My previous article discussed how blogs and social media are key business school marketing activities that involve permission marketing, a term coined by author Seth Godin featured in this image above. Here are three additional marketing activities that MBA programs should consider using permission marketing to engage prospective students:
Webinars are another great way to reach prospects through permission marketing. There are a lot of webinars offered so one way to stand out and connect with prospects on a more personal level is to feature topics of interest. For example, The University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School offers an EMBA webinar series led by faculty on topics such as:
Meanwhile, Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management offers a number of live web events including:
Other ideas? What about a web chat with your deans like Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management is offering here:
Looking for ideas to take your webinar from good to great? Read this excellent blog post from Hubspot.
It’s important to build connections with prospects through an emotional response. Videos are a great solution since they tap into viewers’ emotions.
“When entertainment creates an emotional connection, it leaves a lasting effect on our minds,” says Thales Teixeira, assistant professor of marketing at Harvard Business School.
With apologies to Pharrell Williams, don’t you feel “happy” when you watch this Train-inspired musical video from HBS?
As you can see, videos showcase the personality of your business school. What’s more, one minute of video equals 1.8 million words according to Forrester Research.
Here is another creative post from The Wharton School:
5. Lead Nurturing Campaigns
Like all consumers, and I know there is an ongoing debate as to whether students are customers, MBA prospects want to be treated as human beings and make a decision to “buy” on their schedule not the company’s (or, in this case, university’s) timetable.
As such, a lead nurturing campaign treats a prospect with respect by valuing their time. Prospects open and click (we hope) on your emails when it’s convenient for them.
That, in turn, builds trust through ongoing relationship building and enables your business school to stay top of mind when the candidate is ready to apply.
Don’t be afraid to be catch prospect’s attention with creative copy and stand-out design this like example from Carlson School of Management:
What other ideas do you have to share?
Barbara Coward, author of this article, is a marketing communications consultant at Percept Research. Barbara welcomes your questions and comments.
