FMCSMM Assignment

NIFTs Online & Offline

Marketing Plan
-To Professor Shivkumar Belli
-By Bhanu, Chahat & Megha
M.F.M (2015-17)

NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

!1

OFFLINE
MARKETING
PLAN
Articles in Magazine
Articles in magazines should be given which
will brief about the course and its scope in
industry. The articles shall be published in
magazines which is fashion oriented, so that
the target audience can be targeted,
magazine like Teen Vogue, Vogue, Elle,
Cosmopolitan, etc. The article should be
published a month before the registrations
starts and the month when it actually starts.

Advertising
Local Newspaper & Radio CommercialAn advertising in local newspaper and in
radio commercial highlighting the
objective of this course is to develop the
managerial and leadership skills for
building competitiveness of fashion
industry.
Billboard ads- A billboard should be
placed in the area where the majority of
the crowd is students, like university areas,
etc.
Flyers/Pamphlets - Printed out and flyers
can be distributed in letterboxes,
stationery shops in local area, outside
coaching centers, etc.

Alumni Magazine
A magazine should be printed which should
be written by alumni of MFM as well as
faculty. The alumni will share their
NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

experience of their course and what they

feel about this course. There are many
alumni which are working at a higher
position in the industry, those people will
highlight that how this course has helped
them to reach a success level. The columns
will also include not the academic
experience but also how they feel about the
mentoring sessions. The faculty column will
majorly talk about how faculty handle their
students.
Such magazine should be circulated along
with the brochure of NIFT, online as well.

Free seminars
Marketing also include conducting activities
such as free workshops or seminars. The
seminars will include the presentation which
will include the subjects covered in the
course, the scope in industry, the mentoring
session, about the placements, etc.
The seminars will be conducted in other
colleges at undergraduate level or even at
coaching centers which majorly prepare for
masters.

HT Career Counselling
Hindustan Times newspaper organises a
career counselling event, where all the
college put up a kiosks and counsel the
students about their college and the course
it offers. Nift Hyderabad should also put up
such a kiosk and advertise about MFM.

Course Brief in College

The presentation and brief about the should
be given by course faculty at college, where
students from different colleges should be
invited and students who are show their
interest in the course should also be a part
of this. There shouldnt be any charges to
attend such brief.

!2

ONLINE
MARKETING
PLAN
INTRODUCTION
The higher education market is turning out
to be a more competitive market. Its a war
like situation out there among every
university, college and institute in India as
everyone is giving a tough fight to each
other to attract more students.
Although there are numerous reasons, why
these universities compete with each other
and there are many ways to outshine others
in terms of marketing, but the digital
marketing strategy for higher education is
what is required today.
We are living in a digitally revolutionised
world where every type of business is going
online, education is no more an exception.
People want every kind of information from
the comfort of their home or office and
hence, it becomes necessary to adapt to a
suitable digital marketing strategy for
colleges. Your target market is online 24 x 7:

NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

Whether sending an instant message via

their smart phone, making Skype calls to
their parents via laptop or shopping on their
tablet, the target audience is online 24 x 7.
In fact, if they want to find out the best
university in their locality, they search it
online. It means customers are always
online, so why not use their 24 x 7 online
presence to your advantage by creating a
digital strategy!
Research is global: Indian citizens living in
India arent the only ones who look for
higher education, but the global audience
too. Hence, online research is a global thing.
For a distant student, it becomes easier to
find the college of his/her choice and apply
for a course online.
One of the best ways to boost student
application and increase e-student
satisfaction level is to actively engage with
them.
Its a win-win situation for both the college
and the students. Digital marketing is what
keeps an institution equipped with the latest
tools to outshine other colleges in the race.
A good digital marketing strategy for
institutes will keep it at the forefront of
higher education competitive battle.

!3

Why Use Digital Marketing

to Reach Students
Your potential audience i.e students are
already searching online foreducational
and training courses.
Students these days spend maximumtime
on the internet rather infront of other
media including television.
Display advertisements on the internet
areeffective and generate good sales
compared to conventional advertising.
They can be used to create a brand
awareness among people.
Parents judge aschool or college based
onits website and its onlinepresence.
Most students have also begun tojudge a
school orcollege through its online
presence.Guardians read online reviews
before taking any decisions.
Outstation students dependheavily on
the websites forcollege admissions.
With more user friendly websites, parents
consider doing online admissions and
prefer to raise any queries online.
In the days of responsive websites and
apps,People want everything at their
fingertips.A well marketed website solves
these issues.

The Bigger Challenge Posed To

Nift & The Various Channels It
Can Adapt
The under optimised content on the website
and the lack of link popularity is holding
this site back from achieving full search
engine visibility.

NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

Solution: In addition to appending and

editing the content, NIFT should built
quality back links to the site from related
resources. One of the most important things
that the institute needs to keep in mind is
the fact that most internet users do not go
beyond the first three pages of the search
engines to look for the required information.
This means that the institution needs to
make use of the right keywords and key
phrases so that its website is always in the
first three pages of the search engine result
pages. This requires the institution to make
use of optimisation techniques. NIFT also
need to make sure that the content they
create for the prospective students is
powerful and relevant.

Alumni Magazine Online,

Success stories, Case
studies & Quotes
Today, hundreds of schools publish alumni
magazines on an annual or quarterly basis.
The articles serve to share stories of faculty
members groundbreaking research,
spotlight alums unique career paths, share
innovative educational programs, and delve
into more complex feature stories about
education.Alumni magazines can be
powerful tools for connecting to a broader
audience. Now, schools can replace or
supplement print distribution with online
distribution, particularly for current students
and younger alums, who tend to do more of
their reading online. Nift can employ
dedicated alumni magazine editor or
consider using a content marketing agency,
which can coordinate efforts with its inhouse communications team. It may
consider using an online magazine
publishing tool, such as issuu. Ensure
consistent alumni and student
communications. As a marketing method,
success stories are often highly successful.
They do require some research and time,
and you may find that a dedicated section of

!4

your website may be necessary to properly

present them. However, nothing may speak
to a potential students family more than
seeing the real results of an education at
your institutionfor example, the jobs
obtained, the quotes spoken by those who
have attended, or the lives changed.

