best practices in interactive marketing and new technologies

Best Practices in Interactive Marketing &

New Technologies2010 ACHE Annual Conference & Meeting2010 ACHE Annual Conference & Meeting

Marcelo Parravicini

Marketing Director

Post University

Brad Gibbs

Chief Growth Officer

PlattForm Higher Education

Table of Contents

• Conversational marketing

• Internet/interactive marketing options

– Search engine optimization

– Paid search

– Affiliate marketing– Affiliate marketing

• Traditional marketing & offline activation

• Integrated admissions process

• Formulating ROI-driven interactive marketing strategies

• ROI metrics

• Marketing (both internet and traditional) has evolved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation

– That conversation is often a 3-way discussion

• Peer-to-peer feedback is highly sought and perceived as unbiased by prospective students

– It is not the selling proposition, it is what current/former students have to say about their experience with the university

Conversational Marketing:

Who’s Driving the Conversation?

about their experience with the university

• The fear factor – When researching online education options, most prospective students look for assurances

– Highly crowded, democratic landscape confuses students

– Students want to know:

• “Are you a real university?”

• “Are you accredited?”; “What does it mean?”

• MOST STUDENTS SEEK FOR ANSWERS FROM THEIR PEERS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

• Social media has become an important source of peer-to-peer feedback about products and

services

– Opens communications with both current and prospective students

• Challenge: negative postings! There is such thing as disgruntled students

• Opportunity: address problems and concerns as these arise, resulting in an

improved brand image

– Students looking for information are more likely to post a question on a social network


Who’s Driving the Conversation?

– Students looking for information are more likely to post a question on a social network

than to call the university directly

• No room for big brother here! – Student participation decreases when monitoring

is perceived; however, it is at times expected

– To effectively integrate social media as part of a conversational marketing strategy,

institutions must:

• Engage in conversations

• Offer customer service via social media

• Provide a platform for conversations? Blogs!

• The most important conversation is not between the university and the

prospective students, but rather between the prospect and current students

• Conversational content – What are prospects looking for?

Ignite the conversation!

– Post relevant questions and see what happens


Blogs – Drive the Discussion!

– Post relevant questions and see what happens

• Are online universities real?

• What makes an online university “real”?

- Measurable ROI: generates inquiries, brand awareness, and improves

search engine rankings

• Search engine marketing/optimization (PPC/SEO)

– Sponsored search engine ads tend to be a higher cost-per-inquiry, but higher converting option

– Sponsored search engine results together with organic rankings increases “click-through-rates”

– Content must be optimized for relevant search phrases/keywords

– Conversions are optimized when results are supported by interactive, targeted landing pages

• Affiliate marketing (CPA/CPI)

– Cost effective tactic quickly increases inquiry flow and share-of-voice

Interactive Marketing Options:

Inquiry Funnel Mix

– Cost effective tactic quickly increases inquiry flow and share-of-voice

– Highly competitive landscape results in lower conversions than SEM/SEO inquiries

• Display advertising (banners/CPM)

– Low response rate, less targeted, and not cost effective… unless utilized as part of an integrated

retargeting campaign

• Email marketing

– Cost-effective and direct way to market and communicate with prospective students who have

already shown an interest in your university

– No need for list brokers – over time you will built an email database of students who have agreed

and expressly consented to receiving your marketing messages (a CAN-SPAM act. requirement)


Search Engine Optimization (SEO)• The education landscape is highly crowded and

competitive – in order to maximize the institution’s share-of-voice, SEO must be a component of an integrated interactive marketing strategy

• Keyword optimization continues to be incorrectly perceived as the main/key component of SEOcomponent of SEO

• Trust/authority of host domain, link popularity, and anchor text of external links are critical components of a well executed SEO campaign

• Other SEO components include:

– Search-engine-friendly web design

– Use of meta/title tags

– Content relevancy (e.g., consumers search for borrowing, refinance, not lending)


Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Integrated Campaign


Paid Search (PPC)

• PPC is an effective way to gain share-of-voice when organic rankings are not present

• Effectiveness of campaign is dependant on targeted search-phrases

– Broad search phrase results in high impressions, low number of clicks, and non-

targeted click-throughs

• Targeted landing pages are critical to visitor-to-inquiry conversion

– Ad copy sets the visitor’s expectations

– Each targeted search phrase must be considered in terms of landing page content

Both SEO and PPC listings for the same search phrase increases overall click-through rates


Affiliate Marketing (A.K.A. Aggregators)

• Aggregators are an effective way to maximize share-of-voice and an affordable source of targeted inquiries

• CPI ranges from $35 to $120, depending on factors such as how the inquiry is transferred to the call center, or the degree program being promoted (e.g., undergrad vs. grad)

• While CPI is, and should be an initial point of cost-to-market reference, overall conversion and cost-per-enrollment should be the key metrics used to measured ROI

– For example, inquiries at a high CPI that convert higher then average are more desirable than low CPL inquiries that hardly convert… more is not always better!

