Recently in Online Marketing Category

Mobile Marketing: Register for the No-Cost Sept 22 AMA Virtual Event for Higher Ed

Yesterday was the "finish day" for my September mobile marketing presentation at the American Marketing Association's virtual spectacular: "Getting to the Core of Social Media & Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions." We are recording this in advance next week as I'll be flying back from Dublin and our annual Customer Carewords partners meeting on the AMA date.

My time share is 45 minutes... so it was quite fun revisiting the mobile marketing workshop for eduWeb2010 and reducing that 3-hour session to fit the reduced time. 'Tis done and time to share thoughts from the shrinking and updating process.

Here are some things that stand out:

• The question of mobile apps vs. mobile sites is misleading. Fact is, a complete mobile marketing plan will likely have both elements. But if you can only do one, better to create a mobile-friendly site similar to what the College of Charleston has done. Search for C of C from your favorite mobile device (I used an iPhone) and enjoy the mobile friendly results. Or just enter the regular URL (http://www.cofc.edu/) and the website will sniff out that you are using a mobile device and switch you into the mobile site.
• I came across a video interiew with Jakob Nielsen that is well worth watching. Nielsen makes a point that's especially worth remembering: some tasks just are not suited to the mobile environment. He believes in-depth product searches and complicated financial transactions are best done on regular websites accessed from regular computers.
• The Nielsen note is important for higher education. You can, for instance, build an easy-to-find list of your academic programs for mobile access (right from the C of C mobile home page) but at some point you'll be tempted to link back to your regular website for complete information. At that point, mobile usability will plunge.
• Simplicity is key to mobile-friendly form completion. I use a webinar example from Kettering University for an inquiry from a potential student: all that's needed is an email address.
• Finding higher education examples of "mobile for advancement" tasks isn't easy, although I haven't yet checked to see if College of Charleston has included any on its new site. I did find one example: an offer to alumni to sign for text message updates for athletic events at MidAmerica Nazrene University.

That's enough on mobile marketing for today.

When you visit the AMA site to register, you'll see another mobile presentation from Kim Dushinski, author of the Mobile Marketing Handbook. I recommend visiting her website and signing up for Kim's regular mobile marketing updates.

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb2010 version of my mobile marketing workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Mobile Marketing with the American Marketing Association: September 22

Register for "Getting to the Core of of Social Media and Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions" virtual event.

That's all for now 

Mobile Mrketing: Invest in Mobile Apps or a Mobile Website?

At both the ACT and eduWeb mobile marketing workshop sessions in July, a popular question was this: Should we first invest in mobile apps or should we be creating a "mobile-friendly" website?

Wise people differ on the answer. 

The Urge for an App

Apps are best done for special events that can range from virtual tours to campus transit instructions and time tables to specific marketing campaigns. An individual app done for mobile is easier to do than reconstructing an entire website. And after all, there's an app for just about everything anyone wants to do online, isn't there?

Advertising can make it seem as if apps are the "must have" element in mobile marketing. Yes and no. Research says that few people regularly use more than a few apps, no matter how many they download.

The Need for a Mobile-Friendly Site by 2011

If limited resources force you to make a choice, I'm in the camp that says work on creating a mobile-friendly version of your regular website and have that ready by mid-point 2011.

Don't do apps if doing them means postponing work on a website that will please people who access it from a mobile phone. We are not talking about iPads here. The mobile device that people are most likely to use to get to your site are iPhones and Androids. Maybe Blackberry. Check your analytics report to see what people are using now and track that growth every month from now until December.

Consider this from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in July:

• 65 percent of people 18 to 29 years old use their smartphone to access the Internet. Just under 50 percent of people 30 to 39 do the same. Expect those numbers to grow.

Top Tasks for Mobile: Student Recruitment

For the best marketing impact, you won't be able to get away with "mangling down" (thanks to Drew Stevenson, University of Minnesota for that great phrase) your regular website. Instead, you'll have to make difficult choices about the content that's most needed by people visiting your site and make that the main focus of your mobile efforts. That will force more attention in navigation to the top tasks people want to complete on your site. Consider these for student recruitment:

• Read a list of academic programs available
• Calculate the net cost to attend your school
• Register for a campus visit
• Make an inquiry
• Check application status
• Pay an enrollment deposit

Example of a Mobile-Ready Site: College of Charleston

The task is daunting but far from impossible. College of Charleston says it has adapted 95 percent of its regular website for mobile access. Frankly, that almost seems more than necessary. Adaptation to mobile just might be a great time to identify those seldom-visited pages on your regular website that people can't bear to remove. Mark them as "not needed for mobile" and focus instead on your most used pages.

