Friday, September 26, 2008

Re: Resource

The ideas in this article are interesting, and certainly worthy of consideration, but they are also fairly traditional, and do not break out of the somewhat suffocating mindset that often pervades traditional marketing efforts.

I come at this from the place that a school's work, and adherence to it's mission, is the best advertising. In other words, use the truth, as opposed to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) gimmickry. One other advantage of the truth: if you publish using good blogging software (ie, Wordpress or Drupal) your SEO tends to happen on its own.

In writing about/marketing your school, address the following themes:

What makes your school unique?

How is that uniqueness exemplified in the daily activities of students? Teachers? Administration? The larger community?

Often, the best examples can be found within the work that a school is already doing -- the challenge is finding and publicizing this work in a manner that doesn't destroy the authenticity (and, by association, the power) of that work.

The demographic that will be reached by some of the methods mentioned in the article (ppc ads, online seminars, etc) will likely be wary of these techniques, as they are clearly and overtly commercial. However, people within the same demographic will also like be able to find blogs, and will be more likely to value the information found there than in more traditional advertising venues.

In my experience, the techniques I lay out in this email will connect with more people who are looking for what your school offers; ie, people will find you because they want what you offer.

Cheers,

Bill

PS: I also did a lookup of the site, as I'm curious that way: http://whois.domaintools.com/schoolmarketingtips.com -- I'm always a little leery of information from sites that offer no info on their affiliation. This site is a private registration; judging from the linkroll in the "Popular Links" sidebar this feels like a low-key link affiliate site.

--- On Fri, 9/26/08, Mark Murrell <mark.murrell@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Mark Murrell <mark.murrell@gmail.com>
> Subject: Resource
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 5:12 AM
> Sorry, forgot to include url:
> http://www.schoolmarketingtips.com/?p=40
>
> Best,
>
> Mark
>
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