Higher Education Online - More Great Insights from Contributor Jennifer Wood

In case you missed the fabulous first part of this mini-series from Jennifer Wood, Web site and enrollment marketing coordinator for the University of Charleston, you can check it out here. Last month, Jennifer took us inside of her audience. Here, she gets into the nuts and bolts of marketing a university to prospective students. Jen is a longstanding member of the Marketing Genius family and a genius marketer in her own right. We're thrilled to have this guest contribtuion from Jen!

The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

If you ask the important question of “How did you hear about us?” then you will have insight into how students find you. If you realize they are not finding out through electronic means, then I would say that you need to look at what strategies you’re carrying out electronically. If your web presence is lacking or difficult to find or navigate, your chances that students find out about you via electronic means is probably fairly slim. Tracking communications of who you send what to, how they receive it, how many conversions you have (applicants / deposits / registrants), you can find which tasks result in good leads and enrollment. This question can help you figure out where you should spend, cut, reallocate, etc. It’s interesting how much information and insight you can obtain through one question.

In higher education marketing, it’s now becoming evident that students are applying for college differently than before. In the “good old days”, students filled out an inquiry card or completed an online form to receive more information about the school in a follow up communication. We have seen a shift from that original process. Now students go right for the online application and avoid the other means of initial contact, at least electronically. Our web analytics show that students who complete online applications are twice as likely to be new visitors instead of returning visitors. So what does that say about our marketing strategy? How do we shift our promotional materials to accommodate that shift? Honestly, we’re still figuring that out.

As I write this blog post, I’m rethinking our electronic marketing strategy here at UC. Many times, daily operations take precedence over other marketing aspirations and get put on the back burner. I use that “excuse” all the time. My goal now is to find out what our resources are to improve our tracking system of applicants or “customers”. This of course, it will need to be an integrated effort with admissions, student life, communications, the registrar, and probably the IT department (to make appropriate changes to our systems).

So, I’d like to hear from folks out there….Anyone else experiencing this shift to “secret” or “discreet” customers? They don’t browse around first…they go right for the application or shopping cart? What is your conversion rate of these folks?

I’d love to find out how other industries are coping with this shift and how they are marketing through this new process. Not all questions in life can be answered merely by asking them. However, in marketing, many customers want to have a dialogue about their choices.

And for a bit of fun and humor on your way out, check out this really illustrative YouTube video, "Breaking Up," which shines some light on marketing dialogue.

I look forward to hearing from you with a comment here, or via e-mail:
Jennifer Wood
jenniferwood@ucwv.edu

Sticky - Are Marketers Obsessed?

Friend, blogger and fellow marketing genius, Jennifer Wood pointed me to this thought-provoking commentary over on the Fast Company Web site:

The sticky-wars have arrived. Yesterday AdAge's Matthew Creamer introduced Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociology professor from down under who's challenging The Tipping Point's Malcolm Gladwell to a battle at the mic.

Armed with a mathematical and computer modeling arsenal instead of anecdotes, Watts debunks Gladwell's "influencer" theory. Writes Creamer: "The crux of Mr. Watts' argument is that even if influentials are several times as influential as a normal person, they have little impact beyond their own immediate neighborhood -- not good when you're trying to create a cascade through a large network of people, as most big brands do. In those cases, he argues, it's best to skip the idea of targeting that treasured select group of plugged-in folks and instead think about that group's polar opposite: a large number of easily influenced people. He calls this big-seed marketing. Sounds a lot like mass marketing, doesn't it?"

Oy veh. In the high brow stratosphere of marketing theory, one day it's all about the niche ("long tail"), the next it's all about the mass ("big seed"). Between Gladwell and Watts (who in 2003 penned the book, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, to much less fanfare), and Fast Company's very own Made to Stick columnists, Dan and Chip Heath, it seems an entire academic generation has emerged around the study of: how to get our ideas, products and brands to stick. You could argue it's the obsession of 21st century marketers.

Creamer goes on to interview a couple marketers who have discovered that Gladwell's "tipping point" theory (which, as I wrote about in my January 2005 profile on Gladwell, has become fully operationalized at companies like Pepsi and Coke's VitaminWater), is a hell of a lot more difficult to recreate, than it is to admire from a far. (Please, why is anyone surprised by this? Didn't you learn by second grade that doing is always harder than pontificating?)

But my favorite line from Creamer's piece is this: "An irony of our age is that, though everyone acknowledges consumers are in control, marketers still believe they're running the show, right down to trying to plan for virality as any creative told to "just go make a viral video" will lament. Virality is an outcome, not a channel to be planned." It's similar to a point I made in "Down the Rabbit Hole," a November 2006 story that deconstructs the labyrinth campaigns the Blair Witch Project's stunt-men architected for Audi and Sega. Creating a tipping point phenomenon is not just some algorithm on Google or a magic widget you can click--it requires tireless hard work and attention, relentless strategy and creativity, and a deep respect for your audience so you can give them want they want, or better yet, what they don't even know they want.

Where do you stand in the Gladwell vs. Watts smackdown?

Helping Community Service Organizations Make Connections

I had the pleasure today of leading a training workshop for a wonderful group of non-profit executives. This was a great group of community service leaders from West Virginia. The participants came from a diverse range of organizations, including:

Vista volunteers
Family resource networks
Homeless shelters
Mental health support groups
Community development organizations
Welfare-to-Work groups
Main Street organizations
Women's support & advocacy groups
Career training organizations

I have tremendous respect for the tireless, resourceful, passionate and effective leaders who are inspired to get the word out about their programs. They face many challenges, such as lack of funding, staff shortages and breadth of territory--not to mention complexity of message and audience.

Together, we worked to polish networking skills, audience mapping, message development and message delivery. The coup de grace was, undoubtedly, the videotaped elevator pitch session! (Again, great job everyone!)

This was all part of the annual Conference on National and Community Service, also known as the Faces of Leadership Conference. It is presented each year by the Volunteer WV organization. Everyone was eager to learn and share their insights, questions and experiences. It was made so much better by the presence, talent and energy of my talented co-instructor, Jennifer Wood!

Conference participants--a big welcome! Please leave a comment and say "hi."

Kudos to marketing geniuses everywhere who take the time to sharpen their skills and build new ones!