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4 Ways Instructors Can Help Create Course Marketing Materials
Creating effective marketing materials for your courses can feel like a never-ending task, especially if you have a small team. Marketing your classes with fresh and relevant content takes all of your resources. Yet there’s one valuable resource you might be overlooking—your instructors. They may not be marketing experts, but they have a perspective worth exploring.
We’ve talked before about how instructors can help attract students by sending emails, making announcements, sharing on social media, and leveraging community connections. Instructors can also help you create marketing content that feels personal and relevant. Let’s look at how you can work with instructors to make marketing materials for your classes.
How to Create Marketing Materials With Help From Instructors
Most likely, your instructors are not marketing or graphic design experts, so they may not feel comfortable creating marketing materials alone. You’ll need to work with them to gather insights, ideas, and resources for marketing.
Instructors understand your target audience. They work with students every day. Plus, they may have marketing ideas and resources that you don’t.
Even if instructors need some support to do the work, asking for their help can save you time and frustration. They already understand your target audience. After all, they work with students every day. Plus they’re likely to have ideas and resources that you don’t.
Here are four ways they might be able to help create marketing collateral with a little guidance from you.
1. Ask Instructors to Write (or Ghostwrite) Blog Posts
Blogs improve your SEO, which makes your website and classes more likely to be discovered when students search online. Instructors can contribute blog posts about:
- The classes they teach. They can offer first-hand information about how the course works, what it covers, and how students can succeed.
- Their subject of expertise. Showcasing how much an instructor knows about the subject matter can help students feel confident that the class will be useful.
- The instructor. Getting to know the instructor before class starts can help students connect with the course.
Some instructors may not feel comfortable writing blog posts. You can still gather their insight by recording an interview with them. (You might even be able to reuse the video for the next tip.) Then, have someone on your marketing team turn that interview into a blog post.
You can also use content from these blogs and interviews to create print materials like flyers and brochures.
2. Feature Them in Video and Audio Recordings
Video and audio recordings can capture the attention of potential students. Your instructors can lend their faces and voices to make these recordings feel more personal. Here are a few ways you can feature instructors in video and audio recordings:
- Cut down your instructor interviews into soundbites and share them on your social media, in email, or on your website.
- Run live streams or webinars so prospective students can meet instructors. You can reuse clips from these, just like you did with instructor interviews.
- Share video clips of the instructor teaching this class to a previous cohort. Before you do, make sure you have permission from any student who might be featured in these clips.
- Ask instructors for videos of them working in their specialty. For example, a Master Gardener might share videos of their garden. A welding instructor could share footage of the project they’re working on. It’s another way to show off your instructor’s expertise. Here’s an example from a sailing instructor for The WoodenBoat School in Maine.
Videos should be between 15 and 120 seconds long. Audio recordings can be a little longer since people tend to listen while doing other things. Make sure each recording includes a call to action inviting students to enroll in the class.
Source: Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras
3. Create Marketing Materials Using Instructor-Generated Images
Instructors can also help you create images for social media, newsletters, your course catalog, and your website. In addition to headshots, you can ask them for:
- Photos of their classes in action
- Screenshots of virtual classes
- Snapshots of them working in their field of study
- Diagrams, charts, or pictures of their work
Of course, you could use stock photos, but images of your instructors, their students, and their classes make your marketing material designs more personal.
4. Connect Instructors With the Press
You might already send out press releases to local media stations and online news outlets. Instead of giving those interviews yourself, invite instructors to speak to the press on your behalf. Putting a face to the name can help students feel more comfortable enrolling. Just make sure to give instructors the following talking points:
- A one-line description of the class
- Who this class is for
- Where and how students can sign up
- A short version of who they are and why they’re qualified to teach this class
Since instructors might not be experienced in talking with the press, you might want to coach them before they go on air. Practice their answers to common interview questions and remind them that they’re always on the record.
How to Ask Instructors to Create Marketing Materials
If you want instructors to help you create marketing content, ask! Most instructors won’t think to do these things on their own. You’ll need to approach them with a specific request.
For example, “Do you have any photos we could use for marketing?” Probably isn’t specific enough. Try asking, “Do you have any photos of students doing hands-on work in your Intro to Motorcycle Maintenance course? We would like to use them in the course catalog.”
Approach instructors with specific marketing requests, like photos of students to use on social media or to write a blog post.
Make sure to also give them a deadline. Instructors are busy people and your request could easily fall off of their to-do list. Of course, don’t forget to give them credit for the content and say thank you. A little appreciation goes a long way.
Whether you’re planning social media posts, designing a new course brochure, or writing blog posts, instructors can help you create better marketing materials. All you have to do is ask.
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Greg Shula
Greg has spent a decade analyzing business and marketing performance metrics of the companies he has worked with. He uses his analytical mind and investigative skills to find trends and simple answers from complicated data sets. Greg is also an amateur photographer who loves to capture nature from new perspectives.