Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | April 30th, 2019

How long does it take for a prospective student to choose to enroll in a graduate program?

It’s been a year, or two, or 5. Are they still considering continuing their education, did they already complete another program or did they give up the dream?

For some graduate programs, there is fixed window for decisions, while others have a longer lifecycle. Let’s examine typical cycle time from shortest to longest.

1-Year Masters (After Undergrad)

You probably have a year (or 2 max) to catch these students’ attention. They are either super-motivated juniors who are planning their future or exasperated seniors who need to bolster their undergraduate degree to launch a career. If they’ve been in your funnel for over 2 years, it’s worth an email to ask if they’d still like to hear from you.

MBA

Typical lead cycle time for an MBA is 2-3 years. Often, these early career professionals realize after graduating and working for a couple years, that: 1) they don’t like their career choice and need to shift, or 2) they need a broader perspective to move into a leadership role. From this point, it could take a couple of years to prep for an admissions test, find a school and determine the right timing. They have more life decisions at play than a graduating senior, but less than a senior executive. Once they’ve signed up to take a GMAT, you likely have less than 2 years because they will be hit by every school in the country that purchases names of test takers.

EMBA/Global EMBA

Working professionals and aspiring executives who are considering an Executive MBA could be in your funnel up to 5, maybe even 7 years. There are some who know that they want to continue their education, and they want you to keep reminding them (which is why they signed up in the first place and haven’t opted out). There are some that are struggling with barriers like career trajectory, family and personal issues. And for global programs where travel is required, it can be even more difficult to work themselves into a work situation where a boss will give them the time off to pursue a degree. And then there are those who are lifelong learners who may actually be getting another degree in the meantime (yes, this happens). Give them the time they need to make the decision and do all you can to address their concerns. Even though they may seem distant, it’s possible that your messages are getting through and they’ll act when they hear the right one.

Executive Education (Ongoing)

Early-, mid- or late-career professionals and executives either need to fill a knowledge gap right away, or they are pursuing continuing education which means they are always ripe for picking a new program if your offerings coincide with their needs. For this audience, recency and relevance is key because when they’re ready to move, you need to be top of mind.

Online

Prospective students of all career levels that are considering an online education fall in 2 camps. They either need a degree right away to get them to the next level, or they have time to decide and they are banking on ultimate flexibility. While proliferation of online degree programs is up and other free online education options are widely available, give these prospects the most leeway so you don’t lose them.

Find out more about how to engage prospects at different stages of the decision-making process. Contact GPRS.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | April 17th, 2019

Conversion Challenges: Do you have the right people in your funnel?

Let’s examine your leads, prospects and future students.

Top of the Funnel = Leads

Depending on who you talk to — marketing, admissions, administrators, faculty — these may be the most important people in your funnel and the ones that deserve the highest dollar investment. If your leads are qualified, engaged and ripe for the opportunity at hand (your degree program), they will be much more likely to turn into prospects and seated students. Sounds obvious, right? Then why are there so many temptations to shortcut the lead generation process?

If you’ve ever purchased a list and then watched your email campaign bounce rates triple, or tried to “cast a wide net” with a digital advertising deal that seemed too good to be true, you’ve fallen prey to marketing advice that leaves you with fewer dollars and lots of time wasted. A laser-focused digital strategy that utilizes multiple platforms, compelling ad creative and targeted media may seem insurmountable with your time and budget constraints, but in the long run it can pay off. In fact, 500 quality leads will serve you better than 10,000 expired email addresses you’ve obtained with antiquated mass marketing tactics. And you’ll see the fruits of your labor as your leads convert into the middle of the funnel.

Middle of the Funnel = Prospects

This is where leads turn into real prospects — if the strategic lead generation strategy you implemented at the top of the funnel worked. The middle of the funnel is where the churn begins. Prospects are beginning to ask themselves questions like: Is it time to go back to school? Should I continue to work while I earn my degree? Is an in-person, online or hybrid program right for me? What can I afford? And this is also where you step in to answer those questions.

A targeted email communications flow to address barriers can speak to their concerns. A video or other media on your website can help them decide which program is right for them. A personal outreach or an invitation to an event from the admissions staff or call center can set their minds at ease. If you’re making these efforts at engaging them and you’ve spent the time and money to make sure they’re qualified, you’ll find that the transition from lead to prospect is much smoother.

