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Southern Illinois University Carbondale
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Marketing Learning,
Learning Marketing
in new media

 Marketing Intensive English Programs at Universities: Web page for a Program Administration Interest Section Discussion section for the International TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) 2005 in San Antonio, Texas USA, March 31, 2005
Thomas Leverett, CESL, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, C'dale IL 62901-4518 USA
[ CESL ][ Effective Web Design ]
Finding effective marketing strategies
Improving web design
Using web systems effectively to pick up traffic/improving optimization
Managing keywords
Submitting to search engines
Using link reciprocity
Finding and penetrating new markets
Evaluating web marketers
Translating pages to other languages
Using e-mail marketing
Making program admission more web-friendly
Using video and innovations effectively
Finding other resources

Finding effective marketing strategies
Questions:
1. Which overall marketing strategies have proven to be most effective? (for anything? for esl/efl? in the past? for intensive English programs?

2. Can you convince me that web marketing is worth the time I'd have to put into it?

3. Which web marketing strategies are most effective? Which have proven to be more effective?

In a market where traditionally word-of-mouth rules, where it is generally accepted that students are more interested in what they can get out of the host institution than what they can get out of the language training program, web marketers are constantly reminded that 1) we should try first and foremost to serve well the students we have, and 2) we should never forget what our host institutions, if any, have to offer. I'm always looking at our pages and wondering how they could be better connected to our university; in what ways are surfers encouraged or even drawn into the larger university situation or the departments that would ultimately house them? Yet it is easy to live, teach and run an English program without thinking so much about that university.

There is no question that web marketing is becoming more and more important, and, that learning how to take the bull by the horns will have increasing rewards over the years, whereas hiring someone and hoping that it all works out will leave you with outdated something-or-other, and no way to fix it. The world of the web is changing so quickly that falling even a year behind could be fatal, not today, but when the next few waves come through. However, most of my advice still holds; I don't believe you'd be reading this if you thought the web was just a passing fancy. In the modern world, it is essential that universities represent themselves well in the new media; that they provide information in a balanced way; that they provide some transparency in what they do; that they reach out internationally. Enough said...

It is an axiom of web marketing that the ratio of inquiries to applications may be higher than it would be in other media, but a benefit of working with the web is that all of the data is trackable; it is theoretically possible to take very careful measurements of what these numbers are, where people come from, and even where they've been before they decided to inquire or apply. We haven't done so well in this area; like most people, we're pressed for time, and the local computers are so enormous that apparently extracting the precise data we'd be looking for would be "next to impossible," I've been told. Nevertheless, I haven't given up...

Resources:
Articles:

Improving web design
Questions:
    4. How can I evaluate whether my pages are doing what I want them to be doing? What should I even be wanting?
    I can at least get you started in this area. You want strong, simple, powerful pages; well-marked, clear in purpose, clear in source, leading to their home; you want the character of your school or hometown to come through at every opportunity, especially if that is your strong selling point. We don't have New York City to brag on, or beautiful mountains, or the sea, so we have to go with friendly people, small town, peaceful nature kinds of things, but that's what we do. We try to get pages that are bold and simple, that always have a look.

    My rules of web design are here. I've learned web design slowly and laboriously; many people are light years ahead of me in terms of flash, javascript, and the things you can do to make your page dance. But we don't need dance. We need to show our character and make the right people respond to it. Marketing is finding the people who would best appreciate your product and making sure they know about it and know how to get it. Is that so complicated?

Resources:
Articles:

Using web systems effectively to pick up traffic/improving optimization
Questions:
    5. What creative ways can I use to draw in visitors? Is it worth the expense to do this, or should I just concentrate on having an adequate homepage?
    I have paid considerable attention to this recently and have reaped some rewards, though not always where I expected them. I have not followed all of my own rules below, but only because of limited time: I teach seventeen hours, and do this in what is essentially my free time. But I've read a bit, followed my mentors, and developed plans. Those include the following:

    Make pages that are useful to people: if you make them, people will point to them. If people point to them, you will move up the search engine ladder. If they are unique, you will move up more quickly. If you make them well, people will know it when they see it.

