December is upon us and that means the rapid arrival of the holiday season and a New Year. My best wishes to everyone over the next few weeks as 2010 approaches.
Record attendance of more than 600 people at the recent AMA Symposium for the
Marketing of Higher Education showed that
higher education marketing continues to have a critical role to play in the success of universities here and abroad. Next year's meeting is in
San Diego in November. Look for the exact dates soon.
Thanks to everyone who has attended one of my conference presentations or webinars in 2009. It was indeed a busy year and it was a pleasure to meet old and new friends. Look for the first listing of 2010 events in the January newsletter.
Close out your marketing year by joining me on
Twitter at
twitter.com/HighEdMarketing or by connecting on
LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/in/bobjohnsonconsultingAnd now here are your December marketing news and notes.
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Xavier Works to Reduce Stealth ApplicantsDoug Ruschman, director for web services at
Xavier University, sent word this week of a new effort to reduce stealth applicants.
While many schools have online scholarship calculators, most do not require the person using them to reveal their identity. That is a legitimate marketing tactic to get quick information to people about possible sticker price reductions in the hope that interest will increase.
If you are bothered by the growth in stealth applicants, why not offer a concrete benefit in return for identity information rather than give the benefit for free? The results of this approach will help Xavier learn more about early explorers with high interest.
Early results: 300 people who were not yet in the database completed the form in the first weekend.
Check the approach at
bit.ly/5poe51_________________________________
5 Pending Facebook ChangesFor student recruitment, alumni relations, athletics and more, Facebook gets more attention as a
higher education marketing tool than other
social media sites.
And that's why you might want to visit an early preview of 5 new Facebook page changes brought to you by the
social media watchdogs at Mashable.
One key element: more prominence for the search feature.
See what's coming soon when you visit
bit.ly/4OFpuB_________________________________
NSSE 2009 Survey ResultsResults of the 2009
National Survey of Student Engagement are available now at
nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2009_Results/Despite new challenges to the survey methodology and use of results, this remains a useful way to compare trends at your institution and to compare yourself with similar schools.
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4 Top Mobile Marketing PointsSean Carton is one of my favorite writers about online marketing.
With the advent of a new Android phone for Verizon, he notes that mobile marketing has received another boost (not everyone wants an iPhone from
AT&T). If you are not yet thinking about the best ways to add this to your
marketing mix, add the topic to your resolutions for the New Year.
Sean recounts the pitfalls of a
mobile marketing strategy and urges attention to 4 simple but key elements (Where, What, Who, and Why) at
www.clickz.com/3635583 ___________________________________
Sweet Briar College Pays a PriceIn this year when nobody was quite sure what impact the economy would have on student recruitment, the question of whether or not to raise the
tuition discount rate no doubt was widely discussed, especially in the private sector.
Sweet Brian College decided not to raise the 42 percent rate. The result was a drop in enrollment from 650 to 605 students and a drop in revenue of nearly $1 million.
Details and frank talk from the president about future options are at
bit.ly/69gigS___________________________________
ACT Gains Market Share vs. SATFortune reviews the contest for market share between the two test-taking giants, noting that since 1999 ACT has achieved virtual parity with the SAT exam with respect to number of students taking the tests.
Fortune attributes this weakened
market position to a decision by
College Board to begin letting students who take the SAT more than once to send only their highest score results to colleges and universities with a new Score Choice program. ACT has always had that policy.
Read more from Fortune at
bit.ly/8pTCO7 _____________________________________
Students Protest Pittsburgh Tuition TaxPittsburgh wants to raise revenue with a new 1 percent tax on student tuition. If the city succeeds in breaking the exemption enjoyed by non-profits, will others be far behind?
Expect legal challenges, of course, so the final outcome is not clear.
Meantime, students are protesting. Watch the video and follow the story at
bit.ly/8tAIk9 _____________________________________
Web Analytics: New vs. Returning VisitorsIf you need ammunition on your campus to convince people that web analytics can play a valuable role in understanding what happens on your website, read Shelby Thayer in her Trending Upward blog post at
bit.ly/7WXxHBOne point is important for admission offices: be sure to separate new from returning visitors in the data you are looking at. Then check the bounce rate (percent who leave the page without continuing anywhere else) and the average time on your page.
Pay special attention to your admissions entry page and to the first page people visit after that.
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Creating Effective Web LinksLittle things really can kill your online marketing efforts. One of the most common is poorly created website links.
Gerry McGovern
offers insight on creating more effective links at
bit.ly/2dxRHtA very basic point: make sure your text links appear in blue and are underlined.
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Opt-In Email Lists Grow in 2009Here is another note for anyone tempted to believe that email is dead as an
effective online marketing tool. Business to consumer email lists grew slowly (56 percent) or rapidly (11 percent) in 2009. Another 30 percent reported neither growth nor decline.
The message is clear. Give people a beneficial reason to subscribe to your email and they will do it. Details from Marketing Sherpa at
www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31459 ________________________________________
Engagement Marketing RevisitedAlex Brown, an old friend from his Wharton days, returns from his current world of horse racing to update an earlier article on Engagement Marketing in the
social media world.
To help understand how to integrate social media marketing into your overall marketing plan, his concept of three circles of marketing (traditional, engagement, and free) is well worth a visit at
www.zehno.com/news-resources/?p=2532 ________________________________________
Social Media for Mass AdvertisingMaybe
mass marketing to create brand awareness is not dead yet. Maybe it has just transformed itself and emerged again in the social media world.
Ford Motor Company for the past 6 months has used social media to create brand awareness for a new Ford Fiesta that will first go on sale in 2010. The campaign produced 4.3 million video views on
YouTube, 540,000 photo views on
Flickr, and 3 million impressions on Twitter.
The result, Ford reports, is 60 percent brand awareness in the United States at far less cost than the estimated $50 million for a traditional campaign.
The core element of the campaign was a website.
Read more and link to the
Ford Fiesta website at my blog at
bit.ly/ou7kB ________________________________________
5 Search Engine Optimization Fears to OvercomeIf you're concerned that your
search engine visibility is too low, an article by Stoney deGeyter at
bit.ly/OwUSO might help.
Read his rationale for long-term commitment, continuous change, and sometimes the deconstruction of an existing website. Effective SEO is not easy. Understanding what is required for success will help create reasonable expectations.
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Upcoming Presentations in 2009Share questions and answers with people like yourself who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me for one or more of these events.
Here are the last presentations from a very active 2009. Thanks to everyone who attended this past year. A new list for 2010 will start in the January newsletter.
December 3, Ames, IA: Iowa State University,
Social Media Marketing Summit.
December 8, Webinar: "Writing Right for the Web." Program outline and registration at
www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences/1209-web-writing.php December 12, Webinar: "Maximise Your Website to Recruit International Students."
Australian Education International, Washington D.C. By invitation to Australian universities.
Increase ROI from your online marketing. Expand the writing, editing, and search marketing skills of people on your campus. Host a campus workshop on online marketing.
Contact me at
bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com____________________________________________
That's All for NowBe a marketing champion on your campus.
Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
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Bob Johnson Consulting, LLCIncrease your online marketing success with these 6 services.
• Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
• Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops
• Marketing Communications Website Review
• Competitive Website Reviews
• Content Copywriting Services
• Usability Analysis
Start now at
www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/whatwedo.html
Bob Johnson