What Our Tutoring Programs Can Learn from Madison Avenue
Posted by Jessie Bourneuf on Wed, Oct 20, 2010 @ 01:49 PM
Have you been fascinated, as I have, these past five seasons with MadMen and the shenanigans of Don Draper and his Madison Avenue cronies? Some of us were coming of age in the 60’s, and at least I was convinced then of the pernicious evil represented by Madison Avenue. The nerve of interrupting Dick Van Dyke, Laugh-In, and The Smothers Brothers with all those ads and jingles. I shudder now to think that I actually watched so much TV. Maybe it was the ads after all.
What does any of this have to do with running a Tutoring Center? Certainly we would all agree that developing a cadre of well-trained tutors lies at the heart of running a successful program. But, what about the students? It’s not so simple for them to walk in or to seek online tutoring assistance. We are painfully aware that for each student receiving academic support in our tutoring programs, there are more who need the help but do come to us. This is where Madison Avenue fits in. To expand our programs, we have to sell.
So, channel your inner Don Draper (well, perhaps your inner Peggy Olsen might be an easier fit), and get to work selling your tutoring program to your students. Think of market share, and grow the percentage of students who seek you out. Chart it. Watch the trend. Find all the prime-time events on campus and be there.
At AskOnline, we have developed a Marketing Guide I would love to share with you. Just click this link, and I will send you an electronic copy of the guide filled with tips and ideas shared with us by our customers over the years. This stuff does work.
Sincerely,
Jessie Bourneuf, President
AskOnline, Inc.
P.S. I may as well get all of this out of my system. Do you think that your faculty would benefit from increased awareness of your tutoring programs? And how about those administrators who hold tight their purse strings. You have many constituents, and you have to sell to all of them. And nothing sells better than visibility and success. Let them know that your program is shooting off the charts.