    Use the resources at hand: this includes your alumni, who know quite a bit about web design, and are spread out over the globe. Where are they? How to find them? How to harness their skill? I leave that up to you. You could also use your current students, and even your friends. Much of this is what could be termed language resources, which will come in handy at every step of this process.

    Have people make testimonials: Marshall University is a good leader in this area. One can imagine that people coming thousands of miles would like to see a friendly face, or voice, or word, from someone they can relate to. Don't make them look too hard!

    Publish on the web: Colonize the free servers. Have students make weblogs. Make stuff point back to you. Take a look at our project. We get out there. We have to. The world may not find us any other way.

    Another clever marketing ploy, I thought, was Dear Ai, an advice column for ESL students, made by a school in Vancouver. I commend you! Our potential students are out there, on the web, looking for stuff. If we provide it, presumably they'll find us. Make useful things for students and teachers; make them point back at your site. Have any more ideas? I'd like to hear them!
Resources:
 Articles:

Managing keywords
Questions:
    6. How do ideas of appropriate keywords change from place to place?

    7. How can I get the best idea of what works and what doesn't? Is there data on what people use and what they don't?

    I was intrigued by the suggestion once that students are more likely to consider English as a foreign language than as a second language when they are at home, looking for an English program. Thus "foreign" would be a better keyword than, say, "ESL"....and imagining keywords by its nature is like teaching: you are putting yourself in the head of a beginner, and trying to imagine how they are putting together the information they are receiving, and trying to get what they need.

    By keywords I should say that I am really referring to two things. First is metatags, which really don't need to be belabored much. These appear in the head of your page and were considered extremely important for a while; then they virtually disappeared from the horizon after search engines got weary of their exploitation by marketers, and stopped rewarding people who stocked their keywords ruthlessly. Metatag keywords are still used by many engines, though, and I have seen them used in several ways: you are rewarded for having good, clean and adequate metatag keywords; and you're punished for abusing the system. Enough said.

    A far more important idea is that you need to take your keywords, words like "English," "study", USA or United States (whichever you feel is more important, if the USA is where you are), etc. and sprinkle these words liberally throughout your pages, hopefully in the titles and in important places where the search engines will find them...kind of like an Easter egg hunt. People resent the abuse, again, but if you do this effectively, who will even know? I'm not saying you have to put "Study English in the USA" on every page at the bottom, repeated ten times (or put it in your URL, as some schools have done). A better word of advice would be this: in general, use words that your students would understand. Publish pages such that when your students find them, they will read them and see where they came from...

    I am embarking on a keyword study. I'd still like to know how teachers, students, and potential students differ on the matter of which words are more likely to be used in searches...Please watch this website for more information.

    And by the way there is data on this, of course. At Google, there are mountains of data about collocates: which words are used together. This is generally not public. However there are ways people can get at this kind of information. It's too much to go into here, and it may not be worth hiring a search engine optimizer to find out...but, that's the magic of the computer. Human behavior is in fact controlled by scientific, noticeable phenomena...and it's all there for us to learn about. Good luck!
Articles:
Marckini, F. (2004, Mar. 22). Ass Backward SEM. ClickZ Network.
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3328731. Accessed 11-04.

Nobles, R. (n.d.) Choosing the right keywords adds up to success for your website . Search Engine Optimizer.
http://www.se-optimizer.com/articles/keywords_robin.html. Accessed 3-05.

Thurow, S. (2004, Aug. 30). How effective is your keyword search? ClickZ Network.
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3400731. Accessed 11-04.

Marketing learning, learning marketing in new media, cont'd
IL Page made and maintained by
Thomas Leverett, CESL, SIUC
Photo at top, Leap of Faith, by Kurt Larsen

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