Market to your clients, not at them

October 26, 2010

When I answered the phone the other day, the person on the other end was calling from a company I buy from. The conversation went something like this:

Telemarketer: “Dr. Eaton we have a very special offer for you!”

Me: “Oh?”

Telemarketer: (Insert scripted sales pitch here.)

Me: “That sounds pretty interesting. Can you send me some information in the mail?”

Telemarketer: “No, I’m sorry, we don’t send information in the mail. It will only take a few minutes to sign you up over the phone.”

In that precise moment, the sale was lost.

Me: “I prefer to take the time to read over the material first. I don’t sign up for things over the phone. Can you send me information that I can thoughtfully look over and consider in more detail, rather than having to make a snap decision right now?”

(I knew the answer, but I just wanted to clarify.)

Telemarketer: “Really, it will only take a moment to sign you up over the phone, and I can tell you everything about the offer.”

The point? Missed.

The call? Ended.

The sale? Lost.

The upshot? I was a sale, ready and waiting to happen, and they lost it.  I am already a customer. I was interested in the offer. I was very close to saying yes, but didn’t appreciate the “hard sales” pressure tactic, so I declined.

Realize what works with your target audience and what doesn’t. What a sales or marketing company may tell you will work, may not. Find out for yourself. Avoid tactics that are likely to lose you sales because you’ve ticked off your prospective buyer, client or student.

The moral of the story? Market to your clients, not at them.

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

“Spotlight on Learning” conference

October 24, 2010

Last week I had the privilege of presenting a session on marketing of literacy programs at the Ontario Literacy Coalition’s Spotlight on Learning conference in Toronto. What an amazing event! Not only did the conference bring together practitioners and administrators from a variety of provinces, it was a high-tech, 21st century event. Speakers and participants alike were invited to participate in the conference’s Facebook page. They had their own Twitter hash tag (#spotlight2010).

Best of all, this was one of the few conferences I’ve ever been to where marketing was identified as a key topic or “stream” in the presentations. These folks are cutting edge.

They videotaped all the presentations, so with any luck you’ll be able to watch a replay of the presentation. I’ll post the info on the recording when it’s available.

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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 | language program administration, Literacy, marketing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Who You Gonna Call? Marketing Isn’t a Solo Sport

October 12, 2010

So many educators seem to think that they have to market and promote their programs all by themselves. Not only is this ineffective and exhausting, it is impossible. Marketing isn’t a solo sport.

Get yourself out of the mindset that you have to do it all yourself. Ask people for help. Ask them to attend your events or give a guest lecture in your class. And if that makes you uncomfortable, ask for their advice, as for suggestions, or even get their opinion.

There’s no shame in asking other teachers, administrators, parents, colleagues, or members of the community for help. Call up a teacher at another school and ask if you can have an inter-school event like a talent competition or speech contest. Partner with the dance teacher in your school to do a lunch time program on Latin dance to promote Spanish language and Hispanic culture.

Even asking, “Could you give me some ideas…?” is a powerful question to start with.

Ask with a smile. Be genuine. People will help.

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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 Who You Gonna Call? Marketing Isn’t a Solo Sport | education, language program administration, marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Sample Host Family Application

October 9, 2010

Choosing host families for your international education or language program takes significant time and effort. Matching prospective students with families willing to open their hearts and home to a foreign student who is studying English as a Second Language (or any other language or subject, for that matter) requires skill, patience, background checks and a fine balance between working with the people that you have in your pool of students and families and ensuring that some basic requirements are met.

The first step in setting up your host family selection process is to develop your host family application. The application needs to include more than just the name and address of the family. You also want to ask questions about lifestyle, such us: do they allow smoking in the home?

The local police service in many communities will perform security checks for a small fee. Adult members of the household should include a police security check, as you will want to know if anyone in the household has had criminal charges brought against them, or if there have been incidents of domestic violence in the home.

The more questions you ask up front, the better chance you’ll have of selecting excellent families to host your students.

Here’s a sample host or billet family application that you can download and adapt to your own needs. Remember to include a statement about privacy if your area requires you to do so when you collect personal information.

Related posts:

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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 Sample Host Family Application | ESL, languages, marketing, second languages, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Factors international students consider when choosing where to study

October 1, 2010

A recent article posted by Inside HigherEd, originally written by John Morgan for Times Higher Ed. talks about what motivates international students. The article reveals the results of The British Council’s Student Decision Making Survey, which includes information gathered from around 115,000 students, from 200 countries. There are three major priorities identified by international students which affect their decision of where to study abroad. The article reports that “higher quality is cited by 54.2 percent, followed by career improvement (53.8 percent) and the chance to live overseas (51.5 per cent).”

Quality outranked price as being a factor in the decision-making process of international students. Prospective students are more interested in getting value for their educational dollar (or Euro, won, yen, real, peso, etc.) than they are in finding a bargain, it seems.

The article also talked about changes in the market. Specifically, countries who traditionally have not offered courses in English are starting to do so. Nordic countries were cited as the example. If more countries start to offer formal education in English, students may be less tempted to study abroad. There will have to be something else in it for them other than learning the language. Cultural immersion, a chance to experience the world, adventure, the opportunity to travel and perhaps explore job opportunities, may become more important factors than the language alone.

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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 Factors international students consider when choosing where to study | education, marketing, recruitment, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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