This document discusses using data to set goals and measure performance for an inbound marketing strategy at a school. It outlines goals and key performance indicators for different stages of the buyer's journey - awareness, consideration, decision, and customer/evangelist. For each stage, it provides example content types and data points that could be used to assess goal achievement and drive continuous improvement. The document emphasizes asking deeper questions of the data to gain more insights and adapt strategies over time.
28. Inbound Marketing
Creating and sharing compelling, helpful content that caters to
your ideal audience and attracts them to your brand when they
are ready.
29. Inbound Marketing
Creating and sharing compelling, helpful content that caters to
your ideal audience and attracts them to your brand when they
are ready.
What is helpful content, anyway?
30. Inbound Marketing
Creating and sharing compelling, helpful content that caters to
your ideal audience and attracts them to your brand when they
are ready.
What is helpful content, anyway?
Blog posts, infographics, webinars, guides, events, emails, social media, case studies,
interviews
34. The Buyer’s Journey (school-specific)
Awareness
Buyer realizes they have
a problem or need.
Consideratio
n
Buyer researches
options to solve/fulfill
their problem or need.
36. The Buyer’s Journey (school-specific)
Awareness
Buyer realizes they have
a problem or need.
Consideratio
n
Buyer researches
options to solve/fulfill
their problem or need.
Decision
Buyer chooses a
solution.
38. The Buyer’s Journey (school-specific)
Awareness
Buyer realizes they have
a problem or need.
Consideratio
n
Buyer researches
options to solve/fulfill
their problem or need.
Decision
Buyer chooses a
solution.
Ideal Outcome: Customer/Evangelist
40. The Buyer’s Journey (school-specific)
Awareness
Buyer realizes they have
a problem or need.
Consideratio
n
Buyer researches
options to solve/fulfill
their problem or need.
Decision
Buyer chooses a
solution.
Ideal Outcome: Customer/Evangelist
42. Awareness
Content to Support Goals:
● Blog posts
● Press Releases
● Local event sponsorships
● Social Media
● Online advertisements
● Gated content
46. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
47. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
● Bounce rate
48. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
● Bounce rate
● Breakdown of visitor traffic
49. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
● Bounce rate
● Breakdown of visitor traffic
● Video Completion Rate
50. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
● Bounce rate
● Breakdown of visitor traffic
● Video Completion Rate
● Social Media Numbers
51. Awareness
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● # of blog subscribers
● Website traffic
● Time on site
● Bounce rate
● Breakdown of visitor traffic
● Video Completion Rate
● Social Media Numbers
● Keyword Position
53. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
54. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
● Even if your traffic was up…
○ How long were people on your site? How many pages did they visit? What is
the bounce rate?
55. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
● Even if your traffic was up…
○ How long were people on your site? How many pages did they visit? What is
the bounce rate?
● What is the completion rate of the videos on your site?
56. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
● Even if your traffic was up…
○ How long were people on your site? How many pages did they visit? What is
the bounce rate?
● What is the completion rate of the videos on your site?
● Is your online advertising working? Where should you invest more? Where should
you cut back?
57. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
● Even if your traffic was up…
○ How long were people on your site? How many pages did they visit? What is
the bounce rate?
● What is the completion rate of the videos on your site?
● Is your online advertising working? Where should you invest more? Where should
you cut back?
● Are you ranking for keywords that will help raise awareness of your website?
58. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Which social media content converted the most followers into website visitors?
● Even if your traffic was up…
○ How long were people on your site? How many pages did they visit? What is
the bounce rate?
● What is the completion rate of the videos on your site?
● Is your online advertising working? Where should you invest more? Where should
you cut back?
● Are you ranking for keywords that will help raise awareness of your website?
● Based on historic data, what are the monthly trends for website traffic?
64. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
65. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
○ Conversions on blog post Calls to Action
66. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
○ Conversions on blog post Calls to Action
● Number of new leads from gated content
67. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
○ Conversions on blog post Calls to Action
● Number of new leads from gated content
● Engagement with email workflows
68. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
○ Conversions on blog post Calls to Action
● Number of new leads from gated content
● Engagement with email workflows
● Video Completion Rate
69. Consideration
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Conversion rates
○ Conversions by source
○ Conversions from online ads
○ Conversions on blog post Calls to Action
● Number of new leads from gated content
● Engagement with email workflows
● Video Completion Rate
● Keyword Position
70. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
71. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
● What is the traffic from your ads getting you? Are these visitors actively engaged?
72. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
● What is the traffic from your ads getting you? Are these visitors actively engaged?
● Are your emails engaging? If not, what could you change?
73. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
● What is the traffic from your ads getting you? Are these visitors actively engaged?
● Are your emails engaging? If not, what could you change?
● How can you A/B test your content to see if you could be even more engaging?
74. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
● What is the traffic from your ads getting you? Are these visitors actively engaged?
● Are your emails engaging? If not, what could you change?
● How can you A/B test your content to see if you could be even more engaging?
● Which landing pages have the highest conversion rates?
75. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● Even if people are reading your blog posts, what action are they taking next?
● What is the traffic from your ads getting you? Are these visitors actively engaged?
● Are your emails engaging? If not, what could you change?
● How can you A/B test your content to see if you could be even more engaging?
● Which landing pages have the highest conversion rates?
● Are you ranking for effective keywords? How has this ranking changed over the
past year?
79. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
80. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
● Engagement with email workflows
81. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
● Engagement with email workflows
● Inquiries and applications
82. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
● Engagement with email workflows
● Inquiries and applications
○ Inquiry to application ratio
83. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
● Engagement with email workflows
● Inquiries and applications
○ Inquiry to application ratio
○ Application to enrollment ratio
84. Decision
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Number of school tours
● Number of Open House attendees
● Engagement with email workflows
● Inquiries and applications
○ Inquiry to application ratio
○ Application to enrollment ratio
● Lifecycle
85. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
86. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
● Are you using surveys to assess event performance? (Open Houses, tours)
87. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
● Are you using surveys to assess event performance? (Open Houses, tours)
● Are Open House attendees converting into applicants?
88. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
● Are you using surveys to assess event performance? (Open Houses, tours)
● Are Open House attendees converting into applicants?
● Have you looked at email interaction from last year and adapted your strategy?
89. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
● Are you using surveys to assess event performance? (Open Houses, tours)
● Are Open House attendees converting into applicants?
● Have you looked at email interaction from last year and adapted your strategy?
● Are you sharing helpful information with parents at this time when they need it the
most?
90. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● What’s more important to you - high number of inquiries or inquiry: enrollment ratio?
● Are you using surveys to assess event performance? (Open Houses, tours)
● Are Open House attendees converting into applicants?
● Have you looked at email interaction from last year and adapted your strategy?
● Are you sharing helpful information with parents at this time when they need it the
most?
○ Have you asked current parents which information is most helpful to share?
94. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
95. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
96. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
97. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
● % retention and attrition
98. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
● % retention and attrition
● Volunteer rate
99. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
● % retention and attrition
● Volunteer rate
● Alumni engagement
100. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
● % retention and attrition
● Volunteer rate
● Alumni engagement
● Engagement with ancillary programs
○ Summer Camp, after school programs
101. Customer/Evangelist
Data Points You Can Use to Assess Performance:
● Engagement with school-related blog posts
● Parent participation rate with financial giving
● Event attendance
● Email opens and click rates
● % retention and attrition
● Volunteer rate
● Alumni engagement
● Engagement with ancillary programs
○ Summer Camp, after school programs
● Video completion rate
102. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
103. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
104. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
105. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
● How are you measuring in-school event success? How are you adapting your
strategy year over year?
106. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
● How are you measuring in-school event success? How are you adapting your
strategy year over year?
● Which matters more - meeting the fundraising goal or raising parent
participation rate?
107. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
● How are you measuring in-school event success? How are you adapting your
strategy year over year?
● Which matters more - meeting the fundraising goal or raising parent
participation rate?
● If enrollment numbers are low for your ancillary programs…
108. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
● How are you measuring in-school event success? How are you adapting your
strategy year over year?
● Which matters more - meeting the fundraising goal or raising parent
participation rate?
● If enrollment numbers are low for your ancillary programs…
○ Is there even a need? Are you surveying your community? How were they
promoted? Did anything change year over year?
109. Dig Deeper: Questions to Ask
● How are families engaging with your online communications?
○ Are they more engaged with certain mediums over others?
○ Which content of yours are they sharing on social media?
● How are you measuring in-school event success? How are you adapting your
strategy year over year?
● Which matters more - meeting the fundraising goal or raising parent
participation rate?
● If enrollment numbers are low for your ancillary programs…
○ Is there even a need? Are you surveying your community? How were they
promoted? Did anything change year over year?
● Why are people leaving your school? How are you using this information to
inform your strategy?
110. Data Assessment is Ongoing
● Have conversations about data on a regular basis.
111. Data Assessment is Ongoing
● Have conversations about data on a regular basis.
● Involve your department, leadership and others around the school.
112. Data Assessment is Ongoing
● Have conversations about data on a regular basis.
● Involve your department, leadership and others around the school.
● Be proactive rather than reactive with the numbers.
113. Data Assessment is Ongoing
● Have conversations about data on a regular basis.
● Involve your department, leadership and others around the school.
● Be proactive rather than reactive with the numbers.
● Be prepared to change course when data tells you it’s time.
118. Don’t Fear the Data
Questions? Comments?
Email: smead@whitbyschool.org
Twitter: @meadsmead
Notes de l'éditeur
Packed my bags and headed east...2 hours east to
URI where I majored in marketing, minored in Spanish. I would be lying if I said this quad...
And these beaches didn’t have a major role in me choosing to make this move. The longer I stayed, the more I fell in love with this beautiful state.
After college I landed a job in the marketing department at Rhode Island Monthly Magazine. This -------
Over time, I was looking for a change……..
So after 8 years away from Connecticut...
