The article reports that in the online world 75% of buyers experience a lack of information that keeps them from making a purchase "always, most, or some of the time." When that happens most people will move to a competitor who provides the missing information.
High Demand for Website Net Cost Information
That made me flash back to yesterday's (finished!) work on my advance workshop presentation for the ACT Enrollment Planners Meeting next week. According to the 2007 Noel-Levitz survey of college-bound students, 76% would use an online tuition cost calculator "if they could" and 80% would use an online "financial aid estimator" if they could.
But most can't. Less 25% of both private and public institutions provide those services. (The Noel-Levitz survey at www.noellevitz.com/expectations)
Can we conclude that colleges that do offer these services gain an advantage over their competitors who do not? From what I'm hearing about the popularity of those programs from people who have them, I'd not want to be in my competitive set without one.
Little Online Help for Net Cost
Check 7 schools that offer a variety of scholarship and cost calculators at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/12/5_online_financial_aid_scholar.html
What's required for each one? Some are extremely simple, designed to provide a merit scholarship estimate with just a little academic information (Dominican University), some require family income data similar to what's needed for a FAFSA, and some compare net cost over 4 years with lifetime earning potential for various occupations (University of Toledo).
The marketing impact of college and university websites will advance when more schools start to provide information that's in high demand. Until then, a wise few will enjoy their competitive edge.
]]>In searching for relevant material, I returned again to the Noel-Levitz website at www.noellevitz.com to review a 2008 survey report on online recruiting practices and a 2007 report on what students would like to do on college websites if colleges gave them the chance to do it.
More than 50% prefer online information over print
For this presentation, the answer to one question in the 2007 report was most important: 57% of high school students headed for college would prefer to receive information about the college online rather than in print.
That can easily be a glass half-empty or glass half-full result, depending on your point of view.
From my perspective, and in keeping with an overall migration away from traditional print information sources, it means that the resources spent on print communications vs. those spent to build a stronger online effort are seriously out of wack.
Recruitment budgets don't support strong online efforts
Match that 57% answer with another from the 2008 survey: 67% of private colleges and universities reported spending less than $25,000 of their student recruitment budgets for online activities, as did almost 47% of 4-year public institutions.
Recommendation: read through the Noel-Levitz reports with your online budget and your online capability sheet close at hand. How well does your resource allocation match what future students want to do online?
That 57% figure reported above isn't going down anytime soon.
]]>
He did that again in early June with "Writing Style for Print vs. Web," where he repeats the still often ignored advice that people who come to websites are focused on taking specfic actions, with a low tolerance for anything that keeps that from happening.
On college and university websites, the "blockers" often include the following:
In this Alertbox, Nielsen adds another good example of text that works in print but won't work on the web. The print example is "Coping with the Tall Traveler's Curse." To see his recommended change for the web, visit the Alertbox column at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html
To elevate the presentation of your web content, bring my "Writing Right for the Web" seminar to your campus. Contact me now at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting to schedule a session for September or October.
]]>Check all 39 entries at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/07/15_presidents_who_blog_saint_v.html
Our three new presidents who blog are a mix of old and new:
The continued increase in presidents who blog is exciting. It represents an important leadership commitment to bring a more human element to online communications. While some PR people and lawyers may still get shivers about this, no evil has come from it yet. I'll look forward to posting more new additions as more presidents start to blog.
With just 30 minutes to boarding my flight, that's it for now.
]]>No, the new iPhone by itself doesn't herald the much anticipated break out of mobile marketing on smartphones throughout the land. But it certainly moves things in the right direction, starting with a much lower entry price point of $199. That's a critical change.
Mobile Marketing Barriers
What's been holding back mobile marketing? The price of the phone, the price of the data plan needed to take advantage of the capabilities, and the learning curve for the new capabilities. And, of course, the limited ability of relatively small smartphone screens to display most types of online advertising. The iPhone doesn't remove all those barriers, but it keeps things moving in the right direction.
Change is coming. And the first step is just getting smartphones in the hands of more people. Today, something like 20 percent of people in the U.S. have them. That's not nearly enough for a significant advance in mobile marketing. But that market penetration percent will continue to climb.
Details about the new iPhone capabilities are at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2008-06-09-iphone_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
New Challenge for Google
And for an interesting article on the new challenges facing Google from smartphone expansion, see "Are Google, Yahoo the next dinosaurs" at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-06-09-mobile-search_N.htm
One thing we can count on. Web marketing 5 years from now will be a much different game.
]]>REACh's Scott Pfeiffer and Tim Panfil asked for an ambitious program: cover 8 online communication topics in 2 back-to-back sessions of about 75 minutes each. The major challenge: compress some topics that I cover in 2 to 3 hour sessions into just a few key points to take back home. Since it is easier to let presentations grow than to shrink them, that was an interesting and useful exercise.
