The Evolution of Marketing and Communications Earn Your Way in with Inbound Marketing

Ann Oleson, Converge Consulting

July 24, 2014

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Converge Consulting is a higher education marketing firm. We use inbound marketing (SEO, SEM, Social Media, Google Analytics, Content Strategy) and strategic communications practices to positively impact student recruitment and alumni engagement for colleges and

universities around the world.

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Today’s Agenda

!  Defining Inbound Marketing

!  The Three Key Phases

!  How to Apply Inbound Marketing

!  Examples of Inbound Marketing in Action

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Shift: Audience is in Control

FACT: Netflix is now larger than HBO domestically with 31 million subscribers. It looks like they'll be 33 million by the end of this calendar year. Spotify = 40 million active users Pandora = 70 million active users

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Definition of Inbound Marketing Create Marketing People Will Love

!  Earning attention by producing valued, custom content

!  Making yourself easily found with search optimization

!  Knowing your audience through data and anecdotal research and delivering: the right message to the right

person at the right time

!  Guiding them through the three phase process: attract, convert and delight

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Inbound Marketing

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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CONVERT DELIGHT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Strategic

Content Creation

Social Media

ATTRACT

VISITORS STUDENTS PROMOTERS

Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Landing Pages

Forms

Segmented Content

Ongoing

Engagement

User Experience

STRANGERS

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Phase I: Attract

!  Search Engine Optimization

!  Strategic Content Creation

!  Social Media

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Why Is It Important? !  When you have a question, what do you do? Look

online!

!  Your prospects are already there – tap into it!

!  SEO is a fluid landscape, changing frequently but always with the searcher in mind.

!  Quality content wins – know your prospect and answer their questions.

FACT: Organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing leads have a 1.7% close rate. (Hubspot)

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Search Trends

!  About 75% of searchers never go beyond page 1 of the results

!  94% of search users choose organic over paid listing when searching, particularly for purchases

!  Over 70% of the traffic you earn for any given page will come from keywords you didn’t try to optimize for.

!  15% of all Google searches, over half a billion per day, have never been seen before

Sources: "Search Engine Rankings: Why They Matter." PmbmediaWORKS. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. “Ten statistics that demonstrate the value of SEO”. Intraspin 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.

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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

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

TOOL: A great Inbound and SEO tool is Moz. Plus, 30-day free trial!

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Example: Thematic Keyword Development

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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SEO Keyword Report

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Strategic Content Creation

Why Is It Important?

!  Get found: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

!  Show and tell your story = build an emotional connection

!  Establish thought leadership and expertise

FACT: Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters. (Aberdeen Group) FACT: Using inbound tactics saves an average of 13% in overall cost per lead. (Hubspot)

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Video- UCLA EMBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cutXDwlWwN0&feature=youtu.be

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What You Need to Know

!  Strategy: build your calendar based on thematic research

!  Voice & Tone: share, educate, delight... don’t sell

!  Frequency: aim for weekly blog posts

!  Measure: develop an analytics dashboard to see what works best for YOUR audience

Strategic Content Creation

FACT: Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (Hubspot) TOOL: Dropbox, Google Drive and Box are great to keep teams on the same page.

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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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Social Media

Why Is It Important?

!  Prospects are there – a lot!

!  Share your content – social media is replacing RSS feeds for those who want to stay connected.

!  Be a part of the conversation

!  Engaged prospects are more likely to become leads

!  Meet new prospects by using #hashtags

!  Handle flare ups quickly, before they become fires

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Social Media What You Need to Know

!  Listening and Monitoring: join into conversations about you or industry topics

!  Voice & Tone: less formal, concise, fun!

!  Schedule: use your content calendar to schedule consistent, on message posts

!  Measure: develop an analytics dashboard to learn how social traffic is converting on your goals

FACT: Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media. (Content Plus) TOOL: Hootsuite is a great, affordable tool you can use to schedule, engage and monitor social media.

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Social Media

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Social Media

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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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Phase II: Convert

!  Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

!  Landing pages

!  Forms

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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

Why Are They Important?

