Live Blogging: Eye on the Prize-Implementing Technology w/ an Eye on ROI

Live blogging Karlyn Morissette’s (@KarlynM) session

*Watch the presentation Video*

“ROI: the magic number will make you look like a golden god”

What’s the difference between marketing and communications:

• two way communication
• informative vs. persuasive
• two jobs/directors instead of one job
• MarketingProfs.com: “communications makes marketing tactics tangible”

Place to start out: set your goals – don’t pick the technology first

Steps of marketing:

1. set goals
   • the most important part of the marketing process
   • must relate back to the business goals of your institution
   • should be measurable
2. plan your communications
   • best way to articulate your message, such as “increase philanthropy”
   • what is message/segmentation, who is our audience, how do they want to be reached?
3. execute
4. assess your results
   • did you meet your goal?
   • did conversion result in return? staff hours vs. overall cost
   • what can I do better next time?

Calculate ROI:

• employee’s salary + 1/3 salary benefits = total salary
• totally salary/2080 = hourly wage
• hourly wage x # of staff hours = internal cost

Recommends book: Google Analytics 2.0 (Ledford & Tyler)

E-mail Marketing Example:

1. Step One: Set up a goal/funnel – can have up to 4 in Google Analytics at a time
2. Step Two: Build a campaign URL – Google Analytics URL builder
3. Step Three: Put the two together — after a couple of weeks, go back into Google Analytics & check out campaign names (Also checkout Kyle’s tool)

3,000 e-mails, 358 click throughs, resulting in 130 apps, e-mail took 2 hours to complete, $40/hr staff time and $0.015/per e-mail. How do you calculate worth of application? Dollarize everything. Assign a monetary value to your results to give you a common denominator to compare costs to outcomes. AssignValue: $20k/yr cost of tuition, 20% conversation rate from app to enroll = $4,000 “average profit per sale.” Plug in to ROI calculator –ROI = 415,900%

Share your success

• make it tangible, give it context, offer recommendations
• if you have good news, colleagues will be more apt to listen

Can’t give all of the credit to the original e-mail, but it is likely an important trigger.

Dirty little secret of e-marketing: Marketing on the Web is no different than marketing over any other medium. Also, there’s no play book – we’re making this up as we go along (and it’s ok!).

E-mail marketing: what it’s good for (transactional based):

• increases online applications
• register online for an event
• online donations
• starts a conversation

E-mail is NOT dead. E-mail addresses are essential to login to most programs, and are a pull into so many sites.

Facebook Ads – What are they good for?

• reach the exact audience you want – send very targeted content
• only pay for them if they’re clicked on (pay-per-click)
• Examples:
  • Lipscomb University used ads to tell students in the summer a new Starbucks was coming on campus – tremendous response
  • photo of hot girl in ad = tremendous response
• How to measure ROI:
  • use Google Analytics URL
  • use ROI calculator
• bid on ads: set your daily budget limit, and your max bid amount per click (0.59 – 0.72 is average)

Blogs: What are they good for

• provides authentic experience/stories
• provides opportunity for interaction with current students
• announcements & calls-to-action
• gain insight
• How to measure ROI?
  • conversion – have calls to action
  • readers – cost of advertising in a similar content channel
  • comments – cost of focus group (if it provides insight)
  • anecdotal: take it on a case-by-case basis
• Audience comment: administration has fear – trouble getting buy-in. Virtually every school runs into this issue. Show them what’s already being said in unofficial/other formats/venues. Remember 1% rule (only 1% of the people will take advantage of it in a negative way)

Social Networks: What are they good for?

• building a Ning network for deposit payers is one of the best things you can do – gives them a way to engage with each other and you, building relationships before they even step foot on the campus
• give alumni volunteers a way to interact and share tips
• How to measure ROI?
  • easy dissemination of information
  • ease “sugar off”
  • support alumni volunteers

Key takeaways

• start w/ bottom-line related goals, not w/ technology
• measure everything
• dollarize your results to calculate ROI
• always ask what you can do better next time