D E L I V E R I N G C A M P A I G N I M P R O V E M E N T S I N
A H I G H L Y C O M P E T I T I V E M A R K E T P L A C E
BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY
Case study
April 2018
H E L L O
E D L A Y T
Marketing Strategist
SMRS
D A V I D D A V I S
Head of Campaigns and Digital
Birmingham City University
DELIVERING
IMPROVEMENTS
C H A L L E N G E S
1. Increased competitor marketing within our core catchment area
2. Lack of historical marketing data
3. Increased targets
4. A greater focus on ROI and financial rigor
5. Disjointed briefing process
O B J E C T I V E S
INTEGRATION
EFFICIENCY &
INSTITUTIONAL
BENEFIT
CALCULATE
&
MODEL
DIVERSIFICATION
&
RISK REDUCTION
The solution wasn’t simple.
A single innovation, or new tactic wouldn’t
deliver the required outcomes.
BCU required a strategic journey of
improvement.
A U D I E N C E D A T A T O D R I V E P E R F O R M A N C E
Using the data we already held to drive performance:
• Improving recruitment and retention
• Efficient allocation of marketing and communications resource
• Delivering a better acquisition journey
D A T A M A T U R I T Y M O D E L
REACTIVEUNDISCIPLINED PROACTIVE GOVERNED
THINK LOCALLY ACT LOCALLY
THINK INSTITUTIONALY
ACT LOCALLY
THINK INSTITUTIONALYACT COLLECTIVELY
THINK INSTITUTIONALY
ACT INSTITUTIONALY
•Datausageisreactive
•Limiteddatastrategy
•Nodatapoliciesdocumented
•Nodataexpectations
•Basicdatapointsarebeingrecorded
•Realtimemanagementreportingofengagements,comms &offers&accepts
•Simpleerrorsinprocessareidentifiedandreported
Actionpoints:
Datapointsformallyapproved&tracked
Everystudentlogged
Corestudentcommunicationtracked
Actionpoints:
Allstudentcommunicationtracked
ImplementbasicKPIs
LinkingallmeasurementstoKPIs
Governanceandpoliciesintroduced
•Controlpointsareclearforeverylevelofrecruitment
•Expectationsassociatedwithprocessadherencecanbearticulatedusingdataqualityrules
•Businessimpactanalysisofstudentdata
Actionpoints:
Reportingstructuresdefined
AllKPIsagreed
Marketingandcomms strategiesidentified
Dataenrichment,transferandoverlaying
Studentscoringandevaluationtracked
•ResultsofimpactanalysisfactoredintoRecruitmentandRetentionstrategies
•Dataqualityexpectationstiedtoperformancetargets
•Controlsfordatavalidationintegratedintobusinessprocesses
Actionpoints:
Performanceguidelinescreated&communicated
Fulldashboardscreated
Responsiveandinformedstrategyupdatedasnecessary
Institutionisdatafirst
R O A D M A P O F S T R A T E G I C P R O J E C T S
• Audience segmentation
• Creative development
• Campaign impact research
• Attribution
• Digital user journeys
• Campaign enhancements
• Search engine optimisation
• Conversion rate optimisation
A U D I E N C E
S E G M E N T A T I O N
Through statistical analysis and modeling of applicant
and student data, we developed propensity-based
audience segments to tell BCU:
• Who is more likely to enrol?
• Who requires more support to convert?
• What is the market opportunity for each
segment?
W H A T T H I S M E A N T F O R B C U
1. Refined targeting for university and faculty level prospecting activity
• Specific geographies
• Demographic profiles
• Identification of new markets to diversify recruitment
2. Potential to lead-score future applicants
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrain
A T T R I B U T E Y O U R C O M M U T E
How did you get to work?
Last Click
First Click
Linear
Walk
100%
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrain
A T T R I B U T E Y O U R C O M M U T E
How did you get to work?
Last Click
First Click
Linear
Walk
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrainWalk
100%
100%
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrain
A T T R I B U T E Y O U R C O M M U T E
How did you get to work?
Last Click
First Click
Linear
Walk
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrainWalk
ArriveTaxiTrainWalkTrainWalk
20%
40%40%
100%
100%
S T A N D A R D R E P O R T I N G
DISPLAY PPC SOCIAL CONVERSION
Attributed channel
W H A T T H I S M E A N T F O R B C U
1. Working with intelligent data
2. Driving creation of channel strategy
3. Influencing creative output for each channel
O N S I T E U S E R J O U R N E Y A N A L Y S I S
Using analytics to map and understand the user journeys of web visitors to tell BCU:
• How journeys differ by source channel and landing page
• Understand current advertising performance and quality of traffic
• Identify optimisations, efficiencies and pain points to improve the journey
• Strategic direction for future investments (campaign, SEO, CRO)
W H A T T H I S M E A N T F O R B C U
1. Informed the development of hypothesis for CRO
2. Informed future content developments
3. Refined campaign channel/tactic dependent on objective/stage of the campaign
C A M P A I G N I M P A C T
R E S E A R C H
• New undergraduate campaign
• Ongoing measurement of recall, message
preference and impact on decision-making
C R E A T I V E
It felt like the perfect message with which to tell the world about
what it’s like to study at BCU. Because whatever students are ‘at
heart’ – creative, social, optimistic, arty, nerdy, focused and so on
– they’ll find kindred spirits in the heart of a thriving city.
W E G O T R I G H T T O T H E H E A R T O F T H I N G S
The theme we settled on was ‘At heart’.
This felt right because:
• Birmingham is a thriving, diverse city at the
heart of the country
• BCU is in the heart of the city
• The positivity, optimism and excitement that
is transforming Birmingham is shared by, and
contributed to, by BCU.
18%14%14%10%9%6%7%10%12%6%8%3%5%3%3%
44%37%
30%29%
23%25%19%22%23%
19%19%
14%10%11%10%
36%43%
51%50%
54%55%61%50%46%
58%45%62%69%
54%48%
2%5%5%
9%9%9%10%
13%15%11%
18%16%12%
20%22%
1%2%2%2%4%4%4%5%4%6%
10%5%4%
12%16%
…is social
…offers a great student experience
...is welcoming
…is professional
…has an international outlook
…is dynamic
…is innovative
…provides great career opportunities
…offers quality courses
…is ambitious
…is competitive
…is pioneering
…is environmentally conscious
…is traditional
…is a leader in research
W H A T T H I S M E A N T F O R B C U
1. Added a human voice to the data
2. Insight surrounding ‘non digital’ media
3. Benchmarks against competitors
A N E W A P P R O A C H …
• Enhanced complexity and personalisation
of audience campaigns
• Video and audio programmatic to
maximise targeting insight
• More granular CTA’s based on on-site
behavioural insight
• Using data and content to enhance
targeting and presence in key education
channels
R E S U L T S
50%of open day
registration driven
by digital media
(up from 25%)
50%decrease in cost per
open day
registration
90%of paid digital traffic
converted vs 39%
of organic
92%increase in paid for
traffic to the
website
42%increase in average
session duration
32%increase in pages-
per-session
51%Increase in traffic
driven from CRM
emails
S U M M A R Y
Strategic view with clear objectives
Set clear objectives up front and approach them with a strategic view
to identify opportunities
Commitment and partnership
It takes commitment and participation from a number of internal and
external stakeholders to ensure expertise and specialisms are
maximised
Multi-solution
Don’t expect a single initiative to solve all of your problems or meet all
of your objectives. Create a roadmap of strategic projects to keep
pushing you forward
INSIGHT
DISCOVERY
ACTIVATION
REVIEW
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