Do conversations on your campus still revolve around print versus web? At mStoner we believe that print and web are key elements of an effective marketing strategy.
First, let’s summarize the facts:
Now, let’s talk about the part we haven’t figured out:
Consider this statement from Senior Creative Director Ben Bilow’s recent post on Five Ways to Rock Your Brand Experience:
“You need the same group of people contributing design and stories to print, digital, environment, and customer services in order to consistently and repeatedly reinforce brand experience.”
I’m going to take a stand. The more centralized your marketing team, the more effective your marketing. Sounds obvious, right? Yet, in my consulting work, I still observe the institutional barriers and political considerations that hinder this kind of holistic thinking.
No one sets out to have wildly decentralized governance for a website. No one intended for the print designers and writers to be in a building a mile away from the team responsible for the website.
I have firsthand experience navigating the challenges of reorganizing and coordinating campuswide efforts. I know building a central team is not easy to accomplish, but the payoff is huge. A consistent and disciplined approach allows you to increase awareness about your brand through more effective marketing on what makes your institution distinctive.
[Tweet “Print versus Web? No, it’s about reinforcing a consistent message. #mStoner”]
Two Recommendations
- Centralize wherever you can.
I understand that alumni relations is different from sports information, which is different from development communications or enrollment marketing. Still, we all know that silos on campuses make implementing an integrated marketing strategy very difficult. Frequently, even our central marketing teams have the magazine staff members working in one place and the digital team somewhere else. Organizing the people responsible for communications and marketing into a single team encourages holistic work and a consistent focus on the institutional message.
- Build a multidisciplinary marketing team.
Ideally, you want a centralized team that blends capabilities across media. In other words, the ideal is taking a multidisciplinary approach to your marketing messages and campaigns. More specifically, you should ignore the artificial boundaries between print, web, and social media. By placing content at the root of everything you do, the focus becomes the message, not the channels. Then, designers will design for print, web, and social media. Writers will do the same, creating content for everything from print publications and websites to video scripts, tweets, and Facebook posts. Technologists will understand web architecture, content strategy, and how to integrate content from multiple web-based tools and systems.
Just a bit about your print and web channels…
When faced with decisions about your print and web channels, rely on three clichés:
- Use the right tool for the right job.
Before designing that next brochure, stop and ask yourself “Is print the right choice or is web a better option?” Most often, you need both tools for the job. Try using the evocative narrative of a print piece for the romance of your message, while letting a website enhance the story and provide comprehensive information and details.
- Get the bang for the buck.
When’s the last time you totaled the true cost of a print piece? Consider the design time, printing charges, and fulfillment. Can you reduce your cost by slimming down the number of pages? Do you have data to confirm that the actions you hope will happen after the print piece drops actually do? Would redirecting those funds to an investment in your website increase the reach of your message to key audiences?
- Timing is everything.
Are you thinking about timing? True story from my many years on campus: I once overheard the anger of a person in the next office when he received a donation request from his alma mater on the same day his daughter received the letter informing her she was not admitted. #badtiming
More than ever, campus leaders are beginning to understand the importance of brand and marketing strategy. As marketing professionals in higher education, it’s our responsibility to remind them that the channels we use are secondary to what we want to say. It’s never been about the tools. It’s always been (and still is) about the message.