As mentioned in our last post on Lead Generation In Higher Education we are now the co-host of a blog talk radio show focused on education marketing .  This week we had a great conversation on Why Education Marketing Sucks and What to Do About It.

Many schools rely heavily on paying lead generation companies to send “qualified” leads to their sales team so that they can convert them into paying students.  If you ever paid for a lead you know why traditional Education Marketing has some issues.

Listen to our conversation and let us know what you think about Education Marketing and how you can market to students in a cost effective way.

We touched on the following topics as they relate to lead generation and student marketing:

• How to use social media to keep qualified leads flowing to your sales team
• Traditional Direct Marketing – does it still have a place in lead generation
• TV advertising and lead gen
• Search Engine optimization and paid search efforts

If you have a topic suggestion for a future show let me know in the comments section.  We are always looking for new ideas and guests.

One of our main areas of focus is Education Marketing.  So we naturally accepted the invitation to join the founder of the LinkedIN group .eduMarketer with this new radio show.  The show will cover many topics related to marketing educational products, services and programs.

Please join us live on Blog Talk Radio for the first episode of this new show titled:

Lead Generation in Higher Education: The Buyer’s Dilemma

The show will take place:

March 18, 2010 4:00 PM EST/ 1:00PM PST

The first show will focus on the experience of buying sales leads for higher education, specifically:

• Buyer’s Best Practices
  • What to do once you own the student lead
  • How to evaluate lead quality (we will look at the lead provider and the sales team process)

• Lead Generation Practices: Good, Bad, and Ugly
  • Organic Search Engine Optimization
  • Call Verified Operations
  • Co-Reg Offers
  • Incentivized Leads
  • Paid Search
  • Offline and other media channels

This show is live and you are encouraged to call in and join the conversation—we’d love to hear from both buyers and sellers of leads during the discussion.

Join the show and sign up for future episodes of this series.

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Social Media Marketing For Business

We ran a number of social media marketing labs to explore in a hands-on approach and show entrepreneurs how to use social media marketing to grow their business.  This web lab series was a follow up to our popular Grow Your Business With Social Media Marketing Webinar.

This week we covered  Twitter and Blogging.  Here is the archive:

We discussed a number of topics including:

• Tips for using Twitter
• Blogging Tips
• Best practices
• Basic SEO for blogging
• and a few tools to make your blogging efforts more rewarding

The attendance was great and we answered a number of questions from the crowd.

Please let us know what you think about the session(s) and if you have any questions on social media marketing just leave us a comment and someone will get back to you.  We are here to help.

In the last few weeks we have been asked to explain social media marketing to entrepreneurs and business owners.  They asked:

• How can I use social media to grow my business?
• How can I get my business started in social media marketing?
• What do I need to do to market my business online?

To answer these and other social media marketing questions we conducted a free webinar.  Here is the archive:

During the presentation we referred to some resources and follow up but since you are viewing the archive we won’t be able to email you the links so here you go:

• A post on link building and SEO
• List of resources for building your social media presence and links to some other lesser known social media services

Stay tuned for our ‘Social Media Labs’ as we explore the major social media sites in detail.  We will show you how to use them to market your business and yourself online.

In case you missed our webinar  5 Tactics To Create Student Leads That Convert you can now access the archive here:

Listen and learn how you can run effective lead generation efforts. Lead generation should be part of your education marketing campaigns.  It is a  cost effective way to identify people interested in specific educational offerings (the tactics covered work in most industries) and convert them into paying customers.

Please let us know if you have any questions about education marketing, lead generation or other topics covered during this session.  Just leave us a comment and someone will respond.

Marketing Tactics To Create Student Leads That Convert

The postcard has many uses in marketing.  Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about their pros and cons.  Here are some of my thoughts about the simple postcard as a direct mail powerhouse.

A postcard by USPS standards is no larger then 4×6.  So when should you use this potentially very effective mailing device?

Pros:

• Postage is lower then any other class of mail
• Fast and easy to print and mail out
• Inexpensive to produce in small or large quantities
• Great for timely promotions or specials
• Can be used as a reminder to an earlier direct mail effort
• You can use graphics and text to communicate
• They can be used as an Activation/Coupon/Response Device. “Bring this postcard to our booth for a free gift.” “Present this postcard upon purchase to receive your “Best Customer” Discount.” Etc.

Cons:

• May get lost in your consumers mail pile
• Limited space to tell your story
• Size limits room for creativity (although you can be creative)
• Too small to send to a potential prospect
• May not perform as well as a larger mail piece
• Some marketers rely too often on postcards when other formats would be better suited.

I think the pros win but remember to make sure your marketing goals match the medium.

So, if you have a limited budget, pressed for time or want to get a simple or promotional message across the postcard can be a great asset.  If your product is complex and you have a few marketing dollars to play with go with a different format.  There are always exceptions to every rule so make sure to test and read results.

Do postcards work for your business?

Let us know by posting a comment.

Join Us For A Free Webinar.

5 Tactics To Create Student Leads That Convert

A major mistake that many marketers make is spending money needlessly to attain leads that end up being unqualified. Attend this lead generation webinar and learn how to locate qualified leads that convert—without sacrificing your budget with paid sources.

In this webinar you’ll learn:

• Different approaches to generating educational leads for your sales team that convert into paying students
• Why some lead sources convert and others are a waste of time and money
• Ways to optimize and monetize your database of older leads

Although this webinar is focused on lead generation in the education market, all the strategies will translate to most industries that are dependent on lead generation activities.  If you are in any way involved in lead generation—this webinar will give you the tools you need to reach the qualified leads you desire.

Register (it is free)

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