If you’ve taken my 2006 Survey (if you haven’t, you’re passing a chance to win a $30 gift certificate from Amazon), you know that I asked readers to suggest how I can improve this blog in 2007. One of the suggestions I have received makes a lot of sense: to revisit some of the initiatives I mentioned on this blog and find out how they worked (or didn’t).
As you might have noticed if you’ve been reading for a while, I’m a ROI (return on investment) junkie. So, I couldn’t wait to implement this great idea and have decided to launch a new series called “One year later.” In this series of future posts, I will try to do just what this reader suggested.
Since the Pew Internet and American Life Project released data about the topic, a lot has been said and written about the reach of podcasting and its efficiency as a marketing tool for higher ed institutions.
According to the Pew Data Project Memo about Podcast Downloading (PDF) by Senior Research Specialist Mary Madden, while 12% of internet users have downloaded a podcast (compared to 7% earlier this year) only 1% report doing it on a typical day. Naturally, these results can make anybody wonder if it’s worth investing time and money in podcasting.
That’s why I decided to ask the people behind podcasting initiatives that drew a lot of attention last year.
I started to blog about Mansfield University’s podcasts in November 2005. Then, I interviewed their creator and producer Dennis Miller.
Last week, I contacted Dennis to find out if he could share any results of his podcasting initiative with this blog’s readers (I did also contact Mike Richwalsky from Allegheny College, but haven’t heard from Mike yet).
Here’s the data Dennis sent:
- As of October 2006, up to about 3,000 downloads a week from listeners in the U.S. and 25 countries around the world (a couple of weeks after launch, Dennis reported 289 downloads a week)
- About +1% in incoming freshmen and the only thing we did different in the marketing was the podcasting.
- Quite a few listeners are higher education colleagues. Dennis received a few requests about equipment and software
- There are younger listeners too because one of the students regularly interviewed in the podcasts, Eden, has gotten “fan mail”
“Having said that, I don’t think podcasting had a big impact. I think podcasting was still too new on the scene.
So, we mounted a marketing campaign that included two radio spots and ran them on Pennsylvania stations with a high school demo. We printed 4-color business cards that counselors handed out at high school visits and college fairs. We printed and mailed 60,000 oversized post cards and sent them to high school seniors and guidance counselors. We also did billboards,” added Dennis in his email.
This proves how much podcasting is really not about reaching as many prospective students as possible, but more about selling them the college experience at your institution.
I know several readers have also launched podcasting initiatives as part of their admission recruiting efforts, I (we all) would love to hear about the type of results they’ve gotten so far. Why not post a comment, so we can decide whether or not podcasting should be part of the admission marketing mix… based on some facts?