Who is Mike McHugh?
Mike McHugh runs marketing for Plattform |www.plattform.com| one of the largest companies that provides inquiries for colleges and universities nationwide. He has been in the business for 15 years, and the company has just celebrated their 25-year anniversary in July. It is specifically focused on higher education and helping recruit new students.
Business Management Consultant, Michael Clifford: Do you have a clear definition of your target market, and how do you recruit students?
Higher Education Marketing Consultant, Mike McHugh: We tend to kind of think of marketing from a funnel perspective, not unlike the admissions funnel, marketing funnel, etc. So we ask ourselves, “how do we create demand in the marketplace either for individual programs; is there a lack of name recognition for institution; do consumers know about the specific program offering?” We need to know if this is a viable and/or growing degree field down through paid search, organic search and how we kind of capture people that are interested and are looking for a specific institution or that degree (but they don't know where they want to go).
So you find a lot of prospective students who have an idea of what field they want to study, but they don't know where they want to study. It is our job as marketers to help an institution figure out, “How do I capture those people that are out there looking for a home,” in order to fill their degree needs. That can run from collateral development to web marketing, traditional media, digital…anything.
Business Management Consultant, Michael Clifford: Tell me more about analyzing existing student and alumni to develop a profile to find the right kind of student. We’re now more and more in the online world--it’s not how many students you enroll, it’s the quality of the student you enroll and whether they are right for the program.
How do you do that technically and creatively?
Mike McHugh: There are multiple pieces to that. Our higher education marketing firm prefers a very data driven approach, so that even though we’ll do some qualitative measures such as focus groups, what we really get is a student population census. Essentially, we’re looking for name, address and other information about consumers. We can then use different tools to match that up against census track information, media habits, income levels by different communities. It’s a pretty rich profile around a person, and is amazing when you look at the personas we develop for all our clients.
Our marketing firm can help them understand where their students shop, and how they use products:
• Are they a Whole Foods kind of consumer, or are they a Costco?
• Are they buying things in bulk?
• Do they rent or do they own?
• What’s the estimated household income where they live?
• What kind of magazines do they read?
• Where do they tend to go on vacation?
Once we get a good understanding of what this student looks like outside of the classroom we have an understanding of how we actually message to them and what things are important to them.
• Are they career advancers?
• Are they career changers?
• Are they looking for a degree for mastery, or is it more of a utilitarian approach?
The degree is a means to an end as opposed to just an end in and of itself. Our higher education marketing consultants want to be able to understand that so we can understand how to reach them: how do we find the right message points that are going to resonate with that consumer.
Business Management Consultant, Michael Clifford: If you were the president of a college about to embark on launching an online degree program, what are the first 2-4 steps from a marketing perspective that you would take?
Mike McHugh: The first thing that I would do from a marketing perspective is start at the end! I’m a very big Stephen Covey fan, “begin with the end in mind.” What are the degrees that that students need in order to accomplish their goals? What’s the job market look like wherever I’m going be recruiting? What’s growing, what’s in demand, what’s not being served? If I can start there and have a good, positive outcome for students, I think I’m going to be successful.
Next, I want to figure out what degrees - what programs - I want to have in order to help students achieve those outcomes. Then I start working on how to promote those. Ultimately, if you’ve got a great product, it will promote itself to a certain extent. Next our higher education marketing firm figures out whether it’s TV, newspaper or the radio and what keywords. Those kind of tactical decisions are less important than right product, right place and right message. Those are the most important things to focus on.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
To continue reading Mike McHugh’s fascinating insights into higher education marketing practices for Christian colleges and universities, stay tuned for the second installment of this six-part article series, coming next week.
Contact Significant Systems
To learn more about our education management consulting firm Significant Systems, check out our website. If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, Contact Us.
Remember, our goal is simple:
• Provide Broader Access
• Lower Tuition and Fees
• Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates
• Facilitate Education with a Purpose
Looking forward to our possible conversation!