Bottom of the Funnel = Future Students

As your prospects continue the decision making process, your team’s efforts are pivotal in converting them. It does seem however that it is much easier to convert the right candidate than someone who was never right to begin with — even if they appear ideal on paper. See, the way that prospects appear on paper is very different from their current mindsets. They are more than just numbers, demographics and job titles. They are complex people with real lives, families, circumstances and ambitions. When you market to them, it is imperative to meet them on their journeys — where they are both physically and mentally.

If you focus your efforts early on, you can better connect with the right people at the right time — which is where the magic happens. Once they make it to this point in the funnel, they’ve already been qualified by a fantastic marketing strategy and are ready to be pulled through the funnel by admissions. And congratulations, you’re on your way to filling your next class.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | April 3rd, 2019

Your prospects have stopped engaging. Now what?

It’s crunch time. You’re finishing your final round of admissions events for the year. Your class is starting to round itself out, but you’ve still got those final seats to fill. You’re looking at each and every lead in your funnel, trying to predict which ones will take action.

If you’re like many schools, you’ve got a group of stagnant leads that you’re wondering about. Did they decide to pursue another program/school/path and forgot to let you know? Or is it possible that they may emerge from the black hole of grad school prospects and raise their hands, magically giving you that last push across the finish line of filling your class.

Stagnant leads are tricky for many reasons. Here are a few ideas on what to do with them.

Consider the decision timeline for your program

Some programs like MAcc or MSF, have an immediate decision cycle because students are coming straight out of undergrad. If you haven’t heard from them after a year, it may be time to purge them. With an MBA, the prospects could take up to 1-2 years as they are early in their careers and trying to figure out how to move up or switch directions. For an executive program such as an EMBA, it’s important to give prospects the time they need for their decision because they are weighing (already successful) careers and families to find the right time to weave school into their busy lives. Of course, you want to be sure that your messages aren’t falling on deaf ears, but giving them the time they need, even if it’s up to 5 years, may be necessary.

Audit your current communications mix

Within your current channels, is your messaging getting tired? It may be time to try something new. If an audit of your ads/emails/social/etc. reveals low response rates, get creative with your content. Are you only promoting events? Try some value added content like infographics or videos. Are you tirelessly pushing for applications, with no submissions? Try hosting an informal webinar. Other enticing information can be high profile alumni profiles or student stories. If you’ve tried these things to no avail, it may be time to develop or evolve your digital strategy.

Cater to your target and their communications preferences

You’ve heard the buzzwords surrounding multi-generational workforces. Catering your messaging to prospects with different mindsets – even if you’re inviting them to the same event – can work to your advantage. Here are a few ideas on communicating to different generations:

Boomers – prefer face-to-face interaction but also like a balance of voicemail and email
GenX – prefer succinct email, but since they strive for work-life balance, prefer business communications during working hours
Millennials – prefer all forms of online communication, but need prompt feedback

Of course, these are broad generalizations. If you’re having trouble connecting with a particular age group, do some research on their communication preferences.

Vary your calls to action

Get creative. If you’re seeing some engagement, i.e. they opened the email but didn’t click, consider what you’re asking them to do. Is it too tall of an order to request that they start an application in an email if they haven’t attended an event yet? Is it possible that something is holding them back from attending an event and perhaps they’d like to connect on the phone first? Try being flexible and varying your calls to action and see what happens.

Ask them if they’d like to opt out

“No way!” may be what you’re thinking. But consider this…how many emails do you get in your inbox per day? How many online ads or social media posts do you see per day? People are overloaded. Couldn’t everyone benefit from a little less noise? A short email to prospects who’ve been stagnant may actually spur the action you want as they say, “I’ve been watching from the sidelines for too long and now it’s time for me to act!”

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Alicia Lyons | March 29th, 2019

Awareness Ads vs. Remarketing Ads: What’s Missing from Your Online Campaigns?

At GPRS we employ a full funnel approach. You may be comfortable with search and display ads, but how experienced are you with awareness and remarketing campaigns? Without them, there’s a very good chance you’re missing out on critical leads.

