Microsoft university penetration strategy

Tools of the trade

• content marketing like documentation and tutorials on how to use tools
• Speaking at events as first point of contact for lecturers and TAs
• Sponsorship through hackathons
• direct outreach to educational TAs
• support for student mentorship programs

Acquisition

• Reach to TAs to try out tools for free
• Setup booths at hackathons and conducting workshops
• Train student on the use of MS tools so that they can become successful mentors – GitHub strategy
• Provide budget for student groups who want to organize learning sessions involving how to use the tools

Feedback mechanism /

• track the conversion rate of documentations visit to corresponding sign up levels
• track time on documentation
• listen for feedbacks when interacting with students during hackathons to figure out portions of the documentation that are confusing

Metrics

• track YoY student traffic usage during lull periods to determine if baseline is improving.