!  You have to ask: if you don’t ask, they’ll never do it

!  Critical for collecting information about prospects, which fuels inbound marketing

FACT: Verbs generate the most shares on Twitter. (Science of Social Media Research)

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What You Need to Know

!  Strategy: should go hand-in-hand with strategic content

!  Voice & Tone: should be enticing and friendly

!  Content: knowing your prospects will help you know what would be enticing to them

!  Visual: should stand out and be placed consistently

Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

FACT: Benefit focused terminology is more likely to entice prospects to click. (From research by The Science of Blogging)

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Examples

Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

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Why are they important

!  Makes good on the call-to-action

!  Provides streamlined information specific to the action

!  Allows prospect to submit their information, entering the funnel

Landing Pages

FACT: Companies with 30+ landing pages get 7x more leads than those with 10 or less. (Hubspot)

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What You Need to Know !  Unique landing page per campaign with Google Analytics applied

!  It’s clear what you want users to do:

!  Clear headline, one call-to-action, valuable offer

!  Free of clutter and compelling copy

!  Mobile Optimized

!  Friendly forms (only capture what you use!)

!  Test Different versions to see what works best for your audience

Landing Pages

FACT: Testing radically different landing pages against each other yielded a conversion increase of 264% for Marian University. (Ion Interactive)

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Forms

Why Are They Important?

!  Allows permission to continue the conversation

!  Collects valuable information about prospective students, alumni and other prospects

!  Tie into CRM systems to automate recruitment

!  Multi-page forms are perfect for tracking with Google Analytics goal funnels for added info

QUOTE: Anything that is measured and watched, improves. (Bob Parsons, Founder of Go Daddy)

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Forms

What You Need to Know

!  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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Landing Page and Form

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QUIZ - Phase II: Convert

Calls to Action !  Do you have calls to action at 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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Phase III: Delight

!  Targeted Content

!  Ongoing Engagement

!  User Experience

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Targeted Content

Why is it Important?

!  Right message, right audience, right time

!  Prospective students are asking “what’s in it for me?”

!  Answer specific questions to engage in a meaningful way

FACT: 61% of consumer say they feel better about and are more likely to buy from a company the delivers custom content. (Custom Content Council)

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Targeted Content

What You Need to Know

!  Develop user personas for current students/alumni

!  Use focus groups and surveys to understand pain points, motivations and influencers

!  Create content that delights

TOOL: Hubspot’s Smart Content builds a custom experience. TOOL: Sitecore CMS also offers customized experiences.

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• Who is Using Personas?

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Targeted Content

Example

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Ongoing Engagement

Why is it Important?

!  Happy students are your best advocates

!  The trust factor: word of mouth

!  Improve retention and engage alumni

FACT: 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family. (Nielsen)

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Ongoing Engagement

What You Need to Know

!  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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Ongoing Engagement

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User Experience

Why Is It Important?

!  UX represents brand. How do you want users to see you? Easy to work with? Forward thinking? Show it.

!  It’s not important until it is important – you probably don’t even notice it

!  Clearest path to the user’s goals

FACT: 40% of people abandon a webpage if it takes more than three seconds to load. (Econsultancy)

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User Experience

What You Need to Know

!  Should be effortless: “it gets out of the way”

!  Promotes further engagement

!  Mobile is critical

!  Improve through user testing and heuristic evaluations

FACT: 48% of users say that if they arrive on a business site that isn’t working well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the business simply not caring (MarginMedia) FACT: Only 55% of companies are currently conducing any kind of online user experience testing. (Econsultancy)

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User Experience

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User Experience

Example

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QUIZ - Phase III: Delight Targeted Content

!  Do you know who your audiences are? Have you developed personas?

!  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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CONVERT DELIGHT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Strategic

Content Creation

Social Media

ATTRACT

VISITORS STUDENTS PROMOTERS

Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Landing Pages

Forms

Segmented Content

Ongoing

Engagement

User Experience

STRANGERS

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Inbound Marketing Results

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Inbound Marketing Results

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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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#AnalyticsHigherEd

www.convergeconsulting.org/converge2014

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Ann Oleson ann@convergeconsulting.org @anncoleson