Email Article

7 E-marketing Techniques to Try in 2009
By Brad Kleinman, Chief eMarketing Officer, WorkSmart e-Marketing

2009 is going to be an interesting year. More and more community colleges across the nation are experiencing budget cuts, and schools are being expected to do even more with less. How are you going to effectively marketing your entrepreneurship programs to reach your enrollment goals?

Are you going to stick with traditional marketing techniques and print brochures, run radio spots, or implement pricey newspaper ads? Or are you going to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of e-marketing techniques? Community colleges across the nation are beginning to witness the power of leveraging social media and Web 2.0…and so can you.
           
Not every e-marketing technique will work, just like every marketing technique. However, with an open mind, a strong strategy and an entrepreneurial mindset, you can achieve online success as well.

Here are 7 different e-marketing techniques to try in 2009. Jump in!

• Implement Google Analytics into your Web site and individual program areas of your Web site. Make sure program managers and marketers have access to track unique visits, referrals, and a slew of other information about your visitors. Bonus points: Set goals to track conversions when someone signs up for a class or fills out an inquiry form!
• Create rich and valuable content such as white papers, slideshows, and videos, and place them on your Web site. Bonus points: Make one of the highly valuable documents you’ve created available for download on your Web site IF the user provides their name and email address.
• Use targeted email marketing to send value-based email blasts to segmented lists. The more segmented your lists, the better your open rates will be. Segment by industry, market, demographics, etc. Use a monthly theme, have program speakers and facilitators help you build content and make sure you have a strong call-to-action in the email. Don’t sell…educate!
• Consider using a blog platform for program content creation and delivery. This will make it easier for you to deliver content on the fly and adapt quickly with the market. Bonus points: Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds from your blog, YouTube, Slideshare and Flickr accounts to keep your community in the know whenever you update content.
• Get on a social networking bandwagon and encourage all your colleagues to sign up and use LinkedIn. Bonus points: Make it a requirement that everyone sign up on LinkedIn and gather two testimonials a month on their profile. Then, take those customer testimonials and place them on your Web site, blog and all marketing collateral.
• Join the fastest growing social media tool, Twitter, which has grown 422 percent in the past year alone! Build a base of people following your updates, announce upcoming events, share interesting industry-related articles, and get immediate feedback from your market. Bonuses points: Use search.twitter.com to find out what people are saying about certain topics or who you should target for your programs.
• Make sure you and your colleagues are taking advantage of email signature lines. Think of all those emails you send, what if they all contained a consistent, branded message promoting an upcoming event or program for your institution? Bonus points: Include links to your LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter profile in your signature as well!

The only way you’ll find out if e-marketing techniques will work for your organization is if you give them a try. The cost-effectiveness and time-effectiveness make them very attractive, especially when you need to do more with less.

Jump in, the water’s warm!