Niche Marketing to Specialized Prospects
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More competition in higher education means more targeted programs will succeed. The challenge is how do you market those programs. Learn how to market to the niche!
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Niche Marketing to Specialized Prospects
- 1. Marketing to the Niche
- 2. What is niche marketing? • Small, highly specialized groups of prospects • Combines geographic, demographic, and psychographic targeting
- 3. Why is it important • More degrees and certificate programs • More competition • Limited marketing budget • Greater opportunities for online marketing
- 4. Awareness Interest Engagement Conversion “Old Think” – The Marketing Funnel
- 5. The Old Way… Focused on the University Brand
- 6. The New Way… Focused on Program Differentiation
- 7. The End Game with Niche Marketing • Fewer leads • Higher quality prospective students • More likely to self-select • Each prospect is important
- 8. Build infrastructure before launch • Web site • Landing pages • Inquiry form • CRM • Dedicated phone number
- 9. JMH’s strategy creation process Understand your program Understand your audience(s) Map audience(s) onto each platform Allocate budget Design campaigns
- 10. Understand Your Program What will I learn? How can I apply it? Why is this important?
- 11. Understand your audience(s) Demographics • Age • Gender • Location • Income Level • Education Level • Marital or family status • Occupation/Sector • Ethnic background • Experience Level Psychographics • Personality Traits • Values • Interests/Hobbies • Lifestyles • Behaviors
- 13. Understand your audience(s) 72% female, 22-45 years old within 25 miles of Atlanta with an undergraduate degree in education and interest in math or science
- 14. Paid Search Digital Display Social Media Print Radio/TV Direct Mail TARGETING Demographic Behavioral/Affinity Keyword/Content REACH National Local/Regional COST Cost Per Click Cost Per Thousand Cost of Entry Low Low Low High High Depends FLEXIBILITY Lead times 1-2 weeks* 1-5 days 1 day 1-2 months 2-4+ weeks 2-3 weeks TRACKABILITY Easily trackable
- 15. Niche Targeting with 4 Key Channels Paid Search Digital Display Facebook Ads LinkedIn Ads
- 17. Original campaign Google campaign JMH campaign # of AdGroups 1 10 14 Sample keyword Sample ad Click through rate Cost per inquiry
- 18. Original campaign Google campaign JMH campaign # of AdGroups 1 10 14 Sample keyword careers in healthcare +masters +healthcare “executive masters in healthcare” Sample ad Healthcare Leadership Focus on Healthcare for 16 months instead of an MBA or MPH www.university.edu/exec University MPH 16-Month Executive Masters Program, Healthcare Leadership. Learn more! www.university.edu/public- Health University – Executive Masters Executive Masters in Healthcare. University Name. Learn more! University.edu/exec/healthcare Click through rate Cost per inquiry
- 19. Original campaign Google campaign JMH campaign # of AdGroups 1 10 14 Sample keyword careers in healthcare +masters +healthcare “executive masters in healthcare” Sample ad Healthcare Leadership Focus on Healthcare for 16 months instead of an MBA or MPH www.university.edu/exec University MPH 16-Month Executive Masters Program, Healthcare Leadership. Learn more! www.university.edu/public- Health University – Executive Masters Executive Masters in Healthcare. University Name. Learn more! University.edu/exec/healthcare Click through rate .17% .68% 1.48% Cost per inquiry Baseline 87% higher 23% lower
- 20. Several months to reach optimization
- 21. Typical “Non-Niche” Mistakes in Paid Search • Brand focused keywords • Broad match keywords • Internally focused language • Too few ads • Forgetting the competition
- 22. Paid Social & Display Marketing
