Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market A Comprehensive Analysis of the School Year

Transcription

1 Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2014 A Comprehensive Analysis of the School Year

2 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2014: A Comprehensive Analysis of the School Year Published by MDR A D&B Company 6 Armstrong Road Shelton, CT Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 COPYRIGHT ACT, or in writing by MDR, 6 Armstrong Road, Shelton, CT MDR and its agents have exercised reasonable efforts in gathering and preparing data and information published in Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2014: A Comprehensive Analysis of the School Year. MDR does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident, or other causes. ISBN ISSN

3 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval 1 Introduction Market Data Retrieval (MDR) provides comprehensive marketing information and services including contacts and deployments, direct mail lists, and web and social media marketing services for the K-12, higher education, and related education markets. MDR clients represent most of the key players in the education industry, ranging from large international corporations with extensive offerings to small providers of extremely specialized services. The products these organizations promote to the education market include an array of curricular materials and resources; school supplies; assessments; professional development; and technology hardware, software, and related services. Digital educational resources continue to grow as they supplement or replace traditional print materials. Similarly, education companies are using more digital marketing channels and less direct mail and other print media. While campaigns are the most popular marketing activity, education companies are engaged in social media marketing, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, and a variety of related digital marketing efforts. MDR recognized this shift two years ago when it revamped its earlier annual report series, which documented five years of marketing trends, to produce its first report on Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market This 2014 report represents the third in this new series, which continues to evolve as the practice of education markets also evolves with more social media engagement and greater coordination of social with and web advertising into integrated marketing programs. Regular readers will notice the absence of surveys of teachers and administrators about technology in schools and colleges. While such surveys still may be part of future reports in this series, this year s report expands our focus on marketing channels relevant to K-20 education markets. Chapter 1 on prospecting campaigns is similar to material covered in the earlier MDR reports on Trends in the Education Market and in the two earlier reports in this series. It includes a summary of 8,672 prospecting campaigns conducted by MDR on behalf of education companies during the past school year. In addition to standard data on Open, Click-Through, and opt-out rates and timing of deployments (month, day, and hour), analyses by lines of business and peer groups, and on various types of personalization are included. Chapter 2 drills down into MDR s experience with messages received by prospects on mobile devices. Educators at all levels are checking , browsing the web, and making purchasing decisions on multiple devices, increasingly on mobile phones and tablets. For , mobile activity is associated with nearly 24 million prospecting messages. This mobile activity is examined from a variety of perspectives, including the use of various mobile devices, operating systems, and browsers. Some of the same performance statistics used in Chapter 1 are reported from these new mobile perspectives.

4 2 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval Chapter 3 offers insights into how web advertising is used in education markets and includes statistics on campaign activities and ad performance measures. MDR s Targeted Web Advertising solution, launched in March 2012, uses proprietary cookies that link banner ads to educators by using much of the same information from MDR s deep databases that have been used for years as the basis for targeted and directmail campaigns. The chapter examines both standard web advertising campaigns and retargeting campaigns those aimed at individuals who previously had visited a provider s website. Key performance measures include Click-Through and conversion rates. An examination of performance by banner size and type also is included. Chapter 4 pulls together ideas from the preceding chapters in a case study of integrated digital marketing. While marketers are aware of the need to conduct fully integrated multichannel campaigns, many in the education space still do not do this. One hurdle can be the ability to measure their combined effectiveness in such a way that demonstrates their ROI versus a single-channel, single-attribution model. MDR worked with American Book Company to design an integrated digital campaign that directly demonstrated the impact of multiple brand touches in increasing conversions. The test or demonstration campaign is the basis of the case study presented in the final chapter. This report provides valuable insights about how educators use digital content, the types of devices they use, and how they view and respond to , web advertising, and social media. It also provides benchmark information about current practice and trends in marketing to the education industry. Lessons learned and best practices are highlighted to help marketers plan and execute improved education marketing strategies in the future.