Visit the College of Charleston mobile site. Start by reading the description of the change and then use your smartphone to see just how well it works. One of the first things you'll note: you don't have to "finger flick" to make the type large enough to read when you arrive at a page.

The Charleston site makes a strong first impression. That first "curb appeal" of your site, mobile or not, will help or hinder the success of your marketing efforts.

Expect more "notes on mobile" soon.

Mobile Marketing Presentation on SlideShare

The eduWeb version of my mobile marketing workshop, "Mobile in the Marketing Mix: Crafting a New Communications Strategy," is online now at SlideShare.

Mobile Marketing with the American Marketing Association

Register for "Getting to the Core of of Social Media and Mobile Marketing for Higher Ed Institutions" webinar after you check the September 22 topic list. I'll be speaking on strategy for an effective mobile marketing effort.

That's all for now 

Susquehanna University: Visitors Report Very High 90% Satisfaction Level

Websites win awards for different reasons, but seldom for what the people who actually use a website think of their experience with it.

Over the past two years, Customer Carewords partners have completed CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys at 18 colleges and universities. We've asked future students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni, and parents to tell us the top 3 web characteristics (from a list of 13 positive and 13 negative possibilities) that best represent their experience at the website.

There's a pattern to the results. External users are almost always more satisfied than internal users. And "menus and links" and the "search" function are usually the areas of most dissatisfaction. Relatively few people select the "visual appeal" of a site, but when they do, most are positive about it.

90% Postive Rating from Parents and Future Students

Last week we completed a CCI survey of parents and possible future students at Susquehanna University. The results, compared to other CCI surveys, were indeed amazing. Parents (114 responses) and future students (182 responses) picked one of the 13 positive web elements 90 percent of the time. Susquehanna received the highest ratings we've seen in 8 of the 13 areas and was not far behind the leaders in the others.

The website was launced less than a year ago. Paul Novack, director of web communications, and the entire web team have much to smile about as they continue to plan future improvements.

"Search" and "Menus and Links" Stand Out

The results for "search" were especially impressive. The search function on higher education websites is almost always one of the top two topics selected by users and the selections are much more negative than positive. In this case, 6% of the positive ratings received were about search and only 1% of the few negative ratings.

Similarly, 12% of the positive ratings were for "menus and links" and only 2% were negative. 

Both of those results are equivalent to a "man bites dog" story as the exact opposite of what usually happens. The unusual success in these two areas is what set the Susquehanna website apart from most CCI results.

The "visual appeal" of the site was also quite strong, receiving 19% of the positive votes and only 1% of the negative votes. The difference here from other CCI surveys is that "visual appeal" received more total selections than any of the 13 areas. That's never happened before.

Comments from Real People

We give survey takers the chance to answer this question: "If you could change one thing about this website, what would it be and why" and 164 people did that for the Suspuehanna survey. These two reflect the overall tone:

• Parent: "Nothing--it is the best of all the colleges we have researched for our son this year, who will be coming as a freshman in the fall."
• Future Student: "Sorry, this isn't an improvement - This website is actually one of the best college websites I've come across. Good work!"

Of course, no website is perfect. Changes suggested included: an area for student ratings about their experience after enrolling, more photos and videos of student activities, average test scores and GPAs for entering students, and more information about faculty.

CCI Results at 10 Colleges and Universities

Overall CCI Results at 10 colleges and universities are reviewed in my presentation "Rating Higher Education Websites: The Student Experience" from  the J.Boye conference last November in Denmark that's available on SlideShare.

A CCI survey can help you fine tune your website. Results are usually available about 2 weeks after survey invitations are sent. Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com   

The impact of effective online marketing on higher education websites varies quite a bit from school to school. That's not exactly a surprising revelation.

Consider these random notes after preparing a new presentation (Adult-friendly Websites: A 'Best of the Best Review') for Carol Aslanian's next Education Dynamics conference that took me through many different websites in search of the 19 examples I'll be using in Chicago next week.

