Survey Shows Spending More on Marketing Pays Dividends
Colleges and universities that spend more on marketing are more likely to attract top applicants and boost enrollment yields, according to a new integrated marketing survey by CASE and Lipman Hearne Inc. The nationwide survey of 153 institutions also finds that targeted strategies—including direct, interactive and internal marketing—improve alumni engagement and overall fundraising performance.
“We have known for a long time that colleges and universities benefit by telling their stories in focused and cohesive ways,” said Rae Goldsmith, vice president for communications and marketing at CASE. “But what this survey points out is that the more an institution invests in strategic marketing and communications, the more it will gain in terms of achieving student recruitment and other goals.”
The survey tracks spending approaches and results for 2006 marketing budgets among public and private institutions, including liberal arts, master’s level, and research/doctoral institutions. It is the sixth such survey of marketing spending by Lipman Hearne.
The results show that colleges are spending 50 percent more on marketing than they did as recently as 2000. Much of the increase supports interactive Web-based communications and e-mail, although traditional methods such as letters, view books, and brochures remain strong.
Author: andrewcareaga
Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.
Anonymous website: third tier or bust
This morning’s Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) reports that an anonymous website critical of Missouri Valley College‘s administration — and the school’s fourth-tier ranking in U.S. News‘ annual listing of America’s Best Colleges — “has students and professors on the Marshall, Mo., campus buzzing.”
Like several similar Web pages that have popped up in recent years, Missouri Valley College: A Different View appears to be written, pseudonymously, by a frustrated professor or administrator. The site’s author — who goes by the nom de plume “W.H. Black,” the name of Missouri Valley’s first president — lambastes the college’s president and trustees, accusing them of corruption, lack of vision, and an unhealthy obsession with the institution’s athletics program.
Unfortunately for the campus, this news breaks the same day as the college’s “first-ever Senior Day Employment Symposium” (according to a PDF newsletter from MVC president Bonnie L. Humphrey). Funny how these things seem to happen at the worst of times.
Andrew Careaga 