Confidential Pagalguy.

com

Secrets of Online Marketing for Bschools in India

by the Pagalguy.com Sales team

This is a compilation of the knowledge that the PG sales team possesses in understanding and demystifying the online medium for advertisements by Bshcools & other clients We hope that you will find good value by reading this whitepaper.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

Contents: 1. About Pagalguy.com Why are we the best and largest in India? 2. Why is PaGaLGuY.com special for You? 3. Why will MBA institutes spend more on Online Advertising from 2009 onwards? 4. 5 ways of - How to design killer Online Campaigns? 5. Things 'not-to-do' while you design online campaigns. 6. 5 ways to make your banners get more clicks. 7. How our Best Clients have done it? (Case Study) 8. 15% Redeemable Voucher for You. 9. Online Campaign Requirement Form.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

1.0 About Pagalguy.com Why are we the best and largest in India? Pagalguy.com was founded in 2002 by Allwin Agnel (MBA from The Wharton School). As the case study of Pagalguy.com in IIM Bangalore states, we have had the privilege of experiencing excellent growth in the last few years making us India's largest MBA centric website. If one talks of numbers and the advantages that MBA Institutes get by choosing Pagalguy.com as their branding channel, the following would be the data you would look for: a. One Large Common Pool for MBA aspirants: Over 4,00,000 active members who interact with the portal regularly. On an average, we add about 10,000 new members every month. These members have one common interest MBA. b. Large Numbers of Visitors & Extensive Reach: Over 600,000 unique visitors (on an average) per month who are looking at MBA related or even Institute/Entrance test specific news and articles. They normally browse (on an average) about 4-5 pages every visit. We receive about 4-5million page views on an average per month, which is the largest amongst any related website. c. We Discuss Everything About MBA: Over 2.1 Million articles on the forums, wherein users discuss over a wide-range of topics like entrance test preparations, which bschools to apply, GD/Interview tips, Life in bschools, and much more. Aspirants spend about 10-12 minutes on an average during their visits to the site as they read articles, post comments, browse discussion threads, etc. d. Highly Ranked Search Results: Since our Google Page Rank is high (6.5/10), bschool writeups or discussions on the forums tend to come with the first 5 search results (in Google) for aspirants. This phenomenon makes it imperative for bschools to keep a tab on related discussions, and also publish their own articles through our advertorials. e. We serve the Best in the Business: Some of the best names in the education domain have worked with us. We have had Indian bschools such as ISB, SP Jain, IMT, KJ Somaiya, Symbiosis Institutes, SNAP, IMI, NMIMS, and over 200 others. We have also had MBA Institutes from abroad who have used our platform for their branding, such as Duke The Fuqua School of Business, HULT International Business School, etc. f. Your Brand will be in the Best Hands: The Pagalguy.com team comprises of people with excellent skill-sets in their own domains, belonging to some of the best Institutes from India and abroad like Wharton, IITs, NITs, etc. Bschools who have worked with us have not only had the advantage of our userbase, but also have experienced our expertise in online marketing and the best practices the we follow in our processes.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

2.0 Why is Pagalguy.com special for you? We understand through our experience in working with the best names in the education domain, that: a. You Need to Communicate with MBA Aspirants properly: As a Bschool, there is a need to improve quality of students recurring every year to maintain the competitive edge. A host of things are involved in doing this, and at Pagalguy.com, you can get all of them together. A mixture of advertising, advertorials, current students' participation, editorial coverage, etc are available for you. b. You Need the Best Communication Channels for your Campaigns: We have a team that monitors and designs systems to utilize radical changes in the education market, so that our products and deliverables provide your bschool with the required results in a dynamic environment. c. You Need to Control your Return on Investment with Campaigns: With campaign reports and monitoring the responses of your campaign, Pagalguy.com allows you to objectively understand the ways to achieve the best results through data from various analytics. As a bschool, this allows you to understand and tweak your campaign responses for specific results. d. You Need to be Represented Well in Discussions of your Institute: Pagalguy.com's forums are conducted very democratically. Therefore your current students and alumni can also participate in related discussions of your Institute and share their learning experiences in your bschool. e. You Need to Associate with Credible Channels for Branding: For most of our users and visitors, Pagalguy.com is the destination of correct and validated information regarding anything related to MBA. Your branding exercise with Pagalguy.com therefore will he unique in its acceptance amongst the target audience, and you gain a lot of awareness for your programs or new-campuses through the very people who consume and then dessimate information amongst peer groups. f. You Need a Branding Partner that is the Best in the Domain: Pagalguy.com is also going to launch the Online Preparation platform which will be FREE and open to every MBA aspirant in India to spend their time on our portal to prepare for CAT and other entrance tests. We have been progressive with our products and newer platforms. Our products like PG Connect (for people with GD/PI calls), PG Apply (for people who want to apply to bschools), PG Shop (for selling of Admission Forms, Preparation material, etc.) and PG Bschool Rankings (the Most Preferred rankings) have been successful and widely accepted. As a matter of fact, ours was India's First Televised Bschool rankings that was covered by UTVi Channel.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

