Insights

At the start of each year, we review website analytics data from a variety of colleges and universities to paint a broad picture of higher education website traffic trends. The data we reviewed spans from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018 and includes graduate programs, law schools, liberal arts colleges, universities, and adult programs. Whenever possible, we exclude internal traffic data to ensure the insights accurately convey the behaviors of prospective students, alumni, parents, and any other external visitors.

As we dive into a new year, we recognize that higher ed marketers face huge challenges as well as huge opportunities to expand the reach of their brands and drive enrollment. But the wisest marketers know how to prioritize, influence, and advocate for marketing, based on where they see the opportunity to create the most value for their universities.

As we plan for 2019, here are the digital marketing priorities for leaders in higher education digital marketing and CMOs this year.

For the last four years, we’ve been developing and implementing website personalization campaigns for colleges and universities. The impact of these campaigns is two-fold — increased audience engagement and increased inquiries, applications, and deposits:

When you think about digital brand storytelling at a college or university, you may initially think about stories of outstanding individual achievement: faculty conducting groundbreaking research, students having enriching learning experiences, or alumni making a meaningful impact on the world.

But beyond the incredible individuals who comprise your incredible institution, there is a different story lurking — in the aggregate.

Due to its flexibility, scalability, and ease of implementation, Drupal has long been the preferred CMS platform for higher education.

With personalization becoming an increasingly desirable feature in the marketing toolkit, more and more institutions are looking for ways to incorporate it into their existing Drupal sites – or to put it front and center for new Drupal projects.

Planning a website redesign can be daunting. There’s a lot to consider.

The more clear-eyed you can be heading into the redesign effort, the more focused it will be and the more likely you will be to achieve success. One of the best ways to gain this clarity is by prioritizing content strategy ahead of the redesign itself.

While content strategy should be a core thread running through any website redesign project, there’s a lot of content work you can do well before a redesign gets underway to more fully inform what that effort should look like.

When I talk to higher ed marketing communications professionals about how to create a content strategy, it sometimes seems like we’re talking about Excalibur — some exalted, unattainable relic that, if retrieved, could at last bring peace to the kingdom.

Developing and implementing a content strategy can feel overwhelming to many for a wide range of reasons, be they related to budget, time, staffing, executive buy-in, campus politics, or a perceived lack of knowledge.

“Where do I start?” I’ve heard people ask more than once.

At this very moment, thousands of Webmasters around the world are microwaving sad, lonely Hot-Pockets for lunch.

They deserve better.

This year, you could win a chance to celebrate International Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day in style with a $100 Visa Gift Card courtesy of OHO Interactive.

Don’t have a Webmaster? You can use your prize to treat your whole team to lunch, or perhaps even to post a LinkedIn ad to hire a Webmaster to celebrate with in 2019.

We surveyed marketing and communications professionals at 130 different higher education institutions to better understand the current state of higher education web teams. How are they structured? What skillsets are they adding? Are team sizes growing or shrinking?

We've analyzed the data to determine how higher education web teams are evolving, and what steps you can take to ensure your team is performing to its full potential. By filling out the form below, you'll receive immediate access to a wealth of information including: