April 2015 - 1

Inbound MarketingNAGAP 2015

Hollie Lindner – Director of Marketing and Media at Northwest Nazarene University

Jay Kelly – President of Converge Consulting

April 2015

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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 students

view college website

via mobile devices

of students find college

websites to be a reliable

sources of information

of students used social

media when deciding

to where to enroll

Inbound Marketing practices produce

more inquires than

traditional outbound

practices

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CONVERT DELIGHT

Search Engine

Optimization

(SEO)

Strategic

Content

Creation

Social Media

ATTRACT

VISITORS STUDENTSPROMOTERS

Calls-to-Action

(CTAs)

Landing

Pages

Forms

Segmented

Content

Ongoing

Engagement

User

Experience

STRANGERS

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1

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic

2nd Organic Result:

Reoccurring asset, will

continue to appear

year after year

Paid Results:

“online MBA”

costs $59/click

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic

Optimized

blog posts

for target

keywords

Social Media

sharing buttons

for content to

be shared to

new audiences

• Websites that blog

have 55% more

traffic than

websites that

do not

• 75% of all clicks

go to Organic

Search results

• Companies that

blog have 97%

more inbound

links than

companies that

don’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!

April 2015 - 12

Whiteboard Friday

April 2015 - 13

HIGH COST

& COMPETITION

LOW COST

& RISK

LOW PROBABILITY

OF CONVERSION

HIGH PROBABILITY

OF CONVERSION

KEY PHRASE CURVE

1 Word Phrases“purse”

2-3 Word Phrases“coach purse”

More Descriptive Phrases“leopard print coach purse”

LONG TAIL

KEYWORDS

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KeywordsDiscover which keywords will bring the best organic traffic to your site and analyze your

paid search campaigns.

• Track which keywords

drive the best visitors

& leads

• View difficulty, current

rank and search volume

• Get recommendations

for low-hanging fruit

• Compare your rankings

to competitors

April 2015 - 15

Keywords

• Track which keywords

drive the best visitors

& leads

• View ifficulty, current

rank and search volume

• Get recommendations

for low-hanging fruit

• Compare your rankings

to competitors

April 2015 - 16

Strategic Content Creation

Informational, the old boring

Compelling, the new awesome!!!

zzz

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Strategic Content Creation

• 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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Personas

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BloggingCreate long-lasting marketing assets by publishing blog articles optimized to get found

and generate leads.

• Create content to

develop your thought

leadership and get

found online

• View detailed SEO

recommendations for

improving your

content as you type

• Automatically publish

to your social media

accounts

April 2015 - 23

Strategic Content Creation

THEME OFFLINE EVENTS

1/8/14 - 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 - 4/15/2014We LOVE giving you your money's worth

Spring Break (3/24-28)

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

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

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

8/1/2014 - 9/15/2014Distinctive Undergraduate Traditions

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 Yet Accessible

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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25% increase in

organic search traffic

Impact of Organic Traffic

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Blogs

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Show & Tell

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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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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 enough

Step 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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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

what you use

• Break them up into multiple

pages, but provide a status bar

• Explain what you’ll use the

information for – and mean it

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Email MarketingSend personalized, beautiful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and

measure which messages are most effective.

Collect valuable information on your leads

for segmentation, personalization, and

follow up by your sales team• Personalize your

message, sender, and

subject lines

• View detailed

engagement analytics

• Choose from a variety

of pre-tested

templates

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Example Campaign

Step 3: Nurture and Build a Relationship

Convert Visitor to a Lead

Meet Professors

Student Success Stories

Info on Campus Visit

Info on Financial Aid

Push towards “apply now”

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

marketing strategies.

• Trigger emails, actions

in your Contacts

database & webhooks

• Create custom lead

scoring

• Move leads easily to

different workflows

and lists

• View detailed

engagement 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

learning about 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%

better than 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

marketing is performing

in terms of visitors,

leads & students

• Measure the ROI of your

marketing campaigns

• Drill into detailed

reports on your

performance

• Compare the

effectiveness of your

marketing channels

April 2015 - 57

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

April 2015 - 58

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 with individual university

brands, they are in fact becoming much more

specific in terms of location and field of study.”

Google Search Trends: Lessons for Higher Education

TopUniversities.com August 2014

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Paid Media

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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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0

1

2

3

4

5

6

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# o

f Leads

Months

Northwest Nazarene UniversityAPP in Education Google Ad Words

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

$0.00

$200.00

$400.00

$600.00

$800.00

$1,000.00

$1,200.00

$1,400.00

$1,600.00

Dollars

Months

Northwest Nazarene UniversityAPP-Education Google Ad Words

Aug 2013-Nov 2014

Cost per Conversion

Monthly Budget

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Inbound Marketing

inbound

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Inbound Marketing Results

We want to move where the

market is going, not where

it’s been.(Marketer Surveyed in Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing 2013)

“

”

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