Higher Education's Inbound Marketing Survey
Transcript of Higher Education's Inbound Marketing Survey
PRESENTERS:
Ann Oleson, CEOJay Kelly, President
ACT Enrollment Planners Conference CONVERGE CONSULTING | 7.13.16
ABOUT CONVERGE
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AGENDA
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2015 Inbound Marketing in Higher Education Survey• Methodology• Results• Trends
2016 Predictions in Three Key Areas:• Digital Advertising• Content Marketing• Measurement
INBOUND MARKETING IN 2015INBOUND MARKETING IN 2015
INBOUND MARKETING
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CONVERT DELIGHTSearch EngineOptimization
(SEO)
Content Marketing
Digital Advertising
Search Engine Optimization
ATTRACTCalls‐to‐Action
(CTAs)
Landing Pages
Forms
Retargeting
Lead Nurturing Emails
Content Strategy
Ongoing Engagement
User Experience
(UX)
Measurement
STRANGERS VISITORS STUDENTS PROMOTERS
Inbound Marketing
• User Personas• Content Calendars• Automated Marketing Systems
• Enrollment Journey Maps
• Social Media Plan
• SEO• Communication Workflows
• Campaign Strategy
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AGENDA
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2015 Inbound Marketing in Higher Education Survey• Methodology• Results• Trends
2016 Predictions in Three Key Areas:• Digital Advertising• Content Marketing• Measurement
2015 INBOUND MARKETING IN HIGHER EDUCATION SURVEY:
METHODOLOGY
2015 INBOUND MARKETING IN HIGHER EDUCATION SURVEY:
METHODOLOGY
October, 2015
• Web Based Survey, October 2015• N=502 responded to the survey
STUDY INFORMATION
October, 2015
10.8%
3.0%
47.2%
33.9%
5.2%
Community or Technicalcollege
For profit institution
Private 4‐year institution
Public 4‐year institution
Other
N=502
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR INSTITUTION?
October, 2015
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%
International Students
Transfer Students
Adult Students
Undergraduate Students
Graduate Students
46.0%
47.6%
50.8%
54.0%
64.5%
N=124
ADMISSIONS: PRIMARY STUDENTS TARGETED?
October, 2015
Number of inquiries
Number of campus
visitsNumber of applicants
Number of enrolled students
Academic Profile Diversity
Ability to pay
Student retention
Ranking of institution
1st 59 18 77 240 30 8 7 28 9
2nd 36 30 138 59 33 26 13 72 8
3rd 90 32 58 57 34 30 22 72 26
N=437
RANK: TOP THREE RECRUITMENT PRIORITIES
Search Engine Optimization
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Before… After…
SEO Efforts
• What are some of you doing currently to optimize your search engine efforts?
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October, 2015
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Keyword research
On‐page SEO/Content optimization
Off‐page SEO/Link building
Technical SEO/Semantic markup
27%
19%
19%
16%
35%
38%
17%
18%
16%
18%
28%
24%
4%
3%
5%
4%
17%
22%
31%
38%
Yes, Freelance/Outsource
Yes, Currently on Staff
No, Would like To
No, Do not Need
Do Not Know
N=390
SEO EFFORTS?
2016 TRENDS: SEO
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Modern Tactics• Everything works together to build AUTHORITY
– Not just one keyword, lots of keywords
• Develop high level strategic themes
Over 70% of the traffic you earn for any given page will come from keywords you didn’t try to optimize for.
15% of all Google searches, over half a billion per day, have never been seen before.
2016 TRENDS: SEO
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2016 TRENDS: SEO
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Semantic SEO
Digital Marketing
• Demographic Research• Digital Ad & Creation• Setup of Conversion tracking and GA dashboards
• Ongoing reporting & strategy• Customized digital strategy • Real time reporting of KPI’s• Landing page Design & Dev• Retargeting• Campaign Optimization
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Digital Advertising
• Are you doing any digital advertising? • Do you have someone in house or do you use a marketing firm?
• What channels are you advertising on?
