inbound 2.0: a journey to what’s new and what’s next in inbound marketing
DESCRIPTION
Inbound 2.0: A Journey to What’s New and What’s Next in Inbound Marketing by Converge's Jay Kelly at the 2014 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education - Austin.TRANSCRIPT
November 2014 - 1
Inbound Marketing 2.0 What’s New & Next
November 2014 - 2
The way people research has changed…
44% of direct mail is never opened
86% skip TV commercials
91% unsubscribe from emails
200 Million say “do not call”
November 2014 - 3
November 2014 - 4
Instead…
prospective students do research online
of prospective students
view college website
via mobile devices
of students find college
websites to be a reliable
sources of information
of students used social
media when deciding
to where to enroll
Inbound Marketing practices produce
more inquires than
traditional outbound
practices
November 2014 - 5
Inbound Marketing
What is it?
• Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality
content that pulls people toward your school, where
they naturally want to be.
• By aligning the content you publish with your
prospective student’s interests, you naturally attract
inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and
delight over time.
inbound
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StudentsContacts Alumni
Inbound Marketing Methodology
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1
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Search Habits
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2nd Organic Result:
Reoccurring asset, will
continue to appear
year after year
Paid Results:
“online MBA”
costs $59/click
Step 1: Attact Website Traffic
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2nd Organic Result:
Reoccurring asset, will
continue to appear
year after year
Paid Results:
“online MBA”
costs $59/click
Step 1: Attract Website Traffic
November 2014 - 11
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• What You Need to Know
– Technical assessment (crawl for errors)
– On Page optimization and basic keyword research
– Thematic keyword development
– Off page optimization and link building
– Reporting
TOOL: A great Inbound and SEO tool is Moz. Plus, 30-day free trial!
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KeywordsDiscover which keywords will bring the best organic traffic to your site and analyze your
paid search campaigns.
• Track which keywords
drive the best visitors
& leads
• View difficulty, current
rank and search volume
• Get recommendations
for low-hanging fruit
• Compare your rankings
to competitors
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Example: Thematic Keyword Development
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Link Building
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Link Building
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Strategic Content Creation
• Share, educate, delight... don’t sell
• Build your content based on thematic research
• Aim for 15 posts per month
• Develop an analytics dashboard to see what works
best for YOUR audience
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Targeted Content
• Prospective students are asking
“what’s in it for me?”
• Answer specific questions to
engage in a meaningful way
• Right message, right audience,
right time
FACT: 61% of consumer say they feel better about and are more
likely to buy from a company the delivers custom content.
(Custom Content Council)
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Targeted Content
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Targeted Content
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BloggingCreate long-lasting marketing assets by publishing blog articles optimized to get found
and generate leads.
• Create content to
develop your thought
leadership and get
found online
• View detailed SEO
recommendations for
improving your
content as you type
• Automatically publish
to your social media
accounts
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Optimized
blog posts
for target
keywords
Social Media
sharing
buttons for
content to be
shared to new
audiences
• Websites that
blog have 55%
more traffic than
websites that
do not
• 75% of all clicks
go to Organic
Search results
• Companies that
blog have 97%
more inbound
links than
companies that
don’t
Step 1: Attract Website Traffic
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Strategic Content Creation
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Strategic Content Creation
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Show & Tell
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Social Media
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Social Media
• Join into conversations about you or industry topics
• Less formal, more personality, concise, fun!
• Use your content calendar to schedule consistent,
on-point posts
• Develop an analytics dashboard to learn how social
traffic is converting on your goals
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Social Media
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Social Media
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Social Media
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Social Media
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QUIZ – Phase I: Attract
• Search Engine Optimization
– Is your site search engine optimized on page? Technical?
Off page and link building?
– Are you building content based on search trends?
• Strategic Content
– Do you have a blog?
– Are you measuring success?
– Is it strategic?
• Social Media
– Do you have a strategy?
– Are you measuring it?
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2
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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
• If you don’t ask, they’ll never do it
• Critical for collecting information about prospects,
which fuels inbound marketing
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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
• Should go hand-in-hand with strategic content
• Enticing and friendly
• Knowing your prospects will help you know what
would be enticing to them
• Visual should stand out and be placed consistently
FACT: Benefit focused terminology is more likely to entice prospects
to click. (From research by The Science of Blogging)
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Step 2: Convert Website Traffic “Apply Now” is not good enough
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Step 2: Convert Website TrafficProvide a conversion point for students while they’re still researching programs.
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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
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Call to ActionBuild professional CTAs in minutes to convert your visitors into leads, complete with
A/B testing.
