Kelly Cutler, CEO of Marcel Media

1. Full-service online + interactive marketing firm
Teaming up to Create a Winning
Online Marketing Program
Presented to:
eduWEB Conference 2010
8/2/2010

2. Agenda
• About Marcel Media
1
• Teaming up with an agency
2
• Assumptions
3
• Solutions
4
• DePaul University Case Study
5
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3. About Marcel Media
Founded in 2003, Marcel Media is an award-winning, interactive
advisory firm providing customized online and search marketing
solutions.
Services Highlights
• Search Engine Optimization • 2009 Inc. 5000 Ranking - 929
• Paid Search overall, 38th in Chicago, 84th
• Web Development nationwide for ad companies
• Social Media Marketing • Firm with the most Google
• Web Analytics Partner certifications in IL
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4. Teaming up with an agency
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5. Advertising Agencies vs. Specialty Agencies
• An integrated approach
Advertising Agencies
• Unite digital and print
• Strategic approach
Specialty Agencies • Focus on a specific
medium
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6. Questions from University Stakeholders
• What kind of results can be expected from web marketing?
• How is the online space valuable in terms of what we are trying
to achieve?
• What are the most important metrics?
• Where do we start?
• What kind of communication/reporting can we expect?
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7. Assumptions
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8. Assumptions
Students will find their way to our school’s website anyway:
• Why wait and take a chance that they won’t?
• Strong optimization aids in discovery.
We already have a PPC campaign, that’s all we need:
• One of the biggest misconceptions in the industry: PPC=SEO.
• Google sponsored links only get a fraction of the attention of
the first five organic results.
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9. SEM 101: Organic Search vs. Paid Search
Organic Search Paid Search
• Increase rank in natural results • Instant results
• Long-term strategy, long lasting results • Pay-per-click model
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10. Solutions
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11. Identify Opportunities - Start Small
Not all types of marketing work for everyone.
Start with a small piece of the marketing pie.
Experiment and test… a lot.
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12. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a marketing opportunity designed to help businesses grow
awareness, traffic and sales on the Internet through natural
placement on search engines.
Onpage Offpage
Optimization Optimization
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13. SEO Onpage Optimization
Page Title
• The Page Title should employ the keyword term/phrase as the
first word(s).
• 70 characters displayed in Google search results
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14. SEO Onpage Optimization
H1 Headline
• H1 tags are an index of web page content for search engines,
and describe sections of a web page.
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15. Local Search
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16. Reputation Management
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17. Social Media
Benefits:
• Effective online reputation management
• Creating a platform for feedback/discussion
• Leveraging content on niche and popular social sites
• Student engagement
• University awareness and interest
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18. Facebook
More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories,
blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month. Colleges
and universities are using Facebook to interact and recruit current
students and alumni.
Usage
• 400 million users
• 8 million high school students
• 3.5 million college students
• 85% market share of 4-year U.S. universities
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19. Twitter
Every school in the “Top 100 Colleges” has a Twitter account and a
high number of followers was generally correlated with an
extremely strong academic reputation or extremely large student
body.
Usage
• 105 million users
• 30,000 new users every day
• 50 million tweets published every day
• 600 tweets per second
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20. YouTube
YouTube allows access to lectures by professors and campus tours.
Content from 300 colleges and universities spanning 10 countries
and 7 languages with 65,000 videos including 350 full courses are
also available on the network.
Usage
• 2 billion videos are watched every day
• 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute
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21. LinkedIn
College students and alumni utilize LinkedIn to contact mentors,
alumni, search for jobs and internships, join college groups,
alumni and professional associations.
Usage
• 60 million members
• 95% College educated
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22. Google Analytics
Tying it all together…
• Target your audience based on a geography and demographics
• Optimize online search campaigns
• Track Key Performance Indicators (KPI’S)
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23. DePaul University Case Study
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24. Challenge
Accommodating erratic traffic patterns due to enrollment cycle
seasonality
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25. Graduate Overall Decision Timeline
Active Recruitment Window: between 5 and 11
months
-3 years to - 9 to -3 +0 to +30 to
0 30 days 60 days
-9 months months
25
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26. Decision Information
Independent
Research / Vetting
Organic
Search
Paid Organic search
Search results produce a
trusted source
arrived at
independently
Un-trusted Trusted
Source Source
Pay Per
Lead
Believe the ads
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27. Why SEO Matters for DePaul
Pain points
• Long “purchase” cycle lends itself to organic search
• New and relatively unknown programs need exposure
• Pay per lead = not working
• Compliments Search advertising
• Compliments Social Media efforts
• Creating a highly usable, effective website
• Positioning website for long-term success
• Maximized trust and authority as a higher learning institution
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28. SEO Strategy
Benefits
• New and relatively unknown programs
• Compliment Search advertising
• Compliment our Social Media efforts
• Enhance onsite user experience
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29. Goals
• Lead Generation
• Brand Awareness/Program Awareness
• Maximizing long-tail exposure targeting graduate programs
• Solidifying online marketing strategy
• Increase visibility on Google for non-branded keywords
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30. Process for Implementing Strategy
Start with Focus on key Access areas
graduate growth Optimization of
population programs opportunity
30
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31. Organic Traffic Overview
Key Insights
• Organic traffic has increased by 42% year over year in June
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32. Organic Traffic: Top Non-Branded Keywords
Key Insights
• Keyword universe
expanded by 171%
• Non branded traffic
increased by 4%
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33. Focus Area 1st Page Rankings
Keyword Rank
depaul kellstadt 1
depaul mba 1
masters marketing degree chicago 1
chicago master degree of accounting 2
chicago master degree of finance 2
chicago mba 3
chicago mba programs 3
mba chicago 4
mba programs in chicago 5
mba university 10
finance mba 10
June 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010
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34. Results: Non-Branded Organic Visibility
Phrases that have proven successful, as they are visible in Google’s
Top 10 results*:
• MS Computational Finance
• MFA Digital Cinema
• Master Network Security
• MS in Business Information Technology
Optimizing non-branded terms (those not containing DePaul) allows
prospective students to find information they are seeking even if
they are unaware of DePaul’s programs.
*Note that these phrases do not include “DePaul” or “ CDM”.
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35. Results: Non-Branded Organic Visibility
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36. Results: Social Presence
Facebook fan pages have also been created for CDM and Kellstadt,
which serve as peer networks for current and prospective
students.
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37. Results: Enhanced Quality and Relevance
Website optimization has helped DePaul CDM provide an enhanced
user-experience: a decreased number of prospective students are
requesting information going straight through to the application.
Detailed
Submit
landing
application
page
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38. Key Takeaways
• Use analytics to make smart decisions.
• Utilize online strategies to maximize enrollment and strong
branding.
• Incorporate social media into your overall strategy.
• Help senior managers see value of integrating the web to overall
business objectives.
• The site will always be a “work in progress”.
“An ounce of data is worth a pound of opinion”
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39. Thank you!
Kelly Cutler
312.280.1974
kelly@marcelmedia.com
Questions?
Prepared by Marcel Media www.marcelmedia.com
445 West Erie, Suite 211 t. 312.255.8044
Chicago, Illinois 60654 f. 866.643.7506
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