I’ve always defended the idea that higher ed websites should get a bigger part of their admission office’s marketing budget.
Not because I’d like to make more money — although that would be nice — or to have more to play with cool technological toys.
No, I really think that college websites should get their fair share of this budget to respond to the needs of some of their end users – prospective students and their parents.
This being said, I don’t believe websites should be the only marketing channel to be used.
Admission websites are used a lot during the whole college selection and application process, but, as you know prospective students and their parents don’t just go to a search engine, type “college” or “university” and apply to the first 10 listed institutions (anyway, institutions don’t usually show up on the first pages of this type of search).
To sift through the thousands of possibilities, they use college online directories (or their paper counterparts) compiled by or even the more traditional college fairs organized by high schools.
However, when it’s time to narrow down the selection of institutions, prospective students and their parents do rely a lot on the Web as shown in this excerpt of “Even With Internet’s Influence, College Fairs Continue to Play a Key Role in Recruiting”, an article by Jane Gordon published today in the New York Times:
Katherine Turrow, 16, a junior at the school, stopped at the Smith table with her mother, Linda Scacco.
“I see this as a first step,†Ms. Scacco said. “Some schools that she has seen here she never would have considered otherwise. So we’ll narrow it down, and then look on the Internet.â€
A couple of nights earlier and 12 miles east, hundreds of parents and students crowded the aisles of another fair at Glastonbury High School. Parking was chaotic, with visitors crowding cars onto the school’s lawns and in no-parking lanes to create spots.
Donald Otto and his son, Cody, 15, a sophomore, strolled the aisles, reviewing the long lineup of banners. “You can find a place you’re interested in here, and then go online,†Mr. Otto said. “This gives us the broad picture.â€
As a result, colleges and universities could even get an idea of the return on investment (ROI) of these other marketing channels.
That wouldn’t be difficult, but not totally foolproof as some might just type or search for the institution website on their own. They would just need to set up special landing pages with associated unique easy-to-remember web addresses publicized at every college fairs (could be done dynamically with a unique template) and provide a distinctive web address to the different online directories.
Anybody doing that already?