On Thursday January 29, Higher Education Marketing presented a FREE, 30 minute webinar for higher ed marketers entitled, Blogging Best Practices for Student Recruitment. These are the slides, the recording of the webinar is also available here: http://ow.ly/IaLm8

1. Blogging Best Practices for Student
Recruitment
Presented by: Philippe Taza, CEO
Higher Education Marketing
ptaza@higher-education-marketing.com

2. • Blog Definition
• Using personas
• Blogging Benefits
• Making Your Blog the Hub of Your Content Marketing
Strategy
• Blogging With a Content Calendar
• Benefits of Blogging on SEO
• Ways to Promote Your Blog Articles
• Measure Your Blog’s Results
• Aligning your Blog With Student’s Buying Journey
Today’s Presentation

3. • A collection of articles that provide helpful, valuable,
educational, and remarkable content to your target
audience. By providing this value, blogs can easily and
effectively draw prospects to your website.
- A HubSpot Definition
Definition of a Blog
http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/137828/file-705600239-pdf/Certification_Files/IC2014/The_Fundamentals_of_Blogging_2014.pdf

4. • Blogs are owned by your institution and are
your voice on the web
• Perfect place to communicate with your
community and create content about:
– News
– Events
– Programs
– Related Topics
• Offer a prime avenue of content distribution
through different channels
• Source of content for social media, email, etc.
Making Your Blog the Hub for Your Content
Marketing Strategy

5. Which Blogging Platform Should You Choose?

6. • Give your audience
valuable insights on:
– Your programs, brand,
support systems, success
rates, school’s spirit and
culture
• Improve SEO and drive
traffic to your website
– Every post gets published as
an individual indexed page
What Are the Benefits of Blogging?
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/09/inbound-marketing-blogging-makes-marketers-13x-more-likely-to-get-positive-roi/

7. What Are Personas?
• Fictional, generalized
representations of your
ideal students.
• They help create highly
targeted content
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(user_experience)

8. What Should Be Included in Your Personas?
• Background
– Age, family, job, career
path
• Academic orientation
– What program they might
choose?
• Interests
• Motivation
• Concerns

9. Why Are Personas Important for Blogging?
• Blogs developed around
personas relate to & connect
with their:
– interests
– motivations
– and concerns
• Personas will help you blog
with focus:
– Choose the topics
– Choose your distribution channels
– Frequency
– Etc.

10. How Often Do You Need to Blog?
At least once a week
However the frequency of blogging depends largely on:
• The content (infographics, images, etc.) and effort needed to
produce it
• Your institution’s size
• Your institution’s internal resources
Larger universities will often feature both a news section
and a blog
For smaller institutions we recommend:
• Create a blog section
• Create multiple categories, including News

11. If You Have Multiple Resources for Blogging:
Separate your Blog from News
and events:
• Create a News section to
announce and discuss:
– Faculty and staff
– Alumni success
– Research
– School’s events
• Create a Blog:
– International Student Blog
– President’s Blog
– Institutional Blog
– Student Recruitment

12. If You Have Limited Resources for Blogging:
Here is how to organize
your blog:
• One Blog Section
• Feature the link in the menu
• Use multiple categories
– School News
– Industry News
– Student Success Stories
– Segment by program/faculty
– Etc.

13. Who Can Write a Blog Post for Your
Institution?
• Marketing and admission staff
• Student Ambassadors for
authentic content about life on
campus
• President/Dean can talk about
institutional news and special
events
• Professors/Instructors can blog
about attending conferences,
recently published research
• Marketing agencies

14. For each blog post:
• Titles and taglines to consider
• Description
• Producer
• Due date
• Date of publication
• Targeted Keywords
Have a content inventory
• What has been produced
• Image Bank
• Ideas for future posts
Create a Content Calendar

15. Tools to Help You Create a Content Calendar
• Spreadsheets
• Outlook or Google Calendar
• http://editflow.org/ (plugin that
allows to edit and manage your
calendar within WordPress)
• http://kapost.com/ (Complete
content operation platform)
• http://www.hubspot.com/ offers a
downloadable template
https://library.hubspot.com/blog-editorial-calendar
There are many tools at your disposal to help you
create Editorial Calendars. Here are some examples:

16. Where to Look for Content Ideas?

17. RSS Feeds - Feedly

18. Use Google Analytics to See What Subjects
Are Popular on Your Blog!
Use Pageviews to get an indication
on popularity Use Page Value to measure the
impact on website goals

19. • Enter keywords that
describe your college and
programs
• Select the location (s) you
are interested in targeting
• Select the language (s) you
are planning to target
• Use search volume as an
indicator of popularity
Perform Keyword Research

20. Perform Keyword Research

21. Implement SEO Best Practices

22. SEO Impact of Posting Regularly on Blog
Pageviews
A filter was used to include only blog pages in this report

23. SEO Impact of Posting Regularly on Traffic

24. • Length: 400+ words
• Use bolded text
• Include subtitles, bullet lists
• Use quality and attractive images that
reflect the content of your blog and the
image of your school
• Include infographics
• Include CTAs
Blog Formatting Guidelines

25. Include a CTA in your blogs

26. Make Your Blog Easy to Share and Comment on

27. Once the Content is Published, What is
Next?
Here are some ways you can promote your blog posts:
1. Leverage your website
– RSS feed
– Internal links
2. Consider using Email marketing
3. Use your social media channels

28. Promote Blogs Through Social Media
Keep your target personas in
mind and determine the best
channels to share your
content:
• Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Instagram or Google+?
• Do you have a LinkedIn
Education page?
• Use curation sites
• Pinterest
• Scoop it

29. It Doesn’t End There: Re-purpose Your Content
Use your blogs to create content for your Newsletters or other
email marketing initiatives
Create visual content by simplifying your blogs for:
 Motion graphics
 Slideshares
 Infographics

30. Infographics
Infographics get more
shares than any other
content!
Easy to understand,
they are a simple way
to share:
• Study tips
• Career trends

31. Measuring Blog Social Shares
https://app.buzzsumo.com/

32. Measuring Blog Inbound Links
https://app.buzzsumo.com/

33. Aligning Your Blog Content to Your students
Buying Journey
Source: http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

34. • I’m easy to reach at:
Philippe Taza
Tel: 514-312-3968 ext:104
ptaza@higher-education-marketing.com
www.higher-education-marketing.com
https://twitter.com/PhilippeTaza
Have Questions About Blogging?