ESL Marketing – Know your student demographics

June 3, 2010

Do you know what countries your students come from? Better yet, can you articulate what percentage of your students is from which countries? Although most program coordinators or managers could tell you where the majority of their students come from, you might be surprised how many do not know basic statistical information about their own programs and students. Depending on what privacy laws apply to business and schools in your area, you may be able to ask your participants’ age, occupation, gender, marital status, number of children and so on. The more information you can collect, the clearer picture you can build of your typical student. Before you go ahead and design a questionnaire though, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with any privacy laws that may apply in your country with regards to the collection of personal information.

Most programs keep statistical information in some form, either on registration forms or in a database. Few actually use the data for any real purpose. If you have statistical information, it really is worth the time and effort to compile it into useful reports that can help you assess who has been registering in your program over the past little while.

I suggest that you go back at least 3-5 years to compile your data. You want to know:

  • where your students are from
  • what is their first language
  • how old they are (age range and average age)
  • ratio of males to females
  • information on education or occupation

The idea is to build yourself a “big picture” of who is registering in your program.

After you have that picture, you can assess whether or not the demographics you have fit the demographics you want. For example, if you have mainly female students and you think some gender balance would benefit your program, you could tweak your marketing materials to attract more males (for example, appealing to all-male schools or men’s sports teams).

An analysis of your student population costs you little money, just an investment of your time. It’s an investment that could help your program grow in phenomenal ways.

This post is adapted from “Idea # 9: Assess your current program demographics” 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.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

What do others really think about your marketing materials?

May 17, 2010

Ever heard the expression, “He couldn’t see the forest for the trees”? It refers to someone who loses his perspective on a situation because they are too involved (and invested) in the situation to see it clearly. This is what can happen when you market your program. You may think that your current brochures, web page, etc. are just fine– but what do others think about them? Do you really know?

What’s the solution? Have your marketing materials audited. If you have your current marketing materials audited, you may get a clearer picture of what outsiders really think of your materials – and your program. An audit is usually conducted by an impartial third party, and it involves an objective evaluation of your materials to determine what is good about them and what you need to improve.

This may mean hiring a marketing professional or educational consultant to review what you currently have. What she will probably do is review and assess how you:
•    use branding (for example, your logo and image)
•    convey the information (language, style, readability)
•    use colour, graphics, font and typesetting
•    can make your marketing more effective

An audit may also include an evaluation of the texture and quality of paper you choose for your printed materials, the accessibility of your web site, a ranking of your web site in search engines or an evaluation of your office stationery. These are all factors to consider when you are thinking about how you present your image to the world.

An audit of your marketing material done by an objective outsider may surprise you. A good consultant will give you no-nonsense feedback about your marketing materials and valuable information on how to improve them. These improvements may give your school the competitive edge it lacks.

There are hundreds of marketing consultants out there. It may benefit you to hire someone who specializes in educational or international marketing so you can get the best assessment possible.

Once the audit is complete, you will then have to decide which, if any, of the auditor’s recommendations to use. This will depend on cost, time and your own perception of how you wish to present your school. But inevitably, you will come away with a fresh perspective on how others view your school through your marketing materials.

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This post is an adapted excerpt from 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program It is been adapted from “Idea # 8: Have your current marketing materials audited.”

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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.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How to price ESL or other second language programs powerfully

May 13, 2010

Figuring out how to price a program can be tricky. It can be even trickier to adjust the price of a program that has already been established. If your price is too high, prospects may balk. If your price is too low, they may think that it is poor quality. It doesn’t pay to offer bargain basement prices if you pride yourself on quality.

Before you price your program, you will want to determine your costs. Your cost for a program will include obvious things such as:

•    instructors’ salaries
•    learning materials (books, CDs, etc.)
•    excursions (including any lunches or entrance fees to museums, etc.)
•    accommodation (homestay, dorm or hotel)
•    insurance (medical and accident insurance for your students, for example)
•    photocopies
•    catering

And there are the not-so-obvious costs included in your overhead that you will want to factor in as well. These may include:

•    support staff salaries
•    office supplies (including stationery and business cards)
•    marketing materials (brochures, business cards, etc.)
•    any other printing
•    postage
•    rent (including any special events you may host, such as a graduation)
•    phone, fax, and Internet expenses
•    utilities and any other overhead costs
•    computing and technology expenses (including language lab maintenance and tech support)

Once you have determined your own costs, you divide the total cost by the lowest number of participants you expect to have. That way, you will know what your break-even point is.

