As you prepare your next issue of CareerFocus, here are 5 ways to ensure it matches your brand.
One of the main questions we are asked by community colleges who are considering our program is “how customizable is your content?” They don’t want to sign up for a generic mailing. Rather, they want a customized content campaign that will help them showcase the qualities about their institution that make them unique.
This is sound strategy, and one we encourage. Accordingly, we’ve created our campaigns to be as customizable as possible. Our goal is to combine cost-saving templates with high-quality customized content so that you can quickly and efficiently assemble print and digital articles to share with minimal difficulty. But while you can use this content as it is, taking the time to make it your own can have a strong positive affect on potential students. If you’re wondering how to do that, here are the top five ways to customize your CareerFocus content.
1. Feature your own photography.
Community colleges often struggle to be perceived as institutions that provide high-quality education. Because of this, the image many people have in their minds of a community college is often an unflattering one. They imagine old buildings full of dated equipment, or crowded campuses with few amenities for students.
The reality is that most community colleges have worked hard to create welcoming spaces for students. Many have used state funding to upgrade their facilities, which feature state-of-the-art equipment, while others have invested in communal study spaces and student help centers.
Your CareerFocus campaign is the perfect opportunity to change the perception of your community college. By using your photography to feature your campus, facilities, faculty, and students, you give prospective students a more realistic—and more positive—idea of what attending your college might really be like.
2. Update the title to reflect your school.
Many community colleges like the title “CareerFocus” and find it does an admirable job representing their community college’s brand. However, others prefer to use a different title that is a better reflection of their community college’s strengths, or which incorporates their name or region.
This is certainly a valid course to take when customizing your marketing content. If you want to use a different name for your college’s CareerFocus campaign, we can work with you to create something that will look good in both print and digital formats.
3. Use your logo and school colors.
For any piece of marketing content, being able to match details helps to create a more unified brand experience. This is especially true when it comes to color choice. Being able to use colors that match your brand standards exactly allows you to produce a piece that is instantly recognizable as your organization.
Logos serve a similar function and help reinforce your brand, both in its association with your publication, but also with the material your publication offers. Many of your potential students may be familiar with your logo, but don’t yet associate it with a specific program such as “nursing school” or “auto repair certification.” Displaying your logo prominently on your CareerFocus cover and as a watermark on online images helps make that association more permanent.
4. Supplement with your own customized content pieces.
CareerFocus includes a deep content archive with articles on a variety of community college programs, both large and small. But the one thing we can’t provide is articles about your faculty and students. These are stories only you can provide, but they’re an excellent way to help others learn more about your college.
Original content pieces about students and staff provide great content pieces for two reasons. For faculty, highlighting a program or department can be a big morale boost. Appearing in a print issue or an online article might not seem like much, but it’s a way to recognize the hard work and dedication of the teachers and organizers who make the community college successful.
Meanwhile, student features help learners who are on the fence see people in similar life situations as their own succeeding at community college. These stories help potential enrollees gain a better sense of what their own path might look like. For anyone questioning whether community college might be the right fit for them, this is a powerful indication that the answer might just be “yes.”
5. Edit featured articles to match your local situation.
We’re proud of the content we create for community colleges. Our content library helps community college marketing departments draw on quality material for their digital and print marketing needs without having to devote resources to writing these articles from scratch. Our aim is to make the lives of overburdened marketing departments easier by providing researched and well-written articles to support their content needs.
But there’s no reason community colleges can’t use these articles in conjunction with their own writing. An article from our content library can always be edited to add more details relevant to the community college’s region, or even to match the college’s tone. These not only make the articles more personal, they also provide more up-to-date information for students.
Yes, you can—and should—customize content to represent your community college.
At the end of the day, your campaign content should feel like it comes from your community college. Even though we’ve designed our campaigns to require as little work as possible on your end, taking the time to customize content your material creates a more personal product for you and your learners.
Community colleges face a tough market, and encouraging learners to enroll for certification programs and two-year degrees isn’t an easy sell. That’s why we’re here to back you up. Our campaigns provide the perfect distribution method for your community colleges. All it takes on your end is a selection of content and a little fine-tuning.