How much should educational programs spend on marketing?

May 10, 2010

One of the major pitfalls of marketing plans for language programs is that directors and coordinators are given little or no budget to work with. Time and time again I have heard, “We have no money for marketing!” The reality is that you are going to need to spend at least some money, and probably a fair amount of time, promoting your program if you want it to grow and flourish.

There are varying theories about how much an organization should spend on marketing to be effective. It’s hard to know how to to budget. Here are a few tips for those working in the educational sector.

It is important for you to decide, together with your staff and school administrators or owners, how much you are willing to invest in it. Bringing all the players to the table may be a difficult task in itself, but if you are serious about marketing your program, you need to be serious about how much you really have to work with to get the job done.

Being brutally honest about how much of your resources you can allocate to marketing will help you target your dollars in the most effective way. The first step is sitting down with a calculator and figuring out exactly how much you have to work with.

One place to start is to look at your gross income for last year and use 10 to 20% of that for marketing. This may seem like a lot, but if you can grow your program another 10 to 20% (a safe estimate), you will have more than made your money back.

When I say 10-20%, this also includes the salaries or hourly wages of those working on marketing endeavours. So, if you have a marketing coordinator, that salary will be included here.

At the very least, you should know how much you are spending on marketing now. For heaven’s sake, don’t bury it in categories such as “office supplies” or some other budget line that makes it impossible for you to know what you’ve actually spent. Even if your budget categories are rigid and there’s no line for marketing, keep a separate tally somewhere in a file that you can refer back to. Every year, assess how much you’ve really spent on marketing and if it’s too much or enough. If you’re spending more than 25% on marketing and not getting the return you expect, then it may be time to change how you market, not how much you spend on marketing.

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This post is adapted from “Idea #6: Be honest about how much you are willing and able to invest in marketing” in 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

1 Comment | 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program, ESL, languages, marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Using Skype in Language and Literacy Programs

May 7, 2010

Skype is a free program. You set up a “Skype account” and download the program. Then, you add contacts, much like you would do in your e-mail program. Only you don’t e-mail using Skype. You talk or have a video call.

You and the other party, or parties, all need to have Skype installed on your computers. There are no tricks and no gimmicks. Think of it sort of like Hotmail or Gmail, but for voice and video calls.

Skype allows you to:

  • Voice and video calls to anyone else on Skype
  • Conference calls with three or more people
  • Instant messaging, file transfer and screen sharing

Why do I love Skype? Well, first of all, the basic service is free as long as you’re talking computer-to-computer. They also have really, really inexpensive plans were you can be on your computer and call to a regular land-line.

Here are some examples of how I use Skype:

Personally: Our family is spread out all over the place. We use Skype to talk long-distance, for free. The most amazing thing we do is with my Dad and step-Mom. They live in a remote area in Northern Ontario. Last year, my brother and his wife had a baby girl. Every Sunday night, everyone gets on Skype for a visit. My Dad gets to see his little grand daughter every single week and can watch her growing up. It’s connects our family in deeply meaningful way.

We like Skype so much in our house that we got Skype-enabled handsets that look and act just like a regular phone. We also use Skype now for computer-to-phone calling in our house and we really like it.

Professionally: I have used Skype for long-distance business. Last year, I had a consulting client in Sweden. Instead of doing phone coaching, we had our meetings via video call on Skype. It was much better than the phone, as we got to see one another and doing business was much easier (and less expensive).

Here’s another example of how I’ve used Skype in my work. Last week I was scheduled to give a webinar to a group in Tennessee. They called me at the last minute to say that the e-learning platform I’d been planning on using wouldn’t work for them. I asked if they used Skype. They said yes. We quickly exchanged user names and logged on. I gave the webinar using the screen sharing feature to go through the slides I’d prepared. At the end, they were super-happy with the presentation.

How can you use Skype in a language or literacy program:

Connect with your students: If students have Skype accounts, you can connect with them before they arrive, taking the time to connect with them and answer questions. From a relationship marketing point of view, this creates a super opportunity to create a personal bond with your students.

1-to-1 tutoring: I was giving a workshop on marketing to a group of literacy coordinators yesterday. One coordinator who works in a rural area commented that she has a hard time matching tutors with learners sometimes, as they are supposed to meet in public places, but it just isn’t convenient given the rural area in which they live. She’s obliged to match tutors and learners of the same gender, but said she had more female tutors and male learners, so it created a problem. I asked if her learners had technology literacy. She said that many of them did. I suggested that she introduce them to Skype to tutors and learners could be matched and each of them would work from their own homes.

Give information sessions and presentations: Skype has a screen-sharing feature that is brilliant for giving presentations. You can show PowerPoint slides and go through an entire presentation, just like I did with my clients last week. This is super for pre-arrival orientations, information sessions and other presentations you might give to prospective learners.

Skype is an amazing tool to help you connect with family, colleagues and learners.

