Differentiating from Your Real Competitors

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the importance of differentiating your college’s message from the messages of other colleges.

As we have discussed in earlier posts, it can be a challenge to differentiate your Christian college from other Christian colleges, since many of your best selling points are also their best selling points. 

But it’s worth asking: who is your true competition? When your best prospects go elsewhere, where do they go? If you’re like most Christian colleges, you’re losing more prospects to state schools and community colleges than to other Christian colleges. 

When you’re comparing yourself to those schools—your real competition—it’s quite a bit easier to differentiate yourself. And it’s quite a bit more important that you tell the “Christian college” story: smaller classes; more involved professors; a worldview that puts learning in context and gives it eternal meaning; a campus culture that is more conducive to a lifestyle of dignity, safety, and genuine happiness. 

When comparing yourself to state schools and community colleges, the difference in sticker price is a huge hurdle to get over—all the more reason to make it clear that prospective parents can expect a very different sort of return on their college investment. 

It is necessary, of course, to differentiate yourself from other Christian institutions. But that’s a secondary concern. Your first order of business is to convince your audience of the value of Christian higher education. Let's talk about how to best do that. Reach out to us at our Contact Us page or 888.942.6608.