Q: For Just in Time marketing (JIT) is it correct that you should focus on classes that have at least 50% enrollment and those that have already made enrollment thereby increasing revenue?
A: This is a great question. First, let me tell you my understanding of "just in time" marketing. It means getting the information about your service or product into the hands of those who are prospective consumers at the point where they are most likely to respond. That means getting the right message to the right person at the right time. The reality is that our customers want and need things when they want and need things.
In the education field, that means looking at trends that affect people and at programs that can help them solve problems, and getting the information to them so they can take action. This is different from marketing a consumer product. Sometimes, a glance at the calendar can give you the insight you need in order to identify when "the right time" has arrived to offer a course or event. In our world, we refer to this as seasonality, and we know that some courses need to be offered in the spring and some need to be offered in the fall, etc.. Identifying the right time to engage our customer is important to our success.
However, I am not sure that this is exactly the "just in time" marketing that you are referring to. There is another situation in our business where we market to people close to the time an event takes place. We have a lot of evidence that marketing to our best customers more than once increases enrollment. Thus, if you are offering a course where you can target prospective participants, marketing even after your minimums are met can, indeed, increase your revenues.
If you are trying to build enrollment in order to meet revenue, the situation is a bit different. This is where it is important to know two things about your course:
1. The go/no-go point
2. The half-life of your enrollments
First, the go/no go point. If you have generated enough revenue to pay for your production costs, even if it is below your minimum, you should offer this course. The production cost is the cost you actually incur in offering the course. Typically this is instructor pay and any facilities costs you may incur. This may be less than 50% of your desired enrollment. Even so, your marketing costs are sunk costs, so you are better off to offer the course and break even on production cost than to cancel. In a case like this, you would, indeed, want to do more marketing, because you know you are going to offer the course. Building participation will help your bottom line as long as the costs for any additional marketing are minimal. The best strategy would be to market to a carefully targeted group and to use low or no-cost strategies such as email, social media, etc.
Second--the half-life of your enrollments. Every organization should know the point at which half the expected registrations are typically in hand. If, at the point where you normally have half your registrations you find that you are behind, then you should do some supplemental marketing to try to bring your registrations up to the levels you have projected you will receive. Again, you want to target carefully and monitor any additional costs carefully.