Higher education marketing plays a critical role in attracting new students. Building awareness and perception among potential students can effectively set the stage for targeted recruiting efforts by the admissions team and communications programs by public relations.

Yet higher education marketing has never been more difficult:

• Limited budgets — Departments are challenged each year to justify their budgets and achieve more results with less money.
• Media saturation — Colleges must convey their messages to students who regularly “tune out” information in response to daily information overload.
• Outdated Information — Student perceptions of colleges are often shaped by information that is outdated and often incorrect.
• Increased Competition — Colleges increasingly compete for the same pool of potential students in an effort to reach mandated enrollment increases.

Gaps in Awareness and Perception

The result is that most colleges suffer an “awareness gap” with potential students. The 2007 Student-View Report shows that students generally have little familiarity with more than 50% of colleges in their region. In fact, nearly 40% of potential students often have never even heard of several colleges in their area!

Schools also suffer from “perception gaps”, as potential students form opinions about colleges based on incomplete-, inaccurate- and outdated information from friends, relatives, teachers and even some guidance counselors. These perceptions often prevent students from learning more about a college that could meet their needs.

Student Insights understands these challenges and offers affordable, effective, market research that can help.

Our Student-View Report shows students’ specific awareness and perceptions of your school and compares this to other schools in your region. It highlights specific areas of strength and weakness, allowing you to better target your marketing dollars for maximum impact.

Our custom research can provide answers to your specific questions. We conduct surveys and focus groups of:

• High school seniors
• Parents of high school seniors
• Guidance Counselors
• Current Students
• Alumni
• Employers
• Others

Whether you need the quantitative certainty of a survey or the qualitative insights of a focus group, Student Insights can help.

Contact us today and let us help you meet your marketing challenges!