• Easy to find academic programs: For most potential future students, "adult" or not, learning what programs are offered is the first thing they want to do when starting to pick a college. Few schools make this easy to do right from the home page. One of the best "can't miss" examples is at the DeVry University home page.
• Easy to find online programs: Online education is booming today so why not give people an quick list of everything you offer online? Too many schools require visitors to scroll through the complete list of programs to find the ones marked for online availability. Ball State University does it better on this special page for online programs.
• Transfer credit evaluation: Most undergraduate adult students have taken courses elsewhere. One of their goals in selecting a college is to learn which of those earlier courses will transfer toward the new degree. Most schools don't seem to offer informal online evaluation of previous courses. Instead, potential students are usually told that they'll find out after they've applied and been accepted. Indiana University of Pennsylvania departs from the norm with their online evaluation page.
• Payment options: It isn't easy to find out how people can pay for their courses. Northern Arizona University presents 4 options that easily pass the "scan and find in 5 seconds or less" test at their special "Payment Options" page.
• Social media connections: Many but not all schools today are including icons for social media sites somewhere on their websites, although from the placement it sometimes seems that they don't want people to find them. University of Phoenix increases social media visibility by including new updates for Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube on an "Online Communities" page.
• Quick start to Chat: I found several examples of a real-time chat opportunity. That's a good thing for people who have an immediate question about something on the website. But don't ask people to complete a detailed survey so "we can serve you better" as a requirement to send a chat question. Keep your chat form as simple as the example from Phoenix.

Those are a few examples of website features to create and/or avoid on a website with high student recruitment impact.

Best Adult Student Recruitment Website

People often ask me to recommend a single "best" website.

I'm always reluctant to do that since few sites combine the best features found by searching through many. That said, the search for examples for this presentation eliminated that reluctance. Nothing's perfect, but the best overall website I've found for adult student recruitment is at Walden University.

Graduate Student Recruitment Conference in NYC in July

If you have a special interest in recruiting graduate students, join Carol Aslanian and friends for "Graduate Student Marketing" at the Harvard Club on July 29.

Check the presenters and be a participant after you read the programs details.

That's all for now 

Mobile Marketing and Web Access: Tracking the Trend in 2010

Do you know how many new visitors to your admissions pages arrived from a mobile device last year? And how that number might be changing this year?

If you're using Google Analytics on your website, that's easy to watch. And the results from a recent client review suggest that you should be watching this year. Various gurus and evangelists have been declaring "The Year of Mobile Marketing" since at least 2004. They just might be right about 2010.

Here's the change noted from the last quarter 2009 to February of 2010:

• For the last three months of 2009, 996 new visitors came from a mobile device. The iPhone was well out in front as the most popular device, followed at considerable distance by iPods. The new Android phones were about half as popular as iPods and Blackberry came along next.
• In the month of February alone, 459 new visitors were using mobile devices, or 1.9 percent of all new visitors to the admissions pages. The iPhone was still well in front of everything else as the vehicle of choice: 284 new visitors were using it. Nothing had changed in the order of the next three.

The February count still represents less than 2 percent of all new visitors that month. So it is safe to say that mobile access is not yet a major factor for this client. On the other hand, the increase sends a signal that this is something to watch over the next six months. That's an easy, no-cost way to get objective data on how the "Year of Mobile 2010" is going for you.

Compare Bounce Rates for Mobile and Regular Access

For those new to the world of analytics, "bounce rate" is the percent of visitors who start at a page on your website and leave that page without going anywhere else on your site. In nearly all cases, admissions people don't want new visitors to do that. Bounce rates above 35 percent are cause for concern.

• On Google Analytics, first check the overall bounce rate for new visitors. In the "Visitors" section, open the tap for "Mobile" and have a look at "Mobile Devices."
• In the data that results, you'll find the bounce rate for people using mobile devices together with the average bounce rate for the entire website.
• If the bounce rate for mobile is significantly higher than the other, your site is not working well for visitors using iPhones and other mobile devices.

Mobile Tracking in 2010

Start tracking today. Set the base mark for 2009 from the data you have for that year. Take a peek at what's been happening so far this year. Get ready to make a quarterly report in April on any changes you find as 2010 unfolds. Keep those quarterly reports coming to help you decide: "Do I need to create 'mobile ready' website pages to make a better first impression on new visitors?"

Web Analytics Webinar in April

Want to learn more about how web analytics can help improve your recruitment success? Join me for an April 7 webinar with Magna Publications. Check program details and register soon.

That's all for now 

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/newsletter-subscribe.html

Online Inquiry Forms... Long Forms = Fewer Completions

Visiting several higher education websites the last few days inspired this mini-rant.