Awareness Campaigns

An awareness campaign lives at the very top of the funnel. They are the simplest campaigns to deploy. A potential lead has never heard of your program. They may be considering going back to school to further their career but don’t know yet which college they’d like to attend. They may be researching through Google when they come across your awareness ad.

An awareness ad is directed at a large audience, often using broad keywords in order to cast a wide net for potential leads. These ads take a much softer approach to sales than remarketing ads, which many times encourage prospective students to “Apply Now!” or push them with an admissions deadline. In an awareness campaign, you might choose to highlight that you are a top-ranked university with the kind of program that would interest them. They may not be familiar with your school, or the options you provide, but a well-written awareness ad could entice them to explore further and request information – or a contact.

An awareness ad can be a search, display, or social media ad. A search ad should include general information about your school and the degree program. You can peak their interest with words like – “No GMAT” or “Fixed Tuition”. You could try highlighting degree length or overall ROI. Display ads should include welcoming or interesting images that will catch the browser’s eye. The Call to Action (CTA) is usually a term such as “Learn More” and will lead to the homepage of your degree program’s website. This way candidates are given the opportunity to educate themselves on your programs.

Things to remember when creating an awareness campaign:

Don’t overcrowd ads with information but use brief enticing headlines
To optimize your budget, work on your geo-targeting and audience demographics
Employ an omni-channel campaign incorporating all of the marketing platforms including Google Ads, social media, your website, and SEO

Most leads will not convert with an awareness campaign alone, but it is a critical step in filling the funnel for the long term. And a foundation for remarketing campaigns to activate.

Remarketing Campaigns

There may be times when you’re browsing Facebook and you suddenly start to see ads from a website that you have visited in the past. This is an example of a remarketing campaign. A remarketing campaign is aimed at a much narrower audience. These individuals have already visited your website but haven’t yet converted.

A remarketing campaign typically has a much stronger sell. You can encourage prospects to apply by stressing your admissions deadline, advertising an upcoming event, or encouraging them to contact an admissions counselor. Remarketing campaigns can have a CTA of “Apply Now!”, “Download our Brochure”, or “Contact Admissions”.

Things to remember about remarketing campaigns:

Start remarketing with your top performing ads
Back up your results by tracking your campaigns
Choose the optimal frequency cap to not over saturate your audience

Great marketing plans start with a solid awareness strategy to capture the top of the funnel audience, followed by a strong remarketing campaign strategy to nurture those leads into conversions. Remember the audience that is being retargeted has already been imprinted with your brand, and has shown a level of interest – now you have a foundation from which to build on.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | March 15th, 2019

Why your local marketing agency won’t help you meet your enrollment goals.

There’s a firm in town that’s been reaching out. They’re really nice, and have a great website. Some of the other departments are using them and seem to like them. Sounds like a no-brainer for your graduate program’s needs, right?

Unfortunately not, and this is a very common mistake. Further, it holds especially true if the program was looking for qualified lead generation that could be directly associated with enrollment, and not simply a brand advertising campaign.

So why is the local agency the wrong choice? It’s not because they’re local, but because they’re generalists. Of course they’ll tell you that their marketing expertise can be applied across industries, and is transferrable. And even show you successful examples of that. But this is different, graduate program marketing and recruitment is a unique animal. The consumers are savvy, they’re difficult to pinpoint and connect with, and the decision making cycle can be lengthy before they choose to enroll.

Contending with very specific personas which require unique messages is another challenge. Like veterans, stay-at-home-moms looking to return to the workforce, future entrepreneurs, those looking to change careers, and the more typical professional looking to advance their career or add to their skill sets.

Industry experience, mastery of lead generation channels, and highly capable measurement platforms for optimization and match back ROI are some of the most important factors you should consider when hiring support. Graduate programs do not have the luxury of gambling with their marketing budgets – they need as close to a sure thing as they can find.

I recently talked to an MBA program that chose a local firm 9 months ago because their colleagues were using them. Now that program director is panicking because she’s at risk of having her marketing budget cut by her superior. Why, because though the firm got them exposure, and they received a lot of clicks, and some leads, applications are down and the enrollment window is quickly closing. She shared that her boss was convinced, as a result of the previous efforts, that digital marketing doesn’t work for their program and that there’s less demand for MBA programs. That’s exactly the opposite of what we’re seeing across our clients. But then again that comes from highly specialized experience, exposure to programs across the entire country, and a data warehouse full of patterns highlighting the path to enrollment success.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Alicia Lyons | March 6th, 2019

SEM and SEO – Working Together to Boost Recruitment ROI

SEO and SEM are two very different animals, but they can be finessed into working harmoniously together. In order to create a complete and comprehensive graduate program marketing strategy, it’s best to apply them both holistically.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s how high your program appears in search results. It uses free, algorithm-driven methods to achieve a high placement in search engine results.

