- 1. Web Analytics: A Guide for Higher Education Marketers Robert
E. Johnson, Ph.D. 2008 Adult Students: You Best Option for
Enrollment Growth The Aslanian Group Boston, MA November 29-30,
2008
2. Two approaches to web analytics
- (1) The beat reporter approach
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- Follow everything happening, all the time
- (2) The investigative reporter approach
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- Whats important to know? Why is that the case?
- The marketing director assigns the story.
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- Melissa
Burdon,http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/04/30/web-analytics-report/
- Select most important or need to know items from everything
thats possible.
3. Thanks for sharing experiences
- Notes and experiences shared by
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- Gabe Welsch, Assistant Vice President of Marketing
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- Rick Stutz, Coordinator of E-Communications
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- Carmella Manges, Director of E-marketing
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- Lori Croy, Director of Web Communications
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- Eric Palmer, Director of Web Services
4. Why use Google Analytics?
- Google's products are free, well-maintained, have a great
support base, and in this case specifically, way more robust and
easy to use than the other options out there.
- Google is easy to implement, easy to understand and easy to get
others to use because of the name recognition factor. Because the
name Google was attached to the analytics, people who received the
data also had an immediate trust factor that what was provided was
valid.
5. Problems with Google Analytics
- Concern over Googles access to your data.
- The service could go away at any point. Save your log files for
in-house analysis.
6. Key metrics recommended
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- We buck the myth that page views are a dead metric forkey
pagesthat feed our conversion funnel.
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- If you have a 3 minute video on a page, and users are spending
only 15 seconds on it, you might consider improving it.
- New visitors vs. repeat visitors
7. Google is determining key pages
8. Track interest in degree programs 9. Key metrics
recommended
- Response to a marketing activity
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- An email is sent out to admitted students encouraging them to
join a forum to talk to other admitted students. Did it generate
sign-ups? If so, what other pages did those users visit? Where did
they come from? How long did they spend on the forum, and more
importantly, what percentage of them posted?
10. Key metrics recommended
- Browser compatibility every 6 months
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- We are starting to notice more mobile browsers (iPhone,
blackberry, etc) so this is a trend to watch.It will require a
mobile web strategy eventually.
11. Major challenge to success
- Separating internal web traffic
- Learning curve to translate stats to practical recommendations
for admissions, alumni
- Getting departments across campus to adopt an analytics
program
- Good working relationship with IT staff
12. What does a marketer need to know? Google Analytics has 80+
programmed reports about website data More data than you need to
know 13. Do you need to know 47 screen resolutions? 14. Or 30
browser variations? 15. Marketing information from this page?
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA.shtml 16. Lets make a list
- Where did visitors come from?
17. Check points to startset goals
- Your web marketing goals might include
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- Taking an online campus tour
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- Completing an inquiry form
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- Registering for a campus program
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- Subscribing to a newsletter
18. Check point to start filter out internal use
- Data on internal use is always there.
- After you set the filter, youll never see it.
- Essential to get internal use out of your marketing
information.
19. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) 20. Percent visits by media
type
- Whats making people visit your website?
- How does this match with your marketing efforts?
21. Percent visits by source
- Results for Organic Search
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- Google dominates, more than among use in the general
population
- How important are other activities to bring people to your
website?
22. Percent of new vs. returning visitors
- Are your marketing efforts bringing new visitors to your
website?
- Where did the new visitors live?
23. Average time on your site
- Average time on site is 1.38 minutes
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- Depends on why they visited
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- These visits were to see Link of the Week page
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- Looked at one page and left
24. Average time by segments By source of the trafficBy search
keywords 25. Popularity of individual web pages
- What pages are visited most often?
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- How long do people stay on them?
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- Do they exit from these pages or move to other pages?
- Identify pages youd like people to visit that are being
ignored
26. Entry pages where people start Bounce rate is a key metric
here 27. Keyword marketing information
- If you advertise online, segment keywords to show the non-paid
results.
- Compare these to words you use in advertising.
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- Decide if you should change your paid search terms
28. What happens with your own search?
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- What are people looking for on your site?
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- What words do they use to find it?
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- Does your search give the right answer?
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- Are your Quick Links accurate?
29. Advice on starting an analytics program Get started - set up
a site and start to learn how to read the stats - stats are being
wasted for every day you don't try this out. 30. Getting up to
speed and staying there 31. A good place to start 32. A book and a
blog to continue 33. Keeping up to date ClickZMarketingProfs 34.
Glossary for reference 35. Thank You! Bob Johnson, Ph.D. President
and Senior Consultant Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 226 Chauncey
Court Marshall, MI 49068248.766.6425[email_address] Customer
Carewords Research for Online Marketing
Success:http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/customercarewords.html