CUPID STUDIO CLIENT PROJECT

2012
Writing Center Marketing
Proposal

C A R O L Y N K O L E S Z A R , L I N D S E Y O L S S O N , C H R I S T I N E ME Y E R
Summary and Introduction

The Writing Center Marketing Proposal is a plan that outlines numerous marketing initiatives
to ultimately create an enhanced awareness of the Writing Center as a resource on
campus. The proposal allows the Writing Center to fully understand the impact of our
marketing decisions and provides direction for future marketing efforts. This proposal is to be
used as a guidebook for future marketing initiatives as well as a resource for The Writing
Center staff.

Since our meeting, we have analyzed and reflected upon the Writing Centers marketing needs
to reach upperclass students through a fresh approach. After a lot of brainstorming, we have
decided to create a proposal that includes a variety of marketing initiatives. The Writing
Center will have the opportunity to implement these marketing options over a period of time to
achieve its goals.

This proposal includes marketing objectives, target markets, strategies, evaluation, and
conclusion.

Marketing Objectives

The overall goal of the Writing Center Marketing Proposal is to present the Writing Center with
a variety of marketing options to aid the Center in attracting a greater variety of clientele. The
Writing Center currently reaches 781 first year students, 171 sophomores, 107 juniors, 73
seniors, and 12 individuals of various groups which include grad students, high school seniors,
community members, etc. The Writing Center hopes to increase these numbers, specifically the
number of upperclass students who utilize its services. Therefore, the Writing Center
Marketing Proposal has the following objectives:

To dispel the myth that the Writing Center only serves first-year students
To garner more overall clientele of various disciplines for the Writing Center
To highlight the valuable resources of the Writing Center

Target Markets

We have two different target audiences for our proposed deliverables. The first audience we
want to target are Elon University upperclass students. The proposed deliverables are not
solely for this audience but are directed to highlight Writing Center resources that directly
benefit the writing activities of upperclass students such as study abroad applications, graduate
school applications, etc. By emphasizing these resources we dispel the first myth that the
Writing Center only serves first year students.

Our second audience is the entire student and faculty body at Elon. While we wish to focus
greater attention on targeting upperclass students, we do not want the rest of the student and
faculty population to dismiss the Writing Centers presence on campus. Therefore, our
deliverables highlight the numerous capabilities of the Writing Center to appeal to a variety of
clients.

Proposed Implementation of New Strategies

The Writing Center Marketing Proposal includes a number of marketing strategies that can be
implemented by the center to aid in its goals:

Themes for Advertisements

We recommend the use of two possible themes to appeal to a wide range of audiences when
advertising the Writing Center during the 2012 Fall Semester. On the advertisements for both
themes we have included the hours and the location of the Writing Center for the convenience
of the students. The first theme is social media based (Appendix 1). The Social Media theme
shows that the Writing Center is fresh and interactive. Social media based digital ads and
posters are designed to mimic topical, popular social media sites such as Pinterest,
Stumbleupon, and iTunes. The social media advertisements highlight writing technologies of
the current global age. The content of these advertisements demonstrate images of writing on
iPads, blog writing, social media writing, and other digital applications.

The Pinterest advertisement catches the attention of students as it is a popular social media
site. This advertisement displays various pictures of what the Writing Center can do and ways
in which writing has changed over the years. This advertisement shows students that the
Writing Center is a valuable resource for them while also being technologically up to
date. (Appendix 1.1)

Like the Pinterest advertisement, the StumbleUpon advertisement immediately catches the
attention of students since StumbleUpon is also a popular social media site. This advertisement
shows that the Writing Center is online and it also shows the various writing projects that it
can assist a student with. (Appendix 1.2)

The iTunes advertisement and the Love Apps advertisement show that the Writing Center is
technologically up to date. The iTunes advertisement cleverly spins the iTunes App Store to
show students the various ways in which the Writing Center can help them, while the Love
Apps advertisement focuses on how the Writing Center can be appealing to upperclass
students. This approach is attractive to students because many own either an iPhone or iTouch
on which they play games when they are bored or use to help them with a task, and by linking
the Writing Center with the idea of apps they will be more likely to view the Writing Center as
fun and helpful. (Appendix 1.3 and 1.4)

We recommend a more simplistic design as a second theme (Appendix 2). It is composed of
black and white posters with short quotations and brief information about the Writing
Center. These are witty and eye-catching in their simplicity, attracting the attention of students
in all years of study. (Appendix 2.1 - 2.3)

The advertisements for the Writing Center are meant to be used as either digital or print
posters on campus in rotation during Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. The print posters should be
hung up throughout campus over the course of the semester. That is, as soon as one set of
posters is taken down, another should be hung up. We suggest that print posters be hung in
highly-visible areas (ex. stairwells) in a variety of buildings with heavy traffic of students, such
as Lindner and Alamance.
Similarly, the digital ads to be displayed in Moseley and Belk digital display boards should be
rotated every few weeks to keep the visual appeal fresh.

Logo

We would like to note that we have decided against redesigning the logo for the Writing
Center. We feel that the current logo accurately reflects the Writing Center and is effective for
marketing.