3.0 Why will MBA institutes spend more on Online Advertising from 2009 onwards? The year 2009 will mark the change in the way advertising plans are made and budgets are allocated for Business Schools across India. The reasons are: a. CAT 2009 and MAT 2009 (September) has gone online. This means that preparations have also gone online and therefore more people are spending most part of their prep-time online. b. Online Reading has become a serious practice: Earlier, Students were asked to read Newspapers for speed-reading. Since online reading is different than newspaper reading, students are now asked to read more from websites, Blogs, etc. c. Overall inclination towards Online platforms: Many of the other entrance tests have already taken their application process online. Therefore there is a tremendous need for students to familiarize themselves with online techniques and online behavior (which is a completey different thing from earlier patterns of behavior). d. Students Subscribing to Email and SMS Notifications: Earlier, students were used to following newspapers for Admission notifications, Form notifications, etc but now they have the option to subscribe to Emailer Notifications, SMS alerts for deadlines amongst others. These are a result of the way aspirants are consuming news in present day scenario. e. The New Age of Community Based Decision Making by Students: Aspirants have been told by peers and others about the importance of various public forums in the Internet wherein the true information regarding their choices are available. Today, people want to know from others who have already experienced a brand regarding the advantages/dis-advantages, and then decide to pursue this brand name. In the next page, we have provided a comparison amongst the various branding channels that are available to you, and have highlighted the reasons as to why Bschools are getting mature in their outlook in planning Online Branding campaigns.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

Example: We have taken a campaign with base price of Rs. 50,00,000 INR. Comparisons are made on the basis of spending this amount for 180 days in these options individually. Particulars Pagalguy B.P Newspapers + Magazines BTL Branding TV/Radio (Hoardings, etc)

No. of Ads possible Targeted

2,00,000 Ads 2 Ads worth 30 days of 1 90 days 15 cities 10 Ads served per day 25,00,000 if pan- Hoarding space per day for 180 days India in 15 cities Only MBA Aspirants from All India Certain Educational No targeting Supplements. But no decisive targeting No targeting. People seeking entertainment are fed Info on MBA. Not possible. Registering your brand is difficult.

Interactive

Aspirants can askNot possible. Some Not possible. questions to you may call you. One has to directly recollect your Brand It is always a click away Slow.

Pace of Response

Slow or at times Rare. negligible

Confidential Pagalguy.com

4.0 5 ways of - How to design killer Online Campaigns? Online campaigns mostly follow a different set of rules and assumptions contrary to the offline campaigns or activities that you may take to achieve your desired results. In this chapter, I will take you through the best practices which you can follow to design killer online campaigns, that provide you with best results (in terms of branding reach and ROI). These principles are based upon the Best-practices that are followed across the world in the Online marketing space. This knowledge will really be the difference between others and your Online campaigns. a. Planning your approach before hand : Plan things before hand .A good knowledge on the benefits of using an online medium to reach out to your target audience and more importantly -Starting this process early is one of the most imperative things in this process. This shall help you in two ways: i) Allocate your funds before hand to optimise the money spent to derive the best value from the campaign. ii)Eliminate the risk of going overboard with your expenses. b. Its not about "What is the amount that you spend?"- its about "How and Where you spend it ? Designing an online campaign is not about the amount of money you spend its about How and Where you spend it ! Online Campaigns offer you the advantage of being Highly Interactive and Response driven. Reaching out to the mail boxes and the mobile phones of your target audience and creating a buzz about your institute has never been so easy. It is therefore obvious that you chose a medium that will give the best value for your money in terms of the Marketing Options and the Reach . Simple example comparing two websites- ABC and XYZ illustrating the cost effectiveness of each campaign

Website ABC Banner on the portal of the website Cost : Rs 60,000 per month Minimum 4-5 lakh impressions

Website XYZ Banner on the portal of the website Cost : Rs 20,000 per month Maximum of 1 lakh impressions.

