College Marketing Ideas

College students are no longer the stereotypical financially broke demographic. They now spend significant amounts of money on products and services, and companies want to get a share of these dollars. Targeted strategies are the best way to market to college students.

Campus Newspapers

One of the more traditional ways to market to college students is by placing an advertisement in campus newspapers, or sponsoring a special edition of a campus newspaper. When placing print ads, make them more effective by offering a coupon just for students on campus.

Party Sponsorship

College students often party, and making your brand visible where they go clubbing is an effective way to reach them. For example, if you sell a brand of liquor or drink mixers, become partners with a popular campus sorority or fraternity to give out free drinks to party patrons in exchange for step and repeat signage (the large banners placed in front of clubs that bear a company's logo), or having your logo placed on the party fliers. Of course, this applies to sponsor parties held in nightclubs, not house parties to avoid any underage drinking.

Alternatively, if you have a club and want to attract college students, reach out to your local party promoters to bring college students into your club. Advertising college nights or ladies's night specials just for students of area colleges could help boost your marketing efforts.

Direct Marketing

A good way to reach college students when developing marketing plans is to get promotional staff to go right where they are. You can even pay other college students to do this. This is especially effective when you're trying to market a products popular among college students, such as alcohol (but you'll need to reach the students at a nightclub rather than on campus), electronics, energy and sports drinks, and snack foods.

Set up around campus and actively engage students passing by. Often, marketing efforts are better received by college students when the marketer is a peer.

Giveaways

If you have a product or service that can easily be sampled or given away, you should use it when marketing to college students. Whether you want to promote your product in a store, or on campus, make sure the students know that you have a product giveaway just for them.

For example, if you open a pizzeria and want business from local college students, set up a table at the entrance of the restaurant with signage letting college students know they can get free pizza or a coupon for signing up for a mailing list. On the other hand, if you are promoting your bank's checking accounts just for college students, set up a booth on campus and offer students a branded T-shirt for applying to open a new account.

Social Media

One of the least expensive and most effective ways of marketing to college students is using social media networks. Popular sites among college students include Facebook and MySpace. Each allows companies to buy targeted ads. For example, if you only wanted to target students at The Ohio State University between 19 and 22 who were female, you could launch a Facebook ad campaign to reach only these students.

This is the best approach when you want to reach a very narrow group of college students, as opposed to as many students as possible.

References

• College Marketing Ideas
• Youth Marketing Ideas