HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MARKETING TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL: HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION TWEET ME

A marketing strategy that fits your higher education funnel is crucial in helping prospective students move forward in their decision process. By developing strategic content and campaigns for specific stages of their decision-making journey, you are more likely to be the school of choice when it comes time for those students to apply. ASSESS AND ADJUST The first step in determining if there is a problem with your funnel is assessing your funnel performance. There are three key places you should look for benchmark data to determine where your institution may be lagging: Industry Benchmarks Internal Benchmarks Competitors Benchmarks In this guide, we ll give you the key higher education numbers you need to begin the assessment of your funnel. We will also provide the necessary tactics to help you boost your performance for full funnel optimization once you determine where your funnel may be leaking. BOOST YOUR PERFORMANCE FOR FULL FUNNEL OPTIMIZATION

What s Inside This Guide? ASSESSMENT TACTICS Top of Funnel Top of Funnel Website Visitors... 5 Blog... 14 Lead Conversion Rate... 6 High-Value Offer Content... 15 Middle of Funnel Bridging the Gap in the Funnel: Your Website MQLs to Opportunities... 7 A Lead Generator... 16 Return Visitors... 8 A Lead Nurturer... 16 Email Marketing... 9 Middle of Funnel Bottom of Funnel Personalization... 17 Qualified Opportunity-to-Customer Conversion Rate... 11 Marketing Automation... 18 Cost per Customer Acquisition... 12 Remarketing... 18 Email Marketing... 19 Bottom of Funnel Sales Enablement... 20 CRM Integration... 21 3 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Assessment 4 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

TOP OF FUNNEL Website Your business s website acts as your digital hub, promoting and representing your brand and all of its offerings. As you focus on generating leads and new business, the number of visitors to your website represents an important KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for your marketing strategy. How do you stack up against your industry peers? Visitors MONTHLY VISITORS IN EDUCATION AVERAGE 6,814... MEDIAN 6,726 Source: Google Analytics 5 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Lead To generate leads, you may be running focused campaigns through channels like Paid Search, Paid Social, or a targeted media placement campaign. One of the key metrics you ll be watching is your conversion rate: the percentage of website visitors who meet your desired goal. Conversion Rate EDUCATION OR HEALTHCARE 8 % AVERAGE CONVERSION RATE SITS BETWEEN 5-10%. How does your campaign compare? Source: MarketingSherpa 6 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

MIDDLE OF FUNNEL MQLs to Generating prospects is one thing; converting them to an opportunity is another. Nurturing your leads who show buying intent commonly called marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to real opportunities is a crucial metric at the middle of the funnel. According to an analysis of hundreds of B2B companies by Salesforce, the average company converts 13% of its MQLs to opportunities Opportunities 13 % AVERAGE COMPANY CONVERTS OF ITS MQLS TO OPPORTUNITIES Source: Salesforce 7 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Return Visitors Nurturing potential customers requires bringing them back to your site. By monitoring your Return Visitor Rate (RVR), you can keep track of how well your marketing efforts stick. While RVR may vary across industries, many market research firms recommend staying above 30%. MARKET RESEARCH FIRMS RECOMMEND STAYING ABOVE 30 % FOR YOUR RETURN VISITOR RATE Source: MarketingSherpa 8 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Email Email marketing is arguably one of the most efficient ways to communicate and nurture leads to convert. To measure the efficacy of your emails, you ll want to look primarily at open rates and clickthrough rates. Compare your performance to your industry peers. Marketing OPEN RATES UNIQUE OPEN RATE IN SCHOOLS & EDUCATION MEAN 30.9 %... MEDIAN 27.3 %...... TOP QUARTILE... BOTTOM QUARTILE 58.7 % 8.4 % Source: Silverpop, 2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study 9 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Email Marketing CLICK THROUGH RATES UNIQUE CLICK-THROUGH RATES IN MEAN 4.3 % SCHOOLS & EDUCATION... MEDIAN 1.8 %...... TOP QUARTILE... BOTTOM QUARTILE 13.1 % 0.2 % Source: Silverpop, 2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study 10 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

