2010 edu web: kelly cutler - teaming up to create a winning online marketing program

Full-service online + interactive marketing firm

Presented to:

Teaming up to Create a Winning

Online Marketing Program

eduWEB Conference 2010

8/2/2010

Agenda

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1• About Marcel Media

2• Teaming up with an agency

3• Assumptions

4• Solutions

5• DePaul University Case Study

Services

• Search Engine Optimization

• Paid Search

• Web Development

• Social Media Marketing

• Web Analytics

Highlights

• 2009 Inc. 5000 Ranking - 929

overall, 38th in Chicago, 84th

nationwide for ad companies

• Firm with the most Google

Partner certifications in IL

Founded in 2003, Marcel Media is an award-winning, interactive

advisory firm providing customized online and search marketing

solutions.

About Marcel Media

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Teaming up with an agency

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• An integrated approach

• Unite digital and printAdvertising Agencies

• Strategic approach

• Focus on a specific medium

Specialty Agencies

Advertising Agencies vs. Specialty Agencies

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• What kind of results can be expected from web marketing?

• How is the online space valuable in terms of what we are trying

to achieve?

• What are the most important metrics?

• Where do we start?

• What kind of communication/reporting can we expect?

Questions from University Stakeholders

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Assumptions

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Students will find their way to our school’s website anyway:

• Why wait and take a chance that they won’t?

• Strong optimization aids in discovery.

We already have a PPC campaign, that’s all we need:

• One of the biggest misconceptions in the industry: PPC=SEO.

• Google sponsored links only get a fraction of the attention of

the first five organic results.

Assumptions

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SEM 101: Organic Search vs. Paid Search

Organic Search

• Increase rank in natural results

• Long-term strategy, long lasting results

Paid Search

• Instant results

• Pay-per-click model

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Solutions

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Not all types of marketing work for everyone.

Start with a small piece of the marketing pie.

Experiment and test… a lot.

Identify Opportunities - Start Small

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SEO is a marketing opportunity designed to help businesses grow

awareness, traffic and sales on the Internet through natural

placement on search engines.

Search Engine Optimization

Onpage

OptimizationOffpage

Optimization

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Page Title

• The Page Title should employ the keyword term/phrase as the

first word(s).

• 70 characters displayed in Google search results

SEO Onpage Optimization

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H1 Headline

• H1 tags are an index of web page content for search engines,

and describe sections of a web page.

SEO Onpage Optimization

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Local Search

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Reputation Management

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Benefits:

• Effective online reputation management

• Creating a platform for feedback/discussion

• Leveraging content on niche and popular social sites

• Student engagement

• University awareness and interest

Social Media

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More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories,

blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month. Colleges

and universities are using Facebook to interact and recruit current

students and alumni.

Usage

• 400 million users

• 8 million high school students

• 3.5 million college students

• 85% market share of 4-year U.S. universities

Facebook

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Every school in the “Top 100 Colleges” has a Twitter account and a

high number of followers was generally correlated with an

extremely strong academic reputation or extremely large student

body.

Usage

• 105 million users

• 30,000 new users every day

• 50 million tweets published every day

• 600 tweets per second

Twitter

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YouTube allows access to lectures by professors and campus tours.

Content from 300 colleges and universities spanning 10 countries

and 7 languages with 65,000 videos including 350 full courses are

also available on the network.

Usage

• 2 billion videos are watched every day

• 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute

YouTube

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College students and alumni utilize LinkedIn to contact mentors,

alumni, search for jobs and internships, join college groups,

alumni and professional associations.

Usage

• 60 million members

• 95% College educated

LinkedIn

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Tying it all together…

• Target your audience based on a geography and demographics

• Optimize online search campaigns

• Track Key Performance Indicators (KPI’S)

Google Analytics

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DePaul University Case Study

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Accommodating erratic traffic patterns due to enrollment cycle

seasonality

Challenge

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Graduate Overall Decision Timeline

0+0 to

30 days-3 years to

-9 months

- 9 to -3

months

+30 to

60 days

Active Recruitment Window: between 5 and 11

months

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Trusted

Source

Independent

Research / Vetting

Decision Information

Pay Per

Lead

Organic

Search

Organic search

results produce a

trusted source

arrived at

independently

Un-trusted

Source

Believe the ads

Paid

Search

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Pain points

• Long “purchase” cycle lends itself to organic search

• New and relatively unknown programs need exposure

• Pay per lead = not working

• Compliments Search advertising

• Compliments Social Media efforts

• Creating a highly usable, effective website

• Positioning website for long-term success

• Maximized trust and authority as a higher learning institution

Why SEO Matters for DePaul

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Benefits

• New and relatively unknown programs

• Compliment Search advertising

• Compliment our Social Media efforts

• Enhance onsite user experience

SEO Strategy

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• Lead Generation

• Brand Awareness/Program Awareness

• Maximizing long-tail exposure targeting graduate programs

• Solidifying online marketing strategy

• Increase visibility on Google for non-branded keywords

Goals

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Start with graduate

population

Focus on key growth

programsOptimization

Access areas of

opportunity

Process for Implementing Strategy

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Organic Traffic Overview

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Key Insights

• Organic traffic has increased by 42% year over year in June

Organic Traffic: Top Non-Branded Keywords

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Key Insights

• Keyword universe

expanded by 171%

• Non branded traffic

increased by 4%

Focus Area 1st Page Rankings

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Keyword Rank

depaul kellstadt 1

depaul mba 1

masters marketing degree chicago 1

chicago master degree of accounting 2

chicago master degree of finance 2

chicago mba 3

chicago mba programs 3

mba chicago 4

mba programs in chicago 5

mba university 10

finance mba 10

June 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010

Phrases that have proven successful, as they are visible in Google’s

Top 10 results*:

• MS Computational Finance

• MFA Digital Cinema

• Master Network Security

• MS in Business Information Technology

Optimizing non-branded terms (those not containing DePaul) allows

prospective students to find information they are seeking even if

they are unaware of DePaul’s programs.

*Note that these phrases do not include “DePaul” or “ CDM”.

Results: Non-Branded Organic Visibility

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Results: Non-Branded Organic Visibility

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Facebook fan pages have also been created for CDM and Kellstadt,

which serve as peer networks for current and prospective

students.

Results: Social Presence

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Website optimization has helped DePaul CDM provide an enhanced

user-experience: a decreased number of prospective students are

requesting information going straight through to the application.

Results: Enhanced Quality and Relevance

Detailed landing page

Submit application

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• Use analytics to make smart decisions.

• Utilize online strategies to maximize enrollment and strong

branding.

• Incorporate social media into your overall strategy.

• Help senior managers see value of integrating the web to overall

business objectives.

• The site will always be a “work in progress”.

“An ounce of data is worth a pound of opinion”

Key Takeaways

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Thank you!

Questions?

Prepared by Marcel Media

445 West Erie, Suite 211

Chicago, Illinois 60654

www.marcelmedia.com

t. 312.255.8044

f. 866.643.7506

Kelly Cutler

312.280.1974

kelly@marcelmedia.com

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