NAGAP 2015 Recap

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Inbound MarketingNAGAP 2015

Hollie Lindner – Director of Marketing and Media at Northwest Nazarene UniversityJay Kelly – President of Converge Consulting

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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”

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Instead…

prospective students do research online

of prospective studentsview college website viamobile devices

of students find collegewebsites to be a reliablesources of information

of students used socialmedia when deciding towhere to enroll

Inbound Marketing practices produce

50% 97%

76%

more inquires thantraditional outboundpractices54

%

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CONVERT

DELIGHT

Search EngineOptimization

(SEO)

StrategicContent Creation

Social Media

ATTRACT

VISITORS

STUDENTS

PROMOTERS

Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Landing

Pages

Forms

SegmentedContent

Ongoing

Engagement

UserExperience

STRANGERS

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1

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic

2nd Organic Result:Reoccurring asset, willcontinue to appear yearafter year

Paid Results:“online MBA”costs $59/click

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic

Optimizedblog postsfor targetkeywords

Social Mediasharing buttons forcontent to beshared to newaudiences

• Websites that bloghave 55% moretraffic than websitesthat do not

• 75% of all clicks goto Organic Searchresults

• Companies that bloghave 97% moreinbound links thancompanies thatdon’t

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Search Habits

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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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Whiteboard Friday

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HIGH COST&

COMPETITION

LOWCOST

& RISK

LOWPROBABILITY

OF CONVERSION

HIGHPROBABILITY

OF CONVERSION

KEY PHRASECURVE

1 Word Phrases“purse”

2-3 Word Phrases“coach purse”

More Descriptive Phrases“leopard print coach purse”

LONGTAIL

KEYWORDS

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Keywords Discover which keywords will bring the best organic traffic to your site and analyze your paid searchcampaigns.

• Track which keywordsdrive the best visitors & leads

• View difficulty, currentrank and search volume

• Get recommendations forlow-hanging fruit

• Compare your rankings tocompetitors

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Keywords

• Track which keywordsdrive the best visitors & leads

• View ifficulty, currentrank and search volume

• Get recommendations forlow-hanging fruit

• Compare your rankings tocompetitors

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Strategic Content Creation

Informational, the old boring

Compelling, the new awesome!!!

zzz

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• Share, educate, delight... don’t sell• Build your content based on thematic

research• Aim for 15 Blog posts per month• Develop an analytics dashboard to see

what works best for YOUR audience• Answer specific questions to engage in a

meaningful way

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Personas

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Blogging Create long-lasting marketing assets by publishing blog articles optimized to get found and generateleads.

• Create content todevelop your thoughtleadership and getfound online

• View detailed SEOrecommendations forimproving your contentas you type

• Automatically publish toyour social mediaaccounts

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Strategic Content Creation THEME OFFLINE EVENTS1/8/14 - 2/11/2014

2/12/2014 - 3/8/2014 Transformative EducationWesley Conference (3/8), Deposit Deadline, Fee Waiver (2/18), Messenger (3/1), Chaplin Gene Schandorff Retiring

3/9/2014 - 4/15/2014 We LOVE giving youyour money's worth Spring Break (3/24-28)

4/16/2014 - 5/15/2014 ParentsCommencement (5/10), Alumni Weekend (5/9-10), Summer Session 1 begins (5/12)

5/16/2014 - 6/15/2014 Best-of-all-WorldsLocation Summer Session 2 begins (6/12) Note: Instagram :)

6/16/2014 - 7/31/2014 Highly ValuedRelationships Summer Session 3 begins (7/12)

8/1/2014 - 9/15/2014 Distinctive UndergraduateTraditions

Fall Semester Begins (8/26), New Student Orientation (8/22)

9/16/2014 - 10/15/2014 Division II Athletics 10/16/2014 - 11/15/2014 A Growing, Vital Campus The Call Conference (11/10-13)

11/16/2014 - 12/15/2014 Challenging YetAccessible

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25% increase in organicsearch traffic

Impact of Organic Traffic

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Blogs

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Show & Tell

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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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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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“Apply Now” is not good enoughStep 2: Convert Website Traffic

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Step 2: Convert Website TrafficProvide a conversion point for students while they’re still researching programs

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Landing Pages

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2 or 3 of our best landing page examples

Landing Page and Form

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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• Test

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• Keep them short – only collect whatyou use

• Break them up into multiple pages,but provide a status bar

• Explain what you’ll use theinformation for – and mean it

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Email Marketing

Send personalized, beautiful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and measurewhich messages are most effective.

Collect valuable information on your leads forsegmentation, personalization, and follow upby your sales team • Personalize your

message, sender, andsubject lines

• View detailedengagement analytics

• Choose from a variety ofpre-tested templates

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Example CampaignStep 3: Nurture and Build a Relationship

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Workflows Automation AppTrigger email messages and activities within your contact records to automate your email marketingstrategies.

• Trigger emails, actionsin your Contactsdatabase & webhooks

• Create custom leadscoring

• Move leads easily todifferent workflows andlists

• View detailedengagement data

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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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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 learningabout 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% betterthan average on opens and clicks than non-segmented lists. (MailChimp)

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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 marketingis performing in terms ofvisitors, leads & students

• Measure the ROI of yourmarketing campaigns

• Drill into detailed reportson your performance

• Compare the effectivenessof your marketingchannels

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Competitors ReportAnalyze how you compare to your competitor’s online presence.

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QUIZ – Phase III: 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?

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“Within Google’s search trends analysis from this quarter,it is highlighted that while the search queries of prospective

students are not becoming any more closely aligned withindividual university brands, they are in fact becomingmuch more specific in terms of location and field of

study.”

Google Search Trends: Lessons for Higher EducationTopUniversities.com August 2014

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Paid Media

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Optimization• Geographical targeting– 20 miles around campus, Idaho and Oregon performing strongest thus far

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Leads Generated

• 189,686 impressions• 1,545 click-throughs• 39 prospects/leads• 16 applied students

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• 189,686 impressions• 1,545 click-throughs• 39 prospects/leads• 16 applied students

Leads Generated

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Inbound Marketing

inbound

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Inbound Marketing Results

We want to move where themarket is going, not where it’sbeen.(Marketer Surveyed in Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing 2013)

“”

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NAGAP 2015 Recap

Education

Transcript of NAGAP 2015 Recap