5th LAURELS International Conference on Education and Management in English Language Teaching
Dynamic Marketing for ELT Schools and Organizations (Synopsis)

With increased competition from the growing number of EFL organizations and the rapidly changing market, there are more and more challenges to be met and questions to be asked:

• How can you attract new students, and keep the students you already have?
• How can you develop student and staff loyalty?
• How can you develop new courses for new market segments?
• How can you market more cost effectively?
• How can you create a competitive advantage? and…
• Why are students going down the road to "that" school when the quality of your courses is so much better?

Over the last few years the key word on everyone's lips has been 'quality', and certainly the quality of courses and teaching is essential in any self respecting school. But quality of teaching is not enough any longer, if indeed it ever was, and quality, in any case, is a very subjective word. What may be quality for you, may not actually be what the student actually wants at all. The questions above and many other marketing issues are the focus for discussion in the workshops which make up "Dynamic marketing for ELT schools and organizations".

The rationale behind developing this type of course was originally my own belief that everyone in any organization has a role to play in its effective marketing, and that this is particularly true in service industries. The idea that the marketing department, or the person who "does the marketing" has little involvement with other staff in the school has always been an anachronism to me, although this is frequently the case in larger ELT organizations. In my view everyone from the Office Boy to the Director has a role to play and these workshops encourage the participation of anyone who is interested in the future development of their organization, or indeed interested in their own future development.

A related aspect which these workshops aim to develop is the idea that customer service does not purely apply to students, "the external client", but also to teachers and other staff, "the internal client", without whose motivation and commitment no organization can achieve the excellent "word of mouth'' which is crucial to building student numbers. Good communications throughout the school, good teamwork and a ready appreciation of good work done at any level not only results in a better atmosphere amongst staff and students, but can have an extremely positive effect on the bottom line.

Marketing is of course a huge subject and one which is full of jargon and acronyms. This particular course aims to divide up some of the key areas into manageable workshops, concentrating on:

The role of marketing in an ELT organization

• confusion, misunderstandings and misconceptions
• the differences in marketing products and services
• 4 Ps/PEST/USPs
• internal and external marketing

Internal marketing and customer service

• clients and influencers
• motivating staff and students
• causes of unreliability/unkept promises/bad attitude
• satisfaction evaluation techniques
• performance/importance questionnaires

Marketing planning, budgeting and evaluation

• the planning process
• SWOT analyses
• budgeting/evaluation
• timing/responsibilities/calendarization

External marketing, including brochure analysis

• the promotion mix
• SMART/AIDA
• product positioning
• market segments
• producing effective brochures/leaflets

The methodology of the course is highly interactive and the course itself has been designed to cater for participants with different work functions, different levels of responsibility, and different skills, It will, however, be of particular use and interest to Directors, Directors of Studies and those responsible for marketing.

Many people have an intuitive knowledge of marketing through general experience. What this course aims to do is to put that knowledge in a recognisable context, building the confidence and enthusiasm of participants to put theory into practice in their own individual situations.

NB. All participants should bring with them copies of their own promotional material, and where possible promotional material from their local competitors

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