stop pushing & start pulling: inbound marketing for higher education
TRANSCRIPT
Stop Pushing and Start PullingThe Evolution of Higher Education Marketing
Ann Oleson, Converge ConsultingJay Kelly, Converge Consulting
May 29, 2014
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Audience is in Control
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Permission Marketing
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Definition of Inbound Marketing
Earning the attention of prospects
Making yourself easy to be found
Drawing students/alumni to your website by producing custom content that is valued
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Search Trends
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Search Trends
About 85% of searchers never go beyond page 1 of the results
53% of all searchers click on the very first link on page #1
94% of search users choose organic over paid listing when searching, particularly for purchases
Sources: "Search Engine Rankings: Why They Matter." PmbmediaWORKS. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. “Ten statistics that demonstrate the value of SEO”. Intraspin 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.
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Goal
To be found wherever prospective students, parents, donors, and alumni are searching.
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These guys have changed the rules!
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History of SEO Tactics: Humming Bird and Content as King
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Trends and Expectations for the Future
Value is future proof and algorithm proof.”“
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Modern SEO 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.
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More Than Just Webpages
Search engines index more than just Websites
Images
Maps
Videos
News
Blogs
Social Sharing
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Videos and SEO
Think short: length, title, and description
Optimize titles, tags, and descriptions for all content
Tag ‘influencers’ in videos
Encourage FB video ‘likes’ by requesting them directly in the description of the video
Consider Promoted videos
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Keyword Research
What are Branded and Unbranded Keywords?
Do you know your top performing Unbranded Keywords?
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SEO Keyword Report
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SEO Keyword Report
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Quality, Not Just Quantity
–Strength of the linking domain
–Strength of the pages the links are on
–Strength of the links themselves
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That Which is Measured Improves
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SEO Checklist Have you done a
technical crawl?
Do you know your top performing Unbranded Keywords?
Have you thought about 3 to 4 overall brand messages for thematic SEO?
Do you have an SEO evangelist on campus?
Do you have a dashboard, report on SEO monthly?
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Inbound Marketing – The Pillars
Get Found=SEOBe Relevant=Content Strategy Be Social=Social MediaMeasure=Google Analytics
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Who has a content strategy plan?
Where does your school’s content exist?
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Content Strategy
Content Strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of content—written or in other media. The term is particularly common in web development since the late 1990s.
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Why Should I bother with Content Strategy?Your institution’s brand is connected to everything else…Which means Brand Strategy really can’t exist without content strategy to support it.
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Strategize•What content should be created?
•How will it be structured•How will I find it?•How to measure effectiveness?
Create•What is the purpose, audience, and brand message?
•What do we want them to learn?
•What is the best format? (COPE)
Measure •How are you doing with: SEO, Google Analytics, goal conversions, traffic sources, and social insights?
Analyze•What content do you have?
•Who is in charge?•Who is your target audience?
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What content do you have? Webinars Infographics Blog posts Videos Printed materials (publications, magazines) Phone scripts, speeches Other?
Analyze
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What content should be created? How will users find it? How will we measure it?
Strategize
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Working Across the Institution
Communications
IT
Admissions
Financial Aid
Faculty
Sr. Leadership
Marketing
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Content Process
Requested Created Approved Published
• Marketing
• Program Stakeholder
• Marketing
• Subject Matter Expert (SME)
• Marketing• Program
Stakeholder• Compliance
(as needed)
• Marketing
Email to Marketing
Marketing Initiative
Copy, Design,
Interviews
Email to Approve or Edit
Entered and
Published
edits
Estimate Timeline:Varies
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• Who is Using Personas?
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1. What is the purpose of the content?2. Who is the audience?3. What brand messages are we
communicating?4. What do we want the user to learn?5. What is the best format to deliver the
content?6. How will we measure the
success?
Create
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Content Calendar
Create
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• Optimize your On-Page elements for SEO.
SEO + Content Strategy
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COPE Create Once. Publish Everywhere
SEO + Content Strategy + Social
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SEO report, keyword rankings Conversions from blog referral traffic Google Analytics custom dashboard
Measure
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Content Checklist Do you have a strategic
approach?
Do you use templates to determine priority?
Do you use personas to target specific audiences?
How do you COPE?
Do you have a process in place for assessing effectiveness of your content?
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Inbound Marketing – The Pillars
Get Found=SEOBe Relevant=Content Strategy Be Social=Social MediaMeasure=Google Analytics
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If Facebook were a country, where would it rank in size?
3rd, After China and India
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Facebook AdvertisingCustom Audiences- Upload your prospective student list and retarget your ads to move students further down your recruiting pipeline
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What’s new in Higher EducationFacebook
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What’s new in Higher EducationLinkedIn
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Blogs
Ties in with SEO Student and faculty voices Use a combination of content: news
and events, alumni stories, faculty publishing, expertise and thought leadership
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Social Checklist Do you use social
monitoring?
Do you blog?
Do you have a social media strategy?
Do you have a shared social media calendar?
Do you have an identified social media champion on campus?
Do you have a measurement system in place?
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Inbound Marketing – The Pillars
Get Found=SEOBe Relevant=Content Strategy Be Social=Social MediaMeasure=Google Analytics
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Received an
Went to a landing page
Looked at degree options
Inquired
Open House
Applied
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Web analytics is a process,not a tool.
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Web Analytics: A Continuous Process
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Measure quantitative and qualitative data Continuously improve your website Align your measurement strategy with your
organizational strategy
Primary web analytics tasks
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Web analytics doesn’t start here
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http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-10-30/
Create a plan
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2,000 page views 70% returning visitors 80% bounce rate
Numbers Rarely Speak for Themselves
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Web Analytics Framework
1 Business Objectives
2 Website Goals
3Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs)
4 Targets
5 Segments
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•
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Goal: More than 3 minutes (180 seconds) on the site
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Universal Analytics is Here…
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Analytics Checklist Do you have GA
installed?
Do you have Goals set up?
Have you discussed a transition to Universal Analytics?
Have you completed a GA assessment?
Do you report weekly or monthly findings to measure recruitemtn success?
Do you have an Evangelist on campus?
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Definition of Inbound Marketing Earning the attention of prospects
Making yourself easy to be found
Drawing students/alumni to your website by producing custom content that is valued
