subject: Community College Marketing Best Practices [print this page] Community College Marketing Best Practices
Good evening! I had some thoughts tonight around community colleges and some marketing strategies.
A significant amount of community college marketers have told me that "there is no need to market" and "we have students coming out the door", so why market?
The first thing that comes to my mind is, how about when the economy comes back, the current situation will not always be like this. As I have written, you must always plan ahead and think long term. So let me lay out some practical long term strategies and tips to market your community college.
-advertise on local radio stations (35-45 miles from campus), particularly the strongest AM and one FM rock station
-participate in as many high school career fairs as possible
-advertise on the luggage rotunda rack at the local major airport (it works!)
-purchase geographically targeted ads on the largest local online newspaper
-maintain relationships with as many local high school guidance counselors as possible
-purchase google ads geographically targeted 35-45 miles from campus
-sponsor local events that promote your highlighted programs (eg. local cooking seminars for schools promoting cooking classes)
-offer free tasting samples for cooking classes to the community
-offer free haircuts to the community for beauty/cosmetology classes
-purchase a billboard advertisement on the highest traveled local highway
-engage in social media, especially Twitter, Facebook, and online college communities, offer weekly chats to help students in their community or college search, do not sell your school at first, just help, students will appreciate that, and more times than not, choose you
