E expectations for CO Council 2014

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The E-Expectations of College-Bound High School Seniors and Their Parents

Stephanie Geyer, VP for Web Strategy and

Interactive Marketing Services

@StephGeyer

Use our hashtag to add your thoughts

to the nationwide conversation!

#eexpect

Finding answers since 2005

Visit any partner site to find the latest studies, including the “2014 E-Expectations Report:The Online Preferences of College-Bound Seniors and Their Parents” white paper and trend reports for our recent international student studies.

See also: 2014 E-Recruiting Practices Report available at noellevitz.com

E-Expectations research

Web

Mobile users and your web

resources

E-communications

E-communications

resources and preferences

Social

Social media trends and

opportunities

E-Expectations 2014: Focal points

Telephone survey of 1,001 high school seniors and

533 parents of high school seniors

• Facilitated in March and April 2014

• List source: National Research Center for

College and University Admissions

(NRCCUA)

• 95% confidence interval

• +/- 3% margin of error

Methodology

About the students

Gender GPA Parents attendedcollege

47%Male

42%A 33%

No

53%Female 49%

B67%Yes

8% C

1% <C

2.00%

7%10%

20%

1%

37%

14%

10%

Students: Ethnicity

American Indian

Asian

African-American

Hispanic

Middle Eastern

White

Other/Multi-racial

No response

Students: Enrollment stage

Prospects 13%

Inquiries 7%

Applicants 31%

Accepts 49%

Students Parents

14% 15%

49%39%

26%

29%

11% 17%

Within past 3 months

Within past month

Within past 7 days

Earlier today

When was the last time you looked

at a college or university website?

E-communications

Resources and preferences

• Interest, influence, and

reliability

− People

• Email

• Text messages

• Paid advertisements


62.2%

37.8% 50.5%49.5%

To learn about colleges

and universities, I prefer…

Phone calls and print

materials

Web-based resources

2014 Students 2014 Parents

41%

59%58%

42%

I’m more likely to consider

schools that use…

Traditional communication

Email, texts, or social

media

94.3%

5.6%

89.9%

10.1%If I have to choose to look at

a school’s website or

Facebook page, I’ll opt for…

Website

Facebook page

Interest in communications resources

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Campustour

Send email Collegefairs

Calladmissions

Ask viasocial

Texting IM chats Webcastevent

Webcamchats

Seniors

2013 Seniors

Parents

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

CollegeWeb site

Emailmessages

from aspecificcollege

Generalcollege

planningsite

Collegerating sites

Collegeranking

magazines

Facebookposts froma specificcollege

Twitterposts froma specificcollege

2014 Students 2014 Parents

.edu

Influential resources in the college search process

What resources are most reliable?

Collegewebsites

Email fromcolleges

Collegeplanning sites

College socialmedia assets

97%

85%

80%

53%

97%

81%78%

49%

89%

75%

62%

41%Seniors

2013 Seniors

Parents

Email

Inbox (6,755)

Starred

Important

Direct Mail

Drafts

► Circles

• 93% of seniors use email at least once/week compared to 82% of 2013 seniors and 77% of parents

• 98% of students and parents will open a message from a school they’re considering

• 60% of students and 43% of parents will open messages from unknown schools

Email use is up!

Two-thirds are checking email on a mobile

device at least once a day

DailyS: 47%P: 47%

More than once/dayS: 19%P: 18%

Few times/week

S: 14%P: 10%

Less than once/month

S: 9%P: 18%

Once/weekS: 9%P: 6%

Few times/monthS: 3%P: 2%

S – Students

P – Parents

What are they doing with your

messages?

Save ininbox

Place infolder

Forwardto family

Print Delete Forwardto anotheraccount

83%

43%

23% 21%

13%10%

75%

49%

40%

34% 33%

16%

Seniors

Parents

Paid

Interactive

Marketing

Top Ads by Clicks

2014 E-Recruiting: Using Paid Advertising?4-year

public

4-year

private2-year

Pay-per-click ads on search sites like

Google, Bing, or Yahoo37.2% 32.1% 28.6%

Pay-per-click ads on Facebook 31.0% 35.9% 37.1%

Small increase in clicks

31% of students and 19% of parents have clicked on your

paid ads

Google Facebook Other(not search)

Yahoo Bing Other(search)

45%

32%

13%

6%

1%4%

50%

22%

5%

12%

3%

6%

38%

33%

16%

4% 4% 5%

Seniors 2013 Seniors Parents

Those certain to attend are least likely to look at ads

Name recognition garners clicks

Recognizedname

Never heardof it

Might wantto attend

Definitelywant toattend

55%

19% 17%

10%

44%

23% 26%

8%

Seniors

Parents

TextingROFL! TTYL

YES 52.7%

NO 47.3%

2014

Seniors

2014

ParentsYES 55.2%

NO 44.8%

I don’t want to be bothered

with commercial/ad texts

Texting is for family and

friends only

No data plan

Phone not capable of

texting

Too expensive

Not far enough in my

search

Why not?

