LESSONS IN LOW-COST MARKETING FROM SIT'S WebCampus
When you visit the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT)
WebCampus home page, a small JAVA applet pops up on your
screen asking you to supply your first and last name and
email address for the purpose of receiving more information,
electronically, about Stevens’s online graduate courses and
programs. You’ll also see five logos to the right of the
page that represent links to the world’s most prestigious
engineering membership societies.
The JAVA applet is "essentially
one of the most powerful marketing tools that we have," says
Robert Ubell, SIT’s dean of online learning, adding that the
applet brings in "dozens of names to our inquiry list every
day."
The engineering society links
signify an affinity marketing program with organizations
whose members would likely be interested in enrolling at the
WebCampus. Members of these societies get a 10 percent
discount on tuition. The societies help market WebCampus and
earn a marketing fee for every student that enrolls. It’s a
simple win/win/win situation: students get some needed
training in their field at a discount; the society earns a
fee for their marketing; and WebCampus adds to its
enrollment ranks.
Such low-cost marketing tools
have helped the two-years-young WebCampus - which offers
graduate-level engineering and management courses that lead
to certificates - double its enrollments every semester to
its current level of more than 300 students. Although that
may not seem like a high figure, SIT is a small campus with
only 2000 graduate students. "We think the trajectory of
doubling every semester is likely to happen for at least
another year and a half, so that means by next spring we’ll
have 1,200 students," adds Ubell.
Another inexpensive marketing
tool that has shown promise revolves around Ubell’s ability
to get lots of free press. One look at the "WebCampus in the
News" web page reveals an almost uncanny amount of media
coverage on WebCampus in such notable publications as The
Chronicle of Higher Education, Publishers Weekly
and The New York Times. "Coverage has been fabulous
on television and radio and in magazines and newspapers in
the U.S. and abroad," says Ubell.
The WebCampus also mixes in
email promotions. "We have a tremendous email list," says
Ubell. "We use our relationships with the membership
societies to market for us using their email addresses."
The entire WebCampus is
"working very well," adds Ubell. "It’s a small business, but
if it grows to where we want it to be, (approximately 2,000
online graduate students), it will bring in tremendous
revenue and offer tremendous opportunities to students who
want this kind of learning all over the world."
Stevens
WebCampus |
