Drive Your ROI: Tech Solutions for High-Converting Digital Marketing for Universities

Now, more than ever, every click and impression carries significant weight. In this environment, a good marketing strategy for universities is not just about intelligently allocating the budget; it’s also about demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) for each expenditure, allowing for further optimization.

As educational institutions vie for attention and enrollment numbers, the strategic implementation and tracking of digital marketing tactics has become paramount.

While most marketers understand the value of doing marketing technologies, many have struggled to implement them. During a March 2023 survey among marketers worldwide, 53% of respondents identified the high cost of technologies used in digital marketing as the biggest issue. Additionally, 28% of marketers highlighted the complexity of deploying these technologies, while 25% cited a lack of integration across tools and technology as a significant challenge.

This article is your guide to navigating the complexities of digital marketing strategies for universities in particular. As a creative agency partnering with top universities such as UCSF and Columbia University, we’ll explore which tech-enabled strategies will be most effective in bolstering your institution’s brand positioning and also serve as powerful tools for proving and enhancing your department’s return on investment (ROI).

1. Decide What Matters & Start Tracking It

Before delving into data analytics, universities must first decide which metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are most relevant to their marketing objectives. This involves identifying specific goals, such as increasing enrollment numbers, boosting engagement with alumni, or promoting specific programs, and determining which specific metrics align with these objectives.

By clearly defining what matters most to the university’s marketing efforts, marketers can ensure that their data analytics efforts are focused and aligned with the other departments’ goals, providing actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making.

In addition to deciding what metrics to track, data analytics also enable universities to set benchmarks and goals for future campaigns. This simply means knowing what success looks like instead of just aiming for ‘more’. By establishing benchmarks based on historical data and industry standards, universities can track progress over time and measure the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives against predefined goals. This iterative approach allows for continuous improvement and optimization, ensuring that university marketing efforts are effective and impactful in achieving organizational objectives and don’t overspend on areas that don’t provide that much more value compared to the effort they require.

Potential Pitfall to Watch Out For: A potential pitfall in quantifying impact with data analytics are what we call blind spots. This happens when the marketing department may overlook crucial aspects that should be tracked but aren’t immediately apparent; for example, everyone knows that the amount of visitors to landing pages should be tracked, but metrics such as scroll depth might be forgotten.

To mitigate the risk of blind spots, universities can either invest in marketing training to enhance internal expertise or simply spend scheduled time away from the project and return with fresh eyes. Perhaps more fruitfully, universities might also enlist the specialized insights of a marketing agency.

Additionally, regular reviews of data collection methods and validation of analysis techniques are essential to ensure accuracy and reliability. Seeking outside expert insights, such as from specialized agencies, can also provide valuable perspectives and identify overlooked metrics or areas for improvement. Collaborating with external partners offers fresh viewpoints and access to industry best practices, enhancing the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of data analytics efforts.

2. Integrate Marketing Technology with Your University Website

Your university’s website serves as the frontline of its online presence, acting as a pivotal touchpoint for prospective students, alumni, and stakeholders. By integrating marketing technology with the university website, institutions can not only enhance their online presence but also gain valuable insights into their audience’s behavior and preferences.

Marketing technology integration with your website revolutionizes impact measurement by providing a comprehensive view of website performance. Tools like Google Analytics offer granular data on website traffic, user engagement, and conversion rates, enabling marketers to track the effectiveness of their online initiatives in real-time.

This wealth of data empowers universities to make informed decisions, optimize their digital strategies, and allocate resources more effectively.

Our recent research revealed that there is a diverse range of website platforms utilized within the education sector. Finalsite holds a dominant position with 34% adoption, followed by Blackbaud and WordPress at 21% and 19% respectively. Additionally, 16% of respondents reported using various other platforms. Despite this diversity, modern martech solutions are designed to seamlessly integrate with any of these platforms, ensuring universities can effectively leverage technology to enhance their marketing strategies regardless of their current choice.

Specific techniques for integrating marketing technology with your website include implementing tracking codes to monitor user behavior and track interactions, setting up conversion goals to measure the success of specific actions such as application form submissions, and utilizing event tracking to capture and analyze user engagement with specific elements or features of the website.

You may also track scroll depth to gain insights into user engagement with your content. Click heatmaps provide visualizations of user behavior, highlighting areas of interest and interaction. Understanding exit intent can help identify potential barriers to conversion, allowing for targeted optimization efforts. Implementing A/B testing enables experimentation with different website variations to determine which resonates best with your audience.

