6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 1

6 Ways to Get Better

Conversion Results

from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 2

1) Know what you want your site to do

2) Get feedback on the site you have

3) Know when and what to ask to get what you want

4) Track it

5) Test it

6) Say thanks

Overview

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 3

Do you know what your website’s goals are?

This seems like a pretty obvious question but many institutions have

not done the hard work to carefully define their site’s objectives.

Many institutions too easily slip into the old-school thinking that the

website is simply a brochure for their college, and don’t carefully

work out their marketing objectives.

The reality is that your website is your most critical public facing

communications tool that must serve multiple roles and deliver

multiple outcomes from multiple types of visitors.

Your website forms the foundation of your relationship with all of

those visitors, be they prospective students, alumni or staff.

So if you have not carefully defined your goals, take some time

upfront before you launch into trying to improve page or conversion

performance. It will save you tons of time and give you a much more

valuable end result.

1. Know what you want your site to do

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 4

It’s surprising how little time webmasters and web marketers

spend gathering feedback on their own websites.

There are really great resources sitting in offices all around you on

campus who can provide really helpful insight into the effectiveness

of your website.

Talk to marketing staff, admissions counsellors, departmental chairs,

international recruiters. Step into your students' shoes and ask them

what problems they run into to get what they want.

Spend some quality time talking with your users and you will learn a

lot.

Particularly focus on your visitor acquisition channels to boost the

performance of your high traffic an high value conversion events.

Google analytics is your friend so be sure to take advantage of

funnel flow and visitor page maps.

2. Get feedback on the site you have

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 5

Every page on your site should have an objective, but keep

it simple and focus on your best value proposition, page by

page.

Conversion events like request info forms, downloads, videos, call to

action buttons need to be driven by your related content.

For example don’t ask for too much information; that’s a classic

conversion killer. If the conversion event is an info package, ask for a

name and email address. If you ask for a phone number and home

address you may have gone too far and significantly reduced your

conversion rate.

Keep the relative value of the conversion equal to the info required

to get it.

Think about every page, as a landing page, getting your links, calls

to action and forms correct and limiting visitor leakage by minimizing

the number of possible exit links a visitor is exposed to.

3. Know when and what to ask to get what you

want

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 6

As they say if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.

If “it” is a conversion, of course you need to set it up in Google

analytics as a goal, with a goal value, and possibly with a goal

funnel.

Be sure to always add goal dollar value.

Total conversions numbers, % increases etc are all very nice but

what you want here is to see real impact on your business and

dollars are the best way to do that.

If you are new to Google Analytics then you should also

learn about how to tag other kinds of events with the Google

URL builder so that you can track events outside of your

normal page flow and bring their results into sight within

Google Analytics.

4. Track it

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 7

The statistics are very clear that if you adopt a testing

mentality and conduct testing on your pages that your

results will improve.

Conversion improvements will come in two forms.

Firstly, you will get a lift in conversions on a page that you

have improved, having applied some logical testing

hypothesis to it.

A/B and Multivariate testing will teach you things about how to better

connect to your audience that you can get in no other way.

Testing will knock you down a few pegs and then build you

up again with new insight and skills that you can get no other

way.

5. Test it

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 8

It seems a bit redundant to point out to say thanks but so

many websites do this badly or not at all.

A thank you page is a really critical piece for your analytics, as this

page view is what is tracked to indicate a conversion.

But equally or more important is to take the opportunity to further the

relationship that you have begun to build with this visitor with a

simple thank you.

They also buffer the visitor against “buyer’s remorse” about revealing

their interest in your programs to your admissions department.

Thank you pages are also excellent opportunities to give the

visitor more value i.e. another link or download a pdf, that

takes them further down the path towards registration.

6. Say thanks

Source: Higher Education Marketing – 6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from your Higher Ed Website

6 Ways to Get Better Conversion Results from

your Higher Ed Website

Slide 9

Questions? 1.514.312.3968

info@higher-education-marketing.com

Visit our Website: Higher Education Marketing

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