Tag Archives: Marketing

Content and Offers: Why Should I Give You My Information?

Posted on by jesskry
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Information. Its our golden ticket when it comes to converting leads into sales. Or, better than that, people who don’t know us into brand ambassadors. But how do we get there? We’re all consumers; what makes us as individuals in our daily lives hand over our contact information? With the junk mail and spam we get on a regular basis, what really gets us to say its worth it? Its all about two things: content and offers.

When you are asking a web visitor to provide contact information, they rightly may be hesitant. Its your job to move them from worried to seeing this as beneficial to them. Bottom line is that its about THEM not YOU. Sure you may have segmented your messaging to them, but truly, is it a benefit to them or to you? What are you providing me – immediately – that is for my benefit and not yours? Offers can be seen as altruistic or as sales pitches. You need to be careful when providing offers so that they do add to the community and aren’t just a ploy to get names and leads.

What does your customer want? What will make life easier for them? Is it connections to others like them? Is it information that you have access to that you can provide for free? These offers are what allow clients to give up their privacy and provide their information to you, because, they see that there is a benefit and that you are a trusted resource.

Content. It really is king. It allows you to be seen as a thought leader and to bring people to your conversations. Its not about pulling or pushing. Its about providing something of use for the overall gain of the community. Its this goodwill that builds rapport with your customer base. By doing this, you may not close sales quickly, but the goodwill you gain will ultimately gain you entry into a much larger base of opportunity than just push marketing ever will.

Landing Pages are Great, But What About the Rest?

Posted on by jesskry
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Building on the previous post on PPC campaigns in higher ed, I wanted to talk a bit more about my disdain PPC. Not so much as a practice, since I understand its use for collecting leads. But about the importance it puts on such a limited web presence.

I’m not sure about others, but our web team is rather small. Two people in the communications office to be exact. When it comes to really being able to build out pages, that narrows it down to one. When that person is left to build out pages for such specific information gathering campaigns, it kind of irks me. Here’s why: the same attention is not paid to the rest of the content on the web.

I’m sure we all agree that more engaged users come through organic search. In my mind, this is because people that come to our site searched and found that we actually HAVE the content they are looking for. Or at least have pages that rank for it. Now for landing pages, people come in and bounce out. They may fill out a form, which was the goal, but do they stay and find out more on their own? Shouldnt this be the true measure of if they are interested in us or just the subject?

Point being, my confusion around leads: leads are great, applications are great, but if they dont translate into enrolled, retained students, whats the point? If someones not really interested in you, are you spending money for leads that never blossom into graduates?

PPC in Higher Ed: Worth it?

Posted on by jesskry
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I’ve been sitting in on more and more advertising meetings and still, I dont get it. I see myself as a savvy internet marketer, but when it comes to PPC for our market, I just dont get it. Are we really appropriately reaching students and parents via PPC search engine placements or banners?

The problem here becomes twofold: college choice is very heavily reliant on branding and personal preference. Harvard and Yale have a much easier time getting attention and brand recognition than smaller, lesser known schools. Also, because these schools are so sought after, they can more accurately target their student body by carving out exactly who they want to accept. This also helps elevate the schools status as they only accept ‘the best’ and it can be competitive to get in. Although the current economy has made this a little bit harder for schools with excellent brands, you still cant deny that a final four school will be better off than a little underdog – especially if price is similar.

Second, as mentioned above, college comes down ultimately, in most cases, to cost. How much financial aid a student is given, or how much a family can afford to pay also plays a huge part in college choice. Although you may have a college age child, seeing a Harvard ad doesnt do much if you cant afford the tuition (or dont have the grades, or Boston is too far from home).

With this said, how does PPC factor in? Its a pretty hefty sum for just brand awareness. In my mind, there are other things you can do with that money – like sponsor a local event with great press, put on a contest or build a fun, risky microsite – that may do you so much better. These things build content and buzz. They take on a life. They are a shared experience.

If these all result in names of prospects and the added bonus of good PR, isnt that better than clicks that are mostly wasteful?