Marketing: Your Biggest Non-Network Connection to your

Campus

By Andy Voelker

Student Computing Coordinator

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A Little About Western Carolina

• Part of the University of North Carolina System• Approximately 4,100 residential students (Fall ’10)• 12 residence halls with Blue Ridge hall coming online this

year• Record Freshman class of over 1700 last year• Over 9,800 students total• One of the most affordable schools in the UNC system• Popular degree programs include education, nursing,

forensic anthropology, and music

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Topics for today

• Why Market?• Creating a catalog of services• Campus Culture: Getting to know

your students• Generating Ideas• Taking Fantasy to Reality• How to actually pull it off• Evaluation and Adjustment

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Why Market?

• Do you have under-utilized services?• Do your clients keep following an old or incorrect

procedure to procure services?• Is there an easier way that students just don’t know

about?• Could you stand to save resources by keeping students

better informed?• Do you have processes, a knowledge base, or a self-help

section that could help students more efficiently?• Did you spend a lot of money on something that isn’t

getting used? (oops)• Do your own staff ever say “wait.. We do that? Really?”

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

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Cullowhee, NC

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Create a catalog of services• Best to post online• Clearly outline different services

– When they are available– If they cost– How the service is provided– Where the service is located– Who can take advantage of it– How it can benefit them

• Avoid generalizations like “We’ll assist you with any software anytime you want”

• Keep it updated. People stop checking things when they notice inconsistency. They also stop checking things when they notice it hasn’t changed this century

• Keep it organized

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

2. Identify your audience and get to know them

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Nashville, TN

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Campus Culture

• Ask questions and be honest:

1. Are your students tech savvy?

2. Do your students use Twitter, irc, ning or anything but facebook and myspace?

3. Do they all come to any spot on campus in particular?

4. Do they listen to the radio/campus TV?

5. Do they visit your IT website?

6. Do they like free stuff?

7. Is it difficult to get engagement out of them or do they jump at the opportunity?

• What other programs are successful on campus and how do they market?

1. What do your surveys say? (if taken)8

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

2. Identify your audience and get to know them

3. Brainstorming

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Kansas City, KS

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Brainstorming

• NEVER let your resources limit your ideas.• Identify what you WANT to do and what will be most

effective before you identify the resources you need to accomplish it

• Write them all down, no exceptions, no dismissals• Walk away, think about them, return to the table for

discussion later. Do this multiple times if needed• Think both inside the box and outside the box. Don’t

ignore the boring ideas, but don’t squash creativity either• Dream big and small

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

2. Identify your audience and get to know them

3. Brainstorming

4. Moving Fantasy to Reality

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Fort Collins, CO

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Fantasy to Reality

• Hold off on thinking about resources right now, that’s to come.

• What will work with your campus culture?• What will get students’ attention?• What will peak interest and gain intrigue?• What will gain curiosity to look at your services more,

check out our website, or look at catalog of services?• What has been beaten in to the ground, and what is fresh

and new?

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Fantasy to Reality

• Avoid self-influence: just because you love twitter or IRC doesn’t mean your students do

• Anywhere your students are - be there• If you can get the parents roped in, they will pay attention

to things the students don’t and you can still have an effect

• Do what you have to do to get them intrigued: even something obscure peaks interest

• Establish a brand and cultivate it

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Challenges in Identifying Resources

$ Money $

Time

Staffing

Printing

Technology

Approval

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

2. Identify your audience and get to know them

3. Brainstorming

4. Moving Fantasy to Reality

5. Slimming down and making it work

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Salt Lake City, UT

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Free Resources and cutting costs!• Use graphic design classes to create your content• Use broadcast media classes to make radio and TV

commercials• Use Computer Information or Computer Science classes

to make an iPhone or Android app• See if your publications department can help with

branding, logos, etc• Digital signage can be updated instantly and doesn’t need

re-printing. You can also go in on the equipment with other departments

• Online stuff is usually free of cost (just time)• Use marketing to promote preventive maintenance and

proactivity. Save yourself time!

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Free resources and cost cutting!

• Use Comic Life or GIMP instead of buying PhotoShop

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Ideas - The boring stuff

– Signs/Banners– Fliers– Emails– Websites– Door Hangers– 3D paper ad on cafeteria tables (share space)– Booth at orientation– Booth at open house

• Traditional ideas that have always been effective• However, they involve printing and can be costly

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The IT Stuff and Multimedia

– Facebook Fan Page/Facebook ads to your network– Twitter Account– YouTube Channel and iTunes U podcast– Popup in LMS system (like blackboard, Moodle,

etc)– Ad in Campus portal, single sign-in– Digital Signage system (Xibo, Concerto, webpage,

ppt, etc)– Web 2.0 applications– Wireless registration SSID landing page– Ad on webcasts– Radio commercials– TV commercials– YouTube/iMovie competition

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Word of mouth

• Service level• Talking to other departments• Get a stop on virtual tours• Education after repairs (including sticker, handout)• Guest speak at University Experience courses• Get a stop on campus tours and speak• Campus celebrations• Flash mob• Door prizes• Scavenger Hunt• Potty Times

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Steps in a marketing campaign

1. Identify what needs to be marketed

2. Identify your audience and get to know them

3. Brainstorming

4. Moving Fantasy to Reality

5. Slimming down and making it work

6. Evaluation and Conclusion

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Bellingham, WA

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Did it work?

• Be brutally honest• The hardest part is the lack of quantitative data as a result

of your actions• Is it the marketing that is the problem or is it the service?• Finish evaluation, then re-brainstorm

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Questions?

EVALUATE ME!http://www.resnetsymposium.org/rspm/evaluation/

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