Does Higher Ed need Web Analytics?

           Still relatively new to the world of academia, I continue to be amazed at my previous misconceptions. I guess I anticipated cutting edge philosophies, independent thinkers, experts in fields, and real inspiration and yet hindered by the pace of beaurocracy, ideas and inspiration seem to be old news compared to what is being produced in industry. This is particularly evident in a rapidly changing industry such as marketing.

            While universities are scrambling to move from ‘product centric’ marketing to ‘customer centric’ marketing, industry is already shifting to ‘human centric’ marketing.  The State of Online Analytics in Higher Ed confirms that higher ed. behaves no differently when it comes to using web analytics to make marketing decisions.  Slow to react and engage higher ed. currently uses “web conversions centered around admissions inquiries and applications. Although universities and colleges use their websites to interact with and provide services to their constituents, 35 percent of the survey respondents indicated they didn't track any conversions at all. This shows there is still a big gap between the possibilities offered by online analytics in terms of data-driven marketing decisions and the current practices in higher education.” (Joly, 2010)

            This is particularly alarming considering the growth of online programs. A recent study released in January of this year, reports that 6.7 million students are taking at least one class online.  Wouldn’t it make sense then to shift resources to digital marketing to reach the consumers?  Particularly in an era when marketers are being pushed to show bottom line results, web analytics solves a number of concerns. Metrics are readily available to help marketers justify their digital marketing spend and provide invaluable insights as to consumer behavior on the website. Web analytics are well understood in the business world, but in the world of academia, the process and purpose are still a bit fuzzy. 

            Essentially, web analytics is the process of analyzing prospective student behavior on your website. Metrics can reflect how prospects are finding your site whether it be from another program website on campus, a Google search, typing in your address directly, or other source. Metrics also reveal how much time prospects spend looking at different pages and in what order they look at these pages. How many times a visitor comes to your website before they convert and what path they take to your CRM template is also helpful information to extract. Which pages repeatedly result in visitors leaving your site may reveal areas for improvement. Learning more about the prospective student, what information he is seeking, and his intent can guide marketing decisions with regards to content and placement on the website so as to better guide the site visitor to the ‘call to action’.  In this case, it may be “Apply here” or “”Request further information”. The ultimate goal is to guide prospects to conversion not just drive web traffic and web analytics provides the information to determine which features of the website are actually returning results. In the case of higher ed., some sample key performance indicators are reflected below.

Source: SEO Moz

Web analytics clearly has a place in the realm of higher ed. in translating marketing efforts to the bottom line. Insights gained can guide marketing decisions which ultimately result in increased student applications.

 

References:

Joly, K. (2010, September). The State of Online Analytics in Higher Ed. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from University Business: http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/state-online-analytics-higher-ed