Publicity Cards
We have created publicity cards for the last three months:
Purpose: To create more referral leads to our school.
Contact: Contact the students who already like the programs we offer-our students.
Cards: The cards are created in-house on the computer. A piece of bubble gum is attached and and handed out to the students as they leave class. We used the following saying:
February: Be a Sweetheart! Refer a friend to XXXX.
March: Don't count on Luck for your career success enroll at XXXX.
April Hop on over and start your new career today!
Each card has the name and phone number of the school.
Hi Arlene
This is a very cute and attention getting idea. And very easy to implement. I think most of all it gives your students a good feeling about the school and staff. So they will want to tell their friends and family that your school is a good place to attend. They will be thinking - The people are great here. So this technique has to impact on retention as well as enrollment. Best wishes, Susan
Your idea is refreshing, I have not been exposed to this idea before. I am going to try to implement this in the future. Each student can and should be your best advertisement. But we all know that word of mouth just isn't enough anymore. Wonderful Idea, this would also work when students graduate and they need new leads on new customers.
Gloria
Hi Gloria
Good point about word of mouth advertising. It isn't enough to rely on as a sole source for students. It is one of many strategies. When we think of publicity and public relations I think it is about being aware that everything and anything that is done has to be implemented with the thought of gaining good "press."
Susan
I agree. These cards are a great way to get the students involved, while adding publicity to the school.
HI Barry
Yes, I think we all agree that referral cards are a great way to reach more potentail students. A happy student will be happy to make a referral. So it's important to keep students happy and successful.
What other publicity strategies are in place at your school that you can share. What new ideas can you try? Who can you involve at your school to help develop great publicity and public relations techniques?
Best wishes
Susan
I think that this is a great idea. This keeps students attention along with asking them to refer. I think that they should be asked to refer afterall if they won't refer who will.
Theresa Najemian
Hi Theresa
Lots of strategies with referrals. The bottom line is to develop a school that offers great programs and exceptional student services. Like many great schools, you will find that most of your enrollments will eventually come from referrals.
Best wishes
Susan
I'm new to a school and we're looking at ways of helping boost not only enrollment but retention...I really like this idea since it is easy to implement and can be done at the campus level. Reputation gives us our highest conversion rate month over month.
Marci Hosier
Hi Marci
Enrollment and retention have some relationship. If you enroll students who are likely to succeed then they will be likely to stay in school and complete. It's about caring and creating a positive student environment.
Best wishes
Susan
This is a creative idea. What is the feedback from the students? Have you developed strong leads with this idea? We also use referral cards for discounted treatments in our intern clinic, but the bubble gum idea in pretty neat!
Hi Jon
We believe it's important to maximize your marketing dollars to reach your target market and keep your students and their friends and relatives coming to your school. So what ever appropropriate strategies you use that work are great. Referral cards, discounted treatments, etc. are all great ways. The goal is to find out what works for your school. And to measure so when the results aren't good you can make changes.
Best wishes
Susan
We have a Guerilla marketing team and we were just discussing ideas to increase our leads for our March start in yesterday's meeting. This is a great idea, especially for valentine's day.
Another thing we do to increase student referals is a "booster club". If a student refers a friend who starts school, the refering student gets a cool club jacket and other "booster club benefits.
Hello
Using holidays for publicity and marketing events is generally a great way to get attention or create a bit of news. Have to think creatively. Great ideas.
Susan
Another winning idea.
Not only is the student rewarded, but now he or she is wearing something around town with your school name. Might include your website too!
Best wishes
Susan
Hello Arlene, I really like this idea. At our institution we have relied a lot on word of mouth and student referals. This is an innovative strategy. At the university I used to work before we used to send enrolled students a postcard during valentines week encouraging them to refer a friend or a loved one to the institution.
Also when they graduated, we sent them a postcard to congratulate them and encouraging them to share the same opportunity with someone they knew.
But this is a different approach and since the campus where I work now is smaller, we can hand out the cards to our students personally. I will definitely include it in my owrk plan. Thanks for sharing it!
Jessica and Arlene
Some schools depend entirely on referrals. This is another great idea for how to implement use this very cost effective marketing strategy.
Thanks, Susan
Hey Arlene,
I am new to the business of school. I was looking for ways to get the word out for my school now I think I find one great one. I will start printing some cards soon. I wonder, have you gotten any result yet? any referrals?
Hi Jhonson and Arlene, You brought up a very good point re marketing. Measure, measure, measure results. Cards are certainly very effective to reach students and leads. Sometimes handwritten addresses get attention and help prevent the card from being thrown away. Measuring the response and then enrollment results is a way to know if the cards or any other strategy are working. Thanks, Susan