5 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval 3 Executive Summary Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2014 brings current experience and clarity to the expanding range of digital marketing channels available to K-20 education marketers. While marketing continues to play a central role in the overall marketing strategy of organizations serving the education industry, the integration of web advertising and social media engagement can expand the power and reach of a total campaign. Even among campaigns, messages perform somewhat differently when received and processed on mobile devices rather than on standard computers. Some of this is likely due to technical differences in equipment and some to differences in user practice when using mobile devices. How marketers communicate with target audiences and the tools they use continue to evolve as the technology offers dynamic new opportunities. MDR s Targeted Web Advertising uses proprietary cookies to link traditional web-user information with deep background data from MDR databases, making it possible to direct selected banner ads to targeted demographics. Social media are providing fascinating new channels for messages to reach clients and future customers. Facebook is just ten years old and yet is a part of marketing campaigns for many educational providers. Twitter is eight years old and provides a powerful way to connect with and listen to customers. At four years old, Pinterest offers opportunities for more visual connections. With these and other social media channels, marketers are challenged to identify appropriate audiences and figure out messaging strategies that achieve their goals. Despite these challenges, social media s fast pace, ability to test different message strategies, and prompt feedback loop can be aids to marketers seeking new opportunities. A key message in this report is that an overall marketing strategy integrating these various channels can boost the effectiveness of education marketers and enhance sales. MDR experience related to the component parts of such a total marketing program, plus an integrated marketing case study, will now be summarized. Prospecting Campaigns The average campaign delivered 15,184 messages, the largest number since MDR started tracking campaign size and an increase of 24% over The average size of campaigns has been increasing since The largest campaign had nearly a million messages. Nearly half (48%) of the 2014 campaigns were sent to fewer than 3,000, while a quarter (24%) of campaigns were sent to 10,000 or more educators. The average Open rate was 7.3%, a decrease from 8.2% in The average Click- Through rate of 1.3%, the lowest ever reported, is less than the rate of 1.6% in 2013 and extends a continual decrease since MDR started tracking this in However, almost 10% of s have a Click-Through rate of 5% or higher. The Click-Through to Open ratio showed only a 1% decrease, from 19% in 2013 to 18% in All in all, targeted, relevant offers are still successfully reaching prospects.

6 4 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval The overall Open rate for K-12 audiences is almost half that for college audiences (6.3% for K-12 vs. 12.1% Open rate for college audiences). K-12 audiences have an overall average Click-Through rate of 1.2% compared to a 1.9% Click-Through rate for college audiences. Using personalization and dynamic content insertion are ways that marketers are creating relevance for recipients. Personalization, on average, lifts response rate. Personalizing both the From and To lines can have a dramatic impact on response rates. Sending from a named person to a recipient s last name yielded a 15.4% Open rate and a 5.6% Click-Through rate. When any type of To or From personalization was used with 2014 prospecting s, the overall Open rate was 8.2% and the Click-Through rate was 1.5%, compared to no personalization s Open rate of 7.1% and Click-Through rate of 1.2%. Open rates were 9.9% in July and 9.6% in November, both higher than any months in the prior year. The July rate was 1.6% greater than the highest month in the prior year. Two months had open rates above 8%: December with 8.5% and January with 8.1%. Open rates were lowest in May (5.6%), March, and April (both 6.4%). All other months were 7.2% or higher. The highest Click-Through rates came in July (3.2%) and November (2.2%). Lowest Click-Through rates, less than 1%, were in March-June On weekdays, Monday and Friday have the highest average Open rates (7.9% and 7.5%, respectively). Click-Through rates are 1.7% on Monday and 1.2% or 1.3% on other weekdays. Follow-up s to main-campaign first responders, who already have shown an interest in the message, can be expected to have much higher Open and Click-Through rates. The Open rate for all main campaign messages is 6.7% and for first-response messages is 47%, higher by seven times. The Click-Through rate for all main campaign messages is 1.2% and for first-response messages is 6.9%, the latter more than five times higher. Mobile Prospecting Campaigns For the school year, activity on mobile devices is associated with 18% of prospecting messages delivered, nearly 24 million messages. The overall Open rate for all mobile prospecting messages in is 18%, and the overall Click-Through rate is 1.1%. The prevalence of iphones and ipads among devices used by educators is clearly evident, with 58% and 37% of messages received on these devices, respectively. The only other device associated with more than 1% of messages is the Android phone, with 4% of all mobile messages. Messages delivered via Apple mobile devices (iphone, ipad, and ipod Touch) have the highest Open rates, all around 18-19%. A different story emerges from an examination of Click-Through rates, where Apple mobile devices score the lowest (from 1.0% to 1.3%). The iphone scored the best Open rate among college audiences (27.9%), with the ipad scoring best among K-12 audiences (17.2%). The Android phone had an 18.2% Open rate for college audiences, exactly twice its rate for K-12 audiences.