The Keys to SEO:

Strong keywords in your titles and content
Keyword rich and fresh original content
Building backlinks
Faster page loading times

The good thing about organic SEO is that it’s free. However, unless you have an extremely niche market, which an MBA program does not, then it’s difficult to compete on SEO alone. Organic SEO is always something to consider when developing a website. And you want to harness it when looking to raise awareness of your programs, but it is further up the sales funnel and it will take longer to convert leads. However, don’t dismiss it, as you are likely to have a stronger paid marketing campaign if leads also see your organic SEO results. Now, let’s look at SEM.

What is SEM?

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is the process of using paid methods to garner search engine conversions.

Some examples of SEM are:

Pay Per Click (PPC)
Google Ads
Google Display Ads

SEM is also conversion focused. Most of the paid advertising is targeted at landing pages or contact pages. This pushes students through the enrollment funnel faster than SEO. It urges them to take an action and convert.

SEO: earning traffic through unpaid means

SEM: acquiring traffic through paid means

How can SEO and SEM work together?

Backlinks

Your paid ads could also increase backlinks. Backlinks are links on external websites that lead back to your website and as a result give your website more credibility and a higher SEO score. The more visibility that your website has then the more options for backlinks. So, although your backlinks don’t affect your SEM they do affect your SEO score. Your paid efforts will increase your visibility and therefore increase your organic results.

Promoting Your Content

A website is a great way to share fresh content, but it can be hard to find an audience. Best practice is to write quality content that serves as an answer to the questions posed by users. Then you should promote the content using PPC ads and display ads. The paid ad will take the user directly to the content, but it will also improve your search results and your position on the page. This makes it more likely for a user to click on your organic link.

Keywords

When creating your PPC campaigns you will be asked to choose your relevant keywords. Keywords could be things like EMBA, EMBA program, best MBA degrees, and high ranking MBA degrees. These keywords are how a search engine will know what searches to serve your ads to. You can also use the same keywords on your website. This way search engines will pull your website for the same searches for free. Sprinkle a few keywords in the content of your website for the best results.

Using SEM and SEO together not only increases your search engine ranking, but in the long term it will also save you precious budget!

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Alicia Lyons | February 28th, 2019

LinkedIn InMail: Hyper-Targeting Prospects for Enrollment

How LinkedIn Can Benefit Your Recruiting ROI

LinkedIn is a platform often overlooked by most schools, as they prefer to lean towards SEM or Facebook, but LinkedIn can be a viable and essential medium for marketing graduate programs. LinkedIn is a networking platform that targets working professionals. It is also the number one platform for B2B marketing.

Statistics show that

61 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers
40 million are in decision-making positions
44% of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 a year

Sound familiar? This audience demographic is precisely the target market for graduate programs. Some of the benefits of targeting this demographic through LinkedIn are:

The majority of users interact with LinkedIn while at work. Also, some employers will contribute to on-going graduate education. Therefore if your prospective student sees your message while at work, this may spark an exploration or conversation with their employer about professional development.
Users on LinkedIn are looking to increase their skill sets and worth in their employer’s eyes. A majority are also looking for new career opportunities.
LinkedIn users treat the platform as a social network, following thought leaders, consuming content and forming personal/professional connections.

LinkedIn offers two forms of paid advertising:

Sponsored Content which is much like Facebook’s boosted posts. They are images, ads, and blog content that will appear on the users’ news feeds.
Sponsored InMails are specific to LinkedIn. InMails are messages that include the member’s name that will appear in the user’s LinkedIn messages. They are a personalized form of both awareness and remarketing ads.

How does InMail work?

InMail is simple and effective and works much like an email campaign. First, determine your budget and audience demographics. InMail can be pricey, so it is important to target well and develop compelling messaging. Audience demographics should be determined by location, education, and career background. Messaging needs to include a clear call to action and should be personalized.

