It sounds basic enough: our goal is to increase enrollment. But what's involved in making that happen?
Before new students enroll at TTU, they have to apply. And before they apply, they have to know something about Tennessee Tech. That's where a comprehensive marketing plan fits in as the first major component of the new enrollment plan.
The marketing plan, being written by the university marketing committee, will help define TTU's image in the minds of prospective students beyond where we're already well known.
Developing the plan requires research to understand how TTU is perceived by students — current and prospective. To find an answer to that question, the committee surveyed college-bound high school students across the state to find out what they knew about Tennessee Tech.
"We learned that students in the Upper Cumberland and Middle Tennessee areas are familiar with TTU and our programs, but students who live much farther beyond don't really know that much about us," said Monica Greppin, Public Affairs director and a member of the committee. "And those students quite often confuse TTU with the technical or vocational schools across the state."
We combined those results with TTU student satisfaction surveys, focus group responses and interviews to identify the university's key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Using that information, the committee will develop key messages to help define our image, identify target audiences to reach with those messages, and plan tactics to help spread the word. Strategies could include anything from special events to advertising.
The committee hopes to have the marketing plan finished by June. Watch future issues of Growthchart for more details.
Where we shine
From an extremely long list of university highlights, the marketing committee, with input from Academic & Administrative officers, identified the following key university strengths to stress in all of our messages:
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