I am always amazed at how many leads you can develop by just going about your normal business. People regularly notice jackets, T-shirts, name tags, pens, etc. with college names. Conversations are struck up and before you know it, you have a lead! Are you maximizing this at your college?

Everyone Can Play

The idea of having employees involved in informal marketing is not a new one. Some of your employees are more comfortable with this idea than others. The key is to show them how easy it really is. They don’t have to pick up the phone and make cold calls or aggressively ‘recruit’ strangers. We are simply talking about interacting with people in the course of going about our daily activities. Here are a few examples I’ve witnessed just within the last two months.

Going for Doughnuts. I was recently working with a college in Atlanta. Early in the morning I was filling up my coffee cup and a faculty member came in with his hands full of doughnuts. He was excited about the possibility of getting another student for his program. It seems as he was checking out at the grocery store, the young lady at the register noticed his name tag and began a conversation about the college. She asked him what he did at the college. He told her he taught in the massage program. She asked a lot of questions about the program, the career opportunities, etc. He left a business card with her when he left. I can guarantee you the young lady didn’t feel pressured. The faculty member was happy to talk about his work and profession. Next time they run in to each other, I’m sure the topic will come up again!

House Hunters. A couple of us were driving around one day looking at houses—running in and out of open houses. One of the gentlemen I was with was wearing a golf shirt from the college he works for. Nearly every single person (real estate agent and other house-hunters) commented on the college. He was able to talk about the institution’s breadth of programs, enrollment and other information which gave them all a better understanding of what the college had to offer. It was great public relations and awareness for the institution.

Airport Waiting. Whenever I work with a college I always like to get a piece of clothing with their name on it…it’s a souvenir thing for me to remind me of all the great people I’ve met. Often I wear these while traveling. If you’ve been in an airport lately you know there’s not much to do while you’re waiting for your next flight. So I sit and people watch and strike up conversations with other people who are waiting for their plane. I think people bring up the college name just as a way to have something to talk about, but it gives me the opportunity to tell them about the school. They may never have the need to contact them or refer anyone, but it is always surprising to me how many people know someone or have relatives in the city where the college is located. You just never know!

Lessons Learned

Everyone who works for you, or attends your college, is a potential source of students. It doesn’t matter if they are full-time or part-time, temporary, student, faculty, or staff. In order to maximize these informal conversations, here are some things you may want to adopt if you aren’t doing them already.

1. Make sure everyone knows enough about your college to clearly communicate the benefits and history or your school. Most of us do a good job of orientating full-time people and encouraging students to talk to their friends, we tend to fall down when it comes to part-time employees and adjunct faculty. Make sure they know the history and benefits of your institution.

2. Include everyone in any regular communications regarding new programs, locations, etc.

3. Consider getting business cards for as many employees as makes sense.
4. Allow employees access to imprinted pens/pencils that can be ‘left’ as they interact with others.

5. Make sure they know the process for follow up. If they run in to someone who specifically asks for additional information, they need to know what to do with that. Many potential students have gotten lost in the process because their contact information was misplaced.