Multimedia content marketing campaigns aren’t just for large-scale colleges.
For many small community colleges, large scale content marketing strategies are so far down their wish list of items that implementing them seems unachievable. Their marketing departments may consist of a single person, whose responsibilities include internal program promotions, on-campus signage, organizing the course catalog, updating the website with the latest program information, and designing brochures for various student aid initiatives.
With such a mountainous list of responsibilities, it’s no wonder broader marketing campaigns end up on the back burner. After all, writing well-researched articles about the job market for various industries is time consuming. Creating an accessible website to showcase these articles, not to mention print and digital campaigns, is the job of an entire team of people. Your head of marketing doesn’t have the time, and you don’t have the budget to do it on your own.
We recognized this need, but we also saw a way to fulfill it. Many community colleges across the country offer similar programs, and they draw upon the same national statistics to provide students with statistics about employment prospects. However, because of the geographic distance between community colleges, they rarely compete with each other for students. Because of this, it was possible for us to put in the research to write content ourselves, and then provide colleges with an efficient way to distribute this content to prospective students.
This strategy has been used effectively by large community colleges, but it has just as great an impact on small colleges. Here’s how.
Broaden your market penetration using print and digital campaigns.
Many community colleges make the mistake of assuming the value of their programs is well know among local residents. They don’t reach out enough to prospective students because they assume those students know where to come when they’re ready.
However, while a prospective student may be generally aware of the college, they may have a low knowledge of the college’s programs, their student support services, or ways in which a two-year degree from that college or a professional certification can boost their prospects.
CareerFocus uses both print and digital content marketing campaigns to spread the word about community college services. And because this content is valuable and easy to share, it can reach interested students through a variety of channels. A friend, family member or coworker might receive an issue in the mail and decide to pass it on, or they may see a post on social media and share it that way. There’s no knowing how far your campaign could go.
Help your overburdened marketing staff achieve more than what they could accomplish alone.
Content from CareerFocus is designed to be fully editable and customizable, but with enough depth to also be used as it is. This allows small marketing departments to made changes where necessary, but focus most of their energy where they need it most.
Furthermore, your staff doesn’t have to accomplish all this on their own. Our staff is on hand to provide assistance in the form of graphical aid, content strategy, and production guidelines. We help your marketers through the process so they can select the best articles for their prospective students. We believe that our content library provides the best marketing resource around for community colleges, no matter your size or course specialty. Talk to us, and we can walk you through it.
When you’re ready, production on our end goes into gear, allowing us to publish micro websites, print editions of the CareerFocus magazine, and scheduled snippets of content for social in a smooth, timely fashion.
Shine the spotlight on your programs—and on your community.
Smaller community colleges often have strong identities. The faculty members are more likely to know each other, the programs are more focused, and the community itself is more tightly-knit. When it comes to custom content pieces, writing about a specific department or faculty initiative can be a perfect way to recognize individual contributions to the college.
Feature pieces can also instill a sense of pride in college staff and enrolled students alike. Many community colleges struggle to draw attention to the value they bring to their local economy, especially when so many suffer from the false impression of community colleges being a fallback option for students who didn’t make the cut for a more prestigious school. However, content marketing initiatives are the perfect opportunity for small community colleges to push back against this reputation with compelling, data-driven arguments.
It’s not just the colleges that benefit from this extra attention. By strengthening their bonds with local businesses and community centers, colleges can grow their reputation as a valuable local resource. Particularly in small towns, having a thriving community college can be a way to establish that location as a promising place to live. Why not use your content to shine the light on your community, as well as your college?
Strategic marketing strategies are an even greater necessity for smaller community colleges.
Larger community colleges often have more latitude when it comes to their marketing strategies. They don’t necessarily have budget to spare, but they have the personnel to make a strategy play out.
Smaller community colleges have smaller budgets but higher stakes. They have less room for error, which is why their marketing efforts have to be based on strategies with proven success rates.
In today’s digital economy, no marketing strategy has proven more consistently effective than content marketing. At CareerFocus, we’ve found a way to deliver content for small community colleges in a way that is cost effective, and time efficient. If you would like to learn more about our services, contact us today.