The Next Generation: www.GoHigherKY.org

Consumer Web Site

Sue Patrick

2007 SHEEO / NCES - Network Conference

To reach the national average in educational attainment, we must roughly double the number of working age Kentuckians with a bachelor’s degree or higher, from 400,000 to 791,000.

- The Commonwealth

Return on Investment

• $5 billion cumulative increase in state revenue

• $71 billion cumulative increase in personal income

• Lower crime rates

• Higher civic participation

• Improved health/life expectancy

• A more engaged citizenry

- The Commonwealth

Production-oriented marketplace

• Mass production

• Compliant consumers

• Homogenous marketplace

• Business-to-consumer

• Reign of mass media

• Market segments

- Marketing Orientations

1950s 1980s 2000+

Consumer-driven, research based marketplace (data, data, data!)

• Customized products & services

• Informed consumers

• Diverse marketplace

• Customer-to-business

• Personalization

• Markets of one

• Branding

Industrial-age marketing Information-age marketing

- CPE Web Sites

- 1st Generation

- 1st Generation Goal: To make postsecondary education

information more accessible to high school students.

• GoHigherKy.org launched - June 2004 • $1 million in development• XAP site• Initial partners

– Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority– Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education– Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and

Universities – Kentucky Department of Education

• College planning information • Financial aid resources• School search & comparison• Testing information• Auto-populated applications• Institutional transfers• Interest inventory• Career search• Adult education centers & programs• Access to online programs

- 1st Generation

Initial success • Site traffic

– More than 47,000 student accounts created – More than 4,000 online college applications submitted

• Training

– More than 300 high school guidance counselors have been trained to use the site as an advising tool

• Marketing– More than $400,000 in promotion

- 1st Generation

Recent developments • NPEC’s $100,000 award• Electronic Individual Learning Plans (ILP)• Electronic transcripts • Expand reach to underserved groups• Deliverable for college access campaign

$800,000 provided by the Kentucky General Assembly

• GHK operations teamEngages all partners in the site development

- Evolution

The 2008 Goal:

An effective outreach tool to underserved

individuals not in the education pipeline.

Target Audiences

• GEAR UP and at-risk high school students

• GED graduates

• Potential transfer students

• Returning adults

- Next Generation

Objectives• Superior consumer interface• Relevant, engaging content • Role-based environments• Intuitive information architecture • Proactive site and message management • Integrated response technologies • Ongoing content review• Work smarter!

- Next Generation

rPie2

rPie2

rPie2

- Research

GoHigherKy.org

• Web site audit

• Usability study

• Satisfaction surveys

• Audience interviews

Audit• Environmental scan• Messaging• Content & tone• Traffic• Competition• Performance• Redundancy

- Research

Usability Test

• Expectations

• Navigation

• Response

• Accessibility

- Research

Audience Interviews

• Face-to-face

• Homework assignments

• Emotional response

• Recommendations

- Research

- Research

Targeted Surveys

• Returning adults– Telephone survey– Program inventories

• Transfer students– Program inventories

• GED graduates– Mail survey

• GEAR UP families

Partner Collaboration

• GHK Operations Team

• Audience Committees– Identify the audience– Clarify the message– Establish goals – Map a path– Involve others

- Planning

- Implementation

CPE Project Team

• Communication director

• Web usability and content expert

• Project coordinator

Marketing

• College Access Campaign– $1.1 million– Statewide partners– Distributed resources– Leverage existing programs

- Implementation

Marketing • General awareness

– Releases– Features– Media events– ANR– PSA

- Implementation

Marketing• Targeted campaigns

– Direct mail– TV/radio/newspaper– Print / brand placement– Local outreach– Sponsorships– Viral e-mail efforts– Cross promotion

- Implementation

Challenges• Staying future-minded• Setting priorities • Funding improvements• Site management • Political support• Integrating CRM

- Implementation

Decision points• Call center• Site management • Integrate audiences• Integrate campaign• Branding• Vendor / in-house

- Implementation

- Evaluation

• Web metrics

• CRM tracking

• Call Center analytics

• Online feedback

• Partner survey

• Visitor survey

• Simple phone survey