NCSC News - Market Education Around the Clock

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Market Education Around the Clock
by
Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein

To master educational marketing, commit to “closing the circle.”It’s a logical process that integrates all the activities related to your promotional activities.

Follow the hands of a clock.

Start at noon and end at midnight.

Hour by hour, go through the phases of a four-part marketing program.

Each time you begin, you build from where you stopped the last time--and so on, and so on, and so on.

Phase 1: Research

Step 1 (12:00 - 1:00): Analyze your (or others’) past marketing strategies.
Before you know where you want to go, you have to know where you are and where you’ve been. If you are starting a new school or program, you won’t have your own experience data, so study the marketing of a school or program similar to the one you plan to start.

Step 2 (1:00-2:00): Analyze your present or potential market.
You need to find out what the market (just another name for a lot of people) now wants and needs. Keep an open mind. Avoid preconceived notions. Answer the question, “What do people want and need that they are willing to pay for?”

Step 3 (2:00-3:00): Analyze your present services and/or products.
If your school is already open or if you already provide an educational service or related products, you need to look freshly at what you offer, in light of what you learned in Steps 1 & 2. Identify new opportunities and nuances in the market--and to be willing to change to meet them. Do you need to open new locations, develop new delivery systems?

WARNING: If you discover that what you offer is what people want, need, and are willing to pay for, don’t change for the sake of change. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But don’t be stuck in the past or present, either.

Phase 2: Strategy

	Step 4 (3:00-4:00): Decide on your markets. In Phase 1, you were doing research. Now, develop a strategy based upon it. In Phase 1, you found out which potential markets were “out there.” Now, you have to determine which, if any, you want to, and can, serve. Are you “going after” at-risk youth? Do you want to target students with special aptitudes in science and technology? Are you focusing on bilingual teens?
	Step 5 (4:00-5:00): Decide on your services and products. Are you going to deliver programs in an entirely new delivery system? Have you developed proprietary software? Depending upon your resources and your ability and willingness to change, you may or may not be able to make all of the modifications in existing programs, products, and services that your research suggests you should. So, phase in the changes. If you are developing new offerings, set a realistic timetable. Timing is all. Don’t try to do the impossible all at once.
	Step 6 (5:00-6:00): Decide on a plan to market your services and products to your potential students. This is the linchpin stage. You know your target market or markets, the potential students you are trying to reach. You know what you can provide them. Now, you have to be sure that you know how to tell the greatest number of them what you can offer them in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Be sure you have developed your promotional materials consistent with the data you uncovered in Phase 1 and the strategies you adopted in Phase 2. Develop your promotional plan. Establish a realistic budget for marketing. Choose direct mail, catalogs, the Internet, newspaper and magazine advertising, radio, TV, other promotional vehicles, or a combination of them. Identify a mailing list source. Touch base with salespeople to let them know when you need to begin to promote and to find out their timelines and deadlines.

Phase 3: Implementation

	Step 7 (6:00-7:00): Create your own army. Even schools need salesforces. If you don’t have a highly professional cadre of recruiters and counselors, ask yourself why you don’t and if your school really can thrive without one. Secure whatever distribution channels you may need for your promotional material and efforts.
	Step 8 (7:00-8:00): Produce your promotional materials. This may appear to be just a mechanical step, but can make you or break you. Many people wait too long to discuss their project with printers, get comparative bids, and schedule their jobs. Plan ahead to avoid costly delays.
	Step 9 (8:00-9:00): Let it roll. If you did your homework in choosing your proper media mix at the end of Phase 2, this step will be easy. Now, except for calling the newspaper or mailing house you’re using, you can enjoy the luxury of carrying out your well-thought-out plans.

Phase 4: Evaluation

	Step 10 (9:00-10:00): Collect data. All of your promotional materials should be designed so you can recover vital information about the success of your promotional efforts--about the people you are reaching (and not reaching) with your message, and about the dollars generated by your promotional efforts. Before you start to market, know which questions you need to have answered so you can recover the information you need. If you use newspaper, magazine, and direct mail advertising, include coupons in all of your ads and code them, so that you can tell which advertising yielded the most inquiries and, more importantly, the most enrollments. Learn from what you are doing as you are doing it. Every dollar you spend on advertising can double as a dollar for market research.
	Step 11 (10:00-11:00): Analyze your data. Be ruthless. Know what trends you need to monitor from marketing cycle to marketing cycle. Be sure you are comparing apples and apples. Unless you are willing to learn from your marketing, you will be wasting valuable time, money, and effort.
	Step 12 (11:00-12:00): Report: “Close the circle.” Write up your analysis, even if you or only a few other people will see it. Writing up your results will organize and clarify your information and will be a priceless record for future marketing staff. So, follow the hands of a clock.

Market Education Around the Clock by Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein