The importance of data

Almost every blog I’ve written over the last year I’ve mentioned that I’m working on evaluation reports. You may (or may not) be tired of my talking about it, but data and analysing performance is a key part of marketing and key to progressing plans and improving performance year on year.

Without stats and having an understanding of activity performance, we’d really just be putting a finger in the air and hoping for the best. Solid stats mean clever decisions!

So it’s important that after every campaign or initiative we understand:

• what activity worked well – which platforms generated higher interest. Depending on the campaign and inventory this could be clicks, click through rate, phone calls generated, website visits, call back requests  
• where potential students are coming from – was our targeting correct and are there any emerging markets to be aware of
• messaging – which messages and visuals appear to have performed best
• source of interest - how did people reach our website or find out about the University – was it through campaign activity, Google organic traffic, college or UCAS events, printed material
• performance against target and previous years – have we hit target and have we improved on the previous year’s performance
• KPIs – what are they key performance indicators that we want to measure ourselves against, and have we performed well against them
• the student journey – first point of contact with the University, how many attend an open day/request a prospectus/make an application/accept an offer/go on to actually study with us
• and of course, return on investment – for every pound we spent during a particular campaign on or a particular piece of inventory, how much have we generated based on the leads generated

All of the above helps give an indication of performance, which we can use to make recommendations and amend activity for future campaigns.

A lot of the stats we get for evaluations we pull ourselves from various sources such as Google Adwords, Pure360 (our email platform), Facebook and Twitter and Eventbrite. However, we also draw on the expertise of our digital team, our market research team and a media agency and digital consultant. Often insight is a collaborative approach, as people have different skills sets and knowledge that we can utilise to get a more holistic view.

It’s also equally important to be aware of competitors, any new platforms or trends and any factors which can influence or affect our campaign efforts (some of which can be out of our control)- this is where market research, a media agency and a digital consultant can come in handy!

As marketers, it’s important to be able to show the value of what we do – marketing is far more than just printing posters and fliers! And good, hard stats go a long way to show the success of the campaigns and activity we run.

So all in all, the better we are at evaluating activity, the more sound our decisions become. And there’s nothing better than stats showing that something you’ve done has worked well!!

Speak soon,

K

More than a degree

Over the next couple of days hundreds of UoB students will be graduating from university officially, with many leaving the world of university behind and stepping into the world of employment. Kylie and I will be going to meet some of the graduates and interview them about their UoB experience. There's always such a buzz at the graduations and I can't help but remember my own (although I still can't believe mine was four years ago this year!!).

With the job market the way it stands currently, it's so important that graduates can differentiate themselves from other graduates, whether this be with an internship, volunteering, or simply being a member of a club or society. As mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, I've been working on a section of the website called more than a degree, which highlights many of the co-curricular and extra-curricular activities available at Beds. The pages highlight the various ways students can get involved at the university, whether this be writing for the SU's magazine, taking part in the Go Global programme, or learning a language, as well as many other opportunities.

As part of this project I've had the opportunity to meet with some of our students and graduates that have already benefited from taking part in some of these amazing opportunities. Keep your eyes peeled on our website, and across our social media accounts for more information!

What's great about the more than a degree project is that it is still expanding. There's so many fantastic things happening at the university that I'm still learning about all of the different opportunities myself! If you run, or know, of any activity that isn't currently listed on the more than a degree pages please let me know.

Better in the olden days?

Another sterling effort by the Marketing team

Things were always better in the old days, right? Those of us of a certain vintage love to go on an on and on about when music was music, sweets were sweets and Luton Town were a footballing force in the land.

Then again, as the team have shown again, it's always exciting to receive shiny new things. For example, our new undergraduate prospectus, which is an absolute belter.

But surely, the old folk say, ye olde prospectus was better, when things weren't so darned commercial and paper was made out of witches' hair, mud and Tippex. Right?

Wrong.

