The document discusses the evolution of inbound marketing strategies in higher education, emphasizing how prospective students now primarily conduct research online, often bypassing traditional marketing methods. Key components include search engine optimization (SEO), strategic content creation, social media engagement, and effective calls-to-action to attract and convert leads. It highlights the importance of understanding consumer behavior and measuring the effectiveness of marketing efforts to optimize engagement and retention.

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Inbound Marketing
NAGAP 2015
Hollie Lindner – Director of Marketing and Media at Northwest Nazarene University
Jay Kelly – President of Converge Consulting
April 2015

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The way people research has changed…
44% of direct mail is never opened
86% skip TV commercials
91% unsubscribe from emails
200 Million say “do not call”

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Instead…
prospective students do research online
of prospective students
view college website
via mobile devices
of students find college
websites to be a reliable
sources of information
of students used social
media when deciding
to where to enroll
Inbound Marketing practices produce
more inquires than
traditional outbound
practices

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CONVERT DELIGHT
Search Engine
Optimization
(SEO)
Strategic
Content
Creation
Social Media
ATTRACT
VISITORS STUDENTS
PROMOTERS
Calls-to-Action
(CTAs)
Landing
Pages
Forms
Segmented
Content
Ongoing
Engagement
User
Experience
STRANGERS

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1

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic
2nd Organic Result:
Reoccurring asset, will
continue to appear
year after year
Paid Results:
“online MBA”
costs $59/click

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Step 1: Attract Website Traffic
Optimized
blog posts
for target
keywords
Social Media
sharing buttons
for content to
be shared to
new audiences
• Websites that blog
have 55% more
traffic than
websites that
do not
• 75% of all clicks
go to Organic
Search results
• Companies that
blog have 97%
more inbound
links than
companies that
don’t

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Search Habits

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• What You Need to Know
– Technical assessment (crawl for errors)
– On Page optimization and basic keyword research
– Thematic keyword development
– Off page optimization and link building
– Reporting
TOOL: A great Inbound and SEO tool is Moz. Plus, 30-day free trial!

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Whiteboard Friday

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HIGH COST
& COMPETITION
LOW COST
& RISK
LOW PROBABILITY
OF CONVERSION
HIGH PROBABILITY
OF CONVERSION
KEY PHRASE CURVE
1 Word Phrases
“purse”
2-3 Word Phrases
“coach purse”
More Descriptive Phrases
“leopard print coach purse”
LONG TAIL
KEYWORDS

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Keywords
Discover which keywords will bring the best organic traffic to your site and analyze your
paid search campaigns.
• Track which keywords
drive the best visitors
& leads
• View difficulty, current
rank and search volume
• Get recommendations
for low-hanging fruit
• Compare your rankings
to competitors

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Keywords
• Track which keywords
drive the best visitors
& leads
• View ifficulty, current
rank and search volume
• Get recommendations
for low-hanging fruit
• Compare your rankings
to competitors

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Strategic Content Creation
Informational, the old boring
Compelling, the new awesome!!!
zzz

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Strategic Content Creation
• Share, educate, delight... don’t sell
• Build your content based on thematic
research
• Aim for 15 Blog posts per month
• Develop an analytics dashboard to
see what works best for YOUR
audience
• Answer specific questions to engage
in a meaningful way

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Personas

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Personas

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Blogging
Create long-lasting marketing assets by publishing blog articles optimized to get found
and generate leads.
• Create content to
develop your thought
leadership and get
found online
• View detailed SEO
recommendations for
improving your
content as you type
• Automatically publish
to your social media
accounts

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Strategic Content Creation
THEME OFFLINE EVENTS
1/8/14 - 2/11/2014
2/12/2014 - 3/8/2014 Transformative Education
Wesley Conference (3/8),
Deposit Deadline, Fee Waiver (2/18),
Messenger (3/1), Chaplin Gene Schandorff Retiring
3/9/2014 - 4/15/2014
We LOVE giving you your
money's worth
Spring Break (3/24-28)
4/16/2014 - 5/15/2014 Parents
Commencement (5/10),
Alumni Weekend (5/9-10),
Summer Session 1 begins (5/12)
5/16/2014 - 6/15/2014 Best-of-all-Worlds Location Summer Session 2 begins (6/12) Note: Instagram :)
6/16/2014 - 7/31/2014 Highly Valued Relationships Summer Session 3 begins (7/12)
8/1/2014 - 9/15/2014
Distinctive Undergraduate
Traditions
Fall Semester Begins (8/26),
New Student Orientation (8/22)
9/16/2014 - 10/15/2014 Division II Athletics
10/16/2014 - 11/15/2014 A Growing, Vital Campus The Call Conference (11/10-13)
11/16/2014 - 12/15/2014 Challenging Yet Accessible

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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Strategic Content Creation

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25% increase in
organic search traffic
Impact of Organic Traffic

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Blogs

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Show & Tell

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Show & Tell

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Social Media
• Join into conversations about you or industry topics
• Less formal, more personality, concise, fun!
• Use your content calendar to schedule consistent,
on-point posts
• Develop an analytics dashboard to
learn how social traffic is converting
on your goals

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Social Media

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Social Media

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QUIZ – Phase I: Attract
• Search Engine Optimization
– Is your site search engine optimized on page? Technical?
Off page and link building?
– Are you building content based on search trends?
• Strategic Content
– Do you have a blog?
– Are you measuring success?
– Is it strategic?
• Social Media
– Do you have a strategy?
– Are you measuring it?

