How to Utilize Website Marketing in Enrollment Marketing

Tony Gallini, Marketing Consultant, Saint Louis University School for

Professional Studiesand

Tylor Hermanson, Senior SEO Specialist, PlattForm Higher

Education

Treating your website like your university

Your website marketing strategy

• Help them FIND you• Help them LIKE you

Help them FIND you

• Importance of inbound marketing– More cost-effective - 62% lower cost-per-inquiry

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)• PPC (Pay-Per-Click Advertising)• Traditional media integration

HubSpot 2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report

How do you find a school online?

Top three answers:• Google or other search engine to find schools

by name – 41%• Use a site to match me, like My College

Options or The College Board – 38%• Enter words or phrases into Google – 35%

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

SEO and PPC

Paid Listings

Organic Results

SEO• Objective: Maximize relevant, organic search traffic

to your website• Strategy – Give target market what they want– Make search engines aware

• Why?– Slow, but effective– Lowest cost-per-enrollment, highest inquiry-to-enrollment,

greatest return on investment– Test your site– This isn’t peer pressure, but everyone’s doing it…

SEO Strategy

On-Site SEO

Off-Site SEO

On-Page SEO

• Crawlable Architecture • Keyword Research• Content • Title Tags• Meta Data• URL Structure• Interlinking• Image Optimization

Off-Site SEO

• Linkbuilding– A vote for your site– Relevant & authoritative– Time intensive

• Local Optimization– Google Maps– Bing Local– Yahoo! Local– Yelp– And more…

PPC

PPC – 30%

SEO – 70%

PPC• Objective: Maximize cost-effective paid search traffic

to your website• Strategy

– Keyword research and refinement– Keep high quality score– Geo-target by radius or DMA when applicable– Use mini-sites

• Why?– Immediate results– Broad/specific in keywords and location– Low cost-per-enrollment– Pay-per-click

PPCMini-Site Example

Traditional Media Integration• 41% of people are online while they’re watching TV*• It’s not one or the other, it’s a perfect harmony• QR Codes– 72% of smartphone users would likely recall ad**

• Social Media– Understand your goals

• Tracking– Unique URLs– Branded search correlation testing

*Big Research Simultaneous Media Survey 2009**MGH, February 2011

Helping them FIND St. Louis University

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

“We have an online program now, so let’s go national.”

– Dean, SLU School for Professional Studies, April 2007

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

How do we increase inquiries/enrollments for new programs/online offerings with same, very small, marketing budget?– Strengths: reputation/brand, adult student focus– Weaknesses: affordability, sufficient resources– Opportunities: new programs, online/alternative formats– Threats: competition, internal resistance

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

In addition…– In 2006, the University adopted a new Content

Management System (CMS) for the website – resulting in “lost site syndrome”.

– University of Phoenix 2010 Annual Report• Gross revenue almost topped $5 billion, which is nearly

a $1 billion increase from 2009• Enrollment is 438,000 students• “Sales and Promotional Expenses” budget was more

than $1.1 billion! ($160 million increase from 2009)

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

• Challenges– Google can’t find us– Going “national” on shoestring budget– Up against for-profit competition– Insufficient resources

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

• Began working with PlattForm in October 2007– Started small - SEO only– Targeted top eight pages first for optimization

and gradually expanded throughout the year– Resulted in 50 percent increase in both search

engine traffic and overall visitors from 2007 to 2008

– Traffic in 2011 is four times greater than 2007, with 68 percent coming from search engines

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

• SEO, PPC and Retargeting Ads– Organic takes time, so don’t delay any longer– PPC is a great kick start, but also a great

compliment to a good SEO campaign– Retargeting ads are a cost-effective and affordable

way to do banner ads across the Internet– Combine these with traditional advertising for a

steady and sustained lead flow

Help them LIKE you

• Your website• Mobile• Social• Reputation management

Imagine if a student visited your campus and…

• They were swarmed by several faculty and staff telling them to do different things

Imagine if a student visited your campus and…

• They couldn’t find anyone to answer their questions

Imagine if a student visited your campus and…

• They got lost

Imagine if a student visited your campus and…

• They were handicapped, but the school didn’t have wheelchair access

Your Website

• 92% of college bound high school students said they would be disappointed with a school or remove it entirely from their lists if they didn’t find the information they needed on the school’s website.