- 23. Google Display Facebook LinkedIn Location Age Gender Income level Education level Marital status Parental status Occupation/Industry Seniority Job Title Interests Websites visited Groups/Affiliations Skills
- 24. Typical “Non-Niche” Mistakes in Paid Social • Internally focused language • Not exploring interest areas • Non-customized ads • Not “refreshing ads”
- 26. Image courtesy of Unbounce Conversion Landing Page • Stand-alone page • Can’t access from main website • Guides visitors to your goal
- 27. Why do I need a landing page? • Clarify the next step • Focus on prospect’s needs • Control the conversation • Capture important information
- 28. Landing Page 101 • Define your offer • Craft a call-to-action • Short inquiry form • Compelling Headline • Persuasive Copy • Clear branding • Trust marks
- 29. Niche Marketing & Landing Pages • Speak to different audiences • Include different CTAs • Increase ROI on marketing dollars
- 31. Tracking Media Performance Use tracking URLs to identify where inquiries originate
- 32. Tracking Media Performance 3. Compare inquiry generation and cost per inquiry across channels to aid in determining effectives. Clicks CTR Inquiries Conv Rate CPC Cost Cost-per- Inquiry Bing Paid Search 2252 0.82% 104 4.62% $3.18 $7,153.41 $68.78 Facebook 1465 0.02% 12 0.82% $1.10 $1,606.68 $133.89 Google Display 6364 0.10% 71 1.12% $1.03 $6,525.75 $91.91 Google Paid Search 4516 3.56% 385 8.53% $4.18 $18,892.83 $49.07 LinkedIn 1664 0.04% 144 8.65% $2.07 $3,443.83 $23.92 Grand Total 16261 0.09% 815 5.01% $2.31 $37,622.50 $46.16
- 33. JMH’s strategy creation process Understand your program Understand your audience(s) Map audience(s) onto each platform Allocate budget Design campaigns
- 34. JMH Consulting Higher Education firm Online marketing Recruitment & Retention Non-credit certificates
- 35. Thank you! Jon Horn jhorn@jmhconsulting.com Nicole Foerschler Horn nfoerschler@jmhconsulting.com
Editor's Notes
- More and more specialized programs are appearing in our industry as schools try to differentiate themselves in a crowded field. Everyone has an MBA program, masters in education, or nursing On non-credit we see Project Management certificates and Financial Planning There is more competition for your student Unfortunately, this is coming at a time when there are higher expectations for enrollments and new programs and offerings Such programs usually have small marketing budgets that must be used carefully and every lead becomes more important When marketing programs with highly specific (niche) audiences, marketing becomes more difficult and traditional marketing is ineffective Why are we talking about Marketing to the Niche? Two Reasons: There is more competition out there. More universities both for-profits and non-profits are competing for your students. Universities have also gotten better at marketing so the traditional means of reaching students – given the increase in competition – won’t work. Second reason is the good news…you can get smarter about marketing to your students b/c online platforms have given us the means to do so. So, today we are going to talk about reaching the niche market and we hope you’ll leave with some tools that you can implement when you go home
- We usually talk about the marketing and admissions process as a funnel. If you can capture a big enough audience at the top, you have a good chance for converting those students at the bottom. People move through the process of becoming aware of your program, getting interested, engaging with you, and converting. Some people drop off at each stage, but a few eventually make it to the bottom
- This is why traditional marketing like billboards and bus wraps have worked…you have a degree that appeals to a large audience; you let the general population know about it and people will HOPEFULLY come The old way is driven by the brand. We’re working on the belief that people are first buying your school and second buying your degree.