Still true to our Montessori roots through Grade 2...
We have just evolved the program even further with the addition of the International Baccalaureate program from 18 months through Grade 8.
Upon arrival, I had the chance to redesign the website as well as the marketing strategy
As part of our school’s strategic plan, we are making a concerted effort to make more data-driven decisions. And at school I am surrounded by passionate educators. Those two elements combined are why I’m online today to talk to you about data.
Before we dive in, let’s clear the air. Because I’m not sure all of you even like data. I’m not sure I like data. It’s scary because it’s TRUE.
It’s scarier because of questions like this one. I would love to hear how many of you have felt the pressure of this question before. I have. So let’s talk through the reasons why data scares us sometimes.
Feeling of accountability vs ownership. And as I learned from the AISAP conference this summer from speaker Joe Tye, “You don’t have to hold feet to the fire if people are proud to walk across the coals on their own” - Joe Tye
When we hear that the numbers are down or something isn’t performing as well as it did a month ago, we take this as a direct reflection of our performance.
Many times we share numbers in presentations or in meetings with others from the organizations. Those around us can get fixated on that one negative number and they don’t have a bigger picture understanding of why that number is down. Sometimes, it might not even matter that the number they’re looking at is down because there is a reason for it.
In order to give context that means we ourselves need to be very knowledgeable about how data works, which numbers impact one another, which trends matter more than others, etc. If you haven’t been trained to work with data - or are not used to working in a place where your numbers are now being scrutinized - this can be very intimidating.
It takes an investment of time and effort to understand data. But the more we understand, the more we can help ourselves take ownership of our data and get comfortable continually assessing ourselves based on data. Once this happens you will have no problem explaining others in our organization understand big picture.
It takes an investment of time and effort to understand data. But the more we understand, the more we can help ourselves take ownership of our data and get comfortable continually assessing ourselves based on data. Once this happens you will have no problem explaining others in our organization understand big picture.
It takes an investment of time and effort to understand data. But the more we understand, the more we can help ourselves take ownership of our data and get comfortable continually assessing ourselves based on data. Once this happens you will have no problem explaining others in our organization understand big picture.
It takes an investment of time and effort to understand data. But the more we understand, the more we can help ourselves take ownership of our data and get comfortable continually assessing ourselves based on data. Once this happens you will have no problem explaining others in our organization understand big picture.
Goal setting with your data is the key first step to setting yourself up for success. Of course this will vary based on your data. These can be short term goals, long term goals, very specific goals.
Goal setting with your data is the key first step to setting yourself up for success. These can be short term goals, long term goals, very specific goals.
I don’t care how you keep yourself organized - if it’s google calendar reminders every week, sticky notes all over your desk or on the mirror at home, weekly meetings with your team. You need to find a way to constantly remember your goals. …….
What I want to do today is show you how inbound marketing can help guide your marketing and also inform the data-driven goal
As it relates to schools, helpful content should be designed to help answer your prospective parents’ questions and guide them to making a well-informed decision about choosing a school. You can help educate people through content such as ...
We’ll revisit this slide later on. Content is creating to help parents get from one stage to the next.
Share with a parent of a kindergarten student; encourage them to stay throughout the continuum before they’re even thinking about leaving
Share with a parent of a kindergarten student; encourage them to stay throughout the continuum before they’re even thinking about leaving
Content is created to help parents get from one stage to the next. I’m going to now walk you through high-level goals at each of these stages and what data you can use to assess how well you are reaching these goals.
In order to create a plan to assess yourself with data, you also need to know what kind of content you’ll be creating to help achieve these goals.
Gated content capture email addresses
Go deeper. Here are some ways to connect some of the data points or to use the data to inform future strategy.
Go deeper. Here are some ways to connect some of the data points or to use the data to inform future strategy.
Go deeper. Here are some ways to connect some of the data points or to use the data to inform future strategy.
Go deeper. Here are some ways to connect some of the data points or to use the data to inform future strategy.
Go deeper. Here are some ways to connect some of the data points or to use the data to inform future strategy.
Remember that you have a WEALTH of historic data. Make sure you are using this to your advantage. If the question “why are the numbers down” comes up in April, look back at the last few years and the whole year. I can almost guarantee for independent schools there will always be down months outside of the admissions cycle. It’s good to share this information with others in your organization so they understand historic patterns.
In order to create a plan to assess yourself with data, you also need to know what kind of content you’ll be creating to help achieve these goals.
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
In order to create a plan to assess yourself with data, you also need to know what kind of content you’ll be creating to help achieve these goals.
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
In order to create a plan to assess yourself with data, you also need to know what kind of content you’ll be creating to help achieve these goals.
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
Go deeper
If there are certain months that the numbers are down because July is naturally a less busy month than October, paint that picture for those around you. Use proof from past years.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. There’s no point in assessing your performance for the sake of it saying you’re doing it.
Think about each data point as a star that can shine light on your strategy. But is it a true picture when you don’t think about ….?
When you start to look harder, make connections and identify patterns, the more other data comes into focus (like constellations!)
