Strategies

Is Your Message Breaking Through the Clutter?

Betsy Bedigian, Marketing and PR Manager

Colleges, universities, technical and trade schools vie for the attention of overlapping student populations. Breaking through the onslaught of messages in the education marketplace challenges even the savviest of marketers. Yes, e-learning extends colleges’ reach into a broader marketplace, but there the colleges must compete with many other colleges and messages to persuade the target learners.

We interviewed Christine Sullivan, president of Hawthorne Associates, to discuss barriers to effective audience reach and what she recommends learning institutions do to strengthen their messages.Hawthorne Associates has successfully helped corporate and higher education organizations maximize the impact of their marketing dollars in an increasingly competitive environment. The full service business-to-business marketing communications company offers a flexible mix of profitable direct marketing and innovative public relations campaigns to effectively reach target audiences.

Sullivan, points out, “More than ever before market survival is dependent on having a clear understanding of your intended audience and the avenues of communicating with them.”

A Breakthrough Strategy

Shrinking marketing budgets and a lukewarm economic environment is forcing learning institutions to reevaluate how they spend their marketing dollars. Sullivan finds that marketing of e-Learning has fared better in the education versus corporate sector. “For higher education organizations with the ability to combine e-Learning and traditional programming there are far more opportunities to maintain market share and reach new audiences,” said Sullivan.

Breakthrough Action: Driving Descriptors

For most institutions the primary barrier to effectively breaking through the clutter lies with saying "We are...". Our experience has shown that within any given institution, catalogs from admissions and from two other programs often include at least three different ways in which the institution identifies itself.” Sullivan said.

Message similarity is so pervasive within any given market segment that messages fail to resonate with the intended audience. “Unfortunately, we have found often inconsistent and broad corporate marketing messages which are excessively vague, wordy, and jargon-ridden,” said Sullivan.
Universities and colleges need to embrace what they are. No brand can be articulated unless the organization is able to clearly identify its unique characteristics and how it differentiates from its competitor.

Sullivan recommends creating a set of driving descriptors, unique identifiers for the organization. “Interview 10 faculty and 10 students asking them to describe the institution’s learning environment in three words. The driving descriptors that emerge are the authentic language that describes your institution.” An institution’s authentic language is how an institution describes its promise to the market.

Breakthrough Action: Say It Loud! Say It Clear! Then Say It Again!

Creating the driving descriptors can produce a great deal of energy for and within the institution. Sullivan points out that harnessing the energy of authentic language enables you to differentiate from those around you. Once you can say “We are...” then say it over and over again. “The essence of branding is that every communication, verbal or written, visual, internal or external has to talk about your brand in the same way! Often!” Presidents, teachers, students and staff – everyone in the organization should be telling the story about the organization in the same way.

Breakthrough Action: Think Creative, Not Big Budget

There are many inherent challenges of expanding audiences and learner populations. The most economically challenged institution will have to be creative in developing marketing strategies if its message is to be heard over the competitors.

For breakthrough results Hawthorne Associates recommends that clients effectively communicate the benefits of the institution versus its competition.

The process can begin with public relations – a valuable tool with manageable costs and measurable outcomes. Sullivan also recommends for breakthrough success:

Do the research. Breakthrough success begins with recognizing that the marketing of e-learning requires fundamentally different marketing strategies.
Define internal and external audience(s) demographically as well as message tone and nature that will contribute to the likelihood of enrollment.
E-Learning represents a new way in which the audience can approach the organization. A college or university will have a greater success attracting new students to e-Learning programs as a result of the relationship with the more traditional brand identity.
Compel your audience to make a lifestyle change. According to Sullivan it is important that the institution have the ability to “relate to me in my pain” and define what is the benefit of doing what you want me to do? Can you answer the question, “Are there real benefits for my taking this course?”
Think viral marketing: Use e-mail campaigns that drive respondents to the Web site where they can easily take a course, etc. Make it easy. Remind them that online is an available (good) option.
Share your intelligence – White Papers can play a significant role in drawing attention to your institution. Your Web site can be the perfect partner for dissemination and the collection of data about your audience by allowing them to download intelligence once they provide you with demographic information.

Helpful Information

Want to know more about this critically important topic? Check out the January issue of University Business. Read what some university presidents learned about marketing at a recent conference in Washington, DC. Book watch: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries, Laura Ries (Paperback - September 2002); Guerilla Publicity by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Jill Lublin (Paperback – June 2002)

You can contact Christine Sullivan at www.hawthorneassociates.com to find out more about strengthening your message for breakthrough results. Hawthorne’s recent publication, 50 Great Tips For Using E-Mail and Web Marketing Effectively is a worthy addition to any marketing arsenal.

Considering eLearning? If you need help determining what eLearning opportunities exist inside or outside of your organization, who your potential market is, what they want to hear or recommendations as to whether it is feasible to enter the eLearning arena, please contact Hezel Associates at anytime.