BOTTOM OF FUNNEL Qualified Opportunityto-Customer Conversion Rate As your qualified leads enter the bottom of the funnel, your sales team should be closing, closing, closing. But how well are they performing? A 2014 report by the Aberdeen Group shows that the average sales team achieves a 29% close-win rate on all qualified opportunities. 29 % THE AVERAGE SALES TEAM ACHIEVES A CLOSE-WIN RATE ON ALL QUALIFIED OPPORTUNITIES Source: Abedeen Group 11 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Cost per Customer Acquisition Once you convert an opportunity to a real-life customer, you ll want to keep a close eye on the costs spent to acquire that customer. In general, check your costs at least twice a year and after every big campaign. While specific costs range too wildly to provide accurate benchmarks, the general rule of thumb is that the lifetime value (LTV) of your customers should be at least three times your cost to acquire customers (CAC). For example, if your average LTV is $3,000, then your CAC should be roughly $1,000 or less. Source: Geckoboard and Klipfolio 12 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Tactics 13 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Top of Funnel FILLING THE FUNNEL Stop right here if your Top of Funnel Assessment revealed gaps in your strategy. For 80% of marketers 1, lead generation is the number one goal for 2016. If you find yourself in that group, then you owe it to yourself to explore new tactics and new perspectives for expanding your reach and drawing prospects to your pipeline. With each post you publish, you re building search engine equity for your brand. Google and the like index those pages, rank your site higher, and provide more opportunities for you to be found by prospects. Your efforts result in higher quality leads: Organic search engine leads have a 14.6% close rate when compared to outbound leads of only 1.7% 2. Blog Even with platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook dominating the ways in which people consume content, blogs still play a significant role in your top-of-the-funnel strategy. As of 2016, 52% of marketers rank blogs as the most critical component of their content marketing success 1. That number shouldn t surprise you. Blogs are owned content, meaning all the benefits belong to you rather than sharing them with third-party social media sites. CLIENT SPOTLIGHT Horizon Beverage Shares Thought Leadership through its Education & Expertise Blog 14 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