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October, 2015
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Pay‐per‐click (PPC)
Display
Retargeting
Ad network
Direct buy
37%
34%
37%
32%
20%
27%
29%
18%
19%
29%
8%
8%
15%
11%
9%
14%
9%
10%
12%
16%
15%
20%
20%
27%
25%
Yes, Freelance/Outsource
Yes, Currently on Staff
No, Would like To
No, Do not Need
Do Not Know
N=371
DIGITAL ADVERTISING EFFORTS?
October, 2015
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
YouTube
18%
8%
11%
3%
10%
2%
64%
42%
36%
23%
35%
11%
10%
19%
22%
30%
23%
22%
5%
21%
19%
30%
20%
45%
3%
9%
13%
15%
12%
20%
Yes, Freelance/Outsource
Yes, Currently on Staff
No, Would like To
No, Do not Need
Do Not Know
N=362
ADVERTISING ON WHICH SOCIAL CHANNELS?
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#2 – Increase in Video Ads
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#2 – Increase in Video Ads
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#3 – Expansion of Retargeting
LinkedIn Lead Accelerator
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#3 – Expansion of Retargeting
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#4 – Increased Data Layering
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#4 – Increased Data Layering
Personas
• Have you created Personas internally?
• If so, how do you use them?
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2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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#5 – Persona Targeted Advertising & Messaging
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
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TIPS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING
• In order to get the most out of your Digital Advertising› Use personas› Use data layering › Change creative frequently› Understand point in recruitment funnel to target› Review reports with KPI’s at least monthly
• TEST everything but not at the same time› Ad copy› Ad creative› Landing pages
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Content Marketing
• Website content
• Blog Posts• Infographics• Social media strategy
• Custom content templates
• User Personas• Photography• HD Video
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Content Marketing
• Who creates content at your university?
• Where does content get placed?
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October, 2015
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
User Personas
Messaging Matrix
Editorial Calendar
Content offers (ebooks,infographics, kits)
Marketing automation software
Videos
Communication mapping(workflows, funnels)
10%
7%
5%
6%
8%
16%
8%
31%
28%
41%
24%
25%
62%
43%
21%
27%
21%
32%
33%
13%
24%
10%
5%
7%
13%
10%
1%
3%
28%
32%
26%
25%
24%
8%
21%
Yes, Freelance/Outsource
Yes, Currently on Staff
No, Would like To
No, Do not Need
Do Not Know
N=335
CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS?
2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING
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#1 – Shifting Goals and Priorities
2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING
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#2 – Focus on Measurement and Performance
TIPS: CONTENT MARKETING
In order to get the most out of your Content Marketing:
• Streamline planning with a content calendar
• Simplify management with tools and apps like Trello
• Create with a goal in mind
• Focus on sharing, promotion and amplification
• Measure and evaluate the impact
• Use analytics to view real‐time performance data
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Monitoring Data
• Who here uses Google Analytics?
• Do you have Goals and Dashboards?
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Google Analytics
• Universal Analytics• Goal Mapping
• Dashboards• Analytics Trainings• Google Tag Manager event tagging
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October, 2015
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Google Analytics goal setup
Google Analytics dashboards
Social media analytics
Social media monitoring
CRM metrics
Marketing automation analytics
13%
13%
10%
10%
6%
6%
49%
61%
66%
65%
42%
27%
24%
15%
13%
14%
31%
36%
1%
2%
1%
2%
5%
6%
13%
10%
9%
9%
17%
25%
Yes,Freelance/OutsourceYes, Currently on Staff
No, Would like To
N=327
MEASUREMENT EFFORTS?
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT
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#1 ‐Moving From Data Dumps to Actual Insight
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT
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#2 ‐ Inspecting Big Picture Goals on a Micro Level
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT
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#3 ‐Measuring Students Throughout the Funnel
TIPS: MEASUREMENT
• Identify a Champion for Measurement
• Write the role of measurement into someone’s job description
• Identify what you are measuring first and why it is important
• Identify experts who understand Higher Education for training and resources on measurement
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Where would you spend extra budget?
• Staff• Advertising• Content• CRM• SEO• Marketing Automation
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INBOUND MARKETING IN 2016
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Where would you spend extra resources?
Response Number of Responses
Staff 50
Advertising 26
Content 25
CRM 20
SEO 17
Marketing Automation 10
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