• Build CTAs or upload
your own custom
images
• Display CTAs on your
pages, blog posts and
emails
• Display Smart CTAs
based on contact
properties
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Landing Pages
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Landing Pages
• Unique landing page per campaign with
Google Analytics applied
• Clear
• Free of clutter, compelling copy
• Mobile Optimized
• Only capture what you use
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Test, Test, Test
FACT: Testing radically different landing pages against each other
yielded a conversion increase of 264% for Marian University.
(Ion Interactive)
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• Keep them short – only collect
what you use
• Break them up into multiple
pages, but provide a status bar
• Explain what you’ll use the
information for – and mean it
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Landing Page and Form
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Best Practices
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Best Practices
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Best Practices
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Best Practices
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Best Practices
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QUIZ – Phase II: Convert
• Calls to Action
– Do you have calls to action every opportunity?
– Are they directing the user to what’s next?
• Landing Pages
– Do you have landing pages?
– Are they following best practices?
• Forms
– Do you strategically use forms?
– Are they optimized and following
best practices?
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3
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Email MarketingSend personalized, beautiful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and
measure which messages are most effective.
• Personalize your
message, sender, and
subject lines
• View detailed
engagement analytics
• Choose from a variety
of pre-tested
templates
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Example
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Step 3: Nurture and Build a RelationshipExample Campaign
Convert Visitor to a Lead
Meet Professors
Student Success Stories
Info on Campus Visit
Info on Financial Aid
Push towards “apply now”
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Workflows Automation AppTrigger email messages and activities within your contact records to automate your email
marketing strategies.
• Trigger emails, actions
in your Contacts
database & webhooks
• Create custom lead
scoring
• Move leads easily to
different workflows
and lists
• View detailed
engagement data
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4
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Ongoing Engagement
• Repeat “customers” are your best advocates
• The trust factor: word of mouth
• Improve retention
FACT: 77% of consumer are more likely to buy a new product when
learning about it from friends or family. (Nielsen)
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Ongoing Engagement
• Social Media
• Events – online and in person
• Segmented email lists
• Measure success, in person or online
FACT: MailChimp found that segmented emails perform about 15%
better than average on opens and clicks than non-segmented lists.
(MailChimp)
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User Experience
• Should be effortless – “it gets out of the way”
• Promotes further engagement
• Mobile is critical
• Improve through user testing and heuristic
evaluations
FACT: 48% of users say that if they arrive on a business site that isn’t
working well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the business
simply not caring (MarginMedia)
FACT: Only 55% of companies are currently conducting any kind of
online user experience testing. (Econsultancy)
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SourcesAnalyze which of your marketing activities are driving the highest ROI in terms
of visits, leads, and students.
• Track how your
marketing is performing
in terms of visitors,
leads & students
• Measure the ROI of your
marketing campaigns
• Drill into detailed
reports on your
performance
• Compare the
effectiveness of your
marketing channels
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Competitors ReportAnalyze how you compare to your competitor’s online presence.
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QUIZ – Phase IV: Delight
• Targeted Content
– Do you know who your audiences are?
– Have you developed targeted messages (email, social, online)
to answer their questions?
• Ongoing Engagement
– Do you provide customized experiences?
– How do you encourage current students
and alumni to share their experiences?
• User Experience
– Have you done user testing?
– Have you optimized for mobile?
November 2014 - 65
Digital & Inbound MarketingSatish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business
November 2014 - 66
Digital Marketing
• LinkedIn InMail & Display Ad Digital Campaign
• July 23-September 30
2,700 50% 7 million
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Digital Marketing
• LinkedIn InMail & Display Ad Digital Campaign
• July 23-September 30
MBA
MBA MBA
MBAMBA
MBA
MBA
MBA
MBA
MBAMBAMBA
MBAMBA
MBA MBA
MBA
2,700 50% 7 million
MBA MBA MBAMBA
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Traditional Media Mix
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Inbound Marketing Strategy
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Marketing Automation
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Persona Development
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Targeted Digital Marketing
• LinkedIn InMail & Display Ad Digital Campaign
• 8 Weeks
digital
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Optimized Landing PagesCustomized for each digital campaign
digital
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Campaign AnalyticsUser’s Interactions
digital
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Campaign AnalyticsUser’s Page View Activity
digital
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Campaign Results
• 969,000 impressions
• 520 click-throughs
• 43 prospects
• 2 admitted students
digital
• 628,831 impressions
• 611 click-throughs
• 17 prospects
• 1 admitted student
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What’s next?
• Offer Library
– MBA Buyer’s Guide
– “Are you ready for an MBA?”
– Master’s Career Guide
– Financing Your Education
– Capstone Experience
– Benefits of STEM
inbound
November 2014 - 78
Inbound Marketing Results
We want to move where the
market is going, not where
it’s been.”
(Marketer Surveyed in Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing 2013)
“
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