Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

Here's the latest entry to the list, thanks to a note from Tim Etchells, director of interactive communications at Middlebury College. This one hadn't yet turned up during my Google searches for college and university presidents who blog.

The new entry is from Michael Roth, president since July 1, 2007. Don't know why, but the "President's Page" profile under "Administration" doesn't mention the blog... and so, of course, doesn't connect to it.

That said, President Roth is a prolific poster at http://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/ with 17 posts between August 31 and December 11.

Critics of the Wesleyan financial aid policy

For an example of why some public relations people are not happy with college and university presidents who blog, see the comments under the November 21 post, "Thanksgiving and the First Taste of Snow." While you can't tell from the title, 4 of the 7 comments take Wesleyan to task for a financial aid award policy that doesn't include merit scholarships and therefore, according to the comments, drives middle class students away from the school by forcing them to accept too much debt if they enroll.

You'll find another comment about what Wesleyan is doing to reduce loan debt. Financial aid policy on loans is being revised downward, from a expected $26,000 loan debt over four years to between $10,000 and $19,000.

All in all, an interesting addition to the growing group of presidents who blog and a good example of letting the light of day shine on topics that everyone is already talking about anyway. And that's good public relations.

See the full list of 29 college and university presidents who blog at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/07/15_presidents_who_blog_saint_v.html

Posted by Bob at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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It isn't exactly a stampede, but after two Link of the Week selections since October about online financial aid estimators, I've had three more referrals to other similar sites. That makes a total of 7 that I've seen so far and that's enough to list them all together on one place on the blog.

This really is one area where colleges and universities have been very slow to adopt a marketing services attitude in an area that's of high interest to just about every family sending a child to college. That interest will express itself at different times during the recruitment cycles. An appropriate marketing approach will give people the opportunity to learn more about "real" rather than "sticker price" costs whenever they want to know that.

Approaches Vary from Simple to Complex

When you visit these links, you'll find very different approaches. Some require you to have at hand fairly detailed information about family income and resources and others focus more on merit aid based on academic profile. But all of them represent a major move in the right direction. Let's hope that even more schools will adopt a similar approach soon.

Here's the "Gang of Five" to get you started:

• Bradley University at https://admissions.bradley.edu/ssl/estimator/?status=viewtab1 
• Dominican University at http://www.ican.dom.edu/ScholarshipCalculator/ScholarshipCalculator.aspx
• St. Edward's University at http://www.gotostedwards.com/calculator/
• Southwestern University at http://www.southwestern.edu/financial-aid/cost/calc2.html
• The College of New Jersey at https://delphi.tcnj.edu:81/cgi-bin/tuitionestimator/estimate.cgi?step=1&selected=1
• University of Rochester at http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/
• University of Toledo at http://www.financialaid.utoledo.edu/estimator/

As with so many early adopters of marketing innovations, I'm always impressed by the lack of any "type of institution" pattern among these schools. We've got publics and privates, large and small schools, and very different enrollment profiles. At each place, somebody "gets it" and has decided to take a leadership position. Congratulations to everyone at these schools who helped show the way to others that will surely follow.

if you're reading this and have a similar feature at your website, let me know and help make the list grow. You can leave a comment or email me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com

Posted by Bob at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Yesterday, on the way back from the CASE V conference after a Writing Right for the Web session with 100+ people, my phone rings and its a student reporter from Yale. Turns out the Harvard announcement this week about new tuition discounts based on family income level has trumped a Yale assouncement about something similar planned for January.

How, the chap is asking, do I think this early Harvard announcement will impact Yale in the market place? And my answer is, "Not very much." After all, Yale's market strength is built on much more than the discount rate and at this point in the recruitment cycle for 2008 the great majority of people know where they prefer to enroll. If Yale announces something similar in January, that's still well in advance of final decisions that might be based on net cost before deposit due dates.

But the call also got me thinking while driving in a heavy rain (and for the safety-minded, I took the first call but put the conversation off until later in the afternoon) about why schools with almost impregnable marketing strength take such charitable steps. Thoughts like that bring out the cynic in me just a bit.

Princeton Starts a Trend

Back in 2001, Princeton was the first highly selective school to do something like this when it eliminated loans for a range of middle class students.  At the time, I wrote that this wasn't just a gift from Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. Instead, it was a reaction to increasing numbers of students and their families who were electing to take advantage of generous merit scholarships from colleges not quite as selective. Muhlenberg College came to mind, with an excellent record for medical school placement. If you're bright enough to get accepted at Princeton, you'll likely get a nice merit scholarship at Muhlenberg and enter med school with less debt.

What's the motivator today for the Harvard move and what comes along next? Just might be the increasing pressure in Congress and from the Department of Education focused on very wealthy universities who are not using much of their endowment (relatively speaking) to offset their high cost. And so fewer students from the middle class enroll and the schools become progressively more limited to higher income families. And that, of course, isn't supposed to happen as much as it seems it is in the United States.

Endowment Income for Tax-Exempt Status?

The Harvard move does represent reaction to the market. In this case, an effort to fend off further intrusiveness by the Federal government. Imagine, for instance, a future in which things got so bad that schools like Harvard faced limitations on their tax-exempt status. Much better to slice off some endowment income now to lower costs for students.

Details of the Harvard plan and USA Today coverage are at http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/12/harvard-aims-to.html

USA Today followed up the next day with another story on a similar move by Duke University at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-12-10-harvard-aid_N.htm

The story got front-page coverage from the NY Times but was buried well inside yesterday's edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by Bob at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Nancy Schwartz at http://www.nancyschwartz.com/ is an experienced marketing consultant specializing in not-for-profit organizations. She wrote today looking for assistance with a special 2008 project to help people build strong taglines that improve marketing effectiveness.

Take a few minutes for Nancy's survey. And when you do, be sure to request a copy of the results that she's promising to share with everyone who helps on the project.

From here, best to use Nancy's words:

"In today's competitive marketing environment, nonprofit taglines must be strong enough to get attention and provoke questions.

Effective taglines complement an org's name, convey the unique value its delivers to its community and differentiates it from the competition? (Americorps' "Getting Things Done" is a great example of a tagline that works on all three fronts.)

But more often, nonprofit taglines are vague, ambiguous, over-reaching, too abstract or simply non-existent.

Unfortunately, there’s little available guidance for organizations striving to strengthen their taglines. That's why I'm making a special effort in 2008 to help nonprofit orgs craft better taglines.

Please help me launch this research project by asking your readers to take a few minutes to complete this short survey:
    http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zjXNjEU9fh1wCcHCZelFYQ_3d_3d

Bob, my report back on responses (which I’ll be glad to share) will highlight trends, best practices and tips. All survey respondents (who request it) will receive a copy.

Again, you’ll find the survey here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=711542996299.

From my own website reviews, its clear that many colleges and universities can use help with taglines that indeed are often "vague, ambiguous, over-reaching, too abstract or simply non-existent." Indeed, sometimes "non-existent" might be the preferred approach.

Take Nancy's survey now. Her report might help you craft a better tagline when that challenge next arises.

Posted by Bob at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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