• 1 in 4 students removed a school from their list because of a bad experience on the school’s website

• Of those, 51% said it was because they couldn’t find what they wanted

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

Your Website

• It starts with the homepage– The facts: 65% of students land on your homepage– The catch: It needs to work for everyone

• Usability• Aesthetics• Content• SEO–friendliness• Call-to-action

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

Your Website:Usability

• What is most important to prospective students?– List of programs (28%)*– Cost/Tuition/Fees (21%)– Program details (19%)*

• *Nearly 1/2 of students put something academic related as most valuable.

• What pages are most important on your school’s website?– What pages do search engines find most valuable?

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

Your Website:Call to Action

Net Price Calculators

• October 29, 2011 deadline• Default vs. customized– Default: Pros

• Meets law’s minimum requirements• Free

– Default: Cons• Does not consider key components in Federal Methodology

Expected Family Contribution (EFC) calculation• Does not allow school to capture prospective students’

contact information

Mobile• General Mobile Data– 33% of American households (11% in ‘08)*– 40% of Americans that do not own a smartphone plan

to in the near future*• Education-specific Mobile Data– 23% of prospective students reported searching

college sites from their smart phones– PlattForm SEO clients have seen a roughly 400%

average increase from last year in mobile trafficDeloitte State of Media Democracy, 2011

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

Mobile• Mobile friendly vs. mobile site• Mobile site– Mobile browser detected– Customized navigation– Most important information

• Mobile friendly– Limit Flash– Incorporate click-to-call– Try it out!

Social Media

“Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers, intentionally or unintentionally, about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms.”

Josh MendelsohnVP, Chadwick Martin

Bailey

Social Media:Activity

–Nearly 2/3 of U.S. internet users regularly use a social network*–93% of U.S. adult internet users are on

Facebook**–1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on

Facebook***

*Emarketer, February 2011**Blogher, April 2011

***Comscore, February 2011

Social Media:Activity

–More than ½ of active Twitter users follow companies, brand or products on social networks–79% of U.S. Twitter users are more likely to

recommend brands they follow

Edison Research, 2010

Social Media:Consumers

• 40% of customers who use search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to complete their decision

• 53% of people admitted that content on social media websites changed their mind on a brand they were considering buying

Group M Search and Comscore, 2011

Social Media:Students

• 33% of prospective students said they had searched for schools on social networking sites

• 74% thought schools should have a presence on social media sites

• 80% wanted official and non-official social media content about the school

Noel-Levitz, Inc. E-Expectations Report 2010

Social Media• Why/Why not?– Social media = a School’s website in 1998

• Strategy and measurement– Have a purpose, and a way to measure results– Develop guidelines– Determine your audience– Monitor, monitor, monitor– Allocate resources

• Create social media advocates• LISTEN: qualitative market research

Social Media:What are we supposed to say?

• Engage, show you care and have a pulse• Share interesting news– This does not have to be about your school

• Take customer service to a new level• Provide an outlet for a community• Listen

Reputation Management

• Two types– Search result focused– Customer service focused

• Allocate resources (people and programs)• Change expectations customers have for

companies• Turn complainers into companions• The social media connection

Reputation Management:Customers

• 37 % had a recent bad experience with a company*• 71% of those told a friend about it• 12% of those used social media to broadcast their

discontent• 45 people read the average social media post– 1 complaint = 5.4 negative impressions

• One negative review can cost you 30 customers**

*Convergys U.S. Customer Scorecard**Convergys, 2009

Help them LIKE St. Louis University

St. Louis UniversitySchool for Professional Studies

• Converting all that traffic– Navigation: program pages– Quick contact form– Web tile “buttons”– Content• Video, blog and social networking content• Helpful articles• Career info• The more the better…

You’re a believer, but what about theboard, VP, president, etc.?

• “They can’t find us and they don’t like us!”• Not in the phonebook?• Showing the value

Showing the Value

• Tracking– Do you know where your online traffic/inquiries

are coming from, how they’re performing, and how they impact the bottom line?

• Redefining the competition– Online vs. traditional

• Crunching the numbers

How Did Tony SELL It?

Saint Louis University School for Professional Studies

• Starting Small– SEO is a must, PPC is faster– Budget: depending on your market, look at

moving money from print or direct mail– Data: baseline your website’s current search

results and overall search engine traffic– Convert: don’t spend all your money on inquiry

generation without good website conversion elements

Key Takeaways

• Realize the importance of inbound marketing and adjust your marketing mix accordingly– Help them FIND you

• Maximize your reach qualitatively by improving the website and social media performance– Help them LIKE you

• Use the data you have to show the opportunity– Showing the value

Questions?

Now It’s Your Turn!

• Interested in presenting next year? Visit the Moody exhibit for more information!