In the "stealth age" when potential students of all ages explore college and university websites as the first step in picking a school, concern has grown about how to get people to reveal their identities as early as possible. After all, if we don't know who a potential student is how can we put our carefully crafted recruitment commuications plan into action?

Not enough time is spent on removing barriers to getting an online inquiry. That remedial works starts with using the shortest possible online inquiry form. The evidence is clear: few schools pay attention to that, especially in the not-for-profit sector.

Direct Marketing Maxim: Shorter Forms = More Completions

One marketing maxim known to direct marketers for decades is still true today: the longer you make the form you want people to complete, the fewer people will complete it. Period.

With that in mind, visit your online inquiry page for potential new students now. Look at all the information that is "nice" for the organization to have, but not needed to respond to a simple request for more information about your school. Remove it. 

Here are a few of my special favorites to consider eliminating:

• High school attended or attending
• High school code (maybe my all-time favorite)
• "Where did you hear about us" lists (another favorite)
• GPA
• SAT or ACT score
• Phone number unless it is an integral part of your follow-up plan
• Athletics interest
• Other student activity interest areas
• Year of graduation
• Ethnic identity, however optional 

All of this information might be nice or necessary for your data files between the time of inquiry and enrollment, but you have plenty of time to collect it later. Don't put anything on the inquiry form that isn't needed to respond to the inquiry. Usually, that's name, email and street address, and program area of interest (if you're going to address that in the first response.)

Make it Fit "Above the Fold"

This last note: design your form so that a visitor can see the entire form when they first arrive at your web page. That sends the important initial message: "This won't take long to complete."

Creighton University Gets It Right

Creighton University knows how to do this right. Visit the Creighton online inquiry form and see a form that would make direct marketers proud.

If you have an online inquiry form as good or better than Creighton's, let me know with an email to bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.

Persuasion Technology and Online Marketing

At the J.Boye Aarhus09 conference in Denmark earlier this month I attended a half-day tutorial by BJ Fogg, director of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab.

A single blog entry can't do justice to the full presentation, but here are a few notes that seem relevant to those of us who focus on creating stronger marketing impact at higher education websites.

• The web as a "platform for persuasion" is an important concept for marketers building a new website or enhancing an existing one. Let's admit that a primary, if not the most important, purpose of the website is to generate new enrollment and to gain funding support from alumni and other "friends" of the university.
• Keep conversion expecations realistic. BJ suggests that 1/3 of website visitors will do what we want without much persuasion if it is easy to do it and 1/3 will never do it. That leaves about 1/3 in the middle open to persuasion points as they visit the site.
• It is important to remove as many barriers to task completion as possible for the middle 1/3 or they won't do what we want.  
• The more complex the website, the less persuasive it will be.

Remove task completion barriers

And so there is a need for constant attention to these persuasion barriers: 

• Navigation built around organizational rather than visitor preferences.
• Language that doesn't connect with visitors as Carewords do.
• Broken links and out-of-date content. Be ruthless about this.
• Long inquiry forms. The brevity of the Creighton University form is admirable. 

Every barrier means less conversion from that 1/3 in the middle cluster. Some barriers will even reduce conversion from the 1/3 that really want to do what you hope they will do.

Social media and online persuasion

BJ believes social media sites are strong persuasion tools.

• Social networks are "platforms for persuasion" and Facebook is the "#1 persuasion tool of all time."
• Amazon makes good use of social media techniques by empowering community comments and by recommending new items based on the preferences of the visitor.

Don't be afraid to experiment

One note stands out: don't be afraid to experiment with change. Victory, BJ believes, will go to those who are not afraid to take online initiatives without knowing in advance that every one will work. Discard initiatives that fail and expand those that succeed. Getting proof of success before trying anything new makes it likely that your more adventuresome competitors will leave you behind.

J.Boye Conference: Philadelphia 2010

Check the developing schedule for the J.Boye conference May 4-6 in Philadelphia. There is a higher education track, as well as 7 others, including "online communication" and "online strategy" where you can meet and mingle with people working outside higher education.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Web Writing... Direct Action Calls Increase Results

Web writing that includes a clear call to action brings more results than words that do not. Direct marketers have known for decades that when you tell people to do what you want them to do, more people will do it if they are at all inclined to take the step. Works online and everywhere else.

Gerry McGovern, Customer Carewords founder and partner, sent along another example of that this morning.