Build segmented online

content hubs to appeal to
each audience
Most colleges have a section of their
websites dedicated to news about the school
but in order to build an audience online,
focus on providing engaging content that
will appeal to each of your defined
audiences through dedicated content hubs.
For example, Colby College, a highly
selective liberal arts school in Waterville,
Maine, has a separate site, Inside Colby,
billed as for students, by students. Current
students use the site to blog about their oncampus experiences and share essays,
videos, photos, podcasts, and other glimpses
of life on campus. Although the portal is
aimed at existing students, its content is
public and can serve as a powerful draw for
recruiting new students. Offer a subscription
to an online newsletter that will point them
to the latest content regarding notable
alumni news and innovative programs at the
school.

Spotlight day-to-day life at

the school through social
media
Social media platforms particularly
Twitter and Facebook can help students,
alumni and prospective students to stay
connected with the colleges base on a dayto-day basis, and will give enough
opportunities to build stronger relationships
with their community.

NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

Develop a mobile app that

combines functionality with
compelling content
While a mobile app is by no means a
required part of a universitys content
marketing plan, it can be highly effective.
Some schools are using such apps to great
effect: For instance, MITs free mobile app
features a real-time shuttle tracker, a
searchable campus map, and a feed of the
latest news from the school. The app can
have a feature of searchable alumni
directory, news stories about Nift alumni,
and alumni and faculty video clips.

Videos & Infographics

(Content Marketing)
Since videos tell the most compelling stories,
colleges can provide unique insights through
vlogs or mini docs highlighting noteworthy
events, such as orientation/graduation week
activities, alumni reunions, special
ceremonies, grant awards, community
partnerships, or interesting research finds.
Nift being a design college should form
infographics of employment, Nift
partnerships, Campus life etc. Its a quicker
and more interesting way to reach mass
audience and consumer far less time to
catch the attention of students. All these can
be rapidly posted on Nifts website, and
through other social media like Facebook,
twitter etc. Agenda is to keep the world
informed.

Automate event marketing,

promotions, and scheduling
Like athletic events, performing arts,
community events, etc. Creating a unique
student experience is the only way to
differentiate our institution from others.

!5

Increase NIFT Websites

visibility with SEO

only pay when people click on your ads. If

nobody views your PPC advertisements, you
wont pay.

Search engine optimization, commonly

abbreviated as SEO, is the cornerstone of
any good online marketing plan. SEO
involves making several improvements to a
colleges website that increase its visibility in
search engines, and for the words and
phrases that potential students closely
associate with a site.For example, lets say
our college is located in Hyderabad . If
NIFT wants its website to show up on the
first page when someone searches Google
for Hyderabad colleges or college in
Hyderabad , it could use SEO methods to
make its site more likely to appear. It could
do so by including these targeted words or
phrases in its page titles, on its homepage
copy, or in copy on other pages. SEO also
involves improving websites authority,
which is a crucial component of its ranking
on search engines. One of the ways NIFT
can do this is by acquiring links to your
website from partners, local companies, and
other sites. The more high quality links it
has, the better the site will rank. This
strategy has an immense potential to grow
and can passively attracts visitors to NIFT,
making it one of the most effective college
marketing ideas available.

Engage prospects with

email marketing

Increase traffic with Paysper-Click (PPC) advertising

With PPC advertising, you can choose
which keywords and phrases you want to
trigger your advertisements. For example,
you can set your ads to display when people
search for design college.Then, you can
set a bid, and if its among the highest, your
ads will display above organic search
results.One of the main benefits of PPC is
that results are instantaneous, and you can
reach a highly targeted audience. As soon as
your ads are clicked to go live, they can start
driving traffic to your website.And youll
NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

Email marketing is one of the easiest and

most affordable ways to increase
applications.
NIFT can encourage prospective students to
sign up on its website to receive email
updates. Then, it can follow up with
targeted information based on their
interests. For example, if someone signs up
on a page about NIFTS accessory design
department, then NIFT can send emails
that focus on the colleges accessory
programs. Or if someone signs up on your
communication department page, it can
send more information about majors in the
department.
As NIFT nurture leads via email, it can
encourage prospects to submit an
application. This will help to keep the
college at the top of places to apply.It can
also be automated email marketing.

Strategies/Tactics
Create a message of creativity.
Create an overarching look that will
brand the University and its individual
departments.
Create a tagline that references the
connection between University College
and its departments and programs
Create a series of videos
Develop a What is NIFT? Campaign
Create a NIFT Events Website Calendar
Create a Student Social Media Campaign
Create a campaign to increase awareness
of NIFTs innovative programs by
publishing informative articles studentcentered electronic publications

!6

Conclusion
Submit media alerts to select outlets to
promote program recognition to a
regional and national audience.
Subscribe to Google Analytics to
maximize search engine recognition
Develop a Speakers Bureau

NIFTS OFFLINE & ONLINE MARKETING PLAN

All institutions have same goals: attracting

high-quality students, recruiting great
faculty and staff, encouraging alumni to
make donations to support school programs,
and building up the schools brand
recognition and reputation.
In order to stand out from their many
competitors, its essential to focus on content
marketing, making use of both traditional
and digital strategies

!7