After the War, Luton's Technical College for boys developed into Luton Technical College and then the Luton and South Bedfordshire College. The institution changed, but the prospectus didn't. Marketing, as we all know, wasn't invented until people's first names were put on soft drink cans. Between 1937 and 1953, proto-Marketeers really 'hadn't got it', and quite evidently sat around, talking about cricket, scartching their heads and having a brief chat about which colour to use on the front before a decision was made, the whole thing called a good job and the committee quite possible donned gowns, mortarboards and plus fours before 'perumbulating about' the streets of South Bedfordshire.

Signs of progress, or spot the difference??

As the reproductions above show, no effort was made in design - centre justified font and lots of capital letters. Presumably, some dangerous 'young buck' went distinctly 'logocrazy' in 1945 (middle) to try and keep spirits up as the Second World War ended, but this reckless addition was swiftly removed.


Copies of prospectuses were also carefully guarded. Rationing and the make and mend culture, both of which have recently led to all that tacky "Keep Calm and Carry On" merch were actual things. The 40s and 50s may or may not have been full of village bobbies juggling babies and unexploded bombs; no one really knows. It was a time, however, when Technical Colleges were keen on 'paper economy', with the 1945 and 1952 prospectuses instructing readers that "when you have noted the particulars you require please hand this prospectus in to the College or the Public Library". Quite what the College would make of the piles of abandoned glossy publications after the average UCAS fair is anyone's guess.

A dictat to think about reintroducing in these environment conscious days? It could help the University of Bedfordshire to even greater recognition of our excellent green credentials, but might be a hard sell to the Recruitment team.

Once rationing eased and the baby boomers came into higher education, revolution was well under way. Photographs were being splashed over prospectuses with some abandon. Or at least, they were near the front and the back.

In the mid 80s, the Luton College of Higher Education made up for a lack of decent exterior shots, by showing facilities and students working, resting and playing. The 1985 pictures on this page show a bored lady watching telly (above left) and some chap with a moustache, showing revolutionary zeal in the old Park Square canteen, by smoking a fag in full view of a 'No smoking' sign (above right).

It was the 80s. That sort of thing happened. The Hatters won cup competitions at Wembley. We had shoulder pads, coal mines and Luton's very own Paul Young. And Thrilled Skinny. You had to be there........ et cetera, et cetera.


For more about the Uni's history, check our website

Neat and orderly data

Beverley Hoare -Deputy Director Marketing

It’s the time of year when we write the marketing contribution to our department’s operating plan.  But before we can look forward we have to look back and ask ourselves and each other a few questions. Such as, ‘how did we do last year’?  What contribution did marketing make to achieving recruitment targets? Can we train cats to complete simple admin tasks?

Non-marketers often think there is a direct correlation between what we put in (investment and initiatives) and what we get out (students).  Marketers wish it were that simple.  How should we dis-aggregate the contribution of marketing from all of the other activities that contribute to a person becoming a student?  Brand, competitors, word of mouth, recommendations from others, outreach, face to face recruitment and press stories - all can have a positive, negative or neutral effect on the work of ‘marketing’ in achieving that ultimate registration.

But evaluate we must, as we need to predict behaviour – if we do this, then we should get that…

So, we love data.  It helps us to get a neat and orderly view of a pretty chaotic market place.  We need to analyse and evaluate, so we can aim to understand what is working and what is not. 

A Medjool Data

Final outcomes are important, but for us it’s every stage of the student journey, every channel, each message that is important to the understanding of impact.  Click through rates (CTR) opens and call volumes, live chat conversations and request a call back, registrants and attendance at open days, lead generation from prospectus and website, goal completions to page views and dwell time, impact of design and messaging all get a focus of our attention. 

With all this data we can get a measure of return on marketing investment – and ultimately aim to answer the problem that is – if we put this in we will get this out.  We can make more informed decisions and improve the effectiveness of campaigns and budget, while keeping an eye on what our competitors are doing, of course.   

That’s why we love data…