7 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval 5 Click-Through rates for college audiences are about half-again higher than for K-12 audiences, with Apple mobile devices scoring the lowest Click-Through rates among both groups. Android Phone messages had a Click-Through rate of 1.6% among K-12 audiences and 2.4% among college ones. Follow-up campaigns with first-response messages to those who have indicated an interest in a prospecting message can yield quite healthy Open rates, ranging from 34.5% for the Android phone to 46.8% for the iphone. Messages delivered via iphone in the early hours of the morning, from midnight until 7:00 a.m., have an Open rate of 19% with only modest fluctuations during most of the day. The Open rate shoots from 18% for afternoon deployments to 24% for messages deployed between 4:00 p.m. and 4:59 p.m., then edges up to 26% for those deployed after 5:00 p.m. This general pattern of Open Rates climbing for deployments after 4:00 p.m. is seen in all of the device categories. The patterns found for Click-Through rates of mobile messages are similar to those for Open rates according to time of deployment. The top iphone and ipad Click- Through rates, for deployments between 4:00 p.m. and 4:59 p.m., are 1.5% and 2.0%, respectively. The Android Phone s Click-Through rate for the same time period is 2.6%, and 2.7% for messages deployed after 5:00 p.m. MDR s Targeted Web Advertising Solution During the school year, MDR conducted 177 standard web ad campaigns for education marketers. These campaigns employed 1,143 web ads of various sizes and sub-themes; an average of 6.5 ads per campaign. The range ran from two to 28 ads per campaign. The total of served impressions exceeds 27 million for the 1,143 standard web ads launched by MDR for education clients in , for an average just over 24,000 served impressions per ad. Nearly half (45%) of all standard web ads gained fewer than 10,000 impressions, though five had more than 250,000 impressions. Considering the year s full complement of web ads, the overall Click-Through rate is 0.16% based on total served impressions. This MDR rate is twice the industry average for standard web ads. Among various ad sizes, the highest Click-Through rate (0.27%) is earned by the 160x600-pixel, or skyscraper, ad. The lowest Click-Through rate in this comparison by size (0.10%) comes from the 728x90, or leaderboard, ad. These Click-Through rates roughly mirror the amount of screen real estate occupied by these ads, but not proportionately. The skyscraper ad is 1.5 times larger than the leaderboard ad. The highest Total Conversion rate for standard web ads comes from the medium rectangle size (300x250 pixels). The dominant contribution to this overall rate comes from Post-Impression Conversions.

8 6 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval Retargeting campaigns, a specialized breed of web advertising, sharply focus on individuals who have visited a provider s website but took no action to produce a conversion. These highly qualified prospects, with a little more encouragement or brand confidence, may be coaxed to buy or take some other action step. The common-sense expectation that retargeting campaigns should score higher on web-ad performance measures is borne out by the available data. The Click-Through rate for retargeting campaigns with fewer than 100,000 served impressions is four times the rate earned by standard campaigns. Outside the Inbox: Case Study of How an Integrated Digital Campaign Doubles Response MDR worked with American Book Company to design an integrated digital campaign that directly demonstrated the impact of multiple brand touches in increasing conversions. Two campaigns were run as a test in spring One was only. The other was supported with social media marketing, sponsored blasts, and targeted web advertising. The impressive results of this integrated marketing test reinforce the changing dynamics of what works in education marketing. The power of multiple, integrated digital channels drove 155% more sign-ups for American Book Company than a single-channel approach. The study confirms that continues to be the workhorse of a successful digital marketing campaign, driving more than 70% of all sign-ups. Yet, it is also clear that the impressions and engagement generated by social and banner advertising, working together with , helped to drive awareness and increase conversions significantly. Overall, this well-designed and tightly measured campaign is proof that leveraging multiple channels can pay huge dividends for smart education marketers looking to grow in the education space. A valuable component of the program was using the trusted We Are Teachers brand to amplify American Book s own messaging, resulting in a 21% lift in conversion rate.

9 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval 7 Table of Contents Introduction Executive Summary Prospecting Campaigns... 3 Mobile Prospecting Campaigns... 4 MDR s Targeted Web Advertising Solution... 5 Outside the Inbox: Case Study of How an Integrated Digital Campaign Doubles Response... 6 Chapter 1 Prospecting Campaigns Overview...11 Summary of the School Year...11 Campaign Size...15 Time of Year for Prospecting Campaigns...21 Day of the Week Campaigns Sent...26 Time of Day Sent...32 Personalization: Message and Content Personalization...36 Personalization: Message From Line...40 Personalizing To and From...44 Personalization: Custom Fields...46 Line of Business...49 Peer Group...52 Lessons Learned From the Prospecting Campaigns...57 Chapter 2 Mobile Prospecting Campaigns Overview...59 Mobile Devices...60 Operating Systems...68 Web Browsers...76 Mobile Design Guidelines...84 Lessons Learned from Mobile Prospecting Campaigns...86 Chapter 3 MDR s Targeted Web Advertising Solution Overview...88 Standard Web Ad Campaigns...89 Performance of Standard Web Ads...91 Performance of Standard Web Ads by Size...96 Campaigns Using Standard Web Ads...99 Performance of Campaigns Using Standard Web Ads Web Ad Retargeting Campaigns Performance of Retargeting Web Ads Retargeting Campaigns Using Web Ads Lessons Learned From the 2014 Web Advertising Campaigns Chapter 4 Outside the Inbox: Case Study of How an Integrated Digital Campaign Doubles Response Overview Client and Product The Test The Campaign Schedule The Results Lessons Learned from the Integrated Marketing Test About the Authors About MDR

