Comments on Stamats Adult Education Conference

I'm attending the Stamats Adult Education conference in San Antonio this week as one of their conference sponsors. Yesterday we had a presentation on Integrated Marketing Plans. It was interesting and quite insightful and unfortunately I can't post the entire presentation here. I do have a few observations/ideas that came from the presentation.

Don't Over Promise - Always remember when developing ALL forms of marketing...What you promise you MUST produce! More students leave an institution when they realize that the promises made in advertising, campus meetings have not been kept.

Tracking Performance - When doing different types of marketing tracking performance is critical. (More on this in a later blog.) When you are measuring your marketing program you are an investment, without measurement on performance and success you are an expense.

Strategy - The purpose of strategy is to differentiate your institution from your competitors in ways that target audiences value.

Commodity vs Brand - Which are you? A commodity is something people select using cost and convenience as the primary decision point. A Brand is selected based on the institutions Brand/Quality/Reputation.

Competitors - Identify the 5 or 6 key competitors in your market area. DON'T market or do what they do, be different. Set yourself apart.

How you think about your performance. - Marketing people tend to look at what they did. I produced 20 brochures, 15 events. Don't fall into this trap. focus on OUTCOMES. I got 200 people to attend an open house. We received 400 leads for Admissions to sell.

Brand Marketing - Who you are, what you are. Basically your brand or what I call institutional promotional marketing/advertising.

Direct Marketing - Designed to create a response. Use this to drive admissions, participation in institutional events.

I found this final comment to be SOOOO insightful. Direct Marketing has never changed, The PROCESS has changed. Don't let the internet, social media, or more traditional methods of marketing shift your focus. Find a way to integrate these new media into your media mix but the new methods of direct marketing are just that NEW. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I will write more. Time for day 2.