Conference presentation from the Texas Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (TxGAP) 2012 Professional Development Conference. Author: Lou Llewellyn V.P. of Sales and Marketing Plattform Higher Education Description: Today's prospective students have more control than ever before. How and when they react and respond is up to them - and now, they have even more outlets in which to communicate. Because of this, their media habits are constantly changing. But are your marketing efforts keeping up? Join Lou Llewellyn, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for PlattForm Higher Education, as he presents "Best Practices in Interactive Marketing." In this presentation, Lou will share powerful data that illustrates the impact of the changing marketing landscape, as well as provide actionable insights and next steps. For more information, visit www.txgap.com.

1. Best Practices
in Interactive Marketing
Lou Llewellyn
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Southern Region
PlattForm Higher Education
www.PlattFormHigherEd.com
Direct: 913-254-6903
lou.llewellyn@plattformad.com

2. Agenda
• Interactive Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media
• Digital Media Marketing
– Pay-per-Click Marketing
– Retargeting
– Online Video
• Cost-Per-Inquiry / Pay-Per-Lead
• Mobile

3. Need To Go From Here…
Traditional Interactive
Media

4. To Here

5. Building a Marketing Plan
Factors to consider:
– Location
• Geography
• Ground vs. online
– Programs and degree level
• Expectations should vary by each program type
– Competition
• Continues to increase
• Marketing much establish and define your
differentiators

6. Interactive Media
• Interactive has become the most prominent
source of marketing dollars and inquiry
generation
• Continual developments and opportunities for
inquiry generation
– Social outlets, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube,
Pinterest, and other search engine channels
• The rise of mobile
– Mobile usage is expected to outpace desktop
usage by 2014

7. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): organic
search results achieved through web site
optimization
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC): paid search results or
Sponsored Listings
• SEM = SEO + PPC
– Goal: capture as much “real estate” on Search
Engine Results Pages.

8. Search Engine Marketing
30% to 40%
60% to 70%

9. Search Engine Optimization

10. Search Engine Optimization
Primary purpose of SEO is to get „targeted‟ traffic to
your web site by:
•On-page optimization
•Meta-tags, titles, headers, descriptions, keywords and CONTENT
•Off-page optimization
•Link building
Once you get them to your site, then what?
•Give them the opportunity to take the next step

11. The Next Step
A good web site strategy is required to:
• Indexed highly in the database of SERP‟s
• Maintain a high yield of clicks-to-inquiries
• Continuous monitoring to appeal to the USER
experience
• Be seen as a resource

12. Valuable Back Links
• Relevant
• Authoritative
• Natural

13. Social Media Marketing

14. Creating an Effective
Social Media Campaign
• Strategic planning
• Build where the people are
• Start small and then expand
• Division of roles & responsibilities

15. Social Media Strategic Planning
• What are your goals?
– Why are you participating in social media?
– What are you hoping to achieve?
• Who are you targeting?
– Current, prospective, former students
– Faculty and staff
– Community members
• Social Media guidelines
– Internal/external regulations
– What can/cannot be said

16. Asset Creation & Optimization
• Build where people are, not where you
think they are
• Create a formal, branded presence
(page, profile, channel etc.)
• Start with one or two networks
– Gain experience and knowledge
– Expand once the foundation is set

17. Define Roles
• Who is responsible for social media
– Determine parameters
– Assign roles
• Communication decision tree
– If this… then that…
– Correct answers or point in the right
direction

18. What is Good Social
Media?
• Represents the brand
• Builds relationships
• Conversational
• Establishes the school as a community
• Support other marketing initiatives

19. What Social Media is Not?
• Just a broadcast medium
• A soap box
• Focused on lead generation
• Overly promotional

20. Measurement Ideas
• Engagement/comments
– Types of comments
– Interaction with posts
• Referral traffic sent to branded website
– Time on site
– Page-depth of visit
• Inquiries generated
– Directly through social media
– Indirectly through the website, after visiting
social media

21. What is Social Monitoring?
• Identifying what people say about
your brand, outside of your official
social media presence
– Blogs
– Tweets
– Posts
– Images
– Conversations

22. Digital Media Marketing
•Pay-Per-Click Marketing
•Online Banner Placement
•Retargeting
•Online Video Ads

23. Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Traditional Interactive
Media

24. PPC Creative
Ad Copy – creative ad copy gets the
user to click through to your page
Traditional Interactive
Media
Mini-Sites– Quality mini-site result in
greater visitor-to-lead conversion
percentages meaning you receive a
greater return on your investment

25. PPC Ad Copy
•Consistently test different versions of ad
copy to find the most effective ad
•Strive for balance between relevance
and a call-to-action
•Able to vary ad copy to address
different targeting needs of the
campaign

26. PPC Mini Marketing Sites
• Strong call-to-action and clear
conversion path
Traditional
• Integrated into your web site
Media
Interactive
• Evolved through multivariate
testing
• Web Analytics tracking and
analysis

27. Mini-Site Optimization
Traditional Interactive
Media

28. Retargeting
• Allows you to selectively put your
banner ad in front of the user
later in their browsing
experience.
• Create familiarity for users with
your brand and message

29. Online Banner Placement

30. Viewing Centers on YouTube,
Your Website
Source: Compete, Inc Custom Education Study, Q3 2011

31. Benefits of Digital Media on Search…

32. Cost-per-Inquiry/Pay-per-Lead
• Interactive inquiry generation through
organic and affiliate directory websites
and contact centers
• Lower costs and higher volume than
other interactive solutions
• Only pay for the inquiries delivered
• Low conversion rate

33. Mobile

34. What‟s Mobile Got to Do With It?
Traffic From Mobile Devices has increased 50% in the past 12 months

35. Where is this all leading?
Traditional Interactive
Media

36. What About Education?
Traditional Interactive
Media

37. And is only getting bigger…
Traditional Interactive
Media

38. And they‟re not just on the go…
Traditional Interactive
Media

39. So what does this all mean…
A mobile marketing strategy that
focuses on the three mobile
Traditional
platforms of laptop, mobile phone
Media
Interactive
and tablet computers is
imperative to your continued
success in recruiting students.

40. Make it Mobile
•Mobile is huge and getting bigger!
•Your students are using mobile Interactive a school
Traditional to find
Media
•A mobile strategy is imperative to your success
•Get it done…implement mobile best practices
•Adapt to a portable brand experience

41. Interactive Media
Directly Somewhat Not Facts
Attributable Attributable Attributable
CPI Low CPI, low
conversions
PPC PPC Low CPI, good
conversions
SEO SEO Low CPI, great
conversions
Banner Banner Banner High CPI, good
conversions
Retargeting Retargeting Retargeting Low CPI, good
conversions

42. Industry Averages for Interactive
Campus Online
• Average cost-per-lead for CPI programs? $75 $60
• Average cost-per-lead for PPC programs? $145 $125
• Average conversion from I-E for CPI? 3% 1.5%
• Average conversion from I-E for PPC? 7% 4%
• Average conversion from I-E for website? 11% 7%

43. Winning the Future Search Game
Find more ways to engage your
audience:
• Mobile
• Retargeting efforts
• Brand awareness
• New media channels

44. The Future is Integrated
• Build a strong foundation with your web site
• Search alone will not grow your business
• We must create demand – not just capture
existing demand
• Take a holistic view