• Depending on a number of variables, aggregator inquiries convert anywhere from 1% to 4%

Traditional Marketing & Offline Activation

• Traditional media (e.g., broadcast & print) can be an important component of an

integrated interactive marketing plan

– Effective call-to-actions can drive highly targeted traffic to a specific URL, or to

call a unique 800 number

– Challenge: are you reaching the right demographic?

• Awareness campaigns are effective at increasing both paid search and organic

traffic

– Brand awareness is likely to drive traffic away from the intended action

– Challenge: it is not always possible to track all traffic to a specific buy

Integrated Admissions Process:

Impact on Retention & Graduation Rates

• Admissions counselors, not reps

– Enrollment counselors represent the first step in an integrated admissions and counseling program

aimed at ensuring student satisfaction, improving persistency and retention, and impacting academic

performance, resulting in higher graduation rates

• Tuition planners

– Financing is a significant obstacle in a student’s enrollment process – the short admissions cycle

typical of online programs presents many challenges to both the student and the tuition planner

(e.g., FAFSA, loan applications, tuition reimbursement) (e.g., FAFSA, loan applications, tuition reimbursement)

• Academic advisors

– Work on helping students establish their academic and career goals/aspirations, and coach students

into achieving their full academic potential

– Actively review the students' applied curricula, transcripts, test scores, and provides academic

recommendations

– Maintain relationships with students and are a critical part of an institution’s ongoing retention

programs

– Act as a liaison between students and admissions, registrar’s office, student accounts and financial

aid


Technology and Inquiry Delivery

• Well-established institutions will call a prospective student within a minute of having requested information

• Inquiry delivery to a call center must be executed as close to real-time as possible

– Inquiries not reached within a minute tend to realize lower conversion rates

– Those not reach within the first hour are likely to have a very low reach

• Challenge: most traditional institutions are not setup technologically to handle a real-time • Challenge: most traditional institutions are not setup technologically to handle a real-time recruitment operation

• Solution: integrating marketing systems with student information systems

– Incoming inquiries are generated at inquiry forms or through form postings

– Inquiries are often housed on independent back-ends from which a posting to the student information database will be required (again, as close to real time as possible)

– Once inquiries are posted to the student information system, they are distributed real-time to admission counselors who will start the calling/recruitment process immediately


Inquiry Delivery Issues

• Depending on the availability of an inquiry management system or not, admissions counselors may be charged with both calling prospective students and keeping a database of “bad inquiries”

• For aggregator buys, bad inquiries are often returned for credit… but, caveat emptor, the devil is in the details

• Reputable aggregators will offer reasonable terms and conditions that outline • Reputable aggregators will offer reasonable terms and conditions that outline inquiry return processes; however, technology limitations may hinder the institutions’ ability to return inquiries as agreed resulting in lower conversion rates and higher cost-per-enrollments

• Recommendation: integration of inquiry forms to an inquiry management system is paramount to achieving inquiry delivery integration

Formulating ROI-Driven Interactive

Marketing Strategies

• Strategic goals

– Increase brand awareness

– Increase enrollments

• Objectives

– Maximize online SOV– Maximize online SOV

– Increase qualified inquiry flow

• Landscape/competitive analysis

– What are your competitors doing?

– What types of competitors are there?

– How crowded is the landscape?

Funnel Management

• The bulk of all inquiries will be

received electronically

• Depending on the marketing channel,

there are a number of metrics that

must be monitored Visitors

Impressions

conversion rate

Integrated Campaign

• For the purpose of measuring

education inquiry conversion, the

most critical metrics are:

– Cost-per-lead

– Cost-per-enrollment

– Reach

– Inquiry-to-start conversion New enrolled students

Inquiries

Applications

ROI Metrics

• Conversion metrics

• Cost-to-market/cost-per-enrollment and lifetime value of student

– CPI vs. CPE

– Retention vs. persistency

Tracking – how to tie enrollments to marketing sources• Tracking – how to tie enrollments to marketing sources

– Integrating marketing with student information systems

– Landing pages

– Inquiry forms

– Tracking URLs

Predictable ROI – Marketing and Sales

Must Be Integrated1 – Inquiries are

delivered to call center after going through an inquiry management

system (IMS)

2 – IMS assigns unique identifiers to all inquiries, tying

prospective students to marketing channels

6 – Marketing utilizes call center feedback and conversion cost metrics to optimize ongoing campaigns

3 – Call center calls inquiries and further qualify them, in the process identifying

inquiry quality issues

4 – Call center notifies marketing of ongoing issues and feedback is used daily to optimize

campaigns

5 – Enrollment data is recorded in inquiry

management system and is used to calculate conversion and cost

metrics

Questions?Questions?