best practices in interactive marketing dtl conference
DESCRIPTION
Best practices in interactive marketing presentation given at Distance Teaching & Learning Conference 2011TRANSCRIPT
Best Practices in Interactive Marketing
Building an Integrated Marketing Approach with the End in Mind
Marcelo ParraviciniChief Marketing OfficerPost University
Brad GibbsChief Growth OfficerPlattForm Higher Education
How to get from here…
TraditionalMedia
Interactive
…to here?
Advantages of Integrating Your Online and Offline Marketing
• More than 50% of Post University enrollments come from inquiries directly attributable to online sources
• Jupiter Research indicates that nearly 70% of consumers report searching for the company name, product or service, or advertising slogan that they saw in offline marketing
• Integrated marketing consumer behavior – Awareness– Search behavior– Goal Oriented / call-to-action– Content/ Information acquisition– Enrollment– Repeat visit (remarketing)– Word of mouth (social networking/referrals)
Start with the End in Mind
• What are your enrollment goals?- Do you have goals by program?- Do you have goals by location?
• What is your expected CPE?• What does that include?
- Do you have goals by program?- Do you have goals by location?
• What is your marketing budget?• How many admissions reps do you have?• How many inquiries are optimal for an admissions rep to work?• What is your competition doing?• How many competitors do you have in your market?• How much are they spending?• What is your unique selling point, message, and brand?
• Average cost-per-lead for CPL programs?
• Average cost-per-lead for PPC programs?
• Average conversion from L-E for CPL programs?
• Average conversion from L-E for PPC programs?
• Average conversion from L-E for website leads?
• Average cost-per-lead from banners?
The Facts - InteractiveCampus Online
$45 $60
$110 $125
3% 1.5%
7% 4%
12% 8%
. *These are for undergraduate programs
Let’s Do the Math
$125
Enrollment Goal 100
CPL Leads 2,000 x $60 = $12,000
PPC Leads 600 x $125 = $75,000
Website Leads 300 x $10 = $3,000
Total Cost $198,000
2,000 CPL Leads @ 1.5% Conversion
30 Enrollments
600 PPC Leads @ 4% Conversion 24 Enrollments
300 Website Leads @ 8% Conversion
24 Enrollments
Total Enrollments 78
Total Cost Per Enrollment $2,538
CPE
$3125
$4,000
First Thoughts
• These guys don’t know what they are talking about…wait maybe they do?
• My boss is going to fire me if I show him this!
What should you be thinking?• Where do my other 22 enrollments come from?• What if I improved conversions by as little as 1%?
You over sit your starts because you just enrolled 107 new students. You lowered your CPE from $2,538 to
$1,850. You keep your job, get a promotion and a
raise.*And you are so excited you buy Marcelo and Brad a new car
Funnel Management• The bulk of all inquiries will be
received electronically
• Depending on the marketing channel, there are a number of metrics that must be monitored
• For the purpose of measuring education inquiry conversion, the most critical metrics are:– Cost-per-lead– Cost-per-enrollment– Reach– Inquiry-to-start conversion
Visitors
Impressions
New enrolled students
Inquiries
conversion rate
Applications
Integrated Campaign
Predictable ROI – Marketing and Sales Must Be Integrated
1 – Inquiries are delivered to call
center after going through an inquiry
management system (IMS) 2 – IMS assigns
unique identifiers to all inquiries,
tying prospective students to marketing channels
3 – Call center calls inquiries and
further qualify them, in the
process identifying inquiry quality
issues4 – Call center notifies marketing of ongoing issues and feedback is
used daily to optimize
campaigns
5 – Enrollment data is recorded in inquiry
management system and is used to
calculate conversion and cost metrics
6 – Marketing utilizes call center feedback and conversion cost metrics to optimize ongoing campaigns
Quality and Process… …critical for Success!
Inquiry Response Time is Key!
Interactive Marketing Options:Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Interactive Marketing Options:Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• The education landscape is highly crowded and competitive – in order to maximize the institution’s share-of-voice, SEO must be a component of an integrated interactive marketing strategy
• Keyword optimization continues to be incorrectly perceived as the main/key component of SEO
• Trust/authority of host domain, link popularity, and anchor text of external links are critical components of a well executed SEO campaign
• Other SEO components include:– Search-engine-friendly web design– Use of meta/title tags– Content relevancy (e.g., consumers
search for borrowing, refinance, not lending)
– Social media metrics
Integrated Campaign
Interactive Marketing Options: Paid Search (PPC)
• PPC is an effective way to gain share-of-voice when organic rankings are not present• Effectiveness of campaign is dependant on targeted search phrases
– Broad search phrase results in high impressions, low number of clicks, and non-targeted click-throughs
• Targeted landing pages are critical to visitor-to-inquiry conversion– Ad copy sets the visitor’s expectations– Each targeted search phrase must be considered in terms of landing page
contentBoth SEO and PPC listings for the same search
phrase increases overall click-through rates
Interactive Marketing Options:Affiliate Marketing (A.K.A. Aggregators)
• Aggregators are an effective way to maximize share-of-voice and an affordable source of targeted inquiries
• CPI ranges from $35 to $120, depending on factors such as how the inquiry is transferred to an admissions center, or the degree program being promoted (e.g. undergrad vs. grad)
• While CPI is, and should be an initial point of cost-to-market reference, overall conversion and cost-per-enrollment should be the key metrics used to measured ROI– For example, inquiries at a high CPI that
convert higher than average are more desirable than low CPL inquiries that hardly convert…more is not always better!
• Depending on a number of variables, aggregator inquiries convert anywhere from 1% to 4%
Industry Marketing Trends• Increasing marketing and sales costs
– Aggregator’s organic traffic is being affected by Google’s algorithm resulting in CPL increases and lower conversions
– Aggregators seeking to make up organic inquiry flow are aggressively pursuing increases in paid search traffic, resulting in CPC increases
• Ongoing shift to awareness-based advertising strategies– Challenge: Cannot generate large volume of inquiries, but
significantly increases conversion over time
• Schools adjust marketing funnels targeting higher-quality programs that have better graduation / placement rates
Tracking Media
• Traditional media (e.g., broadcast & print) can be an important component of an integrated interactive marketing plan
– Effective call-to-actions can drive highly targeted traffic to a specific, unique URL, or to call a unique 800 number
– Challenge: Are you reaching the right demographic?
• Awareness campaigns are effective at increasing both paid search and organic traffic– Brand awareness is likely to drive traffic away from the
intended action– Challenge: It is not always possible to track all traffic to a
specific buy
Integrated Approach73 inquiries interacted
with a different
source prior to becoming an inquiry!
"Right now, most marketers have one agency for TV, and a different agency for online searches. They should seriously consider integrating those two functions," said Wilbur. "In elasticity terms, the effect of TV advertising on consumers' choice of branded keywords is about as large as its effect on sales."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQaIa274DWU
It’s More Than Just Facebook
Conversational Marketing:Who’s Driving the Conversation?
• Social media has become an important source of peer-to-peer feedback about products and services– Opens communications with both current and prospective students
• Challenge: negative postings! There is such thing as disgruntled students
• Opportunity: address problems and concerns as they arise, resulting in an improved brand image
– Students looking for information are more likely to post a question on a social network than to call the university directly• No room for big brother here! Student participation decreases
when monitoring is perceived, however, it is at times expected– To effectively integrate social media as part of a conversational
marketing strategy, institutions must:• Ignite and engage in conversations• Offer customer service via social media• Provide a platform for conversations? Blogs!
The End in Mind
Students are enrolling students
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru8NqeKYABE&feature=fvst
