This document outlines digital marketing best practices for higher education institutions in 2013, with a focus on lead generation and recruitment. It discusses optimizing websites for mobile use, search engine optimization, social media strategies, analytics, and testing approaches. The goal is to provide continuous improvement of digital marketing efforts through data-driven optimization across channels.

1. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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Philippe Taza
DIGITAL ANALYST
Higher Education Marketing
ptaza@higher-education-marketing.com
Digital Marketing Best Practices
2013 in Higher Ed
FOR LEAD GENERATION & RECRUITMENT

2. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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BEST PRACTICE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

3. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 Mobile Websites
 Responsive Web Design
 User/Goal-Driven Design
BRANDING & WEBSITE DESIGN

4. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 Web traffic via mobile phones doubled from
4.6% in 2011 to 9.3% in 2012
MOBILE WEBSITES

5. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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RESPONSIVE WEBSITES

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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USER/GOAL-DRIVEN WEBSITE DESIGN

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 The SEO Iceberg
 On-Page SEO
 Off-Page SEO - link building
 SEO Tools
 International SEO
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

8. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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THE SEO ICEBERG

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ON-PAGE SEO
1. Search friendly url
2. H1 & H2 tags
3. Optimized Copy
4. Image Tags
5. Keyword strategies
6. User led copy
7. Videos
8. Go the extra mile
Source: www.searchenginepeople.com

10. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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OFF-PAGE SEO – link building
Examples
1. stanford.edu
2. chronicle.com
3. wordpress.org
4. livejournal.com/
schools/
5. facebook.com

11. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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POPULAR SEO TOOLS
Tools $ Functions
Paid
Competitive Keyword rankings,
technical diagnostic of domain, Link
Analysis
Paid Link Analysis
Paid
Competitive Keyword rankings, Social
Signals, YouTube Rankings by Keyword
Free
Technical diagnostic of domain,
Impression data by keyword and
pages, Setup settings of your domain
Free Similar to GWT but for Bing

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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INTERNATIONAL SEO

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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INTERNATIONAL SEO: RESULTS VARY

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 Content Strategy
 The 3 Dimensions of Content Marketing
 Align Content Marketing with Brand
 Social Media Baseline
 Leveraging Social Content
 Social Content ROI
 Google Authorship
SOCIAL CONTENT

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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CONTENT STRATEGY

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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THE 3 DIMENSIONS OF CONTENT MARKETING

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ALIGN CONTENT MARKETING WITH BRAND
STRATEGY
1. Identify what your organization
wants to say and how it wants
to be perceived
2. Align all messaging with
organization wide messaging
3. Determine what content is
appropriate for users or what
is not
4. Align messaging across all channels
5. Know your important keywords

18. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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SOCIAL MEDIA BASELINE
PLATFORM CONTENT STRATEGY SHARING FREQUENCY
News, Success Stories,
Events, ETC.
2-3 a week
Best of all content
shared everywhere Once a day
News about the
college and the
community
4 times a day
Video capsules Once a month
Business-related news
and job postings
Twice a week

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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LEVERAGING SOCIAL CONTENT

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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SOCIAL CONTENT ROI

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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GOOGLE AUTHORSHIP
https://plus.google.com/authorship

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 AdWords Account Architecture
 Aligning the Scent Trail
 Important AdWords Features
 Mobile PPC Campaigns
PAY PER CLICK MARKETING

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ADWORDS ACCOUNT ARCHITECTURE

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ALIGNING THE SCENT TRAIL IN PPC

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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IMPORTANT ADWORDS FEATURES
 Location Extensions: Google
Places
 Site links Extensions: Link to
Program/Faculty Pages
 Social Extensions: Link to G+
Page
 Call Extensions: Essential for
Mobile PPC

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MOBILE PPC CAMPAIGNS
 Need high ad position
 Use ad extensions
 Use mobile landing pages

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 Website Goals
 Web Analytics Highlights
 Online Application Funnel
 Track Online & Offline Channels
 Assisted vs. Last Interaction
Conversions
 Top Conversion Paths
ANALYTICS - DRIVEN MARKETING

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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WEBSITE GOALS: CALLS TO ACTION

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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WEB ANALYTICS HIGHLIGHTS
 Year over Year
Traffic is flat
 Info Sessions are
down 10% Year
over Year
 Register Now are up
108% Month over
Month

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ONLINE APPLICATION FUNNEL

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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TRACK ONLINE & OFFLINE CHANNELS

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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ASSISTED VS LAST INTERACTION CONVERSIONS

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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TOP CONVERSION PATHS

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 Use GA to Prioritize Optimization
 Landing Page Optimization
 A/B Testing
 Conversion Rate Optimization
LEAD GENERATION OPTIMIZATION

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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USE GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO PRIORITIZE
OPTIMIZATION

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION
1. Unique selling proposition
2. Benefits
3. Hero shot
4. Context of use
5. Request for data
6. Backup or safety net call to
action (CTA)
7. The main CTA

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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A/B TESTING

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
(% of Company Respondents, Nov 2012)

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FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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 The future is mobile
 Business goals >website goals >analytics goals
 You must do SEO
 Content lays at the center of all your online
initiatives
 Use analytics to drive continuous improvement
 Optimize your lead gen across all channels
CONCLUSIONS

40. Digital Marketing Best Practices for Higher Ed 2013
FOR LEAD GENERATION AND RECRUITMENT
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Philippe Taza
Tel: 514-312-3968 ext:104
ptaza@higher-education-marketing.com
www.higher-education-marketing.com
http://www.linkedin.com/company/higher-education-marketing
https://twitter.com/EduWebMarketing
http://www.facebook.com/higher.ed.marketing
https://pinterest.com/EduWebMarketing/
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