Tactics can kill marketing strategy… a new example at SUNY Potsdam Let me confess to a marketing obsession… higher education marketing in the last few years has seen a explosion of “brand strategy” efforts in the belief that colleges and universities can “rebrand” themselves to solve marketing challenges and boost enrollment. I’ve no problem with […]
April. Rumor in Michigan is that spring has arrived. Still a bit of snow. Patience. The flowers are twitching. And the marketing continues. The cliché is true: you only have one chance to make a first impression. Introduce your colleagues to the benefits and techniques of “top task research” to create the best possible experience […]
12 Easy-to-Scan Task Topics Show the Power of Words at Mizzou Registrar’s Website Yes, you really don’t need opening images (or images of any sort) on a website page visited by people who just want a quick path to complete the task that brought them to the page. That’s especially true of internal pages for […]
19 Instagram Views Featured on Home Page = Market Research Treasure Trove You won’t lack for things to view on the elaborate Bates College home page. If you persist toward the end of the page you’ll find a collection of 19 Instagram visuals. And you can see the relative popularity of each one, measured by […]
MIT Offers Array of 20 Easy-to-Scan Video Channels You don’t have to look far to find reports of how popular video content is with Millennials (23 to 38 year olds who are the prime recruits for graduate and professional degrees and certificates). Just about every college and university has a YouTube channel. In design, the […]
March. Some of you are waiting for winter. The rest of us know that spring is coming. Sometime. Website speed, especially on mobile, is a key element in successful marketing. For examples of 8 truly rapid sites (and 3 quite slow ones) taken from 45 of my Link of the Week selections visit “8 Winners: […]
The Need for Website Speed… Importance Grows in 2019… 8 of 45 Higher Ed Sites are “Excellent” Now Website speed review from Unbounce… Many, perhaps most, potential students of every age first come into contact with a particular college or university by visiting the website. Visits often, but by means always, start at the home […]
Matching Landing Page with Advertisement: St. John’s University “Outcomes” Example St. John’s University was one of 4 universities that took full-page ads in the NY Times special “Learning” section of the 24 February Sunday paper. (Rensselaer, SUNY Albany, NYU School of Professional Studies were the others). The “Results That Speak for Themselves” ad is on […]
Strategy vs. Tactics… how a website can kill ROI for a mobile ad campaign Strategy is grand. Agencies love to sell it. Clients love to talk about it. Conferences love to feature it. And every marketing campaign indeed needs a good strategy. But a problem occurs when the tactics of implementing a strategy don’t receive […]
Notre Dame home page highlights series of top stories Many university home pages include a section, usually near the bottom of the page, with links to a few stories about the university. None that I’ve seen before make stories about the school the dominant content on the entire home page. No brand claims. No content […]
February. And yes, winter will change to spring. Believe. First step to a better website? Read Gerry McGovern’s new book: Top Tasks – a How-to Guide before you set content priorities. The first chapter is here. Updating your website in 2019? Find out what potential students like and dislike about your current site before making changes. Feedback in […]
Raikes School Combines video, key facts, and alumni ratings to make a strong first impression on potential students For most students searching about for a potential college learning about the academic program that interests them is a top task when they begin to visit college websites. Today’s Link of the Week example combines 3 elements […]