- It will still be a funnel, but the top is a lot more narrow. And although your brand will continue to be important, the focus of your marketing is first on your degree and how it will 1.) help someone and 2.) is the only degree out there. You’re focused on what makes your degree special and in order to do that your message will need to be crafted to each audience
- When we talk about Marketing to the Niche, what we are doing is creating a path where the end goal is to have qualified prospects engage with you. Moving them from engagement to enrollment is the job of the recruiters, but recruiters will tell you that qualified leads make all the difference in the world. What we have seen is some people throw marketing out there and when they get impressions from their FB ads or Google Display ads or they get lots of clicks they will celebrate and call it a success. It’s easy to get impressions…it’s also pretty easy to get junk clicks…what’s more challenging and the responsibility of a good marketer is to find people who are 1. interested in your program and 2. qualified for your program and give them a pathway through which they will start a conversation with you. -You spend bigger dollars on a smaller audience -Fewer leads -Higher quality -More likely to self-select -Every prospect becomes more important b/c they are more qualified
- Now…we are not going to spend much time on this, but I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that this approach cannot be done without decent infrastructure. As I said…you’re markeitng dollars are going to need to work harder…each prospect matters…so you want to capture the interest and immediately engage with each prospective student. Two points to this slide: 1) Do the basics. 2) needed this infrastructure to follow through with marketing Web site Inquiry form/db Dedicated phone number URL (/executive and /exec) for tracking effectiveness Landing pages (digress to quantity vs. quality discussion?) CRM (Google Doc) Follow-up process with prospective students: email, phone, appointments with Program Director – prospective students expect a high-level of personal attention . Add slide about identify your audience. What you need to know about them. Demographics, psychographics, interests, industries, etc.
- Jon takes over here
- Keep in mind – optimization doesn’t happen overnight
- Social media can help you get REALLY niche…talk about the usefulness of paid social markeitng within a niche marketing strategy
- Jon
- Nicole starts here Now that you have people visiting your website you want to make sure you can capture their interest and start a conversation. Landing pages are critical to this process. T Relevant because they can be customized
- Today, we are discussing what’s called a “conversion landing page.” This is a… Conversion goal
- So, you might be asking “Why?” “Why not direct visitors to the program website we spent so much time developing and refining?” And, the simple answer to that is…….. that if you are not using targeted campaign landing pages, you are losing the opportunity to be in control of the conversation and to help your prospect decide if your program is indeed the best one for them. A landing really accomplishes 4 things for you… Takes into consideration the audience and where they’re coming from and it shows them the appropriate next step without distractions It allows you to tailor your content specifically to your audience and what they’re looking for If someone browses your program website and leaves, you have very little power to influence their decision-making process or offer them the information they need in order to signup or enroll And, last but not least, the inquiry form on a landing page allows you to capture important information about your prospective students that can be invaluable as you make decisions about your marketing and recruiting efforts. Info like lead source, interest areas and
- Since our goal today is discuss considerations for strategy, we will discuss best practices at a high level. However, you can our website at jmhconsulting.com to find an article that covers our recommendations for landing page content in more detail. Many universities require a long list of elements to appear on every department page in their website. Often the header, footer and primary navigation have been locked down by the university. However, there is often a case to be made for removing or modifying these elements for landing pages. And, for the purposes of this webinar, I’m going to assume that you are able to create stand-alone landing pages that fall outside of the general template requirements from the University. This is certainly not always the case, and is something you should ask about and fight for. I want you to leave this webinar today with enough information to develop a landing page strategy that you can hopefully leverage in your request for flexibility negotiations, if it comes to that. *Inquiry Form: many CRMs allow you to include inquiry forms in an iframe, which hosts in the form on your CRMs site, and pulls the form into your landing page when it loads…this is a great way to save time editing html piece of content that speaks to the audience, convincing them to contact you or complete your CTA
- One challenge with targeting niche audiences online is that you can’t definitively tell if you are reaching the right audience without data.
- How to compare the performance of each marketing channel Just because you can’t track it, doesn’t mean it’s not working. (i.e. from talking with students, at least 3 out of 28 heard our ad on the radio in their market even though we tracked 0 inquiries to our radio campaign) Fake numbers – for demonstration purposes only
- How to compare the performance of each marketing channel Just because you can’t track it, doesn’t mean it’s not working. (i.e. from talking with students, at least 3 out of 28 heard our ad on the radio in their market even though we tracked 0 inquiries to our radio campaign) Fake numbers – for demonstration purposes only
- Jon takes over here