Marketing to college students
Rita asked FSB’s advice on how to market to college students. Do you know other ways Rita can market to college students?
Comment
Email
RSS
DiggCall Student Marketing Group, Lynbrook NY
We have billboard space available at the main entrance to a major university in California with enrollment of almost 40,000 people and foot traffic estimate of 15,000 per day. 2 Billboards are available at a fraction of the price to long term tenants. $1,400/month for both or 800/month for one! For more information please email hale@reofca.com
There is a company, Making It Count, that specializes in reaching students in on-campus presentations. Companies and organizations meeting certain criteria can sponsor the approximately 10,000 live presentations they do each year and reach 2,000,000 high school and college students through their 40-45 minute programs. Included in that number are approximately 350,000 incoming college freshmen between June and October, starting with orientation and continuing into the first semester. Making It Count will incorporate a limited number of their partners’ student initiatives into the presentations and arrange for follow-up marketing opportunities through various methods. They also conduct similar in-school programs for 500,000 incoming high school freshmen, 500,000 second semester high school juniors and 650,000 second semester high school seniors during mandatory attendance assemblies. The central theme, adjusted for grade, is about what it takes to be successful in school and in life and how to prepare for challenges at the next level. Making It Count is owned by Monster Worldwide (monster.com).
There are a myriad of ways to reach college students: college newspapers in print and online, fliers, posters, direct mail, online sites, television, radio, billboards, etc. To the specific question of how to reach incoming freshmen there are several options: direct mail to college bound students, ads in college orientation material, orientation newspapers, online, welcome packs and more.
The task of finding all the contacts and implementing a campaign at more than a few colleges at one time is a daunting task. Normally not something an individual can take on, depending on how many students one is trying to reach.
College student marketing is, actually, quite a big business. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on television alone. From sponsoring college football tournaments to dedicated television networks who, when I was still young, were the top destination of college students and teenagers. The top destination these days, of course, is online. Though few companies have had much success trying to reach students through these new media types. Newspaper article about the lack of success companies have seen with online marketing.
Even before the new digital age there were several companies who offer varying services to accomplish exactly what Rita is trying to do. There is one company, the one I work for, who specializes in marketing to college students. I am unaware of any others who focus exclusively on the College Market though there are several how offer some of the services we do. A quick search online will lead you to many skilled consultants and businesses who can help Rita reach exactly the students she is trying to reach.
Brian Clark
Campus Party, Inc.
I know Richard and have used him in the past on different projects. He is very Professional, personable and creative. He posted some examples of what he did for Phoenix College at http://rsaling.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/put-an-edge-on-college-marketing/
Is there a site or blog where I can find the marketing consultants that I mentioned in my previous post? Please let me know. weissman@essex.edu
Re: Marketing To College Students. My concern is not how to reach college students. Rather, how to reach people who are looking to market to college students or companies that cater to companies that target the college audience. Let me elaborate. At the community college where I teach, over 90% of entering Freshmen need to enroll in a remedial Mathematics course. It’ a bit better at 4 year colleges, yet even there, students struggle with college level Mathematics and Statistics courses. This new school year, for the first time ALL of my students ‘didn’t leave home without their USB Flash Drives.’
So I loaded each USB device with my proprietary Mathematics Tutorial Software and now my students can get Mathematics help wherever they can insert their Flash drives. Thus, I’m looking for companies that do the marketing for colleges to suggest that they give students as a premium or promotion a USB (with perhaps the college’s logo) preloaded with my Math tutorials. I’m looking for a royalty for each preloaded USB. Alternatively, it the USB can be put in a welcome/gift pack which is usually distributed at the start of the year by a company.
U. Magazine is the largest college magazine in America distributed in almost every state. Colleges.com is the largest network for finding and financing higher education. http://www.Colleges.com would be the perfect site for you Rita. Contact Gabe for further info: Gjacobs@colleges.com.
College students are increasingly online and are especially comfortable transacting online. Companies like MTVu and Edvisors.com offer a large reach and very targeted advertising opportunities.
I agree that facebook is one of the best options.. the other is getting to college students that hang out with other college students. A brand ambassador program with STudentCity.com has over 75 campuses that they work with year-round and they have hundreds of reps that have worked for over 3 years for them so they are loyal and ready to brand your product. Inquire with me and I can assist you depending on what your brand is. Spring Break and BAck to school are the best ways to reach students..
To ensure a college marketing program is successful, especially if your company is interested in reaching students on-campus with your brand’s promotions, you should really consider using a professional college marketing company. There is a huge difference between a college promotion put together by a brand or small company rather than an experienced college marketing company. One that I am familiar with is Campus Solutions. They tend to reach students on campus with large branded events and provide spring break opportunities.
To truly be in front of new college freshmen, I would also consider building a small website that targets the colleges you with to work with. College names are not tremendously competitive as far as search engines go and every parent and potential student of any university will undoubtedly do some searches for the university online.
Link this small site to your Myspace and Facebook pages and make a new freshman destination where your product is visible and explained. The website cost can be minimal, hosting can be done very cheaply, you may even be able to sell advertising on the site or use Google Adsense to create some revenue.
Very cheap, very effective marketing.
Rita,
Definitely try to establish yourself and presence of your business on Facebook.com
While you personally can only have one personal profile on FaceBook.com – you can create “Pages” for your business on FaceBook. You can also create your own Group on facebook that might unite people interested in ideas you are trying to do business about. Of course you may join existing groups (and there are thousands of them) and try to establish yourself and knowlegeable expert in the areas of your business interest.
On a last note – Facebook ads is the great way to reach target audience – especially college- and university-based with surgical precision.
When you will be logged on to your facebook account – at the very bottom of the page click “advertisers” and proceed from there. It is very interesting to see how many people your ad could be potentially displayed to. You will be able to target precise demographic, including gender, age, and if wanted – location, university/college, etc…
Together with just plain advertising – try to participate in social activity of your prospected audience, establish yourself as a helpful and skillful person and represent your business from the aspect of helping other people.
With this mindset sales will follow!
Gleb Esman, Internet Marketing Specialist, glebesman@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/glebesman
If you plan to contact each campus individually and do run into trouble, try working with an on-campus organization like a fraternity. If you can turn your mailer into a sort of fund-raiser for that organization, you can often times get that mailing list as the campus will probably be more likely to help its own students than an outside salesman. It may cost a little bit of money, but if you’re confident your marketing will be successful it may be pretty cheap.
Features-
Smart entrepreneurs are now doing deals in 140 characters or less on Twitter. More -
As more customers choose - or are forced - to fill prescriptions by mail, independent pharmacies are struggling to survive. More -
A Texas hospitality company considers where to invest and where to cut back to weather the recession. More -
How 7 innovative companies are inspiring workers and boosting the bottom line. More -
42 startups duked it out in the world's most lucrative business plan competition. We trailed one team to the bitter end. More -
The Emerging 200 program aims to boost job growth by training inner-city entrepreneurs to expand their companies. More -
These resellers of DVDs, CDs and books make millions from the media industry's leftovers. More
UD On Campus, and their parent company, University Directories, works with over 700 college students every summer. We offer a sales/marketing internship to the brightest, most proactive students the nation has to offer; we work with over 250 universities in 43 states.
The summer internship starts with our official sales/marketing training in Chapel Hill in May – it wouldn’t hurt to target students then!
http://www.udoncampus.com