Response Magazine is a publication I receive and read every month being that I’m in the direct marketing industry. But it might not be on the reading lists of many people in the collegiate world but there was an article in this months issue that was very relevant to college marketing professionals. It’s called “Scoring Big With DR” and written by Doug McPherson. You should go read it here.
The article focuses on how different organizations in the collegiate arena….UF, CBS Sports, Fathead, ESPN and others are using various forms of Direct Response marketing to improve their results.
Here are some of the important takeaways:
Appeal to emotion: This should be easy to do for college marketers. People love their teams and alma maters like nothing else. There is so much emotion tied to the person’s history with your organization, that you just “have” to play on this emotion in helping to boost your response and results.
How do you accomplish this? Personalization (both in imagery and text), relevance, and timeliness are three of the best ways that we preach to clients everyday.
Get help from professionals: Just because your title is Director of Marketing, that doesn’t mean you need to shoulder all the responsibility for your organization’s success. Find partners who are the experts in doing what it is you want to accomplish and partner effectively with them. In 2009 and beyond, “vendorship” is dead. If you are going to be successful you need to find good partners that will stick with you through thick and thin. You may not win all the battles together, but with the right team you have a great chance of winning the war.
The University of Florida partnered with Football Fanatics to market their officially licensed products and Ticketmaster to help make the ticket sales process much more efficient.
Embrace mobile marketing: It is said in the article that “mobile is destined to become the first screen” and you should believe it. Everyone now knows at least one person with an iphone or similar device.
The NCAA, AT&T, SEC, and ESPN have all rolled out programs and initiatives to engage fans and customers using college sports as the thrust behind the effort.
By the way, AlmaMatters.org is optimized for the iphone and other mobile devices. Just navigate to our site like normal and you’ll be presented with the mobile friendly version automatically. Try it today!