Here’s a highly simplified example:

$5000 (your total costs, as determined by the list above) divided by 100 (the lowest number of students you expect to have) = $500

This means that you would charge each student at least $500 just to cover your costs.

But covering your costs isn’t enough. You need to ensure that your program is sustainable. So, you need think about how to price your program, using your break-even cost as a starting point.

Because hidden and unexpected costs inevitably occur during any program, one technique used by big institutions is to double your costs, at the very least. For specialized or custom-designed programs, you may be able to triple or quadruple your costs and use that as your price point.

Let’s re-do the math, tripling your base costs:

$5000 (your total costs, as determined by the list above) x 3 = $15,000

$15,000 divided by 100 (the lowest number of students you expect to have) = $1500

So, $1500 is what you would charge each student as tuition.

Sound too high? I have found that as educators, we tend to be reluctant to price ourselves out of the market. Remember that if your price is too low, prospects may not take you seriously. And you can always subsidize some programs if others are doing very well. It’s about finding a balance that will work for your school.

You also want to plan for unexpected increases in your costs. For example, in the past ten years in Canada insurance rates have skyrocketed, in some cases more than doubling. If a school hadn’t forecast such an increase, they might be left scrambling to make ends meet.

Another example is rising costs of natural gas, which can affect the heating and water bills for your school (or your rent). If you haven’t budgeted for such increases, it can seriously affect the sustainability of your program. These are examples from a Canadian context, but the principle applies to any school in any country. You need to plan for the unexpected. This isn’t about gouging your students; it’s about ensuring that you can continue to serve them into the future. It’s responsible.

Even if your program is non-profit, I encourage you to price your program responsibly. Should a miracle happen and you make “too much money”, you can give your staff a raise or hire more staff, re-vamp your website, buy better books or add another computer to your lab. You get the idea. You can re-invest in your own program to ensure it can continue in the future.

Speaking of being responsible, I strongly recommend that you tell your prospects exactly what they are getting for their money; they are more likely to understand what they are paying for, and they will be more likely to buy.

What do you include in your pricing? Books? Homestay? Excursions? Make sure that you list on your marketing materials what is included in the price. Some schools charge extra for students to take exams, so if your school doesn’t, be sure to list that.

Here’s an example of what you could write:

Our price includes:
•    25 hours of instruction per week
•    books and learning materials
•    CD ROM of practice activities
•    homestay (including 3 meals per day)
•    medical and accident insurance
•    all tests and exams
•    graduation ceremony
•    certificate of completion
•    final written evaluation of your performance

By pricing your program powerfully and letting students know exactly what they are getting for their money, you will gain both respect and increased enrolment.

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This post is an excerpt from 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program It is “Idea 7: Price your program powerfully.

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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.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How to Promote Your Language Program in a Tough Market

April 20, 2010

In 1998, “Asian flu” hit the markets, causing thousands of Korean, Japanese and other Asian students to stay home. In 2001, the Word Trade Center in New York was destroyed and for a time, North America was no longer considered a “safe” destination for international students; enrollments in overseas programs dropped again. In 2003, the war in Iraq had a similar effect on educational programs relying on foreign student registration.

The situation worsened in Canada when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused the World Health Organization to recommend that anyone with travel plans to Toronto “consider postponing all but essential travel”. Language programs in and around Toronto were hit hard. In fact, registration in language programs across the country dropped significantly at that time. Let’s face it, international students and their parents may not know that Calgary or Vancouver are thousands of kilometers away from Toronto and hardly affected by SARS. The reality is that for a few months Canada was branded, how informally, as an “unsafe” country for foreigners.

As an educational consultant who specializes in helping language programs market their courses better, I heard more managers than ever concerned about plummeting enrollments. Program managers from across North America have asked  me, “What do we do now?” The answer is not a “quick fix”, but one focused on long-term vision and strategy.

Understand the effect of global events on your business

Firstly, recognize that what has been happening recently is by no means isolated. If we take a look at history, we can see that every few years, some event occurs in the world that has a direct impact on our enrollment. What happens on the international economic front and in the markets will affect us. One mistake language program managers make is to think that education is not business. But when enrollments drop and you have to answer to senior administrators who want answers and more importantly, want a healthy bottom line, we recognize that we are indeed in the “business” of educating students.