58.7%

26.8%

4.7%

3.9%

2.9%

2.9%

52.3%

34.7%

3.3%

3.8%

2.5%

3.3%

Willing to allow a

college rep to send

you text messages?

2014

Seniors

2014

ParentsHave received a text from:

A school

An individual

Both

Replied to any

message

26.8%

4.7%

3.9%

2.9%

34.7%

3.3%

3.8%

3.3%

Experience with texts

from schools

Web

Mobile users and your web

resources

• Perceptions

• Content priorities

• Mobile use

• Form use on mobile

devices

E-Expectations 2014: focal points

College sitesmake a

difference in myperceptions

No relationshipbetween

websites andperceptions

Quality ofeducation is

related towebsite

experience

No relationshipbetween

websites andquality of the

education

67%

33%

59%

41%

69%

31%

57%

44%

59%

41%

59%

41%

Seniors

2013 Seniors

Parents

Website experiences and quality

perceptions

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

Academicprogram/

major listing

Cost Academicprogram/

majors details

Financial aid Scholarships Enrollment/admissionsinformation

Housingdetails

Students Parents

First content targets on

college and university websites

Does college support attainment of career goals?Yes:• 87% students• 93% parents

How can you demonstrate value?

Academicprogramcontent

Testimonials Statistics (jobplacement/grad

schools)

Videos Calculators

29%

22%

16%18%

4%

33%

25%

32%

6%5%

Seniors

Parents

Seniors2013 Seniors

Parents

90%

78%

81%

Regular access to a mobile device?

Smart phone Cell with webaccess

Tablet iPod® Touch

67%

14%

8% 5%

48%

21%

6% 8%

50%

12% 13%

3%


Smartphones more popular than ever

All the time If no PC available Rarely

40%

52%

9%

40%

46%

14%

28%

51%

20%

Seniors

2013 Seniors

Parents

Use of mobile devices for web browsing

How many have looked at a college site on

a mobile device?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

71%69%

45%


What forms have or would students

complete on their mobile devices from

your website?

Cost calculator: 47%

Scholarship estimator: 47%

Information request: 41%

Online application: 40%

Open house reservation: 57%

Campus visit request: 55%

Information request: 53%

Cost calculator: 53%

Scholarship estimator: 52%

Online application: 38%

Forms they HAVE

completed on a

mobile device

Forms they

WOULD complete

on a mobile

device

Social

Social media trends and

opportunities

• Use of social media

channels

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google+


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

2014 Seniors 2013 Seniors 2014 Parents

Student and parent use of

social media resources

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

4-Year Private 4-Year Public 2-Year

Institutional use of

social media resources

I don't post frequently, but look at my

newsfeed at least once a day.24.5% 16.6%

2014

Seniors

2014

Parents

I post comments, photos, videos, or

other content at least a few times a month.19.7% 16.9%


other content at least once a week.16.7% 21.6%

I don't post frequently, but I look at

my newsfeed at least once a week.15.5% 15.3%

I don't post frequently, but look at my

newsfeed at least a few times a month.13.3% 11.6%


other content at least once a day.10.3% 17.6%

Visited a

college

Facebook

page

51.4%

Clicked

“Like”

35.7%

Visited a

college

Facebook

page

36.3%

Clicked

“Like”

43.1%

12% increase in students following college Twitter feeds

• 37% of students follow a Twitter feed from a

college or university (25% in 2013)

• In the 2011 E-Expectations study, just 5% of

parents reported having Twitter feeds, which is

now 15%

o 26% of parents are following college or

university Twitter feeds

Twitter use

Overall Twitter Use

40%Seniors

26%2013

Seniors

15%Parents

E-Recruiting practices:

Who uses Twitter?

68% of 4-year publics

48% of 4-year privates

24% of 2-year institutions

More parents than students are adding college pages

• 14% of seniors added pages, down from 17% in

2013 and significantly lower than parents at 25%

• 19% of seniors have participated in Google+

Hangouts compared to 2013 at 13%

Google+ use

Google+

31%Seniors

5%2013

Seniors

19%Parents

Recommendations

With your website

as the hub, pilot

new options and

watch data to

sustain existing

resources.

They are using all

of the resources

you offer. Talk

directly to them.

Invite them to

engage in

conversation.

Improving

avenues into your

website increases

opportunities to

engage via all of

your digital

channels.

Don’t settle for

catalog text to

promote your

product. Work on

each program

section carefully

and test!

Balance!

Parents!

SEO

mattersExceptional

content

More recommendations

Web content value

propositions with

email messages,

landing page text,

and social media

posts.

Make sure that

your email

messages and

website perform

beautifully for

mobile users.

Complete the

marketing cycle by

measuring the

success of each

major initiative and

pilot. Integrate

your analytics and

test new ideas.

Explain how you

will use their

personal data. Be

clear on how you

will communicate.

Force a recorded

opt-in for text

users.

MatchAdapt

Measure

and test Respect

their data

Questions?

E expectations for CO Council 2014

Education

Transcript of E expectations for CO Council 2014