Marketing learning communities

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Marketing learning communities

• Jacque Mott
• Associate Professor
• William Rainey Harper College
• National Learning Communities Project Fellow
• jmott_at_harpercollege.edu
• 847.925.6894

with Jean Henscheid About Campus University of
South Carolina National Learning Communities
Project Web Editor henschei_at_gwm.sc.edu 208.883.819
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Barbara Leigh Smith National Learning
Communities Project Co-Director smithb_at_evergreen.e
du 360.867.6602

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Table of contents
Table of contents

• Part 1 - The marketing process
• Part 2 - Developing a marketing plan
• Part 3 - Marketing to critical audiences
• students
• faculty
• counselors/advisors
• administrators
• Part 4 Promotional materials that work

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The change process

• Learning community developers and
• promoters are institutional change agents
• What we ask of students
• embrace a form of learning that may be foreign to
  them
• take responsibility for their own learning
• What we ask of faculty
• alter teaching paradigms
• take risks teaching with their peers
• What we ask of administrators
• place student success first, even before
  financial and logistical problems
• support new approaches

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Learning communities as change

• Change involves
• Vision Is the program vision clear?
• Skills Does your leadership team have the
  necessary skills to forward the project?
• Incentives Are there benefits to those
  involved?
• Resources Are the necessary resources
  available?
• Action Plan Does a specific plan define actions
  for all involved?

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What is integrated marketing?

• Marketing is a carefully formulated strategy
  designed to bring specific audiences to your
  program that includes
• on-going research and analysis
• planning, implementation, and assessment
• Robert Sevier, Integrated Marketing for
  Colleges, Universities and Schools, Council for
  the Advancement and Support of Education,
  Washington D.C. 1998.

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What is integrated marketing?

• Marketing is a data-driven planning process of
  extensive listening to the audience to ensure
  that the promotional message and the
  product/program fits with the intended
  audiences needs and interests.
• Robert Sevier, Integrated Marketing for
  Colleges, Universities and Schools, Council for
  the Advancement and Support of Education,
  Washington D.C. 1998.

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What is integrated marketing?

• Promotional strategies are one part of an
  overall marketing effort. However, product,
  pricing, and place (distribution) strategies also
  matter.
• For example, successful learning communities use
  marketing to recruit students, faculty, and key
  supporters and to design programs around real
  needs.
• Robert Sevier, Integrated Marketing for
  Colleges, Universities and Schools, Council for
  the Advancement and Support of Education,
  Washington D.C. 1998.

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What is integrated marketing?

• Marketing Definitions
• Product strategy A concept that considers
  satisfaction of all customer needs in relation to
  the service or good
• Price strategy A concept that deals with the
  methods of setting a justifiable price for
  learning communities a cost for participation
• Place strategy Methods for ensuring that the
  product is available in the right quantities at
  the right time and place
• Promotion strategy The communication link
  between sellers and buyers
• Adapted from Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz.
  Contemporary Marketing(7th ed.), Dryden Press,
  Fort Worth, TX 1992.

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What is integrated marketing?

• Marketing processes are designed to fit with key
  organizational objectives and link to the
  organizations strategic plan.
• Robert Sevier, Integrated Marketing for
  Colleges, Universities and Schools, Council for
  the Advancement and Support of Education,
  Washington D.C. 1998.

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Marketing is data driven

• Research should also answer these questions
• How can we communicate with prospective students?
• What faculty are available and interested in
  teaching in LCs?
• Are they the right faculty for what students
  need?
• How effective was the LC in meetings its goals?
• How can the program be improved?

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Common research methods

• Marketing research methods, each with their own
  strengths and weaknesses, include
• Focus groups-good early in the research process,
  especially for testing and comparing concepts
  with local audiences.
• Mail surveys-useful to gather more comprehensive
  data from geographically dispersed audience.
• These methods are described in detail in
  Integrated Marketing by Robert Sevier

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Your current marketing efforts

• What are you currently doing in marketing?
• Can you measure the effectiveness of the current
  effort?
• Are you using all available resources and
  personnel?
• outreach employees
• counselors/advisors
• research personnel
• marketing department
• webmasters
• registration/enrollment
• serving learning
• grant writers
• foundations
• information desk
• students activities

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Assessing readiness for change

• What is the state of your LC program?
• Infrastructure
• Pool of students
• Mix and offering of LC courses
• The faculty
• What is the state of your current marketing
  efforts?

