higher education's inbound marketing survey

PRESENTERS:

Ann Oleson, CEOJay Kelly, President

ACT Enrollment Planners Conference CONVERGE CONSULTING | 7.13.16

ABOUT CONVERGE

2

AGENDA

5

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

6

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

7

AGENDA

8

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

13

Before… After…

SEO Efforts

• What are some of you doing currently to optimize your search engine efforts?

14

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

16

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

17

2016 TRENDS: SEO

18

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

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

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%



No, Would like To

No, Do not Need

Do Not Know

N=371

DIGITAL ADVERTISING EFFORTS?

October, 2015

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

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%



No, Would like To

No, Do not Need

Do Not Know

N=362

ADVERTISING ON WHICH SOCIAL CHANNELS?

2016 TRENDS: DIGITAL ADVERTISING

23

#2 – Increase in Video Ads


24

#2 – Increase in Video Ads


25

#3 – Expansion of Retargeting

LinkedIn Lead Accelerator


26

#3 – Expansion of Retargeting


27

#4 – Increased Data Layering


28

#4 – Increased Data Layering

Personas

• Have you created Personas internally?

• If so, how do you use them?

29


30

#5 – Persona Targeted Advertising & Messaging


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

Content Marketing

• Who creates content at your university?

• Where does content get placed?

34

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%



No, Would like To

No, Do not Need

Do Not Know

N=335

CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS?

2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING

36

#1 – Shifting Goals and Priorities

2016 TRENDS: CONTENT MARKETING

37

#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

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

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

42

#1 ‐Moving From Data Dumps to Actual Insight


43

#2 ‐ Inspecting Big Picture Goals on a Micro Level


44

#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

45

Where would you spend extra budget?

• Staff• Advertising• Content• CRM• SEO• Marketing Automation

46

INBOUND MARKETING IN 2016

47

Where would you spend extra resources?

Response Number of Responses

Staff 50

Advertising 26

Content 25

CRM 20

SEO 17

Marketing Automation 10

higher education's inbound marketing survey

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