4th and 10. Your game plan for 2012

In football, 4th and 10 isn’t such a good thing. It’s time to punt or go for it. But to us, we thought it’s time that 4th and 10 was redefined as 4th quarter and 10 simple things you can do to score big in 2012.

After huddling up at PlattForm and consulting with our playmakers, here are the 10 plays you can implement easily in the 4th quarter for an even bigger impact next year.

#1 Click to call
Your prospective students are online but want to talk to someone NOW. Click to call is the answer. Add click to call feature to your paid search media landing pages and mobile sites, so prospective students can connect and talk to admissions without delay. In addition, use a unique phone number, so you can track inquiries to these online channels.

#2 Keyword integration
How well does your website reflect the keywords used by prospective students using a search engine? Integrating and optimizing keywords into site content can do wonders for your monthly site visits total.  Generally speaking, you should revisit your keywords at least every three months.

#3 Mobile landing page
Mobile is hot. That means your school needs a mobile-specific website. Why? People searching with smartphone search differently than they do online.  But innovate further by creating a custom mobile landing page that addresses mobile things like user’s cell phone.  

#4 Custom Facebook page
You have a Facebook page. It’s nice for engagement. But what if your Facebook page generated inquiries and even enrollments? It can happen. Check out our November newsletter story, Medtech’s Facebook Campaign.

#5 Student Appreciation Day
Ever wonder how you can get more students to your school’s open houses? Change the name! Make it more about the student. Roll out the red carpet.  Now promote in places seen by prospective students. Also, encourage them to bring a friend or friends to extend your school’s reach into the community. 

#6 Quick contact form
Go to your website right now and count how many clicks it takes to reach the contact form. If it’s one, how visible is the link? Or maybe you have a form that few fill out due to its length. A quick contact form solves all this by making the form easily accessible and easy to fill out.

#7 Retargeting
Prospective students are slower to inquire these days. That doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Retargeting capitalizes on the out of sight but not out of mind. How? After people visit your site, we can then push a banner ad to them while they continue web browsing or even days later.  It works!

#8 Happy Holidays
The holiday season is the perfect time to tweak your marketing message. Get into the spirit and watch how the good feeling inspires students, staff and prospective students.  You may not see a dividend right away but appreciation wins friends and influences people.

#9 Call to action
Carefully consider your calls to action—words, placement, typeface, color, everything. Here’s proof  from a recent Wall Street Journal. Two signs directed health-care workers to use a hand sanitizer. One read, “Hand hygiene prevents you from catching diseases.” The other read, “Hand hygiene prevents patients from catching diseases.” The first sign had no impact. The second boosted use of hand sanitizer gel anywhere from 37% to 54%.

#10 E-mail blast
U.S. Postal Service may be on life support but email is going strong. E-mail is a cost effective way to stay in touch with your list of prospective students and it’s one-to-one marketing. Links in emails can connect to your website. Timing is everything and email makes perfect timing a real possibility.

That’s our idea of 4th and 10. Its 4th quarter and these are the 10 things you can do quickly and easily to make an even bigger impact in 2012. For more actionable ideas, contact us at PlattForm Advertising.