This document discusses how Bryant University implemented a website personalization strategy to improve their marketing results. It outlines three key reasons why personalization makes sense, how Bryant identified the need, and their two-phase implementation process. The personalization campaigns aimed to increase yields, reach stealth applicants, and engage specific segments. Bryant saw positive results including increased inquiries, engagement, and deposits from the personalized content and process changes now focus more on determining user interests and segments. The document concludes with lessons learned, advising starting slow, allowing time for setup and refinement, and leveraging research and partnerships.

1. Getting Personal to Get Results
Making Website Personalization
a Part of Your Marketing Strategy
Eric P. Meier, Director of Digital Marketing, Bryant University
Jason Smith, Director & Founder, OHO Interactive

2. Let’s Learn About Website Personalization
• Why: 3 reasons personalization makes sense in the higher education
marketing mix
• Vision: How Bryant University identified the need
• Implementation: Defining goals and implementing strategies
• Results
• Process changes
• Three Key Takeaways
INTRO

3. 3 reasons personalization
makes sense in the higher
education marketing mix
WHY PERSONALIZATION

4. Your website is at the
center of the prospective
student journey.
REASON 1

5. 85%
of prospective
students rate the
website as the
#1 research tool.
REASON 1

6. 73%
of prospective
students rate the
website as the
#1 research tool.
REASON 1

7. The website is the only
place to engage stealth
applicants.
REASON 2

8. 33%
of prospects for
4-year schools
failed to identify
themselves
before applying
https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/blog/rise-fall-stealth-applicant
REASON 2

9. 50%
of applicants at
Clark University
did not provide
contact info
before applying
http://smartcollegevisit.com/2013/02/the-secret-life-of-a-stealth-applicant.html
REASON 2

10. 62%
of transfer
applicants are
stealth
http://smartcollegevisit.com/2013/02/the-secret-life-of-a-stealth-applicant.html
REASON 2

11. “What scares me the most?
The 80 stealth admits that
can make or break our year.”
– University President
REASON 2

12. Website personalization is
the natural extension of your
existing marketing and
content strategy.
REASON 3

13. Identifying the need for
website personalization
VISION

14. Building the Internal Case
In 2015, on behalf of University Relations at Bryant, I began to
make the internal case for website redesign for mobile. This
involved:
• Creating internal leadership team
• Evaluating potential agency partners
• Evaluating the technology platform, hosting
• And creating staff positions to match the growing needs of
the digital marketing landscape
• Budgeting for the project
VISION

15. Selecting Technology
Bryant began assessing CMS platforms time, looking for
long term growth and the ability to manage “Content
Personalization” which we had determined was an up and
coming technology for marketing in higher education.
VISION

16. Finding the Right Agency Partner
When assessing digital agencies to help us complete this
project – experience with Content Personalization was a
significant factor in choosing the right agency for Bryant
to make this transition.
• 8 Agencies engaged
• 5 agency RFPs
3 presentations and extreme vetting later…
OHO Interactive was a right choice for us.
VISION

17. We created two separate campaigns
aimed at increasing yield and
reaching stealth applicants.
IMPLEMENTATION

18. Phase 1: Yield Personalization Campaign
• Problem: Growth in applications had been climbing 10% YoY until
2017, which was essentially flat
• Goal: Return to 10% growth YoY
• Increase overall yield rate for both business and liberal arts students
• Increase yield rate for non-US applicants from 10% to 20%
• Increase yield rate from women
IMPLEMENTATION

19. Campaign Plan
IMPLEMENTATION

26. Phase 2: Full Year Admissions Cycle
• Still focused on increasing women applicants, international and
college of business and college of arts & sciences segments
• Began process with focus groups to better understand the needs
and motivations of each segment
• Created new personalization campaigns
• Coordinated with admission emails to maximize the triggers and
tracking
IMPLEMENTATION

32. Conceptually, plan personalization like email
Segment Define Content Measure
IMPLEMENTATION

33. Define your segment
IMPLEMENTATION

34. Define the “slot” where you’ll swap content
IMPLEMENTATION

35. Select new content to swap in the “slot”
IMPLEMENTATION

36. Set the rule to trigger the content swap
IMPLEMENTATION

37. Increased inquiries, engagement
and deposits.
RESULTS

38. Phase 1: Yield Results
• 46% of International prospects saw the personalization
campaign
• 5% conversion rate
• 6 deposits for admission from international prospects
RESULTS

39. Phase 2: Results – First 3 weeks
• Personalization via the modal window accounts for
42% of the first touch leads.
• Website visitors who received personalized content (counselor contact
form, women's campaign, international campaign) are
twice as likely to register for a campus event than those who did not.
• 30% of visitors who saw the women's campaign proceeded to visit the
apply page immediately after
• Engagement score of website visitors more than double after
submitting the counselor contact form
RESULTS

40. Personalization made us think more
strategically about our content.
PROCESS CHANGES

41. Process Changes
• Inquiry Personalization changes the way we think about the
information inquiry form – how to determine users interests for
triggering campaigns
• Triggers The concept/content behind triggers – these are
important –for example using a sorority page to know that the
user on the website is a woman
• Segments When you start thinking about content as a way to
indicate preference (segment), it changes your approach to
how you might organize the content on the website.
PROCESS

42. Functional/Learnings/Advice
• Start Slow – The amount of complexity in the project – you need
the crawl, walk then run
• Content Needs – Content needs will increase with personalization -
campaigns require custom content – not one-size-fits-all
• Plan time to set up and refine – Time to publish, create the slots,
set the triggers, test for accuracy and appropriate behavior
• Partnership – Consider an outside partner for expertise
• Leverage or Conduct Research – Use focus groups or surveys to
determine needs of segment
• Assess Internal Skills – What roles and skills do I need on my
team?
• Measuring the results and effectiveness
PROCESS

43. 1. Personalization is effective and
measurable.
2. Requires more investment and
work than you think.
3. It’s an iterative process –
be ready to learn.
3 KEY TAKEAWAYS

44. Best practices guide
on personalization
available upfront or
at the OHO booth.
Follow @jason_smith
GET STARTED