How to write a good InMail

Write a brief but pointed message — 3 paragraphs of no more than 100 words each. Introduce yourself, why you are writing to them, what you are offering, the benefits to them, and why they should contact you. The message will be sent to a user’s inbox. The message will only be sent to users that are currently active on the platform, and there are strict frequency caps (a user can only receive an InMail every 45 days from any organization, not just yours specifically) to ensure that users don’t get inundated.

How does InMail generate leads?

InMails employ a combination of awareness and remarketing tactics. When a school introduces their program through an InMail, they are starting the awareness process. This tactic is at the top of the marketing funnel. These users are just becoming familiar with your programs. However, within that same InMail, the school can start encouraging the user to connect by advertising upcoming events, admissions deadlines, and calls for more information. Therefore, through one message a School has the opportunity to appeal to multiple points in the decision making/funnel process.

Beginning a Dialogue: When Leads Become Conversations

Engagement is much higher with InMail campaigns. The average open rate for most of our clients is 94%. A well written InMail with a solid CTA and a sense of urgency can quickly turn into a conversation or a request for more information on the program.

For more information on social marketing for graduate programs or other topics discussed in this article, please visit our blog.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Alicia Lyons | February 22nd, 2019

Know Your Audience – Graduate Program Audience Personas

In order to develop a marketing plan with impact, you must first determine who your prospective student should be. In order to do this you must ask yourself three questions:

Who are we?
What makes us stand out?
What individual would benefit the most from our program?

Who are we?

This may seem like a simple question, but you need to be specific if you are going to determine the types of prospective students that you want to attract. How large is your program? What tracks do you specialize in? Where is your program located? These are just a few questions that you could ask yourself. Try to keep it concise, yet targeted.

What makes us stand out?

What makes your program different than the others? Do you have professional mentoring, affordable tuition, or an international immersion experience? What values do you look for in candidates and what culture are you looking to foster? Why should a prospective student attend your program?

Who would benefit the most?

The best way to tackle this question is with audience personas. An audience persona is a semi-fictional representation of the prospective student that you are looking to attract to your program. You can shape your perfect student. Then Graduate Program Recruitment Solutions (GPRS) can get them through your door.

How to Create the Perfect Audience Persona

Ask the right questions:

What are their demographics? Gender, Age, Location.
What are their motivators?
What industries are they working in?
Where are they in their career trajectory?
What are their career aspirations?
What does your student enjoy? What are their interests? What are their hobbies?

These are just a few questions that you can ask as you create the perfect graduate student profile.

Create a Great Profile

Start to put this information together and create a hypothetical dossier for that student. Maybe include a photo or and sample student ID to add some realism.

Tips

If you need inspiration, look at some of your current students and alumni. What do they have in common? What patterns can you spot?
Try to keep them grounded in reality. Personas should reflect the best student opportunities for your program.
Don’t spend a great deal of time putting together the aesthetics of the report, it’s the information that counts.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Alicia Lyons | February 5th, 2019

4 Key Metrics to Track Your Graduate Program Marketing Efforts

The equation is simple:

Graduate Program Marketing = Solid Leads = Conversions and New Students!

It’s that easy right? Wrong. If you are relying solely on conversions to track the success of your marketing efforts, then your marketing plan is failing. The most proactive way to produce a string of leads and conversions is to measure their effectiveness and create quantifiable marketing analytics.

Where are my conversions?

Let’s give you an example. Your program executes a LinkedIn InMail campaign that aims to target a nice sized crowd. You send out a series of awareness InMails and then wait for conversions. After a week, you become frustrated when you don’t receive any conversions. You begin to question your advertising investment.

Just because you’re not seeing conversions from your marketing efforts doesn’t mean your efforts are wasted. Quality leads need to be nurtured into converting. You must track all of the metrics in a campaign to highlight quality leads and to nurture them into conversions.

Lead Generation

Find out how well your lead generation efforts are working by tracking the number of new leads generated by each campaign. For the most accurate measurement of lead generation, we use GP Insights™. Some of the metrics we track are Performance Metrics, such as Click-Through Rate (CTR), Cost per Click (CPC), and Cost per Lead (CPL). We track by channel, impressions, audience demographics and geotracking.