Dr. Michael K. Clifford
Chairman
760.801.5021(My personal cell)
mkc@mclifford.com
Mike McHugh runs marketing for Plattform |www.plattform.com| one of the largest companies that provides inquiries for colleges and universities nationwide. He has been in the business for 15 years, and the company has just celebrated their 25-year anniversary in July. It is specifically focused on higher education and helping recruit new students.
Higher Education Marketing Consultant, Mike McHugh: We tend to kind of think of marketing from a funnel perspective, not unlike the admissions funnel, marketing funnel, etc. So we ask ourselves, “how do we create demand in the marketplace either for individual programs; is there a lack of name recognition for institution; do consumers know about the specific program offering?” We need to know if this is a viable and/or growing degree field down through paid search, organic search and how we kind of capture people that are interested and are looking for a specific institution or that degree (but they don't know where they want to go).
So you find a lot of prospective students who have an idea of what field they want to study, but they don't know where they want to study. It is our job as marketers to help an institution figure out, “How do I capture those people that are out there looking for a home,” in order to fill their degree needs. That can run from collateral development to web marketing, traditional media, digital…anything.
Business Management Consultant, Michael Clifford: Tell me more about analyzing existing student and alumni to develop a profile to find the right kind of student. We’re now more and more in the online world--it’s not how many students you enroll, it’s the quality of the student you enroll and whether they are right for the program.
How do you do that technically and creatively?
Mike McHugh: There are multiple pieces to that. Our higher education marketing firm prefers a very data driven approach, so that even though we’ll do some qualitative measures such as focus groups, what we really get is a student population census. Essentially, we’re looking for name, address and other information about consumers. We can then use different tools to match that up against census track information, media habits, income levels by different communities. It’s a pretty rich profile around a person, and is amazing when you look at the personas we develop for all our clients.
Our marketing firm can help them understand where their students shop, and how they use products:
• Are they a Whole Foods kind of consumer, or are they a Costco?
• Are they buying things in bulk?
• Do they rent or do they own?
• What’s the estimated household income where they live?
• What kind of magazines do they read?
• Where do they tend to go on vacation?
Once we get a good understanding of what this student looks like outside of the classroom we have an understanding of how we actually message to them and what things are important to them.
• Are they career advancers?
• Are they career changers?
• Are they looking for a degree for mastery, or is it more of a utilitarian approach?
The degree is a means to an end as opposed to just an end in and of itself. Our higher education marketing consultants want to be able to understand that so we can understand how to reach them: how do we find the right message points that are going to resonate with that consumer.
Business Management Consultant, Michael Clifford: If you were the president of a college about to embark on launching an online degree program, what are the first 2-4 steps from a marketing perspective that you would take?
Mike McHugh: The first thing that I would do from a marketing perspective is start at the end! I’m a very big Stephen Covey fan, “begin with the end in mind.” What are the degrees that that students need in order to accomplish their goals? What’s the job market look like wherever I’m going be recruiting? What’s growing, what’s in demand, what’s not being served? If I can start there and have a good, positive outcome for students, I think I’m going to be successful.
Next, I want to figure out what degrees - what programs - I want to have in order to help students achieve those outcomes. Then I start working on how to promote those. Ultimately, if you’ve got a great product, it will promote itself to a certain extent. Next our higher education marketing firm figures out whether it’s TV, newspaper or the radio and what keywords. Those kind of tactical decisions are less important than right product, right place and right message. Those are the most important things to focus on.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
To continue reading Mike McHugh’s fascinating insights into higher education marketing practices for Christian colleges and universities, stay tuned for the second installment of this six-part article series, coming next week.
Contact Significant Systems
To learn more about our education management consulting firm Significant Systems, check out our website. If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, Contact Us.
Remember, our goal is simple:
• Provide Broader Access
• Lower Tuition and Fees
• Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates
• Facilitate Education with a Purpose
Looking forward to our possible conversation!
Dr. Michael K. Clifford
Chairman
760.801.5021(My personal cell)
mkc@mclifford.com
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