Rack Cards

We recommend the use of rack cards when advertising the Writing Center to appeal to clientele
across a variety of disciplines (Appendix 3). These cards outline how the Writing Center is a
useful resource for such clientele. The rack cards specifically mention the types of documents
that can be taken to the Center (i.e. graduate school applications, resumes, internship
applications, theses, lab reports, research help, etc.). We suggest these rack cards be
distributed into the campus mailboxes of all junior and senior students throughout each
semester to remind them of the resources available at the Writing Center. Therefore, the rack
cards serve the purpose of targeting both upperclass students and students across the
disciplines when marketing the Writing Center. (Appendix 3.1 and 3.2)

Facebook and Social Media

Lastly, we recommend that the Writing Center update and utilize social media sites popular
amongst students at Elon, mainly Facebook and Twitter. By creating and maintaining social
media sites, the Writing Center will appear technologically savvy and available. The social
media sites will act as outlets to express the Writing Center as a fresh, valuable resource at
Elon. By implementing these social media sites, the Writing Center will attract a variety of
individuals, including upperclass students and will garner a larger interest in the Writing
Center as a whole.

We recommend that all Writing Center consultants have access to the Facebook and Twitter
sites. The consultants should log onto these sites while they are working, much like how they
currently log onto the AIM account. We recommend consultants are responsible for
responding to questions and posts of other users. To ensure consistent updates and effective
usage, we recommend one person to oversee the Twitter and Facebook pages.

We spent some of our time researching other Writing Centers social media outlets in order to
address the social media strategies for the Center. We looked to Texas A&M Universitys
Writing Center Facebook page. Though Texas A&M University is drastically larger than Elon
University, we chose to analyze the page for its content and effective, constant updates. The
Facebook page has photo albums of its spring training sessions, its location on campus,
prominent people on campus visiting the center, writing center boot camp photos, the national
day on writing photos, writing center consultants, and many other albums. Texas A&Ms
Facebook page also has an events tab in which it lists the Centers scheduled past events.

Texas A&Ms Writing Center also updates its status on a regularly, daily basis. Such posts
include writing tips, advertisements, recent photos, rest in peace statuses of famous writers/
editors, articles on current writings and books, contests the Writing Center sponsors, and even
one status that reads, Happy Hunger Games. However, the Writing Center at Texas A&M
University has only 755 likes with 56 people talking about it. This is significant to note as a
university ten times the size of Elon has only 755 likes even with a consistent stream of posts.

Texas A&M also links its Facebook posts and status updates to its Twitter site. We suggest
linking a potential Facebook page to the current Twitter account. Therefore, it would not be
difficult to manage the two sites simultaneously. We suggest modeling both the Facebook and
Twitter social media sites off Texas A&Ms, displaying current pictures of the Writing Center as
well including a pertinent information section that can be used for Elon students. See Appendix
4.1 for screenshots of Texas A&Ms social media sites for their Writing Center

Included in Appendix 4.2 is the information of a few other universities Writing Center social
media sites. These are excellent examples of how the sites could be set up and what sorts of
things could be shared. We recommend occasionally re-tweeting or sharing the posts of
these other Writing Centers when they seem applicable to the Elon community. This will
increase the activity of Elons Writing Center sites. The more actively the Writing Center uses
social media, the more accessible and up-to-date it will seem to prospective clients, especially
those with upper-level course work.

In terms of the original posts to be shared on Facebook and Twitter, we suggest creating
updates that are meant to inspire writers and encourage them to make the most of the learning
environment that is available to them at Elon University, including resources such as the
Writing Center.
The following ideas are some possibilities for posts:
Announcements for career opportunities for writers
Announcements about writers coming to campus
Announcements about other noteworthy speakers coming to campus
Congratulations for student or professor achievements
Congratulations for national writing honors, such as the writing categories in the
Emmys
Inspirational quotes
Birthdays of well-known writers
Writing tips
Interesting facts about the history of the English language
Links to relevant/interesting articles

It is pertinent that the Writing Center Facebook and Twitter sites remain active. There should
be frequent posts that vary in content. The frequency we have in mind is about two to three
posts a week; anything over five per week may be excessive. There should also be prompt
responses to any questions or other posts by students and friends. This will show students that
the Writing Center is easily accessible through social media, meaning that they are savvy with
current technologies. This will add credit to the image of the Writing Center on our
campus. Therefore, it will attract students who are working with more advanced course work
in a greater variety of disciplines.

There has to be an online audience in order for social media to be effective. By creating a
Facebook organization page for the Writing Center, consultants can be made administrators
of the site. That way, they can invite all of their friends from Elon to like the page. Once a
person likes the page, they will see each time the Writing Center creates posts. We are
confident that consultants will be able to invite a substantial amount of students to like the
page. On the Facebook page, we suggest including a link to the Twitter page so that viewers
can also choose to follow the Writing Center on Twitter. We also recommend including the
Facebook and Twitter logos on posters, saying Like us on Facebook and Follow us on
Twitter. This should help increase the audience and make the Writing Center appear
technologically advanced, skilled, and available, thus attractive to upper class students.

Evaluation and Conclusion

Next semester, our work can be tracked by analyzing the demographics of Writing Center
clientele. Each of these proposed strategies will help to dispel the myths that the Writing
Center only serves first year students, to garner more overall clientele of various disciplines for
the Writing Center, and to highlight the valuable resources of the Writing Center. The two
themes we suggest, as well as the rack card, show either a more witty or modern side to the
Writing Center, making it more appealing to students at Elon. We have also created a digital
Dropbox folder which includes this proposal and all of our documents so the Writing Center
has access to these materials in the future. We hope that each of these suggestions help to
increase the number and variety of students that utilize the vast resources found at the Writing
Center.