Positioning your service in the minds of college students is truly a difficult task, but doable with enough creativity and determination. If you are able to ignite a spark in the minds of this hard-to-penetrate demographic, that spark can turn into a blazing fireball and burn across colleges throughout the world.
1.) Facebook
Yeah, seems obvious, but facebook is a great way to start getting the word out about your service. But be smart about it and purchase “flyers” (basically ad spots shown a particular amount of times) for hand picked schools.
If your service focuses on “fashion” then don’t simply purchase flyers at any random college, purchase flyers for fashion related schools. A school such as New York Institute of Fashion would be a great starting point.
If your service focuses on young entrepreneurs, then Babson University – the number one entrepreneurship college – would be a smart choice.
2.) Flyers, Flyers, Flyers
Spend some time on creating a few hundred simple, clear, and to-the-point flyers that you can post around your campus. Hit everywhere that you can: cafeteria, library, classrooms, hallways, dorms, all over the entire campus.
Let’s face it, flyers aren’t the best way of marketing, but they can be pretty effective at times, especially if you place them in spots where you know students are bound to notice them. Job boards are a great spot to post your flyers next to.
3.) Dorm Raids w/postcards
When I started my first company almost 3 years ago, I and a few friends of mine would load up a few thousand postcard sized flyers and go from dorm to dorm personally handing out these mini flyers to every student that we came in contact with.
It didn’t matter who you were, if you were in the dorms we’d give you a flyer and a 10 second pitch about our company and how it could possibly help you. Though many students won’t go the extra step by signing onto your site after receiving the card, your company name is now in their mind and will help reinforce any other exposure of your company that they come across.
4.) Freebies!
Everyone likes receiving something for free. If your budget will allow for it, use sites such as Branders and make bulk orders of things such as pens, markers, pads, etc… and have your logo branded on them. Another good item may be bottle openers, because you and I both know that an item such as that would be used many, many, many times.
What has/hasn’t worked for you?
Read some related articles:
- Your College Startup Better Be Simple, Sweet, & Sexy Nowadays, everybody and their mothers want to start a company focused on the college student market. I kid you not: about 7 out of 10...
- The College Textbook Market and Daniel Scudder of DormItem No college student entrepreneur has been successfully able to create a nationwide service that allows a critical mass of college students to sell textbooks, find...
- There’s a business in the Dorms! I started my first business in my dorm room at college. And I bet a lot of you young entrepreneurs did as well. Heck, I...
- Facebook Success can be Yours If you’ve been following facebook for the past couple of months you have probably heard about possible acquisition of the company. Back in April when...
No comments yet.