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LCs require coordination

Goals for the LC Effort
Registrar/Registration
Assessment/Evaluation
Faculty Recruitment
Publicity-Student Recruitment
Locus of Learning Community Leadership
Faculty Development Support
Involvement of Academic Advisors
Program Delivery by Faculty
LC Offerings (Models/Mix)
Planning Calendar
Scheduling Time/Rooms
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Extensive network needed

• What would it take on your campus to get each
  one of the parts on the proceeding chart involved
  in the development of your learning community
  program?

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Student need
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Analyze your current LC program

• Infrastructure of your program
• What type of leadership team is there?
• Does the program have a coordinator? Is that
  person(s) compensated?
• Do you have adequate faculty incentives?
• Do you have back-up plans for low enrollment LCs?
• Is there an adequate budget?
• Is there a plan to educate and recruit faculty
  and counselors/student advisors?
• What is your application process?
• What is your assessment process?
• Do you have faculty development opportunities?

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A marketing team

• Marketing team structures vary
• Some institutions have a cross-functional
  learning community steering or advisory committee
  that also serves as the marketing team
• Others have a separate marketing team
• In large, decentralized universities, different
  colleges or schools often design the LC program
  and each school has its own student recruitment,
  advising, and marketing process
• All require collaboration

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• Developing a
• Marketing Plan

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Developing a marketing team

• Identify key players for your team
• Students
• LC program coordinator or LC committee chair
• Academic advisor/counselor
• Admissions/student recruitment representative
• Residence life representative
• Registrar
• Institutional research
• New student activities coordinator
• Member of institutional marketing department
• Faculty

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Marketing team functions

• Establish a leadership structure for marketing
  the program
• Gather data to inform decisions
• Clarify issues and options
• Spread ownership of the planning process
• Ensure that relevant parties are well informed
• Develop, implement and monitor the marketing plan
  
• Develop a marketing plan and set deadlines to
  accomplish tasks
• Make results and some proceedings public

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Building a marketing plan

• STEP 1 - Identify where the program is now
• STEP 2 - Identify the marketing goals
• STEP 3 - Identify the target audience
• STEP 4 - Research the target audience
• STEP 5 - Research methods for goal
  achievement
• STEP 6 - Create an action plan
• STEP 7 - Gather resources
• STEP 8 - Establish a timeline
• STEP 9 - DO IT
• STEP 10 - Evaluate and adjust

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Key marketing considerations

• Develop appropriate strategies for all audiences
  your marketing plan must reach
• Develop a widespread on- and off-campus network
• Build permanent locations for promotional
  literature
• Become a part of the registration system

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Key on-campus allies

• Dean/provosts office
• Department chairs
• Office of research
• Admissions office
• Registrar and scheduling office
• Student advisors and counselors
• Teaching and learning center
• Public relations office
• Graphics/design office

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Common marketing mis-steps

• Not meeting student needs
• Creating ineffective promotional strategies
• Forgetting that academic advisors change and need
  re-educating often
• Assuming that marketing efforts to students will
  last more than a year
• Forgetting that one person cant do everything

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Common marketing mis-steps

• Not maintaining student contact and getting
  feedback
• Forgetting to create flexible/multiple use
  marketing materials
• Not building a sustainable plan that integrates
  tasks into the duties of specific people
• Creating a great plan without people to execute it

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• Marketing to Critical
• Audiences

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Different strategies for different audiences

• In general terms
• Students are concerned with graduating as well as
  making friends and having fun
• Faculty are concerned with academic quality,
  collegiality, and life-long learning
• Counselors are also concerned with student
  completion and are often involved with the
  development of all aspects of the students life
• Administrators often have a broader view of
  campus life. They are concerned with logistics,
  academic quality, and maximizing every dollar.

