Educational marketing and advertising

Marketing and advertising is the main focus of this section, particularly in an educational context. Larger organisations may have their own dedicated marketing department; however in smaller establishments, in addition to dealing with students’ queries, your role may also include developing appropriate marketing strategies. Therefore, understanding ways of identifying the target audience and how to market and advertise your courses is essential.

At a basic level, marketing activities involve identifying the particular wants and needs of a target market of customers, and then satisfying those customers better than the competitors. However, within the framework of the academic sector, this perspective raises some issues - Who are the customers in this marketplace? At the simplest level, institutions can regard the prospective students and the community as their customers. After all, it is they who enter into the relationship with colleges and universities.

However, in particular when engaging with adult learners, more and more the marketing of available learning opportunities needs to adopt flexible working methods. For example, traditional methods of marketing, such as putting up posters and distributing leaflets may have little impact in engaging socially excluded groups of people, whereas methods using the latest technology are much more likely to reach the target audience.

                   Marketing and advertising strategies