Archive for 'Word of Mouth'

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Know your niche and market to nobody

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When I talk with admissions leaders, cabinets, or boards, everyone wants to talk about what separates them from the school up the road. Yet, most schools tend to look and sound like the school up the road.

It seems like schools that are trying to be all things to all people are the schools that are having enrollment challenges. Ambiguity confuses the market place. A university president once asked, “What’s the greatest mistake we can make regarding a campus visit?” My reply was to have a family get in the car at the end of of their time on campus and say, “Nice school, but nothing special.”

Great marketing and positioning might offend. It might not appeal to the masses, but it ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit Experiences, Outside Resources, Word of Mouth

Preparing for the new year

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Another year has come and gone but you are only about half way through the recruitment cycle for the class of fall 2011. As you wrap up 2010, think about where your recruitment marketing efforts currently are and where you might be going in 2011.

To help you do this, ThoughtLead hosted the Future of Marketing micro-conference. Sixty speakers each take 60 seconds to impart their wisdom on us with insights into what the “future of marketing” is in 2011 and beyond. Here are just a few that might appeal to admissions and recruitment marketing:

“Mobile is a game-changer” (Chuck Martin). We’ve heard about this a lot over the past few months, and your institution needs to begin thinking about how you ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Mobile, Social Media, Storytelling, Word of Mouth

Marketing to Millennials

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The youngest are only 10, so you’re going to be dealing with the Millennial generation for years to come. That means you should overcome your sense of Millennial overload and continue to welcome new insight into how to reach these “vocal, demanding, discerning, shrewd and, yes, narcissistic” prospective students.

Advertising Age’s Thomas Pardee has written another psychosocial look at those born between 1982 and 2000, and he concludes with five tips for marketing to them.

  • Be fast. “For Millennials, there’s nothing worth saying that can’t be said in 140 characters or less. It’s not that they can’t handle long-form pitches, they just know you can do better. So do better.”

  • Be clever. “Smart and funny is the new rock ...
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Categories: Authenticity, College Recruiting, Communication, Generations, Millennials, Word of Mouth

Tell me a story

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People love stories, Jeff Kallay reminds us. They pay attention to them, learn from them, believe them and share them.

Storytelling has been our most effective means of communication since we developed language eons ago, and that’s more evident than ever in this new world of social networking.

So why do colleges still spend so much effort on branding and taglines, and so little effort identifying and telling their unique stories, asks Kallay, Consulting VP at TargetX and one of higher education’s most inventive marketers.

“When crafting your recruiting communications, find the stories that set you apart,” he says. “I’m often asked by admissions and marketing people how they find stories like that. I know this sounds simple, but you can find them ...

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Categories: Authenticity, College Recruiting, Communication, Word of Mouth

Our apologies

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Apologies are a part of life. We offer them, we accept them. Some people are better than others at doing both, but almost everyone appreciates a sincere apology.

Mistakes are also a part of life. If you’re a marketer or recruiter who has sent a mass email or posted a blog entry or hosted an online event, you have undoubtedly made mistakes that caused you — and maybe your institution — some embarrassment.

The question is, did you follow those mistakes with an apology? A mass apology is a tricky thing, but when done right, it can disarm your audience and make your school more human and approachable.

A good example of a great apology followed TargetX’s latest “Free on Friday” webcast, which ...

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Categories: Email, Free on Friday Webcasts, Online Experiences, Word of Mouth

WOM for Higher Ed

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Fueled by the social web, Word of Mouth has become a billion dollar marketing engine. It even has its own professional organization — the Word of Mouth Marketing Association — with conferences, webinars, tutorials and a strong emphasis on ethics.

If you haven’t visited the WOMMA website yet, it’s worth the time. It offers a number of resources for any level of WOM practitioner. And perhaps in recognition of the overwhelming influence of social media on young people, it has dedicated a branch to higher education.

Spearheaded by DePaul University’s Deborah Maue, WOMMA created the Higher Education Council to help college marketers “use social media to their best advantage.” Mostly, that means helping them recruit Millennials, who have elevated word of mouth ...

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Categories: College Recruiting, Millennials, Social Media, Social Networking, Word of Mouth