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Marketing to all audiences

• Distribute literature and assessment results
  across the campus
• Develop a catalog insert
• Permanently locate LC signs to provide updates
• Feature articles on an LC class in newspapers -
  invite reporters to come to class
• Have previous LC faculty write columns for the
  papers and journals

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Marketing to all audiences

• Speak at student and parent orientation sessions
• Promote LCs as an innovation that puts your
  college at the forefront of educational practices
• Visit classes that could feed into LCs - make
  presentations and distribute registration
  information
• Develop a campus learning communities newsletter
  or become a featured section of an existing
  publication
• Develop an effective website (see section on
  effective promotional strategies)

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Marketing to all audiences

• Reserve a dedicated space in the course schedule
  for LC listings
• Develop a method to easily identify LC courses in
  the course schedule such as a dot in front of
  them or a comments line
• Mention LCs in routine institutional recruitment
  letters
• Ask faculty members, rather than the coordinator,
  speak to their students about upcoming LCs

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Marketing to all audiences

• Ensure LC announcements run on
• campus radio station
• Kiosks electronic signage
• Internal TV announcement channels
• Find community, corporate or government sponsors
  for certain learning communities (i.e. the
  Department of Water Resources for an LC with a
  water theme)

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Marketing to all audiences

• Stage an LC event on campus (break the Guinness
  Book of World Records by making the longest
  paperclip chain) to build awareness
• Distribute publicity materials at a give-away
  table in the center of campus (popcorn, coffee)
  established by your program
• Build momentum to announce the arrival of an LC
  class through a billboard/signage campaign

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Marketing to students

• Be honest, be clear, use humor, show the
  product, show something important about the
  product, show realistic situations.
• Students want good schedules, the opportunity to
  make friends, to belong, to feel comfortable
  around faculty, to find someone to study with, to
  study relevant, interesting subjects, to achieve
  academically.
• Market manageable nature of coordinated
  assignments. Work in the advising center to help
  students select courses. The testing center can
  make referrals into developmental LCs.
• Personal contact is best. Advertise LCs in
  orientation materials. Send letters to incoming
  students and their families.
• Advertise in high schools and other feeder
  schools. Meet with counselors and hold
  information sessions. Include LCs in prospective
  student visits to campus.

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Marketing to students

• Include marketing/art students in materials
  development. Ask students their thoughts on
  program titles and materials. Hold a logo
  contest. Develop a video. Create a speakers
  bureau.
• Strategically place materials around campus.
  Create buttons. Place bookmarks in libraries.
  Place displays in stores. Market in your student
  programs office. Involve student leadership and
  residence life staff in recruiting.
• Include students on your LC committee. Speak to
  student leader groups. Develop an LC alumni group
  to speak to students. Designate a learning
  community room.
• Assign just one registration number to each LC
  course group. Secure popular time slots for
  courses. Require LCs for graduation. Build LCs
  around high demand courses. Offer sequential LCs.
  Offer LCs that fulfill general education
  requirements.

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Marketing to faculty

• Work from their interests and issues.
• Before you begin, determine how they react to
  innovation, can be influenced, express their
  feelings and exchange ideas, respond to outside
  ideas.
• Publicize the program and its rationale
  (intellectual and communal). Demonstrate benefits
  to the students. Demonstrate links with
  innovations they care about. Make assessment
  results public. Sponsor professional development
  events. Hold celebrations and opportunities to
  reflect.
• Make benefits to faculty visible including
  opportunities to teach with colleagues, learning
  new teaching techniques, more time with students,
  learning outside their disciplines, building
  closer relationships.
• Communicate with both full and part-time faculty.
  Publicize the programs connection with regional
  and national movements. Invite faculty from other
  institutions to offer workshops. Arrange for
  faculty to visit other programs.
• Create a developing an LC handbook. Connect
  faculty to LC listservs. Distribute syllabi from
  elsewhere. Connect them with their colleagues in
  similar LCs elsewhere.
• Provide stipends, reassigned time, professional
  development credit, class size reductions,
  support in tenure and promotion dossiers.