Effective CPM-Rs 120

Effective CPM-Rs 200

*CPM: Cost Per Millea is the cost for every 1000 impressions of your banner ( i.e Medium ABC charges you Rs 120 for every 1000 impressions and Medium XYZ Rs 200 for every 1000 impressions ) Therefore it means that , though initially Medium XYZ looks less expensive , a deeper look suggests that the value you are deriving from XYZ is far less and it is also costlier than Medium ABC .

Confidential Pagalguy.com

So Medium ABC is a Better Choice! c. The importance of being in the mindshare-ALWAYS: Being in the mindshare of the students is one of the most critical things that will give you the edge in this day and age of Competition. Making a conscious effort to be in the mindshare of the students not just when the deadlines are approaching- but more importantly when they are in the process of preparing, will help you have the RECALL VALUE -that makes a difference. For upcoming Bschools -its very imperative that you keep the buzz about your school going because until and unless you "exist" in the mindshare of these students- competition is always around the corner to grab the student away. And for established B Schools -"having the edge" in the competition becomes utmost important -losing out one prospective good student to a fellow competitor is as bad as losing out one worthy alumni who could make a difference in the years to come. d. Incorporate a branding mix reaching to audiences with different browsing patterns: It is very important to strategize your mix of branding options in such a way that your communications can reach to audiences who have different browsing patterns on the internet. For example, there are some who would be reading content on some pages and there are others who would be looking to sign-up for some alert or looking at some specific bits of the portal. It is therefore highly imperative that you have a mix of visual ad options like the Banners available in different specifications and locations, and Advertorials or Spotlight options that will allow you to put up great content for people to read and get to know about your brand through such articles. Additionally, you also have other options to reach out content like the Electronic direct mailers wherein you can reach out exclusive content to the subscribed userbase. e. Get the Best practices implemented in designing banners, electronic mailers, etc.: The creative designs of the banners and EDMs in an online campaign play a major role in deciding the impact of the campaign. Eg: A good creative is the one that incorporates the right balance of the animation and the written word. Hence, once the budgets and timing of the campaign are in place, a good design is the thing that will help you seal the best results.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

5.0 Things 'not-to-do' while you design online campaigns. There are a host of things that have to be avoided while you are designing your Online campaigns. these will ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved through your campaigns. We have identified the following: a. Do not copy others They may be classic case of blunders that could probably become case studies at a later date. Your Bschool is a different brand and therefore the needs too are different. Additionally, others follow fads and not their real requirements most of the time. Therefore, it is wise not to give-in to what others are telling you to do. b. Do not believe non-domain specialists This relates to a common belief that even for Online Campaigns, I should go to an Ad-Agency and they will be the best guides for me and my brand. Unfortunately, the belief is not true because in the case of Online campaigns, people with excellent online orientation and agencies with research base and dynamic online knowledge are required, which are not available that easily. AD Agencies have generally followed whatever new have come on board without the neccessary research and thought process of the long-term performances of these instruments. Since there are more than one thing at a time to pitch to you and for your campaigns, Ad Agencies have never had the challenge to think differently and have prescribed the mediums or channels or products that have higher acceptability by other advertisers. c. Do not be fooled by outdated jargons - Most of our clients have used certain terms that have been given to them by some sales rep who, in the process of hard-selling his item, had mentioned these eerie words or jargons that the Client had no clue at that time. The funny part is, that these words do belong to the domain but are either mis-represented or are outdated. Example: HITS: This is a word often mis-represented by people who sell online space to clients. The client is given an idea that every day the website in question receives (say) 80,000 Hits which means 80,000 times the website is opened. This is far from the truth. Technically, Hits refer to the number of times the website calls the server for every image in the page, every time it loads. So say I opened a webpage once, and the page has 1000 images, then the number of hits while the webpage opens only one time is 1000. How is that for an explanation ! Cost Per Click: This is an outdated option that was very difficult to monitor and the results were never in accordance to the actual number of leads/results received. Clients were always wondering Are these Unique clicks? Or are they clicks by one person throughout the day? d. Do not strategize online campaigns on the same lines of your other campaigns: One of the major errors that advertisers commit is to strategize the online campaigns on the way they would for other offline campaigns. One needs to understand that online behaviour, the cycle and related things are totally different than other mediums. Please note that you will probably not have all the expertise required for doing this, but the good news is there are resources available through articles or even advertisers (like Pagalguy) who have already done the required research to provide you with their unique advantages.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