Check out my research article on this topic:

Eaton, S. E. (2010). How to Use Skype in the ESL/EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, XVI(11). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Eaton-UsingSkype.html

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

2 Comments | languages, Literacy, marketing, second languages, social media, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How to make a Facebook fan page

May 4, 2010

About a month ago I did a post entitled Language Schools and Facebook: Just do it. In it I recommended that language schools create a Facebook page. Since then, I’ve had people writing to me, saying that I should have done a post about how to make a FB page. Ask and ye shall receive.

You’ll need to have Facebook account to start. Once you have that, you can create a page for your organization.

Here are 5 easy steps to creating a Facebook page for your own school, business or organization:

Create a page for my businessGo to another public Facebook “fan page”.  If you don’t have a favorite page, I invite you to stop by my page: http://www.facebook.com/EatonInternationalConsulting

Click on: “Create a page for my business”. You’ll find this on the far left bottom of a Facebook page. I’ve included a screen grab from my own page and circled it in red so you’ll know what to look for.

Create your page. Remember to include an appropriate graphic such as your logo.

Add some content. If you go to my page you’ll see that I have this blog linked to my Facebook page. My Facebook page is automatically updated every time I post something new on my blog. You may not be ready for automated content yet, but be sure to add a few links, an introductory note or other info about your organization.

Invite people to become fans or “like” your page. Use your list of Facebook friends as a start and let others “like” your page, too. It used to be that people had to “become a fan”. The new term is simply to “like” a page.

Here’s a bonus for you: Once you get 25 people who like your page (a.k.a. “fans”) you can request a vanity URL. This takes your long, complicated web address and turns it into something easy to remember, like mine. Once you have your 25 fans, just enter the key words “vanity URL” into the Facebook help pages, and you’ll be pointed to easy-to-follow directions on getting a nice, easy URL for your page.

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Other people who have mentioned or forwarded this post:

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

2 Comments | marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Specialized courses: Essential for a healthy marketing mix

April 28, 2010

In 1982, W.P. Kinsella wrote Shoeless Joe, a novel that was later turned into a major Hollywood movie starring Kevin Costner. The most famous line of the book is, “If you build it, he will come.” The basic premise of the book is that if you have an idea or a dream, go with it. The rest will take care of itself.

While this feel-good book, and the movie it was made into, may smack of naïveté on some level, the main principle is one that we can use in marketing our schools. If you build a specialized program, based on a sound curriculum that you can deliver well, the students will come.

Is there something that your school does better than any other in your area? Do you have a program to train foreign language teachers? Do you offer a specialized course in medical or veterinary terminology, for example? How about a course in business communications? If you have at least one course or program that differentiates you from other schools, you can focus on being the best there is for that specialty. You can still offer basic language training or other programs, but having a specialized niche will ensure you a unique market share, and add both revenue and students to your program. It can also add flair and a sense of uniqueness to your program. I’ve seen programs that offer English and sports or English and activities such as surfing, and they truly set themselves apart from the hundreds of other English programs in the world.

Specialized courses often referred to as “ESP” or “English for Specific Purposes”, in the English as a Second / Additional Language field. Together, generalized and specialized courses combine to form your marketing mix. Finding the right mix can boost your revenue significantly.

Specialized courses deserve special attention in your marketing plan. For example, if you offer a program for language teachers from foreign countries, you could easily research the contact information for language schools abroad and add that information to your database.  Then you have the tools to do a targeted direct mail campaign to those schools that would catch the attention of those teachers and school administrators.

Also consider that specialized courses likely require specialized curricula. You’ll want to ensure that whatever materials you are using fit your niche market really well.

Generally, it takes longer to see results for specialized programs. That is because it may take prospects longer to find out about your niche and respond to your marketing. I’ve seen more than one niche program fail because administrators gave up on it too early. One semester or session is not enough to test the market to determine if there is a demand for your specialized course. These types of program may require extra attention in their infancy, simply because their target market is very specific.

You may want to dedicate a certain amount of time (for example, one hour a week for an entire year) just to marketing this particular program. This may mean contacting associations, schools or other audiences with an interest in your niche to advise them of your program. For example, if you have a program to train teachers, then a direct mailing to teachers’ associations abroad may help you promote these courses. It may cost you time to build your mailing list, or it may cost you money to buy such a list. You won’t see a return on your investment until participants begin to enroll.

If you persist, within a couple of years, you can have a booming program.  The trick is to carve yourself a niche and be patient while the world discovers your uniqueness. If you build it… they will come.

This post is adapted from “Idea #5: Carve yourself a niche” in 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

1 Comment | 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program, education, ESL, marketing, marketing mix, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Selling Words: Promoting Your Second Language Program

April 25, 2010

I’m sharing some slides I did from a presentation at the annual conference of the Intercultural and Second Languages Council (ISLC), Alberta Teachers’ Association, 2004. At the time, the province of Alberta was on the verge of introducing mandatory second language learning for students in grades 4 through 9. This presentation was aimed at school teachers and administrators who promote second languages in their schools.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on Selling Words: Promoting Your Second Language Program | education, ESL, languages, marketing, second languages, Uncategorized, youth | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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