Determining Marketing Needs
The marketing needs at our institution were defined by the marketing department in partnership with staff, faculty, and students. The marketing department also tracks each campaign to measure effectiveness in terms of costs, channel, and over-all response rate. The focus of the latest campaign was on the mission of the college in helping students achieve life changing goals through education.
We have a marketing campaign that include SEO, PR, Social Media, mass email, product placement and of course student referral.
Sadly since the school is an adjunct to an established Home Health Nurses Registry, started only to provide the Registry with an unending stream of workers, the school has never been a priority and minimal monies are alotted to market it. With online we are hoping not as much that the income will increase, though we hope, the hope is that it will decrease costs. We will probably be marketed in the same manner as before, a little link and footnote on the website of the registry.
Linda asked, "What are the marketing needs for online delivery of courses and programs at your institution? Discuss how those needs were defined and who is responsible for implementing them."
We have a highly professional marketing department that leads this effort. A twice-monthly marketing meeting brings marketing, academics, and others together to focus on marketing efforts. Lead-time for marketing is important.
Mark York
The marketing needs are addressed by our marketing department while we are implementing a program. We have a separate education division that responds to student and industry needs through the use of advisory committees. The marketing department gets the "word out" on new programs through direct media, social networking, and print.
-Chris
The needs are determined by the marketing/online staff in partnership with the administrative and academic council.
Our marketing department will decide what our marketing needs are and how they will be met. Our staff who are always using professional advisory committees to modify the programs will relay any pertinent information to the marketing department. The marketing department will modify any of their needs as necessary.
The general manager is responsible for marketing. The marketing needs are getting it out on the internet as much as possible, and advertising through radio works well. Most that would be intersted in doing an online program are doing so because they are busy life styles. Those people will be more likely to hear an ad in the car on their way somewhere, or on the computer while doing other things. Social media has gotten to be very important as well.
I have no idea how the needs were met- yet. I will be asking when I move to a position which demands that knowledge.
I do know that I have looked up my school as far as it being an "online" school, and some sites knew us, while some did not. One thing that I will need to get done, if given the chance, is to discuss the approach with the marketing team...
he focus of the latest campaign was on the mission of the college in helping students achieve life changing goals through education in the sales and marketing area
Worrking for large organization we have the support of large and talented marketing team. This is an advantage. THe negative is that it is nessary to "translate" our needs to Marketing so they can understand the message and can communicate it.
Our institution will be using social marketing as its' main focus for marketing the online programs. A seperate website is being developed to attract the online student, as well as use of a campus Facebook fan page, Twitter and a blog. This will be accompanied in a lesser manner with mentions in print, TV and radio ads. The instituion's stockholders/Directors have set the direction for marketing and our in-house PR/Advertising dept. will be implementing the plan.
The marketing needs for our new online program will be many as it is a start up company. Many customers from our other companies will be able to see our advertisements, however. Also, our reputation, faculty, and accreditation will be advantageous.
Marketing for on-line is not advertised enough at my school. The needs should be based on the needs of the student population.
Distance learning through the university programs does require a lot of work. You need to complete assignments, attend exams and work on projects just like regular college. Therefore, you might have to dedicate yourself for your studies.
There must certainly be a focus on marketing in soft media (online Media). If someone is comfortable using the computer for their day to day activities it'll be much easier to convert that person into a future students. I believe in Social Media with students'testimonies...
Our market target needs are very special. They are Hispanic-american entreprenuer-students. The vast majority requires bilingual (Spanish-English) learning materials, and they are younger immigrants looking for short-term solutions for their small business, projects or ideas. When we have been planning the develop a successful online program we always face the challenge of seeking,hiring, training, and keeping instructors or proffesors with outstanding credentials to satisfy this audience, and believe me it is not easy to find them.
We have a niche program with few schools so students search for our programs. It is the program administration's responsibility to make sure the program is marketed through the website and any related organization with links to the school. The information needs to be constantly updated. At this time, no additional marketing is needed because of the cap on the number of students.
It is fascinating to see in the replies how much variation there is in who provides the marketing for all the different kinds of schools and colleges. In our case we have a person with other duties that also functions in marketing.
Our institute's marketing plan and course of study is also a niche program. We are known throughout U.S. and internationally. This will open doors to many people by marketing in areas where students do not have the opportunity to attend a program such as ours.
