Web Analytics for Recruitment Success

Web Analytics for Recruitment Success ©Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D. 2010 Marketing to Adult Students Education Dynamics – Aslanian Conferences Chicago, Illinois June 3-4 , 2010

The first imperative… Don’t drown in data…

The second imperative… Know what to ask for…

The third imperative… Filter out internal traffic…

When you start… stats, stats, stats

Don’t bother with screen resolutions…

Or different browser versions…

Marketing director must set priority…
(1) The “beat reporter” approach
Follow everything happening, all the time
(2) The “investigative reporter” approach ◄
What’s important to know? Why is that the case?
Marketing director as news editor:
Assign the story to watch
Melissa Burdon, http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/04/30/web-analytics-report/
Select “most important” or “need to know” items from everything that’s possible.

Key metrics recommended…
Page views
“We buck the myth that page views are a dead metric” for key pages that “feed our conversion funnel.”
REJ note: watch trends over time
Average time on a page
“If you have a 3 minute video on a page, and users are spending only 15 seconds on it, you might consider improving it.”

Browser compatibility every 6 months…
“ We are starting to notice more mobile browsers (iPhone, blackberry, etc) so this is a trend to watch. It will require a mobile web strategy eventually.”
First noted in 2008
Even more important in 2010… and 2011
Mobile access is growing but not yet dominant
Gather facts for future resource allocation

Trend over time… or compare periods
Analytics most valuable for trends
Don’t obsess on daily or weekly stats unless tracking a specific campaign
New visitors…
“Landing pages”… where they start
“Bounce rate”… from the landing pages
Navigation

Important first marketing metrics: New visitors and the bounce rate…
Bounce rate…
Percent of new visitors who left an entry page (i.e., home page or other “landing page”) without going anywhere else on your website.
Good bounce rate
Under 35%
20% is superlative

Set to report “New Visitors”

Where do “new visitors” start?

What did they do after arriving?

“ Search” can influence entry pages…
Undergraduate
Graduate
Departments
Schools & Colleges
Athletics
Human Resources
Faculty Central
Degree Programs
And a “search” box

Track interest in degree programs…

What does a marketer need to know? At the start, best to focus on a few elements

Set goals…
Your web marketing goals might include…
Watching a video
Reading a blog
Taking an online campus tour
Completing an inquiry form
Registering for a campus program
Subscribing to a newsletter
Applying for admission

Set analytics for your recruitment pages…
For access to results for admissions and recruitment pages.
Ask IT to set your analytics to only report your pages.
Access this yourself or ask for regular reports.

Filter out internal use in your reports…
Data on internal use is always there.
After you set the filter, you’ll never see it.
Get internal use out of your marketing information.

What marketing info from this page? http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA.shtml

Let’s make a list…
How did visitors get here?
How many were new?
What did they do?
Watch the video
Print the page
Email to someone
Follow a link?
Online MBA curriculum
Integrates content
Residence experiences
Take an action?
Read FAQs
Ask for information
Apply for admission

Start at the dashboard page…

How did the visitors get here?
Direct traffic
Typed .edu address or print/radio/email
Referring sites
People online elsewhere who linked from other websites, including Twitter
Search
Importance of organic search to your traffic
Or paid campaigns

What keywords did they use to search?
Review top keywords for possible later use in…
Online advertising
Print and radio advertising
Billboards

Reporting features vary…
Date range feature
Compare two metrics at the same time
Line chart, pie chart, bar chart
Email and export capability (PDF to print)

More Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Start tracking for mobile access…
Will grow in 2010 and 2011…
How fast isn’t clear
Test your site from the devices people are using
Objective data for site design resources
Track monthly

Where do your visitors live? Distance learning? International recruitment?

Popularity of individual web pages…
What pages are visited most often?
How long do people stay on them?
Do they exit from these pages or move to other pages?
Identify pages you’d like people to visit that are being ignored

Trend data for average time on site…
Average time on site is 1.06 minutes
Is this good or bad?
Depends on why they visited
These visits were to see Link of the Week page
Read and link away

What happens with your own search?
Marketing research
What do people look for on your site?
What words do they use to find it?
Does your “search” give the right answer?
Are your “Quick Links” accurate?
Need special tech help to set this up

The proverbial summary…
Pick a few key points to follow at the start…
Make sure they include the bounce rate for new visitors
Consider pages most often visited and time spent
Monitor what people are doing with site search
Filter out internal users
Track monthly and watch trends
Attention to access from mobile browsers

Getting up to speed and staying there… Recommendations from the brain trust…

An informal brain trust… Without responsibility for this presentation
Notes and experiences shared by…
Bates College
Jay Collier, Web Communications Manager
Juniata College
Gabe Welsch, Assistant Vice President of Marketing
Rick Stutz, Coordinator of E-Communications
St. Edward’s University
Carmella Manges, Director of E-marketing
University of Missouri
Lori Croy, Director of Web Communications
University of Richmond
Eric Palmer, Director of Web Services

Especially for Google Analytics… http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/?hl=en

Buy this book first…

A book to continue… Make sure you get 2 nd edition

For ongoing reading… http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ ... http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Glossary for reference… http://www.webtrends.com/Education/Glossary.aspx#b

Professional association… http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/

Thank You! Bob Johnson, Ph.D. President Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC Marshall, MI 49068 248.766.6425 [email_address] Customer Carewords Website Research www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com

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Web Analytics for Recruitment Success

by Bob Johnson on Jun 03, 2010

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Web Analytics for Recruitment Success — Presentation Transcript