Help, I have my first interview in about 12 years! Any marketing/education specialists?

[sixp]

I have to give a presentation on the marketing strategy for a brand new university distance learning course. Can anyone help with any ideas?

I'm not a specialist. However, I'd have thought that you need to work out what you're going to say the competitive advantage of this course is and who your target audience is going to be, explaining why, eg people working p-t, people looking to retrain but working f-t in something else, SAH parents, retired people with an esoteric interest, whatever. Tailor your messages and format to that audience and make sure you don't overrun or do something far too short.

For exercises relate to job interviews, in my experience, there is rarely a "right" answer. What the panel wants to know is that you can build a coherent case, explaining the basis, be consistent and have the confidence to maintain energy to the end. Really try to think yourself into the role and practise, practise, practise. Do you have any friends/relatives who would listen to it a few times and give constructive feedback?

Thank you. I think I am just nervous as I have been a SAHM for the last five years. The thought of it all is daunting, even though it's the perfect job for me! It is only a five minute presentation, so I wasn't even going to bother with PowerPoint, which I try to avoid if I can anyway, but maybe a handout would be good.

Something visual will show that you've prepared, even if it's just a diagram of blobs containing each potential segment of the target participants. It will also help the panel refer to you easily in their discussions of all the candidates at the end, and it's always good to make yourself easily memorable. Best of luck.

I work in this sector. Two things. What level is this job at, and did they ask you to make a presentation? If it's above support staff level, and they asked for a presentation, they will be expecting powerpoint or prezi.

Thanks Bluestocking. It is above support level. I may do a PowerPoint. They have provided information on the target countries and audience, so I was just thinking of focusing on the marketing materials and media strategy, much of which will be online.

Think about USPs as distance learning is very competitive, and also innovations in this area (Khan Academy, edX etc). A marketing campaign could be supported by a content driven social media/social learning programme.

Oh gosh, andadietcoke, I have no idea about any of that! I will look up khan academy etc. I have maybe been concentrating too much on marketing the course and not on the fact that it's distance learning. I have marketed lots of courses before but mostly undergraduate. What do you mean by a content driven social media programme? - like a viral?

Look also at coursera who offer online courses from some of the world's best universities, and Future Learn, a specifically British equivalent launched last month.

Sorry, went back to sleep!!

You can use YouTube and Vimeo to post videos of the course tutors talking about the course or students saying why they're doing the course and how it will help with their careers. YouTube is the second biggest search engine so it's great search engine marketing stuff with heavy keyword optimisation and you can even post the scripts up.

Then on twitter and Facebook you can have accounts specific to the course. Post snippets of course material, news stories relevant to the course, articles written by the faculty etc. again, great SEM and you can engage potential students early on. You can track engagement and what people are saying using a sentiment metric tool and adapt the content on your social media channels appropriately, so you have quite a dynamic marketing campaign.

Bluestocking, thanks for the pointers. Am I right in thinking those sites only promote free courses though? The course I'll need to market will be paid for with one of the Russell Group universities.

Andadietcoke, thank you. These are all good ideas. I was thinking of adverts/course listings on sites like findamasters, making sure there are good e-marketing brochures etc and if possible using alumni or existing students in some way.

Hi sixp - those sites offer free courses but that's what the Russell Group universities (I work at one) are up against. PM me if you like!

Thanks, Bluestocking, I will do.