6.0 5 ways to make your banners get more clicks. Banner advertising is by far the most popular and widespread form of advertising on the Internet, almost every website has some form of banner advertising on it. There's just no escaping the banner on the net. There are some factors that we consider the most important, using all or most of them will always enable you to get a higher click through for your various banners. a. Call to action This is one of the easiest ways to increase the clicks on a banner, on this all the experts agree. Using a call to action simply involves having the words 'click here' or some other words such as 'sign up now' or something similar. Our thoughts on why using a call to action increases the clicks so much include the fact that there is so much advertising off-line, such as TV, Radio, billboards etc. etc. With advertising on these off-line mediums, target audiences are generally just required to watch or read the ad. All ads online have a link and the purpose is to get people to click on the ad and visit the advertisers website, however with the world being so used to off-line advertising many people just see banners and think that's it, they don't realize that they are actually meant to click on it to find out more. That's way having click here or another call to action improves the effectiveness of a banner. b. Good ad copy or Relevant content This one is kind of a given, but you should always include good ad copy in your banner, lots of fancy animation and pictures won't entice them to click, they only look after grabbing the attention of the visitors. It's the actual text that will get people wanting to check out your institute. Keep your wording short and concise, if you can use words that have been proven to attract people such as 'free, proven' and 'secret' , most of the time that will do. c. Fonts and Their Usage The growing shift from Serif fonts to Sans-Serif fonts online is now projecting itself into Online Advertising. If you're new to font selection, and are used to using any old thing that happens to be in your font list, here's a quick overview. Serif fonts, pictured in the upper-half of the example above, have "tails" that are used as decorative touches to the letter. Times New Roman and Garamond are two common examples of serif fonts. Sans-serif fonts, pictured in the lower half of the example above are absent of the "tails," and frequently have much cleaner lines. Verdana and Arial are examples of common sans-serif fonts. d. Animation Banners with moving elements attract the eye a lot more than static banners do. The whole idea of designing banners is to grab attention of website visitors, using small animation help to do this. We say small because we don't want you to go overboard and fill a banner with lots of animation, this is a bad idea because, one it increases file size, and two it is generally annoying to people after a while especially when they are trying to read an article or tutorial. If your banner annoys them, they will most likely just leave without clicking on it. e. Small file This is one of the most important things you have to get right when designing a banner, if the .gif or .jpg file is large it will take a few seconds to download and by then the visitor might have scrolled down the page, meaning he or she doesn't even get to see your banner. If people don't see your banner they definitely are not going to click on it. So make sure your file stays below 15K, 20K at the absolute most.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

7.0 How our Best Clients have done it? (Case Study of SP Jain Dubai & Singapore) SP Jain is a very well known Business school in India and abroad. It is considered as one of the most preferred bschool amongst MBA aspirants and has had a history of producing excellent professionals for the corporate world. We have had SP Jain as one of our dedicated and regular clients for a long time now and have also been the one who had envisioned the online marketing option much before other business schools had thought about the same. In this section, we would let you know as to how did they begin and how have they been increasing their online presence vis-a-vis their offline campaigns across India and abroad. Advertising Approach : Spreading the right message Speaking about S.P Jain, it would not have needed any branding as it is already a very established name in Indias top B-Schools" , says Ms Shweta Chhabra, the Senior Academic Counselor. She continues and says that S.P Jain Dubai/Singapore/Australia had a very different program structure and this factor needed to be conveyed to the students in the right manner and through right channels. Explaining the concept of the 3 City Model** and convincing the students to take it up was very crucial for the bschool and also their utmost priority. Ms Shweta testifies for the same- We wanted to have such impressive and effective marketing campaigns which not only enable us to reach out to our target audience but also let us convey the essence of the programs being offered and highlight the important aspects of the same. The campaigns are done on a year round basis as the intakes are twice for both the campuses .The conventional methods of Print Ads and Outdoor advertising consumed the major chunk of advertising budget initially. Putting up ads on major newspapers of all the metros and combining them with hoardings at prominent locations in these cities is the first module of the marketingcampaign for every year. One major highlight of S.P Jain Dubai/Singapore marketing strategies includes conducting Road Shows at various locations in India. Ms Shweta says It was important to be in the mind-share of students and understand what they actually needed out of a MBA program. These road shows helped us understand these needs and structure the global program in such a way so that it meets almost all the needs of the students. These road shows also helped them in letting the students understand the program structure and all its aspects in the best possible way. It mainly consists of a presentation by a Senior Professor followed by a question & answer round. The Road-shows generally end with an exclusive section of one-to-one counseling for the students. SPJCM wanted to be at every possible arena where these students are .That was the reason they decided to try out unconventional methods which they thought might help them expanding their reach. It is then that they decided to research and peruse the On-line Advertising Medium. The Online way : Beyond The Lines. The reason SPJCM decided to have online campaigns were clear. Ms Shweta mentions the following points as the main factors : a. Ever increasing time being spent by students over internet.

