CONVERGE CONSULTING 7.13.16 ACT Enrollment Planners Conference PRESENTERS: Ann Oleson, CEO Jay Kelly, President
2 ABOUT CONVERGE
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AGENDA 2015 Inbound Marketing in Higher Education Survey Methodology Results Trends INBOUND MARKETING IN 2015 2016 Predictions in Three Key Areas: Digital Advertising Content Marketing Measurement 5
INBOUND MARKETING ATTRACT CONVERT DELIGHT Search Engine Optimization (SEO) STRANGERS Content VISITORS Pages STUDENTS Marketing Digital Advertising Search Engine Optimization Calls to Action (CTAs) Landing Forms Retargeting Lead Nurturing Emails Content Strategy Ongoing Engagement User Experience (UX) Measurement PROMOTERS 6
Inbound Marketing User Personas Content Calendars Automated Marketing Systems Enrollment Journey Maps Social Media Plan SEO Communication Workflows Campaign Strategy 7
AGENDA 2015 Inbound Marketing in Higher Education Survey 2015 Methodology INBOUND MARKETING IN Results HIGHER EDUCATION SURVEY: Trends METHODOLOGY 2016 Predictions in Three Key Areas: Digital Advertising Content Marketing Measurement 8
Web Based Survey, October 2015 N=502 responded to the survey STUDY INFORMATION October, 2015
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR INSTITUTION? 5.2% 10.8% 33.9% 3.0% Community or Technical college For profit institution Private 4 year institution Public 4 year institution 47.2% Other N=502 October, 2015
ADMISSIONS: PRIMARY STUDENTS TARGETED? Graduate Students 64.5% Undergraduate Students 54.0% Adult Students 50.8% Transfer Students 47.6% International Students 46.0% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% N=124 October, 2015
RANK: TOP THREE RECRUITMENT PRIORITIES Number of inquiries Number of campus visits Number 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 October, 2015
Search Engine Optimization Before After 13
SEO Efforts What are some of you doing currently to optimize your search engine efforts? 14
SEO EFFORTS? Technical SEO/Semantic markup 16% 18% 24% 4% 38% Off page SEO/Link building 19% 17% 28% 5% 31% Yes, Freelance/Outsource Yes, Currently on Staff No, Would like To On page SEO/Content optimization 19% 38% 18% 3% 22% No, Do not Need Do Not Know Keyword research 27% 35% 16% 4% 17% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% N=390 October, 2015
2016 TRENDS: SEO 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. 16
17 2016 TRENDS: SEO
2016 TRENDS: SEO Semantic SEO 18
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 19
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? 20
DIGITAL ADVERTISING EFFORTS? Direct buy 20% 29% 9% 16% 25% Ad network 32% 19% 11% 12% 27% Yes, Freelance/Outsource Retargeting 37% 18% 15% 10% 20% Yes, Currently on Staff No, Would like To No, Do not Need Display 34% 29% 8% 9% 20% Do Not Know Pay per click (PPC) 37% 27% 8% 14% 15% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% N=371 October, 2015
ADVERTISING ON WHICH SOCIAL CHANNELS? Pinterest 2% 11% 22% 45% 20% YouTube 10% 35% 23% 20% 12% Instagram 3% 23% 30% 30% 15% Yes, Freelance/Outsource Yes, Currently on Staff LinkedIn 11% 36% 22% 19% 13% No, Would like To No, Do not Need Twitter 8% 42% 19% 21% 9% Do Not Know Facebook 18% 64% 10% 5% 3% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% N=362 October, 2015
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING #2 Increase in Video Ads 23
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING #2 Increase in Video Ads 24
#3 Expansion of Retargeting 2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING LinkedIn Lead Accelerator 25
#3 Expansion of Retargeting 2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING 26
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING #4 Increased Data Layering 27
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING #4 Increased Data Layering 28
Personas Have you created Personas internally? If so, how do you use them? 29
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING #5 Persona Targeted Advertising & Messaging 30
2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING 31
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 32
Content Marketing Website content Blog Posts Infographics Social media strategy Custom content templates User Personas Photography HD Video 33
Who creates content at your university? Content Marketing Where does content get placed? 34
CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS? Communication mapping (workflows, funnels) 8% 43% 24% 3% 21% Videos 16% 62% 13% 8% 1% Marketing automation software 8% 25% 33% 10% 24% Yes, Freelance/Outsource Content offers (ebooks, infographics, kits) 6% 24% 32% 13% 25% Yes, Currently on Staff No, Would like To Editorial Calendar 5% 41% 21% 7% 26% No, Do not Need Do Not Know Messaging Matrix 7% 28% 27% 5% 32% User Personas 10% 31% 21% 10% 28% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% N=335 October, 2015
2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING #1 Shifting Goals and Priorities 36
2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING #2 Focus on Measurement and Performance 37
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 38
Monitoring Data Who here uses Google Analytics? Do you have Goals and Dashboards? 39
Google Analytics Universal Analytics Goal Mapping Dashboards Analytics Trainings Google Tag Manager event tagging 40
MEASUREMENT EFFORTS? Marketing automation analytics 6% 27% 36% 6% 25% CRM metrics 6% 42% 31% 5% 17% Social media monitoring 10% 65% 14% 2% 9% Yes, Freelance/Outsource Yes, Currently on Staff Social media analytics 10% 66% 13% 1% 9% No, Would like To Google Analytics dashboards 13% 61% 15% 2% 10% Google Analytics goal setup 13% 49% 24% 1% 13% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% N=327 October, 2015
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT #1 Moving From Data Dumps to Actual Insight 42
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT #2 Inspecting Big Picture Goals on a Micro Level 43
2016 TRENDS: MEASUREMENT #3 Measuring Students Throughout the Funnel 44
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 45
Staff Advertising Content CRM SEO Marketing Automation Where would you spend extra budget? 46
INBOUND MARKETING IN 2016 Where would you spend extra resources? Response Number of Responses Staff 50 Advertising 26 Content 25 CRM 20 SEO 17 Marketing Automation 10 47
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