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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
Main Page
[ 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
Submitting to search engines
Questions:
8. Convince me that it's worth it to submit to search engines: both international and local.
Briefly, I'm not convinced. We have never actually done this, but that's partly because we have limited time and resources. It's also because I have heard of a bias against submitters, as being more crassly commercial, and I have always thought for a university it would be better to take the high road. For international search engines, though, it might be more useful. How else would your new French-language site be found? Have people tried this? Does it work? How well? I'd like to know.
Resources:
Articles:
Using link reciprocity
Questions:
9. Convince me that exchanging links is of any value whatsoever.
10. What downsides should concern us about exchanging links with someone who is, for example, crassly commercial, or possibly unethical?
By now, link reciprocity is well-established as a method of getting higher search rankings and being considered as more important in the eyes of the search engines. As a result, people spend their time offering to exchange links, sometimes with others who have no relation or possible reason to link to them; also, you feel like you shouldn't "give away" a link when you could possibly get something in return. Marketers, of course, have gone as far as establishing "link farms" and further to this end. Where is the outer boundary of good taste, if not good sense? Is there one?
I can tell you that it is worthwhile pursuing these and responding to people, politely, if only to say that you have no interest in promoting their commercial enterprise. If there is any way you can establish a genuine link, such that someone in a far-off place finds you and comes to you, so much the better; of course it is worth it to do the same for someone in exchange. The basic idea is one of networking, doing business and getting your name out there: what can hurt?
Well, many things. The first is, "You are known by the people you associate with," a maxim that has several interpretations, and a subtext: get to know the people whose yards you are going to use for your campaign signs....a shrewd eye for analyzing character and the nature of one's business helps here, obviously.
There are other downsides, not the least of which is time: who has it? Who are these people that have all this time to go about asking people to trade links? I won't answer this; I don't know the answer. I do know, however, that coming up higher on any given search is a desireable result, one we should aspire to. First page. On the monitor.
Articles:
Finding and penetrating new markets
Questions:
11. What markets show the most potential for the future in esl/efl?
12. What are effective ways of getting into a market and making yourself known?
Resources:
Evaluating web marketers
Questions:
13. What is the running value of links in prominent places? How can I evaluate how prominent these places are?
14. How can I get a sense of who has what kind of reputation in this business?
Resources:
Translating pages to other languages
Questions:
15. Is it worthwhile to hire a translator, worry about accuracy of translated pages, and maintain pages in languages you don't know? What are possible pitfalls of entering into this area?
Obvious pitfalls are: having to hire another translator every time something changes in your program; appearing to favor one language group over another; getting poor translations and thus looking sloppy to people who are obviously concerned about good language skills; having to learn html code for foreign language, which adds a layer of complexity to a set of skills that already borders on a foreign language. And: are the rewards good? Check.
The all-time master at this, in my opinion, is Marshall University, in West Virginia, which has 18 languages available right at the top of the main page, all maintained and current, presumably. If they can do it, we can do it; if it works for them, surely it'll work for us too.
Resources:
Using e-mail marketing
Questions:
16. Is everyone who does e-mail marketing a spammer by association? What ways can we use e-mail marketing that don't tarnish our reputation in the process?
I think it's possible to send mass e-mails and not be considered a spammer, either by the receivers or by their spam-filters, but I'm not so sure I know the cultural contexts where this would be considered possible. One guy in Turkey claims to have a legitimate e-mail marketing situation set up, where the receivers have all expressed interest in going to an American university, but I don't know if the returns on this have been good for investors, or whether this is acceptable practice in Turkey or anywhere else. One learns these things the hard way, I'm afraid, and those who have been shy, so far, have had good reason.
Resources:
Making program admission more web-friendly
Questions:
17. What problems will I encounter in making admissions more web-friendly and how can I alleviate them? What kinds of security concerns should I be worrying about?
Articles:
Glover, G. (2005, 3-11). Is the net worth it? Scotsman.com.
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=264662005. Accessed 3-05.
Using video and innovations effectively
Questions:
18. Is video really an effective way to draw students? Under what circumstances can you get them to watch a movie about life at your university, and does that work, or is it something that only has value after they've already committed to coming?
I've always assumed that it's not a great idea to have flashing and moving things all across your homepage, but that comes from my natural conservative instinct, in addition to research that shows that the eye gravitates away from moving things and toward peace and stability, especially when first entering a page. If your goal is to get the potential student to picture themselves at your school, wouldn't a moving target make that harder?
It's an open question.
Here is the website of a university that uses video on the front page. Imagine yourself as a prospective student (this is the only way I myself can gauge the effectiveness of a page, short of knowing clickthrough ratios)...does it work for you? Judge for yourself.
I find the pictures stunning, the character of the desert and the beauty of the place shining through. I'm not so sure about the flashing character of it, though. And this isn't really video, it's just flashing pictures. It reminds me of the old axiom of BLINK: Blink is Evil. I'm not sure I believe that axiom, but the essence of the advice was that your eyes can't stay on a moving target; they tend to avoid flashing and moving things. This much has in fact been borne out by research.
Finding other resources
Questions:
19. Are there any newsgroups I can join?
20. What are the best websites for picking up information?
Resources:
Page made and maintained by
Thomas Leverett, CESL, SIUC
Photo at top: Leap of Faith, Kurt Larsen
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