High-Value Offer Content According to Demand Gen, 61% of B2B buyers select vendors who create content that meet the buyers needs at each stage of their decision process 3. Creating high-value offer content is not only crucial to capture leads at the top of the funnel, it also helps your potential buyers identify you as a respected brand. Think about the questions potential prospects are hoping to answer during these early buying stages. Maybe they re asking: Types of Content to Offer: 1. On-demand Webinars 2. Survey Reports 3. Assessments 4. Research Findings 5. Interactive Tools What s new in the market? What should I do to improve my position and business? Why are things not working as well as I hoped? Your job, in turn, is to answer these questions with valuable, researchdriven insights that reflect your brand s core values. After that, you simply set up a slick landing page and easy-to-use lead capture form. Once a user submits, you provide the content. They receive the right research, and you receive a new prospect. 1 Content Institute s B2B Content Marketing 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends 2 NewsCred 50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing 3 Demand Gen 2014 B2B Buyer Behavior Survey 15 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Bridging the Gap in the Funnel: Your Website Before you flip the page to learn how to address weaknesses in the middle of your sales funnel, let s discuss the elephant in the room: your website. Your website is more than a tactic it s a platform. And as such, it lives in this nebulous state in the funnel. It s not 100% top of funnel, but it s not completely middle or bottom either. In truth, your website s job changes based on the context of your prospects position in the funnel. When it s designed right, your website can adapt on the fly to meet the needs of your users. A Lead Generator Your website still ranks as the top channel for driving leads 1. As the digital store front of your business, your website should educate and attract users to your brand, provide details around your solutions and offers, and then prompt those users to connect with you either via lead capture form, general email inquiry, or over the phone. A Lead Nurturer But just because your website has captured the lead doesn t make its job complete. Your website should act as a hub of useful content for all stages of the buyer s journey to address the needs and pain points as prospects get more serious about considering your business. We ll discuss more about middle-funnel tactics in the next section, but most of our advice requires an efficient and flexible website made for all stages of the buyer s journey. If your website is only set up to capture and not nurture prospects, your website is only doing half its job. It may be time for a new strategy and redesigned site. 1 emarketer The State of Lead Capture in 2016 16 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Middle of Funnel THE SAGGY MIDDLE Has the middle of your funnel grown a little saggy? As you cast your net out wider to capture new leads, you risk snagging a few undeveloped leads. But this is true of most organizations: About 50% of leads considered qualified by sales are not ready to make a purchase 1. They need to be nurtured. If that s the case for you, you re not alone 66% of marketers rank lead nurturing as their biggest goal for 2017 2. Below we offer a few ideas on how to cinch that saggy middle for a lean and efficient marketing funnel. Personalization Boston Interactive s mantra, when it comes to personalization, is simple: Talk to me like you know me. At its core, personalization is about segmenting your audience into personas based on data points, and then serving content that address the needs of that persona at different stages along the buyer s journey. At the middle of the funnel, personalization can be the difference between a cold, distant lead, who feels your company doesn t really know them, and a warm, close lead, who identifies with your brand because you have demonstrated your understanding of that particular lead s needs. Demand Metric reports that 78% of CMOs 3 believe personalized content is the future of marketing. CMOs have a right to be optimistic. Strong personalization strategies and tools result in: 4 More conversions Higher user engagement Better lead generation Increased customer lifetime value and loyalty Yet, only 19% of businesses use it 5. The reason? Personalization strategies are hard. The data needed, the segmenting required, and the content strategy necessary to bring it all together require a team of strategists who deeply understand personalization. READ BOSTON INTERACTIVE S PERSONALIZATION SERIES. 17 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Marketing Automation Remarketing Marketing automation platforms (MAPs) have become an essential tool in any business s marketing stack. More than 70% of businesses 6 are using a MAP to automate and streamline marketing tactics, especially when it comes to nurturing prospects through the middle of the sales funnel. Marketing automation can help marketing teams: 1. Segment audiences in real time according to profile data and user behavior 2. Save time by automating repetitive and predictable tasks such as welcome emails, lead scoring, communications with sales, and more. 3. Create detailed reports across all your marketing channels, including your website, email, social media, paid media, etc. As new leads enter your funnel, a remarketing strategy can help nurture leads by providing targeted messages based on known profile data and user behavior. Unlike email nurture campaigns, remarketing enables you to target users across multiple channels from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to the entirety of the Google Display Network, which accounts for roughly 90% of Internet users worldwide 7. The goal of a strong nurture program that puts your brand in the spotlight for potential prospects is to surround them with messaging. If a user can only access your content through one channel (e.g., email), then you re missing out something your competitors may take advantage of. 4. Warm up cold leads through segmented and personalized email drips, promoting content and offers to re-engage leads, and trigger notification thresholds when leads signal they re ready to talk. y our A D LEARN MORE ABOUT MARKETING AUTOMATION WITH BOSTON INTERACTIVE S INFOGRAPHIC. REMARKETING 18 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

