June and the first days of the summer season are here, warmer than expected in Michigan. As the days grow longer, my friends tell me the search for enrollment yield and budget balance goes on. Difficult times, but the best will adapt, survive, and thrive again.
What most matters now in
higher education marketing? The experience people have as they select a college or university, from their first moments at the website to the contacts with real people on campus visits and after enrollment that drive
social media comments and connections.
Word of mouth marketing is more important than ever in the era of
social media and quick mobile contact. Are we worth the price we want to charge? The experience people have and tell others about will answer that question.
One constant is the value of sharing ideas and solutions with bright people at conferences. Attend one of these July events that best helps you build new marketing success: ACT Enrollment Planners Conference (
www.act.org/epc/) and eduWeb2010 (
www.eduwebconference.com/) in
Chicago and
Graduate Student Marketing with Carol Aslanian (
bit.ly/cD34VS) at the Harvard Club in New York.
Check below for my workshops and presentations at these meetings.
And now here are your marketing news and notes for June.
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10 Boston-area Schools Ranked for Twitter UseWhat criteria might you use to measure your marketing effectiveness on Twitter?
Check the article by Jennie White that ranks 10 Boston schools by number of followers, list counts, and engagement factors. Yes, followers count but the highest number did not lead to the top ranking.
Boston University was first of the 10 and Northeastern was last. See how eight others finished when you visit
bit.ly/aw5hQ1_______________________________________
NYT on Student Loan DebtDo you think the way higher education recommends loans to students is equivalent to the way sub-prime mortgages were offered to home buyers?
That is the PR nightmare suggested by the
New York Times in a May 28 blog post on "Placing the Blame as Students are Buried in Debt."
Higher education, writes author Ron Lieber, shares responsibility for encouraging loan sources without regard to future ability to pay.
Check the argument, with special attention to one NYU graduate, at
nyti.ms/cw7rGx ________________________________________
International Recruitment Change: OK to Use For-Profit AgentsPressure to maintain enrollment can bring unexpected change to the way higher education in the United States does business.
That is the driving force behind the growing willingness to use agents abroad to recruit international students for
universities in the U.S. The new (2008) American International Recruitment Council is certifying recruitment agencies. This is providing a new legitimacy to schools that want to start doing the same thing that Australian and U.K. universities have been doing for years.
Find 13 diverse college and university participants from private sector schools of varying selectivity to large
public universities to higher end MBA programs in an InsideHigherEd article at
bit.ly/cjG4QI_________________________________________
Early Critique: Advertising on the iPadThe folks at ClickZ paid $4.95 to download a copy of the new Wired magazine app for the iPad so they could check the ads.
The result: most ads were close to their print versions and failed to take advantage of the interactive capabilities of the new tool. The worst ads were direct lifts from print and included URLs that did not go live to a website.
The future is not here yet. For a primer on how to get it right, watch the ClickZ video at
www.clickz.com/3640485_________________________________________
Pocket Guide to Defensive BrandingIn the social media era, you had best pay careful attention to how your brand is treated by those who write about it on
Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other places.
Acting in defense of your brand requires great care. Shouting back online will not help you preserve equity in your brand. Ignoring negative comments will not help either.
Whether you are dealing with minor irritations or a major crisis, Pete Blackshaw has some excellent advice, starting with "listen first, engage last" in his AdAge column at
bit.ly/dBVrIg_________________________________________
Prediction: For-Profit Higher Education Stocks Will FallSteve Eisman is a hedge fund manager in the public view for a best-selling book about how he predicted the collapse of the
sub-prime mortgage market and "sold short" to take advantage of it.
Eisman is predicting a similar fate for the for-profit sector of higher education. It will not, he believes, survive government concerns over what he calls "socially destructive and morally bankrupt" lending practices used to enroll students. His argument is that loan restrictions are inevitable. Revenue and profit will fall. Investors will flee.
Bloomberg
Business Week outlines the Eisman position while also noting that a new loan policy based on the probability of "gainful employment" after enrollment is not inevitable. Read the story at
bit.ly/cmLB7v_________________________________________
Strong Adult Student Recruitment WebsitesFollow links to 6 examples of strong adult student recruitment website features in my new blog post at
bit.ly/bf3wwCThe web pages range from payment options to academic program visibility to transfer credit evaluation.
And I added something often requested and never done before: picked a single "best of the best" website for recruiting people to adult degree programs, with an emphasis on graduate and professional programs.
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Mobile Marketing and Radio Advertising: A Higher Education ExampleMobile marketing is breaking out here, there, not quite everywhere in higher education.
Read about results of one effort that used a 10 second call-to-action to send a text message in a radio ad campaign when you visit the report on
Columbia College at
bit.ly/a3pjpA The campaign was targeted to returning adult students. Scroll to the end to see a comment about the ethics and/or legality of calling people on the phone after receiving a text message from them.
While at the site, subscribe to the email newsletter from
Mobile Marketer to help stay current with this important area.
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"Demonstrated Interest" as Admissions CriterionThis is a topic that's been around since the 1990s: is a college entitled to wait list or reject students who meet their academic criteria but who have not shown serious interest in the school?
In this time of increased focus on yield from inflated applicant pools, the level of interest shown by a person is back in the news. This story from the
Chronicle of Higher Education highlights the practice at
American University and
Hamilton College at
bit.ly/ck0pW0 with special attention to the role of campus visits and admission interviews.
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Writing Right for the Web: Press ReleasesRewriting traditional press releases for your web pages can produce not only search marketing dividends but also stronger visitor engagement with the rest of your website.
Shorter paragraphs, more subheads, and hyperlinks will all add value to your effort.
Find more on these points and review 5 other tips from Deni Kasrel for higher impact website press releases when you visit
bit.ly/bgLLDD____________________________________________
Speed on the Web: It Is Not About Page DownloadWeb pages that take forever to download are not good.
But what really influences opinion about your website is how long it takes visitors to complete a task. A "sticky" website is not a good thing if it means people are stuck trying to get something done.
That's the point Gerry McGovern makes in more detail in "
The Need for Speed on the Web" at
bit.ly/cydUWd___________________________________________
If You Write: Highly Recommended BlogIf you write regularly, online or off, visit The Subversive Copy Editor by
Carol Fisher Saller at
www.subversivecopyeditor.com/blog/________________________________________
My Upcoming Conferences and Webinars in 2010Attend an upcoming conference to share questions and answers with people like you who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me at these events.
June 3-4, Education Dynamics Aslanian Group Seminar, Marketing to
Adult Students, Chicago, IL "Adult-friendly Websites: A '
Best of the Best' Review" and "Web Analytics: A Guide to Improving Recruitment Success." Register at
bit.ly/d3nu6f July 21-23, ACT Enrollment Planners Conference, Chicago, IL Pre-conference workshop, "'Mobile in the
Marketing Mix': Myth and Reality for 2010 and Beyond" and conference session: "
International Student Recruitment: Best Practice Website Features." Program details and registration at
www.act.org/epc/index.htmlJuly 26-28, eduWeb2010, Chicago, IL Review the program and register for my mobile marketing pre-conference workshop at
www.eduwebconference.com/ July 29, Education Dynamics Aslanian Group Seminar, Marketing to Graduate Students, New York, NY. Register at
bit.ly/cD34VS November 3, webinar: Academic Impressions, "Writing Right for the Web." Details coming this summer.
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.
• What Visitors Love & Hate about Your Website: A Survey
• 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