It's apparent that the future of higher education isn't "business as usual." Many students are forgoing education for the time being or choosing online courses over taking classes in a traditional, physical environment. In this webinar, we partner with Siteimprove to share how higher ed institutions are shifting how they're measuring success.

1. Evolving How We
Measure Digital Success
in Higher Ed
November 16, 2021

2. ● Born, raised, and reside in Minnesota
● A veteran of the digital marketing and SaaS world
● Former on-air contributor for the Minnesota ABC
and FOX affiliates as their ‘Social Media and Tech
Expert’
● Enjoys helping organizations understand their
business pains, and creating a path of digital
success through data
● Avid golfer - lowered handicap by 5.5 shots in
2021
Jason Douglas
Digital Marketing Sales Engineer

3. ● From Las Vegas, NV, based in Brooklyn, NY
● 10 years of experience in design
and product development
● Interested in using technology
to make real life a little cooler
● CrossFit and crossword puzzle enthusiast
Elliott Mower
Creative Strategy Director, Product

4. Mediacurrent & Siteimprove
Combining Strengths
Mediacurrent
● Creating digital experiences for
purpose-built organizations, using
open source technology since 2007
● Clients include higher education,
nonprofit, government, and global brands
● 70 US-based team members across
strategy, design and development
Siteimprove
● Leading SaaS marketing performance
solution since 2003
● Bring together data around inclusivity,
content experience, and outcome
acceleration in one platform
● Excellent ratings in G2 and with Forrester
● Over 150 US-based team members
across customer first, support, and
consultants

5. Today’s
Agenda
1. How should we be measuring digital
success in Higher Education?
2. How do you translate institutional
goals into digital metrics?
3. What tools are available to make
teams successful?
4. How do you foster a data-driven
culture?

6. Polling Question #1
What is your organization's experience
level with measurement strategy?

7. The world of Higher
Education is rapidly evolving.
In a hyper competitive landscape and
continuously changing market, how
should we be measuring digital
success?

8. Your digital strategy should be anchored
by KPIs that allow you to track progress
and monitor success continuously.
But how do you determine which KPIs to
track and what digital metrics to follow?

9. Polling Question #2
What KPIs are you currently tracking ?

10. Anatomy of a KPI
Target Timeline Data Source Frequency
+ + +
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) express what you want to achieve by when.
They are the quantifiable, outcome-based statements you’ll use to measure
if you’re on track to meet your goals or objectives.

11. Start with Your Institutional Initiatives
Drive interest to online
certification programs
Increase graduate
degree enrollment
Boost alumni
engagement
Create new community
learning opportunities
Promote output from
key research centers
Make strategic hires
across core departments

12. Year 5
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 4
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 3
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 2
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 1
Drive interest to online certification programs
Increase graduate degree enrollment
Create new community learning opportunities
Promote output from key research centers
Boost alumni engagement
Plot the timeline for each initiative to determine
short, mid, and longer-term priorities
Make strategic hires across core departments

13. Drive interest to online certification programs Online inquiry forms submitted every month
Increase graduate degree enrollment
Number of students enrolled across all
grad programs every semester
Boost alumni engagement Annual amount of donations from alumni
Create new community learning opportunities Number of community partnerships added per year
Promote output from key research centers Conference presentations completed every semester
Make strategic hires across core departments Number of applications submitted every week
Break Down Each Initiative into KPIs That Allow
You to Track Progress over a Specific Timeframe

14. How Do You You Translate
Institutional KPIs into
Digital Metrics?

15. What’s the Difference
Between a KPI and a Metric?
KPI
A strategic, quantifiable or
measurable value that reflects
a business goal or objective
Metric
A tactical, quantifiable or
measurable value that reflects
how successful the activities
taking place are to support the
accomplishment of the KPI
VS

16. Translate KPIs into Tactical Metrics
To Track Success
Institutional Goals KPIs Metrics
Drive interest to online certification
programs
Online inquiry forms
submitted every month
Increase in the number of visits to online certification program pages, increase in engagement
with CTAs, increase in # of inquiry forms submitted, increase in enrollment
Increase graduate
degree enrollment
Number of students enrolled across
all grad programs every semester
Increase in grad program page views, increase in grad program inquiry forms, increase in
campus visits for grad program, increase in grad applications
Boost alumni engagement
Annual amount of donations
from alumni
Increase in pageviews for alumni content, increase in subscriptions to alumni magazine,
increase in logins to alumni portal, increase in donations from alumni
Create new community learning
opportunities
Number of community partnerships added
per year
Increase in pageviews for community learning programs, increase in inquiry forms submitted,
increase in partner registrations, increase in student registration
Promote output from key research
centers
Conference presentations
completed every semester
Increase in media coverage, increase in media requests, increase in pageviews for research
content, increase in number of conference presentations submitted
Make strategic hires across core
departments
Number of applications submitted every
week
Increase in pageviews for careers content, increase in engagement with job postings, increase
in number of applications started, increase in number of applications submitted

17. What Tools Are Available
to Make Your Team
Successful?

18. Analytics Platforms

19. Analytics Platforms - What to Look For
● Clear understanding of the visitor journey
● Ability to validate content effectiveness
● Tracking of all inbound campaigns with
KPIs and key metrics
● Easy, customizable, automated reporting
● Ability to view and interpret trends
over time

20. Search Engine Optimization

21. SEO - What to Look For
● Solution that provides a holistic
view of SEO
● Technical auditing
● Insight into your digital marketplace
and search trends
● Competitor analysis
● Documented process for optimization

22. Dashboards
● Clear understanding of the visitor journey
● Ability to validate content effectiveness
● Tracking of all inbound campaigns with
KPIs and key metrics
● Ease of use, custom reporting

23. How Do You Foster a
Data-driven Culture Where
Tracking Managing Success
Is a Shared Responsibility?

24. Get Ongoing Insight from
Leadership on What Matters
● Institutional goals shift faster than
traditional strategic planning cycles
● Keep leadership continuously informed
on progress through dashboards and
focused reporting
● Create two-way communication channels
to share outcomes with leadership and
get guidance on shifts in overall strategy

25. Decentralize Responsibility
and Control
● Institutional success is a shared
responsibility
● Don’t silo or gate keep information or
access to data, institutional knowledge is
the most expensive asset
● Define a collaboration model that gets
input and action from all departments

26. Rollout
Analyze
& Optimize
Experiment
Hypothesize
Test & Learn
Continuously Experiment
and Refine Your Process
● Data-driven culture isn’t built overnight –
it takes time, commitment and mutual
agreement
● Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and
ensure learnings are shared across the
institution
● You’re only as good as the data you
collect, focus on cleanliness

27. RainU CMS: Rapid Drupal Development
Go to Market in
30 Days
● Launch an MVP faster
● See immediate return on
your investment
Robust Authoring
Experience
● Improve workflows
● Rain is made with
content editors in mind
Component Based
Theming
● Save time
● Developer-friendly
theming approach

28. Q&A Session

29. Siteimprove
Siteimprove
@Siteimprove
siteimprove.com
Mediacurrent
Mediacurrent
@Mediacurrent
mediacurrent.com
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