10 8 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval List of Charts 1.1 Number of Traditional Prospecting Campaigns by Year Average Campaign Size by Year Distribution of Campaigns by Size Percentage of 2014 Prospecting Campaigns by Size Open and Click-Through Rates by Size of Campaign Open Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Size of Campaign Click-Through Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Size of Campaign Diversity of Performance Among Campaigns Percentage of Campaigns and of Messages Deployed by Month Historical Summary: Percentage of Prospecting Campaigns Sent by Month Average Size of Campaigns by Month of Deployment Average Open and Click-Through Rates by Month of Deployment Percentage of Campaigns Deployed by Day of the Week Average Size of Campaign by Day of Week of Deployment Open and Click-Through Rates by Day of the Week of Campaign Deployment Open Rates for Main and First-Response Messages by Day of the Week Deployed Click-Through Rates for Main and First-Response Messages by Day of the Week Deployed Open Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Day of the Week Deployed Click-Through Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Day of the Week Deployed Percentage of Campaigns and of Messages Deployed by Time of Day Average Campaign Size by Time of Deployment Open and Click-Through Rates by Time of Deployment Open and Click-Through Rates by To Personalization Open and Click-Through Rates by Specific Types of Personalization Open Rates by Types of Personalization for K-12 and College Audiences Click-Through Rates by Types of Personalization for K-12 and College Audiences Percentage of Campaigns and of Messages with Personalized From Lines by Year Percentage of Messages with Personalization of From Line by Type and Year Open and Click-Through Rates by the Type of From Line of Prospecting Messages Percentage of Personalization Types Among All Personalized Messages Open and Click-Through Rates by Any To-From Personalization Percentage of Campaigns and of Messages Deployed With and Without Custom Fields Average Open and Click-Through Rates by Custom Field Use Percentage of Campaigns and of Messages Deployed by Line of Business Average Campaign Size by Line of Business Average Open and Click-Through Rates by Line of Business Percentage of Campaigns with Peer Group Among Recipients and of Messages Delivered Average Size of Campaign Components Directed to Primary Peer Groups Share of Constituent Campaigns Delivered to Peer Group Average Open and Click-Through Rates by Peer Group Open and Click-Through Rates for Mobile Messages Percentage of Prospecting Messages by Mobile Device...60

11 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval Performance Measures for Mobile Messages by Mobile Device Open Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Mobile Device Click-Through Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Mobile Device Open Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Mobile Device Click-Through Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Mobile Device Open Rates by Mobile Device and Time of Deployment Click-Through Rates by Mobile Device and Time of Deployment Percentage of Prospecting Messages by Operating System Family Performance Measures for Mobile Messages by Operating System Family Mobile Open Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Operating System Family Mobile Click-Through Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Operating System Family Mobile Open Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Operating System Family Mobile Click-Through Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Operating System Family Mobile Open Rates by Operating System and Time of Deployment Mobile Click-Through Rates by Operating System and Time of Deployment Percentage of Prospecting Messages by Web Browser Family Performance Measures for Mobile Messages by Web Browser Family Mobile Open Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Web Browser Family Mobile Click-Through Rates for K-12 and College Audiences by Web Browser Family Mobile Open Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Web Browser Family Mobile Click-Through Rates for Main Campaign and First-Response Messages by Web Browser Family Mobile Open Rates by Web Browser and Time of Deployment Mobile Click-Through Rates by Web Browser and Time of Deployment MDR Web Advertising Summary of Click-Through Rates MDR Web Advertising Summary of Conversion Rates Key Descriptors of Web Ads by Impressions Served Click-Through Rates (CTR) for Web Ads by Impressions Served Conversion Rates for Web Ads in MDR Campaigns Percentage of Served Impressions by Ad Size Click-Through Rate by Ad Size Conversion Rates by Ad Size Key Descriptors of Web Ad Campaigns by Impressions Served Click-Through Rates (CTR) for Web Ad Campaigns by Impressions Served Conversion Rates for MDR Web Ad Campaigns Key Descriptors of Retargeting Web Ads by Impressions Served Click-Through Rates (CTR) for Retargeting Web Ads by Impressions Served Click-Through Rates of Retargeting Ads by Size Conversions Rates for Retargeting Ads by Size Click-Through Rates for Retargeting Campaigns Compared to Standard Web Ad Campaigns Conversion Rates for Retargeting Campaigns Compared to Standard Web Ad Campaigns...107

12 10 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION MARKET 2014 Copyright 2014 Market Data Retrieval List of Tables 1.A Nine-Year Summary of Prospecting Campaigns B Performance Measures for Personalized Campaigns...45 List of Figures 4.1 Sample s Targeted Web Advertising Examples Social Media Messaging Examples...112

13 Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2014 A Comprehensive Analysis of the School Year mdrinfo@dnb.com