Confidential Pagalguy.com

b. Response driven methods, wherein responses could be tracked on real-time. c. Direct link to the communications on their website through clicks on the banners/links d. Enable them to highlight certain important aspects such as the provision of Online application e. Student Engagement with the brand. Why PaGaLGuY.com ? When asked, Ms Shweta said Once we decided to have online campaigns for SPJCM , we started sorting out suitable websites and that was when PaGaLGuY.com approached us. We did our own research and then based upon certain statistics and comparisons with the other websites, we decided to go ahead with PaGaLGuY.com When asked in detail , She mentioned the following reasons of choosing PaGaLGuY over others: a. Brand name ( in terms recall & following) and registered user base. b. Serious and quality MBA aspirants. c. Forum community which keeps the user engaged with the website for a longer period of time. d. Moderation and No Spamming policy. S. P Jain counseling thread Extending help from offline to online. Ms Shweta said Being the academic incharge, I often get to speak to students and understand their admission queries .Many a times they are so confused that they require proper counseling .Thus we decided to counsel students in every possible way .Phone counseling , E-mail counseling and one-to-one counseling was what we basically did. Post understanding the forum community of PaGaLGuY we decided to help students with their queries online also .And that was when -The First Official Admission Query Blog - of SP Jain Dubai and Singapore was started. So on behalf of SP Jain Dubai and Singapore, Ms Shweta Chhabra (Senior Academic Counselor)herself started answering the queries at :SP Jain Dubai and Singapore - Admission Queries . One can post all their queries pertaining to SP Jain on this thread. These could be related to course content, faculty, placements, infrastructure and so on.For Shweta it has become a part of her daily routine to follow this thread and answer students queries on a daily basis.Started in 2006 , this thread is still one of the most active threads on PaGaLGuY.com

**(When students enroll for S.P Jain's Global MBA program, they have the privilege of studying in three world-class cities in one year.)

Confidential Pagalguy.com

8.0 15% Redeemable Voucher for Online campaigns on Pagalguy

Particulars

15% Discount Voucher for Online Campaigns on Pagalguy.com 2010-2011 Rs.2,00,000/- (Two Lakhs Only)

Redeemable Voucher Voucher ID: ILPL/RDV/2009/2010/SOM Valid for

Minimum Campaign Value Scope This voucher can be used only once in a year. Bschools may commit two different campaigns in a year but will get the dicount on the total committed value of the campaign Soumik Ganguly 9820841157 Name: __________________________ Contact person (College) Contact No.: _____________________ Designation: _____________________

Contact Person (Pagalguy)

Signature: _______________________________ College Seal: _____________________________ Date: ____________________________________

Confidential Pagalguy.com

9.0 Online Campaign requirement form Branding Options Banner Options (Forums) Banner Options (News Portal) Banner Options (User Home page) Banner Options (PG Prep) Spotlight Section Electronic Direct Mailer SMS Alert Requirement

College Name: __________________________________________________________________ Contact Person's name: __________________________________ Designation: ___________________________________________ Mobile No. _____________________ Email: __________________________________________ Months: From _________ to ______________ , 20__

Signature: ____________________________________

College Seal: (