Catalog is King

Catalog is king in enrollments.  Catalogs may direct people to the website, but the catalog is what gets enrollments, and cannot be replaced.  At about $7 per enrollment (industry standard), nothing can beat that for promotion.  Not display ads, not googleAds, not online promotion.  As the catalog goes, the program goes.

Many schools are emphasizing the instructor do the promotion.  I've been watching this for several years, and I think it is a mistake for a couple of reasons.  The promotional means, facebook, twitter, blogs, etc are free, not effective.  People spend a lot of time on them but get no real return. Ogilvy talks about impressions vs sales.  Some one may have 20,000 facebook followers, but what are the sales?  How much time do they spend feeding the multitudes?

Now I see the technologies as a way of teaching, delivering content, for example, I video'd my live class and put it up. The students see my live class, and non-students are driven to my online class.  But that takes me no time or effort.

I am working on the idea of using youtube and maybe facebook/twitter for "critical steps" that is as one considers a critical idea there is a youtube to watch maybe 3 minutes long, and facebook access to discuss it... or a critical step like visiting a buyer, a youtube to watch and twitter support.

But as viable promotion, I don't think it pays.  Catalog is king.

Also, the school brings 2 or 3 very important functions to the deal:  In every case, online and face to face, the school brings brand.  

We instructors are unknown, so what people sign up for is "Orange Coast College course," that is the brand they trust.  The second thing is promotion, the catalog.  In the case of face to face classes, the third thing is the classroom itself, the physical space.

What if I am wrong about self-promotion of courses, and among the many people trying to do so, someone figures out how to beat the $7 per registration that the school catalog offers?  That information would spread fast, and be quickly adopted far and wide.  Catalogs would wither away.  Instructors would then start promoting themselves as the brand.  At that point, why do they need the schools?  Why would they share any revenue?  If they can promote themselves, fill classes without the catalog, then I think you would find these noncredit instructors doing just that.

The other part, finding physical classrooms for live face to face classes is getting easier as the economy leaves more buildings empty.

Again, I don't think online promotion pays.  I've been watching closely, testing myself, and it just is not there, maybe someday, but not yet.  At the same time, the catalog is an indisputable performer.

I believe, with the LERN organization, that the battle is to be fought with the catalog.  It is the tool for the job, and with efforts its performance can be improved, and I would refer you to LERN for that.

I'd hate to see, in fact I have seen, some programs get between a belief in online promotion and less emphasis on catalogs, only to find dwindling enrollments from lack of catalog effort and no increase from online enrollments.  I won't name names, but I can point out  half dozen easily so far.

For my part I formalized a hypothesis that online promotion will drive enrollments and tested it.  I'd like to see 100 schools do the same.  then we'd have a better idea, and act accordingly.  I say online promotion is a non-starter.  This means the programs are safe.  I also think if and when it is proven instructors can generate their own enrollments, then the programs will wither away.

Cherish and protect those catalogs!