To start the day, I asked the people present to vote on which of the 8 topics we were covering were most important to them, the proverbial "if you could only pick one of these, which would it be?" question. These are topics (in the order covered) and the votes for each:
I was a bit surprised and very pleased by the size of the Web Writing vote compared to the others. And just as pleased to see that the "old favorites" of Blogs, Email, Chat Rooms retain strong interest at a time when it is easy to be dazzled by new capabilities at the expense of "traditional" online communication that is still in favor with the people who use college and univesity websites.
3 New On-Campus Web Writing Seminars
"Writing Right for the Web" continues to be a popular presentation. Between now and early August I'll be doing on-campus sessions at Fielding Graduate University, Stonehill College, and Dominican University. And look for another web conference with Academic Impressions in October and a CASE V Annual Conference session in December in Chicago.
Whether you start on-campus or online, improving the quality of your web writing is often the most important thing you can do for stronger engagement with your visitors. Ask me about a session on your campus at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
Subscribe to Website Magazine
On a related note, if you have never checked Website Magazine, do that soon. Each issue includes worthy articles on more than one of the topics listed above. The current issue is at www.websitemagazine.com where you can subscribe to either a print or an electronic version. Or both.
That's it for now.
]]>
It would be nice if that were true. But alas, you don't have nearly that long to capture initial attention and get someone to stay on a website page. In my "Writing Right for the Web" workshops, I often say 2 to 5 seconds is the limit. That's from my direct marketing background and it is closer to reality than 30 seconds.
10 Seconds at the Most!
Also waiting for me when I returned was the May issue of Website Magazine. Taking a quick first look, I noticed an article on "The First 10 Seconds." And that's probably a good compromise. Personally, I'd still err on the side of thinking you really have to make an almost instant connection in the time it takes someone to first run their eyes over your page. That scan is very quick indeed.
Subscribe to Website Magazine
A subscription to the print copy of the magazine is free at http://www.websitemagazine.com/ and you can also read the "10 second" article online when you visit even if you don't subscribe.
Highly recommended.
]]>Since I'm always in favor of moving forward, I visited followed the link to http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_8_sure_fire_hires.html and scanned the list of growing employment areas. Pretty standard stuff. Along with the story "reporting" the list comes a plethora of advertising opportunities for colleges and universities of every type. Hundreds of them.
You can sort by the level of degree or the area of study. But if you're interested in a "doctoral" program, don't expect to have only those advanced fields reported back to you. Whoever programmed this thing really does follow the mantra of "just keep throwing things at people until something sticks."
I tried sorting the alpha list for on-campus programs by zip code, using one from Michigan. That did sort things out to the point where the first programs reported were indeed in or near the zip code. But the list kept right on going, reporting non-degree occupational programs in locations as far as 2,000 miles away.
Does advertising like this work? It all depends on ROI. Cost of leads returned and percent who convert to enrollments. But it sure isn't a direct marketer's idea of how to do things.
]]>At Coastal Carolina University, President David DeCenzo's blog certainly is one that does not shrink from presenting the results of financial and administrative audits that have recommended significant changes at the institution. DeCenzo asks for comments and gets them... 22, for instance, in January in response to a posting on the report from an accounting firm auditing financial practices at the school. In February, 29 comments were received in response to a post on a realignment of the university budget approved by the trustees. And the president responds to comments so there is indeed a dialogue taking place in full public view.
"Dave's Blog" started in January 2008, with limited postings since then: one in February and two in May. Read the postings and the comments at http://www.coastal.edu/president/blog/
Today's new addition brings the total list of college and university presidents who blog to 36 people listed at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2007/07/15_presidents_who_blog_saint_v.html
Lurking somewhere in my not-so-new email is at least one more to add to this list. I'll ferret that out and get it up soon.
]]>We always say we know this. We don't always act like it when we plan to recraft our websites.
A 2005 column reporting the 10 most serious website design mistakes ends with a reminder that's as true now and it was three years ago:
Back to Basics in Web Design http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html
]]>"There's much talk about new fancy "Web 2.0" features on the Internet industry's mailing lists and websites, as well as at conferences. But users don't care about technology and don't especially want new features. They just want quality improvements in the basics:
- text they can read;
- content that answers their questions;
- navigation and search that help them find what they want;
- short and simple forms (streamlined registration, checkout, and other workflow); and
- no bugs, typos, or corrupted data; no linkrot; no outdated content.
