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Press Release from Primary Research Group, Inc.
More than 47% of American colleges use web advertising of some type to market the
college including more than 59% of private colleges, according to a new study from
Primary Research Group, The Survey of College Marketing Programs. The 170 page
study presents more than 650 tables of data relating to college marketing efforts,
exploring television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising, direct mail, college
viewbook and magazine publishing, and use of web ads, blogs, search engine placement
enhancement, and other internet related marketing. The study also presents data on the
percentage of distance learning programs that are managed and marketed by the central
administration of the college and the percentage that are managed by separate
administrative entities.
The report also looks closely at spending by colleges on marketing consultancies, market
research firms, advertising and public relations agencies. The data in the report is broken
out by enrollment size, type of college, public/private status, and even by the extent to
which colleges draw their applicants from the local area. Fifty five colleges completed
an exhaustive questionnaire.
Just a few of the study’s many findings appear below:
17.65% of the colleges in the sample make payments to search engines
for higher search engine placement in searches. More than a quarter of private colleges make
such payments, but only a bit more than 10% of public colleges do so.
15.69% of the colleges in the sample have used podcasts as a way to market the college.
Podcasts were used most by the research universities in the sample.
Close to 86% of the colleges in the sample publish a viewbook;
all of the private colleges in the sample and three quarters of the public
colleges in the sample publish viewbooks. The mean number of
traditional print) viewbooks distributed by the colleges in the sample in 2006 was 12,954.
29.41% of the colleges in the sample offered a PDF version of the viewbook.
A shade more than 23% say that they are printing fewer and fewer viewbooks each year
More than twice as many colleges in the sample said that their
volume of direct mail for marketing the college
had increased over the past two years than said that it had
decreased in this same period.
About 61% of the colleges in the sample include a virtual tour
of the college campus on the college website.
Larger colleges were somewhat more likely than smaller colleges to have a virtual
tour of the campus on the college website. Only 20%
of the community colleges in the sample had a virtual tour of the campus on the college website.
The colleges in the sample received a mean of 53.5% of their
applications through the college website, and this figure ranged from 0 to 100%.
20.45% of the colleges in the sample have an employee on the college
enrollment, marketing, public relations or admissions
staffs who is assigned the role of responding to comments about
the college or otherwise providing information about the college to bloggers.
13.7% of the colleges in the sample use any form of paid advertising service from Google
Mean annual spending on advertising agencies was $28,800 with median spending of $5,000.
More than 75% of the colleges in the sample published their own magazines about the college.
Close to 80% of the colleges in the sample have advertised on the radio; both public and
private colleges use radio advertising and college
size is not a major determinant of radio advertising use.
26.42% of the colleges in the sample have advertised on cable television within the past two years;
For more information view our website at www.primaryresearch.com.
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