By Mark C. Perna


Have you ever thrown a dart, missed the target and hit the wall? Ever miss the wall? It takes place every day in education marketing because of a lack of focus on the target. Focus is the ability to correctly identify and then target prospective students. In previous articles in Techniques, I have espoused the power of “Smart Marketing” by developing your bold “whistle” and blowing it loud and proud. Last month, I covered the importance of developing a brand plan and using consistent persistence in your community to become “Enrollment Rich.” The next key to smart marketing is targeting your message to the right audience.

Target marketing is sharpening your enrollment goals and then developing a strategic plan to accomplish those goals through the use of specific communication vehicles and community focus. It is critical to reach the right audience, with the right message, at the right time, for the right cost. It can be done using the right plan!

As the old story goes, there are two ways to hit a bull’s eye. The first is to take careful aim and shoot a bull’s eye through the center of the target. The other way is to shoot a hole in the wall and draw a target around the hole with the bull’s eye in the middle. If you don’t know what you are shooting at, then any shot will get you there. Like the hole with a target drawn around it, if you don’t set the goal, how will you know whether you have truly hit the target or delivered your message to the right audience?

The starting point of successful target marketing is to seek out the right people with the right offer in a compelling presentation that generates a favorable response. That means there is significantly more involved than creating a catalog and blanketing the community or developing an ad and running it repeatedly in mass media outlets. Because target marketing is more direct, the cost per thousand may be higher, but the response rate should be as well. Be careful not to dismiss target marketing due to the perceived increase in cost, because it is definitely an investment that can pay off. The most important numbers to look at are your bottom-line profits and the long-term value of the students you enroll.

Develop your strategic plan and consider the number of leads, phone calls or inquiries you need to generate in order to convert a certain percentage of prospects into viable students or customers. Then work the plan backwards to hit that particular number of leads, phone calls or inquiries. Break down your students into who they are and where they come from. This can be accomplished by using or developing your database of current enrollment. Statistics such as age, gender, income level, address, or any information specific to pinpointing other “like” prospects in your community are extremely valuable and should be used frequently to target specific areas and types of prospects.

I am reminded of a school we worked with recently that was located in a metropolitan area. The school had a specific budget to accomplish its marketing objectives and that budget wasn’t large enough to blanket catalogs throughout the entire community. It would have taken 240,000 catalogs to cover each of the primary zip codes that this facility served, but we had enough in the budget to create and mail only 20,000 catalogs. So, how do you choose who gets a catalog? Target marketing!

We worked with the school to gain as much student information from their database as possible. We then appended whatever public demographic information was accessible and created a profile of their students. With this information, we were able to target, from that population of 240,000 within a 20-mile radius of the school, 20,000 people who matched the profile, and we sent those prospects a well-designed catalog. The results exceeded the school’s goals. The target marketing efforts paid off, and the resulting enrollment was higher than their previous attempts. Target marketing is a strategy that will provide the biggest bang for your marketing dollars and fill your programs cost effectively.

Here are several strategies to cultivate your target-rich environment.

Target Your Advantageous Zones

Many programs today blanket catalogs throughout their entire communities and waste money in the process. Catalog mailings are expensive and budgets are under consistent attack, so it is critical to target your advantageous zones. Develop a zip code breakdown of where your students are coming from and analyze what zips, carrier routes and neighborhoods are your biggest supporters. Technology has gotten to the point where you can determine which postal carrier routes are the most profitable within each zip and which are of no value, allowing you to slowly eliminate them from your targeted mailing list.

Next, mail to each zip code or carrier route where you are receiving adequate student enrollments. It has been our experience that a drop in mailing quantity of 20-40 percent is not uncommon with properly targeted zip mailings. You can save marketing costs with virtually no adverse effect in enrollments by eliminating the carrier routes and zip codes where few or no students are participating.

Use Your Existing Database Mailing List

Your database mailing list should contain current and former students, prospects who have called for more information, and anyone who has requested that you follow up with them on a regular basis. This list is a valuable resource of prospects who already believe in the value that you bring to the community. If you do not capture this information now, start! If you do capture the information, start using it effectively. This list is marketing gold and should be developed and maintained.

In your strategic plan, be sure to include strategies to consistently target your database prospects. Mail a catalog to them and then mail a second catalog two weeks later. In fact, if many of your students repeat, perhaps even a third postcard or letter mailing during each enrollment cycle will pay dividends. Ensure that they are always informed and aware of what you are doing and how they will gain value from being enrolled.

As I wrote in the October Issue of Techniques, embrace the “Rain Effect.” Every time you communicate your message through the various channels of communication it is like a drop of falling rain. The more your message drips, the sooner you move a viable prospect to action. Target marketing ensures that you cost effectively drip on the right people, so do it consistently.

Thoughts to bear in mind while developing your target-rich environment:

• Develop a strategic plan and systematically work the plan.
• Learn who your students are and where they come from.
• Create a profile of your students and find prospects that match the profile.
• Test and measure every step of the way. Do not make sweeping changes without testing your plan and your message for success.
• Develop strategic partnerships with companies that understand what you are trying to accomplish and will cost effectively support your efforts within your current budget.
• Use consistent persistence in the fulfillment of your enrollment objectives by dripping on the right audience with the right message.

Whether you market using catalogs, print ads or through high school feeder programs, it is imperative to learn everything you can about your students and use that information to find many more like them. Cultivate your target-rich environment and become enrollment rich!


Mark C. Perna is the founder of “Tools for Schools” in Cleveland, Ohio, specializing in full-service marketing to the career and technical education field. He has published numerous articles and has worked with schools of all sizes in the pursuit of maximizing enrollment. Perna can be reached at 877-313-5300, via email at mark@MT4S.com., or through the Tools for Schools Web site at www.marketingtoolsforschools.org.