4 Steps to Increase Conversions from 4.7% to 12.81%

Dustin Curtis wrote on his blog about his success in gathering more Twitter followers with relatively slight but clear changes in the wording. Here are the various efforts and the improved conversion from various renditions:

• "I'm on Twitter"... 4.7%
• "Follow me on Twitter"... 7.31%
• "You should follow me on Twitter"... 10.09%
• "You should follow me on Twitter here"... 12.81%

Pretty clear results that will work for much more than Twitter followers. Note the boost from adding "here" to the list. While "here" isn't needed in every text link, more marketers should use it when making specific calls to action like this. Create a right column web design that makes the call to action prominent on the page.

Carleton University Alumni Magazine Gets It Right

The Carleton University alumni magazine gets it right with a strong call to "Interact!" that's highly visible in the right hand column of the online magazine. I've been including this in my "Writing Right for the Web" presentations for years. The Curtis results suggest that Carleton might benefit from a change to "Interact here!"

"Writing Right for the Web" in December 

I'll be adding the Curtis example and more new content to my next "Writing Right for the Web" webinar with Academic Impressions on December 8. Review the content now and register right here.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter here at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Branding: Traditional Campaigns are Dead.

"Branding is dead" is one of the subheads used by Augustine Fou in a recent ClickZ article, "A New Definition of Digital."

For traditional marketers, that's pretty scary stuff. Many still don't accept it.

For more than 15 years, colleges and universities throughout the land have been spending major dollars on efforts to establish or change brand identities. Some have had success. More have not.

Here's Fou's point:

• "Most people's first impressions of a brand are what they find in search results or what they read from other people in reviews. Hence, branding as we know it is dead." 
• And first impressions, like the "curb appeal" impact when searching for a home, are hard to change. 

Yes, Everyone has a Brand

Just about every institution, of course, has a brand identity with someone. And it isn't all that hard to learn what it is. Just tap people on the shoulder and ask them to tell you what you are. Record the answers. Smile or cringe at the results.

If you enroll traditional students and take the ACT or SAT, checking brand image is even easier. Check the quantity and quality of self-reported test scores.

Why Brand Campaigns Fail in Higher Education: Old Reasons 

Most brand campaigns over the years suffered from two problems:

• Not enough resources to run the campaign long enough.
• An impatient, unrealistic expectation that what people think of their "brand" will change significantly with a few months of concentrated advertising.

Before the advent of the digital world, presidents and trustees might at least dream that a stream of one-way messages about the wonders of their university might indeed result in more applications of higher quality, more alumni donations, and more favorable press stories.

Why Brand Campaigns Fail in Higher Education: New Reason

Today, in the digital world, the impact of one-way messages is dead.

People have too many ways to check on any organization or product that might interest them. The online world is filled with RateMyProfessors websites where people can get first-hand information about professors at a university. Yes, some professors are arrogant and selfish, concerned more with their own careers than helping students. 

Fortunately, if you pay close attention to RateMyProfessors, you'll see that good and great professors outnumber the wicked ones. But you won't find that in many admissions viewbooks or at many college websites. Bad for the brand image.

We've been in the "reality marketing" era for about 10 years. A few places in higher education were early adopters.

• One of the pioneers in student blogs, Lewis and Clark, names their blog spot "Real Life" and has never feared entries that might not be PR perfect. 
• Muhlenberg College for at least 12 years has had a web page explaining "The Real Deal on Financial Aid." If Muhlenberg wants someone special to enroll, that person gets a "preferential" finanacial aid package. Must be true. Says so on the website.

My friend Brian Niles at TargetX campaigns relentlessly for "authenticity" marketing, another way of talking about "reality marketing." How do you convey authenticity? Trust students to speak about the real experiences of attending their college or university.

Brand in the Digital Era

Let's get back to Fou:

• "Start with a true understanding of consumer habits and expectations -- digital -- and you will quickly find yourself cutting or placing a lower priority on marketing tactics that are one-way, or shout messages at consumers disrespectfully, or hit a ton of people many times (reach and frequency).
• "Instead, you will gravitate toward techniques that cultivate genuine and open dialogue with customers, where brands humbly listen and learn, and then respond with new features and innovations continuously to better match the needs of the customer."

In the digital era, your brand depends on your abililty to "match the needs of the customer" and "continuously" change. As Brian says, doing that requires a "revolution" in higher education. It will be interesting to see how quickly that revolution moves along.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/