Though it’s been years since the heart of the pandemic, getting students to once again consider a college education is still difficult. Many eschew in-person learning altogether or ultimately decide college is no longer an important consideration.
Which makes telling the college story more vital than ever.
“We thought there would be a surge of post-pandemic students who would want to get back to college, but the opposite happened,” said Laura Batchelor, chief marketing officer at Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey. “We need to be open to change.”
That means offering students both more flexibility with in-person and online classes, and certificate programs for those uninterested in a degree, who instead want to enter the workforce as quickly as possible.
This article is part of a monthly series provided by the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations (NCMPR), an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges.
And that means ensuring community and technical college offerings are targeted, especially when prospective students are constantly bombarded with information.
“Your message today needs to be different, engaging and attention-getting,” Batchelor said. “You need to focus on student and alumni stories that people in your community will relate to. Let your students tell and sell their success stories.”
Spotlighting success
One way to showcase the accomplishments of those in the college community is to task marketing departments with creating spotlights on recent graduates who have achieved successful professional careers after earning their associate degrees.
Highlighting current students can also lead to an impression that they, too, can achieve similar goals.
“Empathy is key to positively reaching and connecting with students post-pandemic,” Batchelor said. “We need to speak with them differently and be authentic. Sell the student experience and tell their stories that impact those in their respective communities.”
Ensuring that message reaches a target audience has become a much more intensive and personal proposition in today’s media landscape. By reallocating advertising dollars from traditional to digital media, college marketing/communication teams become better able to target and define audiences, said Larry Hlavenka, Jr., executive director of public relations at Bergen Community College in New Jersey.
“There’s just so much noise now,” Hlavenka says. “Every company, brand and organization competes for attention. It becomes a blur.”
Rising above the noise
To stand out, Kellogg Community College (KCC) in Michigan uses its own organic media to make sure its messages successfully reach the right audiences. For example, press releases provide a base of content about a given event or initiative, and then the college can further share that information on its own blog. From there, the marketing team will share the blog far and wide: on social media channels, the website, and via email and text messages, says Simon A. Thalmann, KCC director of marketing.
“And, frankly, our owned channels’ audiences in many cases rival or exceed those of our local legacy media outlets anyway,” he said. “Our goal is to essentially be our own local news media source.”
Hlavenka – whose community college is located in in Bergen County, New Jersey’s most populated county, which is directly across from Manhattan – agrees, in large part because the college has to compete with hundreds of colleges. As a result, telling the college’s story becomes more and more difficult.
“Community colleges are different for a good reason,” Batchelor said. “Market to those who want to attend and (help them) eliminate the barriers in their way. Sell them that community college is a great first step.”