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• Work from their interests and issues.
• Work hard and often to gain and maintain their
  support. Inform them early and frequently about
  LC developments. Re-educate since turnover is
  frequent. Keep your program as consistent as
  possible to make it easy to explain. Include
  advisors and counselors in retreats.
• Invite them to visit an LC or talk with LC
  students. Differentiate between LCs. Keep them
  well stocked with LC materials. Develop an LC
  handbook for advisors. Create easy-to-use
  promotion materials. Include them on LC
  committees.
• Introduce them to the national LC movement. Work
  with them one-on-one. Attend their meetings to
  review LCs. Demonstrate through LC program design
  and materials that their advising philosophy is
  understood and appreciated.
• Invite LC allies to speak with them. Make
  assessment results public. Help them through
  registration periods with pizza or registration
  table assistance. Provide up-to-date LC
  enrollment status.

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Marketing to administrators

• Work from their interests and issues.
• Frequently provide concise assessment results.
  Maintain a high quality program. Involve
  administrators on LC committees. Invite them to
  visit LC classes.
• Invite their peers from other campuses to speak
  to them. Connect the national LC movement to your
  program. Bring in national LC speakers. Provide
  practical, successful models from other campuses.
  Solve problems immediately. Collaborate with
  others in request making.
• Work with them to develop student and faculty
  recruitment strategies and faculty development
  approaches. Ask well in advance for lower
  enrollments. Seek minimum and maximum guidelines.
• Define LC effectiveness in multiple ways
  including cost effectiveness, benefits to
  students, to faculty, to curriculum, and to the
  institution.
• Work with them to develop an assessment plan that
  meets their needs.

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• Designing an
• LC Website

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Level 1 the homepage

• The most important information (level 1) goes
  right on the homepage.
• In addition to these nuggets, the homepage
  should have a stable nav that links to level 2
  pages.

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Level 2 important content

• Carefully consider the second-level information
  because these links form the "stable nav" of the
  site.
• The stable nav appears on every webpage of the
  site for easy navigation between second-level
  subjects.
• Try to limit the number of choices in the stable
  nav to 5 (optimal), and never more than 8. The
  reason for this is that most people cannot easily
  remember more than 5 things at a time.

• 1. Bla bla
• 2. Ya ya ya
• 3. More good info
• 4. Hop to it
• 5. Need to know this
• 6. ..?

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Levels 3 4 specific content

• Third and fourth-level nuggets can be handled in
  a couple different ways.
• Sub-menus can appear on each second-level page
  with links to the third-level content.

• current course offerings
•   - American Identity
• - Mind over Matter
• - Words of Wisdom
• - Education Core Program
• service learning projects
• meet the faculty
• application materials
• resources for teachers

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Levels 3 4 specific content

• Another option is to simply have hyperlinks
  scattered throughout the second-level pages that
  lead to third level content.

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Visual elements

• Examples of visual elements
• Colors
• Fonts
• Logos
• Photos
• Borders
• Blocks of text
• White space

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Interactivity

• Examples of interactivity
• Rollover as the user moves the mouse over a
  portion of the screen, more info appears.
• Rotating images when a user clicks an image,
  it is replaced with a new image.
• Popup windows instead of opening a new webpage
  in the current window, a little popup window
  appears. These work well with tidbits of info.
• Dynamic menus drop-down menus and expanding
  folders make finding information easier.

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Writing style
Too often, webpage content is a hodge-podge of
blurbs from authors with very different
vocabularies and voices in a variety of tones and
tenses.
students will develop both as learners and as
members of our unique college community."
theories of chemistry as they relate to
psychology are examined
Click on the links below for current and past
descriptions and
schedules
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The value of consistency
Users tend to appreciate a level of consistency
throughout a website. This goes for writing
style as well as look feel. Consistency
allows a user to more quickly assimilate the
website, since they are able to focus on the
content instead of being distracted by shifting
styles and new navigation schemes.
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The website is where?
When the website is ready to launch, an important
yet often overlooked aspect of web-marketing
should be considered website placement.   Website
placement refers to where the website resides on
the internet, usually in relation to the
institution's homepage. Even if you have a
wonderful website, if it has poor placement (with
few connecting links), it will be difficult to
find and ineffective as a marketing tool.