Most Effective Channels and Mediums

Find out which platforms and mediums are most effective in attracting new student inquiries, including those most likely to convert. Be sure to look at channels like social, paid social, search, and paid search for a complete picture.

Spending Efficiency

To understand how efficiently you are investing your marketing budget, take the average cost of lead generation versus your average spend on marketing efforts per lead. Measure the effectiveness of your investment month over month and year over year. By consistently aiming to outdo prior performance, you’ll continuously improve your marketing efforts. Always take into account outside factors, such as enrollment dates, events, and the academic calendar.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A graduate program’s tuition costs are typically set every year, making it easier to determine the ROI needed from marketing. It’s important to take this into account when determining your spend and investment in each lead. You are not looking for hundreds of customers, there is a limit to how many students can attend – therefore it’s the quality of the lead that matters. How much money do you dedicate to each lead?

GP Insights^™

We report on our metrics with a laser-focus on results. We prove it in great detail through our proprietary campaign measurement and graduate industry benchmarking platform. GP Insights^™ was custom built to not only track campaigns but also optimize results. Without that level of detail, we could not ensure campaign success.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | January 30th, 2019

How EMBA Prospects Choose Their Future Programs

The decision-making process for a prospect to enroll in an Executive MBA program is painfully long. Statistics show that this process can take up to two years. So what can you do to speed up the process? Develop — and implement — a pull-through digital enrollment marketing strategy.

Audience Targeting

Audience targeting is a key component of any successful marketing strategy, online or offline. Don’t throw a wide net; targeting will produce better results. Why? Because you will be delivering relevant content. If you bid on keywords that are too broad, you may be wasting your online advertising dollars. To promote a Healthcare EMBA program, for instance, both the keywords and the ad messaging must be specific. Otherwise, you may receive a great number of leads but not quality leads. Quality leads are more engaged in your EMBA program and, therefore, more likely to commit sooner.

Timing

Timing is everything. While you want your online ads to appear prior to your program deadlines, you also want prospects to see them at key stages in their decision-making process. Keep in mind that, although these two timelines may intersect at certain points, the overlap may be minimal. That’s why you should schedule ads throughout the calendar year, not just based on the academic calendar.

So what are some of the stages that prospects will go through on their path to enrolling? Here are a few common stages:

Considering an EMBA
Deciding what type of EMBA program
Seeking information
Applying
Enrolling

Reasons Why a Prospect Stalls

Just because you get a prospect into the funnel, that doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing. Bottlenecks can pop up anywhere:

Cost of the program
Concerns regarding work-life balance
Questioning ROI of EMBA degree

Offering Incentives

Your program positioning and digital marketing strategy must address and overcome these and other obstacles. You can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, by offering incentives for early enrollment.

First, financial incentives will help to bring down the overall cost of an EMBA. Second, incentives can help shorten the decision-making process.

What kinds of incentives can you offer? That depends on your program’s pricing and operations budget. Some programs offer scholarships, waive application or GMAT fees (some programs waive the GMAT altogether), or pay for textbooks. Other programs offer incentives to specific groups, such as military veterans.

If you find that work-life balance is an issue for prospects, take a look at your program format. EMBA programs must be willing to rethink traditional models in order to appeal to professionals with limited bandwidth. Programs with flexible scheduling will have an advantage over those with rigid formats and may prompt commitments earlier in the decision-making process.

Your digital marketing strategy must demonstrate program ROI. How? Include testimonials on ROI from current students and alumni. If favorable, compare your tuition to that of other EMBA programs. Survey your alumni to find out how they moved up the career ladder (and how quickly) and how much their salaries increased post-graduation. Collect stats, and then use them to your advantage.

Digital enrollment marketing is more than just “setting and forgetting” a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. Your strategy should be made up of many components: keyword optimization, banner and search ads, landing pages, search engine optimized (SEO) web content, social media advertising, retargeting campaigns and more. Your online campaign also should be consistent in visuals and messaging with offline marketing.

Don’t forget to monitor your campaigns. Tracking results will reveal which components worked best, and which fell flat. Then tweak your campaigns for optimal results.

A coordinated, consistent, ongoing marketing effort will produce the best results and, ultimately, shorten the prospect’s decision-making timeline.