When you’re looking for the right campuses to market to, you probably look at enrollment count and the college’s reputation. But you’re investing a lot of money and effort into your marketing program—especially if you’re targeting multiple campuses—and there’s a lot more to consider than the brand name when selecting schools.
Every campus is different, and dynamics vary from one campus to another. So a campaign that gets huge results at one campus might completely flop at another campus. If you assume all of the campuses in your campaign are alike, you could end up with a mixed bag of results that ends up falling flat.
Don’t get sucked into the brand-name trap when it comes to selecting your campuses.
But how can you make sure you find campuses where you can hit your marketing goals? Here’s how to make sure every campus you market to has great results at the end of your campaign.
Tips to Choose the Right Campuses for Your Campus Rep Program
Consider your industry
Think about the obstacles your business could face on college campuses, due to the nature of your industry. If you’re a big restaurant chain, you might want to know which campuses have dining systems that could interfere with your campaign—such as minimum meal plan requirements or 24-hour cafeterias.
Check the academic calendars
Every campus has its own schedule. Finals and midterms, spring break, and move-in/move-out could severely affect your marketing campaign—just to name a few things. Make sure your activity doesn’t conflict with major events on campus. Look at each school’s online academic calendar and make sure you’re choosing campuses with schedules that fit your campaign plans.
Know each school’s focus
Colleges and universities have their own specialties, and they attract students that fit those niches. So, if you’re marketing athletic gear to a private liberal arts college without a football team, you might be targeting the wrong campus. Or, if you’re marketing to business majors, make sure the campuses you go to have a business program. Do your research ahead of time and make sure the schools you pick will be a good match for your brand.
Know the geography
If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, make sure you’ve got locations close to campus that’ll be easy for students to get to. With fewer cars on campus than ever, students won’t venture much very far off campus, so target schools that are close to your stores.
Go Commando Can Help You Identify the Right Campuses to Market To
Discover unknown markets
There are well over 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. That’s a ton of schools to sift through—most of which you’ve never heard of. But many of them might be perfect marketing opportunities. We can give you a selection of campuses by state, so you’re able to easily see which colleges should be considered within that state.
Do market research quickly and easily
Once you have an initial list of potential colleges, do some market research to see which ones would be a good match. Send surveys to campus reps at each school and ask some preliminary questions to get your finger on the pulse of that campus. With our app, you could start collecting data within minutes.
Some campuses get worse marketing results than others, but you don’t have to be surprised by lousy performances. By following these best practices you can make sure every campus you market to scores strong results.
Next Steps
- Get more great content to boost your campus marketing campaigns—subscribe to our blog!
- Check out this case study to find out how to do campus market research.
- Learn more about Go Commando’s app.