Session recordings offer a granular view of individual user interactions, facilitating a deeper understanding of user behavior and preferences on your website. Additionally, integrating customer relationship management (CRM) systems with the website allows universities to track and analyze user interactions across multiple touchpoints, providing a holistic view of the customer journey. The possibilities are endless, and it’s easy to imagine how a well-implemented tracking strategy can completely transform your department’s ROI.

Potential Pitfall to Watch Out For: One word of caution: collecting more data does not directly equate to more success. A potential pitfall of integrating marketing technology with the university website is the risk of collecting an overwhelming amount of data, much of which may be irrelevant or redundant.

Without a strategy, universities may find themselves inundated with a deluge of metrics and insights, making it challenging to discern meaningful patterns or actionable insights..

The solution is simple, yet complex to apply. In addition to deciding what to track (as discussed in step #1), universities must also carefully consider how to analyze and utilize the data collected, and how the different datasets interact with each other to create insights. This involves establishing clear processes for data management, analysis, and interpretation to ensure that insights are derived effectively and accurately.

3. Create Data-Driven Marketing Campaigns

The ability to optimize campaigns is crucial to developing a healthy marketing strategy for university success. With a solid tracking strategy in place on your website, this will be made much easier; leveraging marketing technology offers universities a distinct advantage by enabling data-driven decision-making throughout the campaign lifecycle. By harnessing the power of data analytics tools and platforms, universities can gain valuable insights into their target audience’s behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns and tweak their campaigns for maximum effectiveness. This allows for the development of highly targeted and personalized campaigns.

By leveraging marketing technology, institutions can move beyond traditional demographic segmentation in marketing campaigns to employ more sophisticated audience segmentation strategies.

While focused on quantitative data, our recent research reveals that universities are also rigorous in obtaining qualitative data. We’ve found that 35% of schools conduct periodic MarCom surveys, with an additional 21% conducting them annually. These surveys provide invaluable feedback on marketing efforts and community engagement, underscoring the fact that much of the education sector understands the significance of staying connected to how actual audiences receive their marketing communications. This highlights the necessity for more universities to adopt such practices to remain competitive in the evolving landscape of higher education marketing.

Potential Pitfall to Watch Out For: One potential pitfall to watch out for when leveraging marketing technology in university campaigns is over-reliance on data without considering the human element. While data-driven decision-making is crucial for campaign optimization, it’s essential to remember that data alone cannot capture the full complexity of human behavior and emotions.

Relying solely on data may lead to campaigns that feel impersonal or lack the emotional resonance needed to truly connect with the audience.

To mitigate this risk, universities should strive for a balance between data-driven insights and human-centric storytelling in their campaigns. This involves leveraging data to inform creative decisions and targeting strategies while also prioritizing authenticity, empathy, and meaningful engagement with the audience. By taking a holistic approach that integrates both data-driven analysis and human-centric storytelling, universities can create campaigns that resonate deeply with their target audience and drive long-term brand success.

Future-Forward Marketing for Universities is Easier With a Strong Partner

MarTech is evolving. Recent research has revealed promising advancements in the future of digital marketing technology for universities. The study indicates that 15% of marketing professionals have plans to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automation into their strategies, showcasing a growing interest in leveraging AI-driven solutions to streamline processes and enhance efficiency. Furthermore, a substantial 33% of respondents are looking to integrate predictive data and analytics into their marketing efforts, indicating a shift towards more data-driven and predictive approaches to decision-making.

Embracing digital marketing and marketing technology now and in the future is no longer an option but a necessity for universities striving to demonstrate and increase their impact–as well as keep up.

By integrating technology into their marketing strategies, universities can unlock new avenues for success. However, navigating the complex landscape of digital marketing and data analytics requires expertise and resources that may not always be readily available within the university itself. This is where partnering with a specialized marketing agency can make all the difference.

A strong partner brings not only technical proficiency but also industry insights, creative strategies, and a collaborative approach tailored to the unique needs and objectives of the university. Together, universities and their marketing partners can harness the power of technology to reach new heights of success through digital marketing for universities, engaging their audience effectively, and achieving their goals in today’s competitive academic landscape.

With Oak Theory’s expertise in the higher education sector, demonstrated by successful collaborations with prestigious institutions like UCSF, Vanderbilt University and Columbia University, we’ve honed our ability to drive engagement and enrollment. By providing innovative UX/UI design services and strategic marketing support, our services can help universities leverage marketing technology seamlessly to achieve their goals. Additionally, our ongoing support and maintenance services ensure that your university’s website remains up-to-date and optimized for performance, maximizing the impact of your digital marketing efforts. If you’d like to discover more about how we can support your marketing strategy, please get in touch with us today.