Measuring Success

Amy Luethmers, Director of University Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Luethmers recently joined the Stout team and is currently charged with leading the research, development, and tracking of university-wide branding and marketing initiatives.

Prior to working for UW-Stout, Amy worked as a Marketing Specialist at UW-River Falls for three years, and also ran her own marketing consulting agency for 17 years in which her team provided a wide variety of marketing services ranging from marketing analysis, plan development, and SEM, as well as creative services for print and web initiatives.

Amy is a graduate of UW-River Falls, where she received a B.S. Degree in Business Communications and is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Business Administration at UWRF as well.

Transcript

1. Amy Luethmers Director of University Marketing, UW-Stout
3. John Wanamaker (1838 –1922) United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a "pioneer in marketing.” “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”
4. • Marketing • Communications • Admissions • Web • Research Who is Accountable? • Management
5. The role of marketing is often very broad. It can encompass a range of activities, some that directly drive revenue, and others that make a very intangible contribution. Measuring success of these more intangible activities in particular is a very integrated process. This is why this is perfect topic for an integrated marketing conference.
6. Billboard Direct Mail Campus Visit Radio PPC Ad College Fair Web Press Release TV Magazine Word of Mouth Mobile Virtual Tour
7. Magic Silver Bullet?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r7eP4Ju4wM
8. BI Dashboard Pulls together and analyzes all your data in one place and allows you to share it easily with others. • Social Media • Google Alerts • Clipping Services • Admissions CRM • Web Analytics • Any third-party program that produces a data base or has analytics of its own
9. Bad news… Good news…No quick solution. Inexpensive tools and techniques.
10. MARKET BRAND RECRUIT CONVERT > Surveys, Focus Groups, Web Analytics, “Buzz” > Clicks, Responses, Leads > Applicants > Enrollments
11. MARKET BRAND RECRUIT CONVERT
12. BRAND • Hardest (if not impossible at times) layer of the funnel to track and has the lowest ROI. • Why so important? - Branding separates competitors and makes consumers remember a product. - Good higher ed branding can increase the value of a university, provide staff with direction, and makes acquiring new students easier.
13. BRAND • Make sure your campus understands the value of branding upfront. You’ll fight less battles later about how funds were spent. • Do your research upfront. Make sure the message you are trying to convey about your brand is the right message. It can take up 5 years for a brand to start to take hold. Don’t waste time sending the wrong message or changing course too often.
14. BRAND • Year-over-year improvement in applications. • Improved customer perception. - Surveys, focus groups, web analytics. - Increase in “Buzz” (Traditional media citations, social media.) Remember: At this level we are NOT measuring conversions or even leads, just perception. • Report the measurements you can.
15. Q: How many applicants does this form of advertising create?
16. A: About as many customers as this one converts. Directly, most likely… zero.
17. Measuring feedback…
18. …can help protect your brand.
19. Quantitative Metrics: These are the metrics that are data-intensive and number-oriented. Qualitative Metrics: These are the metrics that have an emotional component to them.
20. Typical Branding Measurement Tools
21. We often generate “buzz” with tactics like press releases and social media to help us brand ourselves… but we can also use buzz to help measure our branding efforts.
22. Measuring “Buzz” Google alerts, clipping services, and social media.
23. Minimal Measuring/Tracking of “Buzz” Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, Hootsuite, FB Insights, etc. Are you tracking/sharing this data?
24. • Klout is a previously controversial measurement tool that has matured due to its partnership with Bing. • Launched beta version of Klout for Business in March. • Anyone with a business Facebook and Twitter account can apply for a free account. • Links together all your social media accounts. • Includes 5 main areas: Home, Insights, Perks, Profiles, Pulse.
25. • Measures events called “moments” that can assist with determining the scope of your influence across multiple platforms, what interactions matter the most to your audience, and who is in your audience. • Can help measure and evaluate the scope and acceptance of your brand messaging.
26. • In addition to shortening a URL, you can set up a free bit.ly account to help track the # of times a URL has been clicked. • Great for tracking QR codes. • Find out what is popular with your audience or how well perceived your brand is.
27. • Linktally.com reports how often a link is shared across various platforms. • Particularly nice for tracking how often unique URLs are shared via main social media channels if used in a branding campaign.
28. MARKET BRAND RECRUIT CONVERT
29. MARKET RECRUIT CONVERT Recruiting & Marketing Alignment Collaboration Cooperation = Peak Performance +
31. • Good implementation represents the ideal model of a strategy of synergizing the marketing and recruiting partnership.
32. Drive leads down the funnel with targeted information and a specific CTA. MARKET BRAND RECRUIT CONVERT Ad Landing Page CRM Admissions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbtf1oyNg-8
33. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sk7cOqB9Dk&list=RD02cbtf1oyNg-8
34. Can be utilized in combination with a variety of campaign initiatives. Print Ads Banner Ads Google Ads FB Ads
35. Provide exceptional analytics.
36. Takeaways… - The availability of data means the pressure is higher than ever for marketers to report results. - The key to being able to accurately measure and report these results is making sure you have all the data you need available to you from multiple areas across your institution, and that you understand and properly convey the kind of data you can report each stage of the “funnel” to the evaluators of your efforts. - With the introduction of BI, the means and levels of measurement are rapidly changing.
37. Let’s talk. luethmersa@uwstout.edu