When done correctly, remarketing as a means of lead nurturing can be just as targeted and personalized as email marketing. You can build highly segmented lists and send specific messaging to users across the web depending on your goals and the user s known data. Email Marketing Perhaps one of the most reliable channels for communicating with prospects, email marketing continues to drive success by connecting with leads through targeted messaging. For today s marketers, 91% believe email 7 is their most important channel for communicating and distributing content to their contacts. Why? Because email is truly a personalized communication channel. While social media channels offer key insights into their users in general, email provides instant access to the individual. Through advanced segmentation, marketers can target users at the individual level if need be. Moreover, email is a reflection of trust. A lead offers his or her email address to your business for a reason to access content, to use a tool, or to sample a product. Regardless of the reason, an implicit pact is made between buyer and brand, and the messages you send are reflective of the trust you ve earned. Your messages are therefore more likely to be clicked and read, to be shared, and to result in purchases 8. CLIENT SPOTLIGHT Five Start Senior Living Retargets Users Who Have Downloaded an Ebook to Schedule a Tour of a Community Near Them. 1 Gleanster Measuring the Impact of Lead Nurturing on the Sales Pipeline 2 Content Institute B2B Content Marketing 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends 3 Demand Metric Content Marketing Infographic 4 emarketer September 2016 Personalization Roundup 5 Forbes The Key To Personalization Is Data 6 Aberdeen Group State of Marketing Automation 2014: Processes that Produce 7 WordStream 10 Remarketing Facts to Make You Rethink Your Entire PPC Strategy 8 Campaign Monitor 70 email marketing stats every marketer should know 19 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Bottom of Funnel PERFECTING THE SHORT GAME In golf, you can have the best drive of your life, but you ll still end up with a double bogey if you can t putt the ball. The same is true in sales. No matter how well your lead generation programs attract a new audience, or how efficient your lead nurturing strategy warms those cold leads, if you re not prepared at the bottom of the funnel, you ll still lose the sale. In this final section, let s cover the key tactics for perfecting your short game and closing the deal. Sales Enablement First, let s start with a definition, as sales enablement is often considered different things to different people. Sales enablement is the strategic process to equip all client-facing employees with the tools, knowledge, and content to create valuable conversations with customer stakeholders while improving the return on investment. With this definition in mind, you probably guessed correctly that sales enablement is something you should consider at all stages of the buyer s/sales journey not just here at the bottom. But more often than not, most companies discover a flaw in their system when it comes down to closing the deal. Usually, after a lost deal, the team will perform a post-mortem and try to figure out what killed it, and it s at that point in the conversation that you ll wish you had a strong sales enablement strategy. 20 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

To do it right, your sales enablement strategy must include: 1. An integration of CRM, marketing automation, and sales enablement platforms 2. Buyer/customer persona playbooks used across the organization not just with sales 3. Content mapped across the buyer s journey and each persona 4. Accessible content across all devices no matter where you are True integration doesn t just mean connecting your web forms to your CRM database. With a well-integrated system, your sales team can: Segment leads based on known data Grade and prioritize leads Nurture leads and monitor results Reach out to leads instantly with no delays 5. Measuring success through attribution CRM Integration If your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is just a tool for storing customer information and is not integrated into your website, you re doing yourself an injustice. A disparate setup means: Your CRM data is never fully up-to-date You waste precious time exporting data from the site and into your CRM You have to worry about human error affecting your data You miss out on the automated tools that keep you abreast of all pertinent lead information 21 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL

Optimize Your Funnel Aligning your funnel marketing strategy with your buyer s journey will help ensure leads continue to flow unimpeded from awareness through decision. Address their needs through your funnel marketing strategy, and make their choice an easy one. Want to discuss your current funnel marketing strategy and ways to improve it? Contact info@bostoninteractive.com or (617) 241-7977

About Boston Interactive Boston Interactive is a digital marketing agency that combines custom online strategies with emerging technologies. With success stories in higher education, legal, financial services and more, Boston Interactive delivers measurable user experiences and increases lead generation through web, mobile, social, SEO, and paid search campaigns. For more information or to schedule a FREE consultation Call (617) 241-7977 or visit bostoninteractive.com SOME OF OUR CLIENTS 529 Main Street, Suite 212 Boston, MA 02129 BostonInteractive.com

24 RE-THINK YOUR FUNNEL MARKETING STRATEGY: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TACTICS FOR FIXING YOUR FUNNEL TWEET ME