Anytime you feel tempted to add a new feature or advanced technology to your site, first consider whether you would get a higher ROI by spending the resources on polishing the quality of what you already have. Most companies, e-commerce sites, government agencies, and non-profit organizations would contribute more to their website's business goals with better headlines than with any new technology (aside from a better search engine, of course)."
In addition to the job description, Susan reports that the specific responsibilities for the postion are still evolving. She works with another web person whose primary responsibility is on the technical side, although Susan has some technical experience as well. That seems a strong combination.
Here are some details for this Web Content Editor spot.
Susan's title and college are now part of the master list of similar positions at http://bobjohnsonconsulting.com/blog1/2006/08/post.html That list started in August 2006 and has been growing nicely since then.
]]>
The April newsletter featured an Alertbox column by web usability champion Jakob Nielsen: "Right Justification Menus Impede Scannability." He used three university examples to make his point:
The Alertbox column is at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/navigation-menu-alignment.html
What's unusual is the rapid response Nielsen received from the University of Michigan. Nielsen sent the Alertbox on April 28 and by the time I sent my newsletter on April 30, the Michigan people had already corrected their website and removed the right justification.
Nielsen notes that in the total array of things to fix on websites, the menu justification issue isn't the most important one. And while that's true, every little fix helps make things better for those who visit college and university websites. And so special congratulations to the University of Michigan people who moved so quickly to make this change.
The Michigan folk also took the opportunity to fix two other problem areas: the use of hard-to-read ALL CAP LETTERS in the menu and the low contrast colors used in the original. It is indeed much easier to read in the new format.
]]>
And much if not most of this is tightly targeted to people searching for the right career. After all, "career advancement" is one of the strongest terms that students of every age favor in our Customer Carewords research.
Consider this example. Yahoo runs a "news" story on the front page about the "10 stealth careers that are on the rise." That's a fly trap to lure people into a plethora of ads for adult degree programs. Visit http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_10_great_careers_you_never_heard.html and you'll find a story on "10 Great Careers You've Probably Never Heard Of" and the chance to browse for degrees in just about any area you can imagine.
But why quibble? If you throw enough ads on the wall, some of them will stick and attract flys. At least that seems to be the theory at work right now for online advertising for adults.
To sharpen your skills in adult student recruiting, come to Carol Aslanian's conference May 29-30 in Chicago on "Adult Student Marketing: Electronic, Mass Media and Print Practices that Work."
Now I've just finished reading a blog post by "collegewebguy" about what you can do to increase the chances that online news services by Google and Yahoo might pick up your own releases. And that involves more steps to create a distinctive identity for each release that's put online.
The post includes the important note that should motivate many people: well over half the population aged 18-29 looks online as their first source for news. And that percent is climbing for people between 30 and 64 as well. These days, if you aren't careful when you take Newsweek or Time out of your mailbox, a light breeze will blow it away. That's called "disappearing ad pages" and it has been happening for years now.
You'll find valuable tips on how to maximize your releases for Google and Yahoo at http://collegewebguy.com/2008/04/01/getting-university-news-picked-up-by-google-news/#comment-610 and you can go on from there to delve deeper at the original sources if you want.
"CollegeWebGuy" is a web designer at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
]]>
A visit to AdAge this morning linked me to an April 14 article at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=126364 with a title that will scare some people: "It's Web 3.0 and Somebody Else's Content is King."
The scary part of this for traditional communication and public relations plans is that the "aggregation" efforts won't be limited to "just" formal websites. Instead, they will pull content about a particular topic from any place on the web that somebody is creating it. For colleges and universities, that means that it will become even more likely that when people search for something at your school, what comes back will include a Rate My Professors site, a Wikipedia entry, videos on YouTube about your MBA program, and blogs that people write about you.
Even more so than today (when Wikipedia, for instance, is almost always returned by a Google search not far below your official site), you won't be able to control the content that people see about your institution. What's on your own website will become less and less important, especially in the early stages when people explore to build a list of possible "best fit" places to study. You can continue to describe your faculty as if they have sprung forth from Lake Wobegon, but people will pay even less attention to the superlatives than they do now after they've reviewed your Rate My Professors list.
Will "aggregation" services indeed successful in the Web 3.0 world? Various people are busy diasagreeing about that now. But you can be sure that movement toward continued collapse of the Internet walls that separate sources of information will continue.
Two other places are worth a visit if the this topic interests you:
Will individual college and university websites remain important? Yes. But their value as an early marketing tool will diminish in Web 3.0. People will visit your sites in the future because they have already put you high on their list of possible places to enroll. The experience they have on your website at that point, and how it compares to your competition, will play a major role in sustaining or diminishing initial interest levels. Two elements will rise in importance:
Enough for now. More later. A great weekend to everyone.
]]>