Canvas as a Marketing Tool

[m_mcmanus]

I am currently working on a project to use canvas as a marketing tool to inform students of events and other services offered by the university. 

I was wondering if somebody has worked on  similar project before and if so have you got any advice for me?

[mzimmerman]

Hi Michael,

The problem with using Canvas that way is that it doesn't really have a lot of the "portal" features that some other LMSs like Blackboard do.  

You can post global announcements, or announcements within a sub-account (which are only displayed for users who are enrolled in courses in that sub-account :How do I create a global announcement in an account? ), and you can edit the Help menu to add links ( seehttps://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12664-4214610054 ), but otherwise, it's tough to distribute information through Canvas unless it's in a course that people are looking at.

Maybe someone else has some other suggestions, though?

Mike

[m_mcmanus]

Hi Michael, 

Thanks for the info. I'm currently think of using one module for a majority of applications but wasn't to sure on the specifics of global announcements. 

[nr2522]

Hello,  @m_mcmanus .

I wouldn't recommend using Canvas for this purpose. It's not what it's designed for and not one of the platform's strengths.

You may wish to consider an open-source enterprise calendar system that supports public, personal, and group calendaring: Bedework | Apereo. We use it here at Columbia University. You can see our calendar at Columbia University Events Calendar and integrated onto our home page Columbia University in the City of New York (scroll down to Events).

There are also paid, vendor-supported solutions, such as:

• CampusGroups - Your all-in-one campus engagement platform, used by our business school and school of international and public affairs
• Plan, Organize, Manage and Promote Events | Campus Labs 

Other service providers are available. Search "campus engagement" or similar in your favorite search engine.

Best,

Nelson

[m_mcmanus]

Hi Nelson, 

Thanks for the information. It might be work using some of these. 

I'll make sure to explore these as options for this project. 

Michael 

[heather_stockfo]

Michael McManus My institution uses the global announcement feature for important items that all students need to know about (take action type of information). We also have a Canvas Course that does describe your project (called Link). Marketing posts items that students may be interested in like when the food trucks are coming to campus and whats new in the bookstore. It does get some traction, but its also missing quite a few folks, for what that's worth. Our school is under 1000 students also, so keep that in mind.

In this "marketing course" we use Modules and introduce monthly news (ie: Feb. 2020), so students can quickly peek in if they so choose. 

[m_mcmanus]

Hi Heather, 

Thanks, the marketing module that you are talking about is along the same lines of what I was thinking. 

Are your announcements generalised or do you do more targeted announcements?

[heather_stockfo]

Michael McManus, we try not to overwhelm with announcements, but rather use Modules and pages to get our content out. Module's are structured as months. I tried to attach a screen shot, but even after making it smaller using photoshop, I couldn't get it to post. 

[carollawrance]

GetProspect's online email verifier is a great place to learn more about the email marketing tools that were utilized in the development of this Chrome plugin. Using the email addresses of GetProspect users, you may import or create new contact records - https://getprospect.com/email-finder-addon-google-sheets - or import existing contacts (check how to get email from google sheets). After the operation is completed, customers will be able to access over a billion email addresses and the GetProspect add-on on Google Sheets, among other things. Customers may use GetProspect, a Chrome-based email finder, to automate their email marketing campaigns and save time.