In last week’s post, we unveiled the first of a number of trends highlighted in our 2012 Marketing Benchmarking Report for not-for-profit schools: 84 percent of schools agree that traditional marketing methods alone are no longer enough to meet their enrollment goals. So what exactly are schools doing to change the way they have traditionally approached enrollment marketing? We’re glad you asked! That brings us to our next major trend…

Trend two: Schools are maintaining offline marketing spend, and increasing investment in online marketing

With the majority of schools agreeing that the marketing methods they have traditionally relied on are no longer enough to meet enrollment goals, it comes as no surprise that schools are not investing as heavily in conventional methods like direct mail, print ads, and TV/radio. The majority of schools are maintaining spending in offline marketing and recruitment methods, with some schools even decreasing their spending in areas like direct mail and print ads.

If that is the case, where are schools investing their marketing dollars these days? According to the survey, schools are investing in digital marketing, especially in areas like email marketing, targeted display, and social media, in an effort to diversify the channels that they use for recruitment marketing.

In next week’s post, we’ll take a look at the steps that some schools are taking to give them the best chance of success in a digital marketing environment…stay tuned!

About Colleen Gauthier

Colleen is Senior Marketing Manager at CUnet. She has over 10 years of experience in higher education sales and marketing, and has worked closely with everyone from professors, to deans, to students, and administrators. When she is not working, she can be found spending time with her two young children, playing baseball, or drinking wine!

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Tags: benchmarking report, enrollment marketing, Higher education marketing, not-for-profit schools

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2012 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Benchmarking Report, CUnet, not-for-profit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.