We need to learn to think like business people. Our programs are the services that we offer to clients. Our market is international. Therefore, what affects the global market for all goods, services, stocks and commodities affects us.

If you have historical program statistics, review them. More than likely, all other factors being equal, you will be able to correlate significant drops in student enrollment with economic disruptions or political events across the globe. We must look at the “big picture” and recognize that whatever it may be this time, it will be temporary.

Say to yourself, “This too, will pass.” Developing a long-term perspective will help you and your staff avoid the panic that so many program managers have felt this year. It will also help you answer to superiors who may be quick to blame lower enrollments on managers or coordinators (namely, you.) If you have a clear idea of the big picture, you will be calmer, more confident and you will think more clearly about the decisions you have to make and why you have to make them. Your staff and superiors may not like the fact that enrollments have dropped, but they will respect you more if you show strength, vision and a conservatively positive attitude in tough times.

Apart from keeping things in perspective and developing a long-term vision, there are things you can do to continue promoting your program in tough markets:

Take the time to strategize. Instead of flailing around to develop new courses that you hope may bring a few more students through the door, I recommend recognizing the situation for what it is: a slow market. This is the time to be pro-active, not reactive. If you complained before that you never had time to figure out a marketing strategy for your program, now you have that time. Use it wisely. Figure out where you want your program to go over the next 5 years. Realistically, you may want to factor in at least one more global event that will affect your enrollment during that time. Assess your current marketing strategy and determine what, if anything, needs to change. Instead of letting panic rule how you run things in tough times, stay calm and develop a vision that will carry you through the difficulties and into the market recovery.

Keep your prices stable. Now is not the time to increase your prices because you are feeling a financial pinch. Instead, maintain current price structure and keep your long-term vision. Conversely, now is also not the time to lower prices or offer “special discounts due to SARS”. Even if you don’t say it directly, prospective students and their parents will recognize a certain level of financial concern on your part. They may be intuitively turned off your program if it looks like it’s in financial trouble.

Focus on the students you do have. If you have fewer students, you can focus on giving them top-notch service. Remember that word of mouth is still the best promotion. Make sure that the students currently enrolled get the best quality program you can deliver. Each and every student is a prospective referral for you. No-cost or low-cost ways to focus on students include things like having every person who works in the program learn the names of each and every student. This includes correct pronunciation of their names, too! Personalized letters of congratulation to each student from the director at the end of the program is another idea.

Remind your staff that they each play a part in the success of your school, so remind them to stay positive.  This may not be easy, especially if there have been layoffs due to lack of work. That’s all the more reason for those who still have work to stay focused on the students and show a positive attitude around them. This will serve a double purpose. Not only will your students feel important and special, but by focusing on the students as much as possible, staff are less likely to dwell solely on the safety of their jobs or the dismal state of enrollment.

Take time to regroup, re-organize and even have some fun! Remind everyone that while these may not be the best of times, things will get better. There is nothing more detrimental to staff morale or to a program in general, than to allow panic or a sense of hopelessness infect the school like a virus. We need to combat fear by maintaining a long term vision and most importantly, by staying productive in the meantime.

This means hands-on work for teachers and staff to keep everyone busy while preparing for better times ahead. Now is the time to clean out your teachers’ offices, resource rooms, filing cabinets, cupboards and bookshelves. Organize a second-hand book sale of any old textbooks or resources you really don’t need. Use the money to take the students on a field trip or buy pizza for the staff on a Friday afternoon. There is still room for fun and in fact, small ways of boosting staff morale that don’t cost your program significant dollars can be a huge emotional investment in the mental health of your staff.

I tell language program managers to listen to their financial planners when it comes to having their language programs make it through tough times. Sound strange? Not really… Investment planners tell us not to make rash decisions when markets fluctuate unexpectedly. We need to think long term, plan for the future and stay calm. Your program is similar to your personal investments. Stay steady in your belief that all your hard work and investment in your program will not be lost and that the market will recover. The next time a market fluctuation causes a drop in enrollment, you will be all the wiser.

© Sarah Elaine Eaton

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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.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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