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2

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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
• If you don’t ask, they’ll never do it
• Critical for collecting information about prospects,
which fuels inbound marketing

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Calls-To-Action (CTAs)
• Should go hand-in-hand with strategic content
• Enticing and friendly
• Knowing your prospects will help you know what
would be enticing to them
• Visual should stand out and be placed consistently
FACT: Benefit focused terminology is more likely to entice prospects
to click. (From research by The Science of Blogging)

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“Apply Now” is not good enough
Step 2: Convert Website Traffic

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Step 2: Convert Website Traffic
Provide a conversion point for students while they’re still researching programs

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Landing Pages

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2 or 3 of our best landing page examples
Landing Page and Form

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2 or 3 of our best landing page examples
Landing Page and Form

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Landing Pages
• Unique landing page per campaign with Google
Analytics applied
• Clear
• Free of clutter, compelling copy
• Mobile Optimized
• Only capture what you use
• Test

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• Keep them short – only collect
what you use
• Break them up into multiple
pages, but provide a status bar
• Explain what you’ll use the
information for – and mean it

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Email Marketing
Send personalized, beautiful emails that your prospects will look forward to receiving and
measure which messages are most effective.
Collect valuable information on your leads
for segmentation, personalization, and
follow up by your sales team • Personalize your
message, sender, and
subject lines
• View detailed
engagement analytics
• Choose from a variety
of pre-tested
templates

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Example Campaign
Step 3: Nurture and Build a Relationship
Convert Visitor
to a Lead
Meet
Professors
Student
Success Stories
Info on
Campus Visit
Info on
Financial Aid
Push towards
“apply now”

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Workflows Automation App
Trigger email messages and activities within your contact records to automate your email
marketing strategies.
• Trigger emails, actions
in your Contacts
database & webhooks
• Create custom lead
scoring
• Move leads easily to
different workflows
and lists
• View detailed
engagement data

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QUIZ – Phase II: Convert
• Calls to Action
– Do you have calls to action every opportunity?
– Are they directing the user to what’s next?
• Landing Pages
– Do you have landing pages?
– Are they following best practices?
• Forms
– Do you strategically use forms?
– Are they optimized and following
best practices?

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3

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Ongoing Engagement
• Repeat “customers” are your best advocates
• The trust factor: word of mouth
• Improve retention
FACT: 77% of consumer are more likely to buy a new product when
learning about it from friends or family. (Nielsen)

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Ongoing Engagement
• Social Media
• Events – online and in person
• Segmented email lists
• Measure success, in person or online
FACT: MailChimp found that segmented emails perform about 15%
better than average on opens and clicks than non-segmented lists.
(MailChimp)

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Sources
Analyze which of your marketing activities are driving the highest ROI in terms
of visits, leads, and students.
• Track how your
marketing is performing
in terms of visitors,
leads & students
• Measure the ROI of your
marketing campaigns
• Drill into detailed
reports on your
performance
• Compare the
effectiveness of your
marketing channels

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Competitors Report
Analyze how you compare to your competitor’s online presence.

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QUIZ – Phase III: Delight
• Targeted Content
– Do you know who your audiences are?
– Have you developed targeted messages (email, social, online) to
answer their questions?
• Ongoing Engagement
– Do you provide customized experiences?
– How do you encourage current students and
alumni to share their experiences?
• User Experience
– Have you done user testing?
– Have you optimized for mobile?

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“Within Google’s search trends analysis from this
quarter, it is highlighted that while the search
queries of prospective students are not becoming
any more closely aligned with individual university
brands, they are in fact becoming much more
specific in terms of location and field of study.”
Google Search Trends: Lessons for Higher Education
TopUniversities.com August 2014

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Paid Media

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Paid Media

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Optimization
• Geographical targeting
– 20 miles around campus, Idaho and Oregon performing strongest thus far

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0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
#ofLeads
Months
Northwest Nazarene University
APP in Education
Google Ad Words
Leads Generated
• 189,686 impressions
• 1,545 click-throughs
• 39 prospects/leads
• 16 applied students

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• 189,686 impressions
• 1,545 click-throughs
• 39 prospects/leads
• 16 applied students
Leads Generated
$0.00
$200.00
$400.00
$600.00
$800.00
$1,000.00
$1,200.00
$1,400.00
$1,600.00
Dollars
Months
Northwest Nazarene University
APP-Education Google Ad Words
Aug 2013-Nov 2014
Cost per Conversion
Monthly Budget

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Inbound Marketing
inbound

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Inbound Marketing Results
We want to move where the
market is going, not where
it’s been.
(Marketer Surveyed in Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing 2013)
“
”

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