian Dempsey at www.marketingprofs.com/6/dempsey1.asp before you start.
Brian outlines a web site strategy that starts with the fact that people often will find you or not find you through search engines and continues through to the decision to, in our words, become a student. Note the important distinction between the “look” and the “feel” of a website, with the latter determined by the experience of your visitors.
Be sure that the people creating your website place as much value on the “feel” as they do on “look.” More than anything else, that depends on making sure that people can easily find the content that interests them most and can easily take the right action steps when they are ready.
From the website reviews I’ve done in the past six months, I’m still convinced that many people pay far too little attention to basic but critical elements of conversion that include easy to find program offerings and easy to use inquiry forms.
Endowment Secrets and USA Today Publicity
Compare the original article at www.endowmentinstitute.org/survey.html with the USA Today story at www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-05-29-college-invest_x.htm to see an example of how colleges and universities probably don’t prefer to see themselves in the news.
The “news” is about the policy of most top colleges to not reveal the details of their endowment investments.
Tufts University and Boston College are highlighted in the USA Today story, where a Boston College person notes that revealing the details of endowment investments would place BC at a competitive disadvantage. A comment from the American Council on Education, however, speculates that public demand for “transparency” will increase in the future.
Online “Lead Generators” Form New Association
If you buy lists online for marketing, check the new Online Lead Generation Association at www.olgassociation.org for an introduction to how marketers are moving to protect themselves and you against unethical and perhaps illegal creation of email contact lists.
The site includes a section on Best Practices and an easy to scan FAQ section. A blog is getting started and there’s a call of papers to recount legitimate success stories.
The best contact list remains the one that you have in your own database, formed from online inquiries and responses to your traditional media marketing efforts.
My Upcoming Presentations in 2006
Attend an upcoming event. Share questions and answers with people like yourself who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Hope to meet you soon!
July 7, Los Angeles, CA: Law School Admissions Council, workshop on recruiting and communicating with Millennials.
July 14, Washington, D.C.: Law School Admissions Council, workshop on recruiting and communicating with Millennials.
July 19-21, Chicago, IL: ACT Enrollment Planners Conference. Pre-conference workshop on “Writing for the Web&” and conference session on “Branding and the Web: Creating a Powerful Marketing Tool.” Program details are at www.act.org/epc.
August 10, Web Conference: Academic Impressions, “Writing Right for the Web,” including a new section on writing tips for Search Engine Optimization. Details and registration are at www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences/0806-web-writing.php.
Can’t send everyone to a conference? Bring great conference presentations right to your campus. Select from the topics here. Or ask about creating a seminar just for you.
Write to me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.
That’s All for Now
Be a marketing champion on your campus.
Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
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.
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